Historical Adventures in Baltimore

Last week’s highlights were attending a lecture by local African American historian and genealogist, Agnes Kane Callum, and an all-day unconference called Bmore Historic.

Mrs. Agnes Kane Callum (in the center of the photo to the left) attended Morgan State University after being out of school for 28 years. She wrote one of her term papers about freed blacks of St. Mary’s County, Maryland, an experience which uncovered a wealth of information about her own family’s history. This spurred her to do additional genealogical research, tracing parts of her family tree to the 17th century. Mrs. Callum also earned a master’s degree from Morgan State and was a Fulbright-Hayes Fellow at the University of Ghana. She has published more than 25 books on African American history and genealogy, some of which are in the reference collection of the Maryland State Archives’ library. Her historical research of enslaved at the Sotterley Plantation helped save the historic site ruin. It was a pleasure to meet her and to see how much a dedicated local historian can contribute to knowledge of the past.

I finished the week by attending the Bmore Historic unconference at the Maryland Historical Society. It was a great way for public historians, librarians, historic re-enactors, museum staff, historic preservationists, and community developers to exchange information and form collaborations. In the morning, I attended a session on marketing woes and learned of some great ideas and resources for reaching local audiences. During lunch, some attendees gave “lightening talks” of less than 3 minutes about their current projects. I led an afternoon session on social media and received some great advice about formulating policies and tapping into interested audiences. 

Washington Monument

Mt. Vernon, Baltimore

To end the day, I went on a walking tour of the nearby historic district of Mt. Vernon. The neighborhood of Mt. Vernon erected one of the nation’s earliest memorials to George Washington (hence the name of Mt. Vernon). During the nineteenth century, Mt. Vernon was the neighborhood of choice for elite, white Baltimoreans. The home interiors were similar to those of robber barons and gilded age industrialists in New York and Newport, RI. We also stopped inside the beautiful Peabody Library (pictured, right).

It was a great week and I learned a great deal about Baltimore and Maryland history.