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.
Alex Haley publishes a popular book, Roots, in 1967 and, with a TV Miniseries, creates a new national interest in enslavement in America. He launches the book from the Annapolis wharf where his ancestor Kunta Kinte was brought in chains 200 years ago.
The first college of dentistry in the world is chartered in 1840 by the Maryland Assembly. Prior to its founding there is no successful effort to turn dentistry into a formal profession.
Maryland closes the country’s longest surviving state censorship board (1916-1981) as a cost cutting measure. Board member Mary Avara (on right) becomes well known for policing violence, language and sex content in films and for admonishing John Waters.
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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