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.
Henry Highland Garnet, Black Maryland abolitionist who opposes the tactics of Frederick Douglass, delivers a fiery abolitionist speech, “A Call to Rebellion”, to the National Convention of Colored Citizens.
William Dorsey Swann, born enslaved in Hancock, becomes America’s first drag queen, sponsors “drag balls” in DC. He is arrested and serves 10 months in jail.
Baltimore’s Battle monument, designed by Maximilian Godefroy, is the first stone monument and the first public war memorial in the US. On the 8th anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore, the statue of Lady Baltimore is hoisted atop the monument.
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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