Mosaic Pieces
Welcome to the complete Maryland Mosaic.
The Mosaic is not presented chronologically but presents a randomized selection of Mosaic Pieces to spark your interest in a particular event or person. If you would like to have a more ordered chronological overview, use the six fixed time period options on the right of the screen to get a more immediate picture of an historical period. You can also explore by county or by category. Our predefined categories, tags, counties and chronological brackets will help you see links between the Pieces.
The collection has over 140 firsts, including events, people, places, objects, documents or buildings that are unique to Maryland and to the nation. The Mosaic is part of Maryland’s contribution to the U.S. 250th anniversary in 2026. It covers the period from 1776 to the present. You will find at least one Piece for every county and Baltimore City, making this a statewide project.
Maryland passes a new constitution that outlaws slavery 3 months before the 13th Amendment.
Maryland unionists pass a new state constitution in 1864 that outlaws slavery and disenfranchises Confederate sympathizers
Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission established
Howard Cooper, African American, at 15 in 1885, is among the youngest persons in US to be lynched. He is lynched in front of the old Towson jail. Maryland is first to create a Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2019.
Maryland Colonization Society creates a republic in Africa
The Maryland Colonization Society is formed in 1827 to encourage free Blacks to emigrate to Africa. The Maryland General Assembly funds a separate republic in Liberia for 20 years. Map shows Maryland colony in lower right.
Maryland Board of Censors goes out of business
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.
Mary Surratt is the first woman hanged by the federal government
Mary Jenkins Surratt is hanged in 1865 with three other conspirators for plotting to kill President Abraham Lincoln. She is the first woman executed by the federal government. She is hanging on the far left of the scaffold.
Mary Pickersgill sews the flag that becomes the Star Spangled Banner
Mary Pickersgill with others creates a 30′ x 42′ flag in 1813 and delivers it to the Ft. McHenry garrison. It becomes THE Banner.
Mallows Bay National Marine Sanctuary is the first in an American River
Mallows Bay in Charles County became home to a wooden “ghost fleet” of 230 World War II ships in 2019. It is now a wildlife sanctuary.
Louis Goldstein, longest serving Maryland politician
Louis Goldstein, much loved and much admired, is elected to state comptroller nine times, dying in the middle of his tenth campaign.
Lincoln suspends habeas corpus, locks up secessionists at Ft. McHenry
Lincoln suspends Habeas Corpus to jail secessionists at Ft. McHenry in 1861. John Merryman (pictured on the left) sues and Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney (center in photo) rules against Lincoln who ignores the ruling.
Lillie May Carroll Jackson is the mother of the Civil Rights Movement
Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, with daughter Juanita, begins “Buy Where You Work” Campaign in 1931. She makes the Baltimore branch of the NAACP the largest and most effective.
Largest U.S. gathering celebrating passage of 15th Amendment, providing universal right to vote for men
In Baltimore in 1870 the largest national gathering celebrates Congress passing 15th Amendment. The Maryland Assembly does not pass 15th until 1973.
Joshua Johnson, first recognized professional Black portrait painter
Joshua Johnson, manumitted in 1782 by his father, is the first professional Black artist. He teaches himself to paint, producing portraits of elite families in a distinctive folk art style.
Johns Hopkins University opens
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.
Johns Hopkins Hospital opens
Johns Hopkins Hospital opens in 1889, creating the first modern medical school. Local women donate funds, provided it agrees to admit women. The Hospital accepts African American patients in segregated wards. Many medical firsts follow.
John Waters releases “Multiple Maniacs”
John Waters releases “Multiple Maniacs,” in 1970, becoming the national leader in the production of “transgressive” cheap cult films featuring shock value and black humor.
John Murphy founds Afro-American newspaper
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
