Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore

October 7, 1849

Writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) dies mysteriously in the mean streets of Baltimore. Found delirious and disheveled on a city election day, Poe is presumed drunk and taken to an isolated hospital room where he dies three days later. No complete explanation of his death has ever been uncovered. One common possibility is that Poe was a victim of “cooping,” an election practice of kidnapping someone, changing his clothes, and using him drugged or drunk to vote several times. Poe is internationally famous as a writer of extraordinary and macabre detective and other short stories, poems and literary criticism and is unlike any other contemporary writer. In 1847 he publishes “The Raven” to instant success. Baltimore’s professional football team is now named for this poetic and ominous bird. Poe’s monument and tomb are in the old graveyard surrounding Westminster Hall, now on the University of Maryland’s Baltimore campus. His death is widely commemorated annually by a local Poe Society.

For More Information

Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum 

Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, Poe grave

View Other Mosaic Pieces

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison begins his career in Baltimore

William Lloyd Garrison begins his abolitionist career, writing and coediting the newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore in 1829. He is the most famous white American to devote his life to freeing the slaves. Photo shows Garrison (center) with two other abolitionists, Wendell Phillips and Englishman George Thompson.

Read More »

Land Recognition

We acknowledge the enduring presence of many American Indian tribes who once lived in Maryland and who now, having lost their lands, live in a diaspora. Read more.

© 2023 MARYLAND 400

Scroll to Top