Author: Molly Ricks

By the Marble: Podcasting Baltimore’s Queer History

Baltimore Heritage is delighted to partner with UMBC’s Summer 2024 Interdisciplinary CoLab program and Dr. Kate Drabinski to showcase Baltimore’s undiscovered Queer history with a new podcast, By the Marble: Podcasting Baltimore’s Queer History. Often the first step in justifying violence against a group is to deny, distort, or erase their history. Researched, written and produced by UMBC students, By the Marble aims to preserve the histories of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, and reveal the ways queer life has shaped Baltimore. By the Marble‘s pilot episode is “Black Theater and Queer Performance in Baltimore.” Stay tuned for future episodes–you can find this podcast on Spotify and and wherever you stream podcasts.

 

Created by:
 
Cayla Amouzou is a second-year Statistics and English major at UMBC. They are interested in researching statistical methods in social science research and applying culturally sustaining demographic methodologies to marginalized communities.
 
Sage Zoz (She/Her) is a third year Gender, Womens, and Sexuality Studies major at UMBC. She is immensely interested in the formation of community as it pertains to grassroots and mutual aid organizing.
 
Marlon Brown Jr. (He/They) is a Baltimore native, senior acting student at UMBC, and aspiring playwright/educator. Much of Marlon’s work pertains to telling stories of marginalized existence in various facets and hopes to utilize the skills he’s developed to create impactful art for the city.

Join Us in September: Mount Vernon Place Plein Air Art Show 2024

Registration is now open for Mount Vernon Place Plein Air Art Show 2024! Register here.

The best of Baltimore’s history and art come together on September 22 at one of Baltimore’s most spectacular historic places: the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion. This spring and summer, artists from the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association will bring their easels to Mount Vernon Place to capture its magnificent history, landscapes and architecture. On Sunday, September 22, we’ll have nearly 100 original paintings of Mount Vernon Place on display and for sale.

We hope you will join us for a chance to see…and take home!…great art by local artists capturing our city in its finest light. Doors open at 1:00 pm and the event will end at 4:00 pm.

Online registration encouraged! Tickets will increase to $20 when purchased at the door.

The event is a partnership between Baltimore Heritage, the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion Endowment Fund, and the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy.

For Sponsors: We’re looking for sponsors in the following categories

  • $200 (Pissaro Sponsor) – will fund an artist prize in a category of your choice.
  • $500 (Matisse Sponsor) – will provide lunch for the 30 participating artists.
  • $1000 (Monet Sponsor) – will fund reception costs for 50 of a goal of 100 guests.

Become a Sponsor Today!

Announcing Exciting New Heritage Tours for July & August

We are thrilled to offer even more unique walking and behind-the-scenes tours in the next few months and hope to see you on some soon. Check out our calendar to see new additions!

–Johns Hopkins, Executive Director

Join us for a tour inside Clifton Mansion, the Italianate country house that has overlooked Baltimore City for over 200 years. At one time the summer home of War of 1812 captain Henry Thompson and then philanthropist Johns Hopkins, the story of Clifton is one of two prominent businessmen, enslaved & free Black people, and more. And the tour wouldn’t be complete without climbing the tower and taking in one-of-a-kind views of Clifton Park and our surrounding city. We hope to see you there. July 24 (5:30 pm-6:30 pm) & August 21 (5:30 pm-6:30 pm). $10-$15

For a tiny neighborhood squeezed between the University of Maryland and Camden Yards, Ridgely’s Delight contains an oversized history. George Washington rode here and Babe Ruth was born here. Join us to walk the preserved, picturesque streets of one of the earliest neighborhoods in Baltimore while we look back at the stories of both its famous visitors and the ordinary Baltimoreans who worked and raised their families here. July 14, 9:30 am-10:30 am. $10-$15

Baltimoreans celebrated atop Federal Hill when we ratified the U.S. Constitution. We used it to defend the city from the British in the War of 1812 and to make sure we stayed in the Union in the Civil War. We have even tunnelled under it to quarry minerals. Join us on a tour of Federal Hill and the neighborhood around it to learn about this waterfront community’s rich history, including stops at one of the last wooden houses in the city, the oldest house in Federal Hill, and the wonderful alley houses along Churchill Street. July 21, 9:30 am-10:30 am. $10-$15

Mount Vernon began as a country estate for Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard and grew to be the place to live for Baltimore’s rich and famous in the mid-nineteenth century. Join us on a tour to hear the stories behind the landmarks of Baltimore’s grandest historic neighborhood. July 28, 9:30 am-10:30 am. $10-$15

A Walking Tour of East Baltimore’s Historic American Indian “Reservation:” The place now known as Baltimore, like the rest of what is now known as the United States, has always been home to Native peoples. Baltimore is part of the ancestral homelands of the Piscataway and the Susquehannock, and a diverse host of American Indian folks from other nations have passed through or lived here at different times — and still do! In the mid-twentieth century, thousands of Lumbee Indians and members of other tribal nations migrated to Baltimore City, seeking jobs and a better quality of life. Join historian and artist Ashley Minner Jones to learn about places and spaces important to American Indian history and heritage in the city, with a focus on East Baltimore’s Historic American Indian “Reservation” in the 20th century. September 4, 5:30 pm-6:30 pm. $10-$15

Join Baltimore Heritage on a Tour This Summer!

As we move into our warmer months, we are creating even more unique walking and behind-the-scenes tours. We hope to see you on some soon. Please check our calendar to see new additions!

–Johns Hopkins, Executive Director

Ridgley’s Delight: For a tiny neighborhood squeezed between the University of Maryland and Camden Yards, Ridgely’s Delight contains an oversized history. George Washington slept here and Babe Ruth was born here! Join us to walk the preserved, picturesque streets of one of the earliest neighborhoods in Baltimore while we look back at the stories of both its famous visitors and the ordinary Baltimoreans who worked and raised their families here. June 9, 9:30 am – 10:30 am. $10-$15

 

A Factory Tour of Mount Royal Soaps: Mount Royal Soap Company was founded in Baltimore, MD in the Spring of 2014 by three soap-obsessed friends: Matt, Pat & Sam. With the explosion of soap and sanitizer demand during the pandemic they opened their first manufacturing space in the Woodberry neighborhood just 2 miles from the Remington store. Join us for a fascinating tour of sustainably sourced bath and body products made through a small batch production process right here in Baltimore! June 18, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm. $10-$15

 

Mount Vernon Place: Mount Vernon began as a country estate for Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard and grew to be the place to live for Baltimore’s rich and famous in the mid-nineteenth century. Join us on a tour to hear the stories behind the landmarks of Baltimore’s grandest historic neighborhood. June 23, 9:30 am – 10:30 am. $10-$15

 

Feisty Females of Fells Point: Everyone knows that Fell’s Point has a rich history, but do you know about the Caribbean immigrant, Mary Lange, who dared to teach children of color out of her home and rose to be the first Black mother-superior in American history? How about the single mom who helped stop the development of an interstate highway through these historic streets? We hope you’ll join us and tour guide Robin Minor to hear about these fierce women who helped forge Fells Point into the vibrant, distinctive neighborhood it is today. June 23, 11:– am – 12:30 pm. $10-$15

 

Celebrate Pride! LGBTQ Heritage in Charles Village: Charles Village was home to many activists and institutions at the heart of the city’s LGBTQ community in the 1970s and 1980s. Our wonderful guides will take us on a walk past local landmarks from the original home of the Gay Community Center of Baltimore, now the GLCCB, to the St. Paul Street church that supported the growth of the Metropolitan Community Church, Baltimore’s oldest LGBT religious organization, and the radical feminist writers and publishers that gave a voice to lesbian authors who might not otherwise have been read. June 30, 10:00 am – 11:30 am, $10-$15

 

The Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum: From 1935 until her retirement in 1970, Lillie Carroll Jackson was president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP and for much of this time her home on Eutaw Place was a hub of Civil Rights organizing for Jackson and her daughter, Juanita Jackson Mitchell. Executive Director Johns Hopkins for a short walk around Lillie Carroll Jackson’s neighborhood. Then we will go inside the museum to tour where Jackson, called the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” lived and worked. July 27, 9:30 am – 11:00 am. $10-$15