In 1850 Baltimore, America’s third largest city, is a singular urban mix of immigrants, free and enslaved Blacks, white leadership and energetic industry. As a border state it is an example of the country’s divisions and challenges before the Civil War.
Baltimore City is unique in the U.S. at 1850 Read More »
Poet Edgar Allan Poe dies mysteriously in Baltimore in 1849. He is found on an election day, presumably drunk, taken to a hospital where he dies three days later. His monument and tomb are in downtown Baltimore.
Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore Read More »
Thomas Smallwood coins the expression “underground railroad,” in a newspaper column in 1842. Born a slave in PG county he teams up with Charles Torrey (pictured), a white clergyman, to help over 400 slaves escape through DC.
“Underground railroad” term coined Read More »
The first American college of dentistry is chartered in 1840 by the Maryland Assembly. Prior to its founding there is no successful effort to turn dentistry into a formal profession.
First American College of Dentistry chartered Read More »
Frederick Douglass, born in Talbot County, escapes enslavement by train in 1838. He becomes a powerful speaker for abolition and the most photographed American in the 19th Century.
Frederick Douglass escapes by train from Baltimore Read More »
The 1819 US Supreme Court decision in the McCulloch vs Maryland Case expands federal power by ruling for the national bank over state banks. Chief US Justice John Marshall rules in favor of the federal government.
McCulloch vs. Maryland is the largest expansion of federal power to date Read More »
William Lloyd Garrison begins his abolitionist career, writing and coediting the newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore in 1829. He is the most famous white American to devote his life to freeing the slaves. Photo shows Garrison (center) with two other abolitionists, Wendell Phillips and Englishman George Thompson.
Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison begins his career in Baltimore Read More »
Oblate Sisters of Providence is founded as first community of black Catholic sisters in US in 1829.
Oblate Sisters of Providence is founded as the first order of Black nuns. Read More »
David Acheson Woodward invents an enlarging camera in 1857 that focuses sunlight through a lens onto sensitized photographic paper. Woodward is principal of what becomes Maryland Institute College of Art. MICA produces two prominent Maryland artists, Joyce J. Scott and Amy Sherald.
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 Colonization Society creates a republic in Africa Read More »
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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