Eli Pousson started as a Field Officer at Baltimore Heritage in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in October 2009. Prior to moving to Baltimore, Eli worked for the DC Office of Historic Preservation and completed graduate work in anthropology and historic preservation at the University of Maryland College Park. Eli continues to work with the Lakeland Community Heritage Project and other heritage organizations in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
Thank you to Christine Muldowney with the Northeast Baltimore History Roundtable for sharing a few fun photographs from this Sunday’s celebration at Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery. Learn more about the Northeast Baltimore History Roundtable or get involved with another historic cemetery by volunteering at St. Vincent’s Cemetery Fall Clean-Up Day.
Thank you to everyone who came out for the Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance Open House on Friday! Special thanks to all of the generous local businesses and supporters who contributed the silent auction. Stay tuned for more updates as we put together an exciting new heritage brochure for Hampdenfest next month!
Baltimore: The Birthplace of American Cycling?, Ron Cassie, Baltimore Magazine, July 29, 2014.
Famous (in our minds, at least) as the “City of Firsts,” the Maryland Historical Society, partnering with Baltimore Heritage, has launched a campaign to win recognition of Charm City’s unique role in early American cycling. According to a press release from the Maryland Historical Society, the first-ever American bicycle was built in 1818 by Baltimore piano-maker James Stewart. Who knew?
Do you work at a museum or library? Volunteer for your neighborhood design review committee or preservation commission? Teach history at a local public school or college? Then we invite you to join us for Bmore Historic unconference at the Maryland Historical Society on Friday, October 10!
Bmore Historic is a unique opportunity to connect with students, scholars and professionals in public history and historic preservation for discussions, workshops and creative presentations on the issues that you care about.
How do we know you will like Bmore Historic? Because you set the agenda! Bmore Historic is an unconference where participants work together to propose the topics, set the schedule and facilitate the sessions throughout the day. An unconference is an alternative to a typical professional or academic conference where the schedule is set months in advance. Participants share session ideas online before the event and the schedule isn’t set until morning of October 10. Session leaders are encouraged to facilitate a conversation, not deliver a PowerPoint presentation! Registration is only $10 for students and $15 for professionals including breakfast and lunch.
Bmore Historic is also a great opportunity to build skills thanks to volunteer-led workshops running throughout the day. We are currently planning workshops on topics including managing digital archives and new approaches to engaged scholarship. Please let us know if there is a topic, skill or tool you want to see included.
This year, we’re especially excited to share a fun program for anyone interested in exploring the intersections of history, education, and games: the Bmore Historic Game Jam. The game jam will be a lively and experimental dive into the potential of games to bring history to life in new ways organized in partnership with THATCamp Games – an unconference on humanities, technology, games, and learning taking place at the Baltimore Harbor Hotel on October 11-12.
Learn more about Bmore Historic 2014 or get in touch with questions or suggestions. Registration for Bmore Historic and THATCamp Games is now open so sign up soon!
Our archeological investigation in Patterson Park this spring surprised almost everyone with the great number and diversity of artifacts we recovered. Over a thousand artifacts from 1814-era musket balls to left-over animal bones help us learn more about the history of Patterson Park and the people of Baltimore.
This summer, Archeological Society of Maryland is continuing its generous support for We Dig Hampstead Hill by taking on the laboratory processing of the archeological materials at their volunteer lab in Crownsville, Maryland. If you thought archeology was all about digging, this is your opportunity to experience the next phase of archeological discovery!
Volunteer opportunities are available most weeks Tuesday and Wednesday between 9:30am and 3:30pm. Processing the Hampstead Hill collection is expected to continue from August through September. Volunteers are welcome to sign up for a few hours or for a full day. After the conclusion of this project, additional volunteer opportunities will be available at the lab on most Tuesdays to process artifacts from a contact-period Native American archeological site.
Maryland Historical Trust
100 Community Place
Crownsville, MD 21032
To volunteer, contact Greg Katz at gkatz@louisberger.com. Seats in the lab are limited and will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis.
Processing includes washing/cleaning, drying, labeling, identification, cataloging, data entry, and packaging for long-term care. No prior experience or training is required to get involved with this stage of the project! Volunteers will work alongside lab director Louise Akerson, retired Director of the Baltimore Center for Urban Archaeology, and Fieldwork Director Greg Katz and his team from the Louis Berger Group. Cleaning artifacts is a great way to learn more about conservation and artifact identification.
