The Enoch Pratt Free Library, is the oldest U.S. free circulating library. It opens in Baltimore as a “library for all, rich and poor, without distinction of race or color.”
The library inspires Andrew Carnegie to create the nationwide Carnegie Library system. Carla Hayden, a recent Pratt Library Director, is now the Librarian of Congress.
Currently the Enoch Pratt Library has 22 branches in Baltimore City and an annual budget of $43 million.
Johns Hopkins University opens its doors in 1876 as the first US institution of higher education based on a German model emphasizing graduate education. It has produced many firsts, notably the sanitation work of Abel Wolman.
WEAR, Maryland’s first radio station to go on the air, broadcasts the first public address of a US president, Warren G. Harding in 1922. He speaks to thousands in a 600 mile radius of Ft. McHenry using a new technology.
The Arena Players are the oldest African American community theater in the United States founded in 1952.
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.
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