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.
The Afro-American is the oldest family-owned newspaper in the U.S. Founded in 1892 by John Henry Murphy, born a slave and a Civil War veteran, the newspaper becomes the most successful weekly on the East Coast. It is still run by the Murphy family
Edwin Smith opens an observatory in 1899 in Gaithersburg to measure the earth’s wobble as part of a six observatory worldwide survey.
Greenbelt opens in 1937 and becomes the largest and most successful of New Deal “greenbelt” towns. It becomes a model for others suburbs.
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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