Baltimore History Evenings
The Baltimore History Evenings series features
presentations and discussions on Baltimore’s history.
Baltimore History Evenings are usually held at 7:00 PM
on the third Thursday of every month from January to June.
Save the dates!
NEW: To register and get the Zoom link for our Baltimore History Evenings:
Baltimore History Evenings are sponsored by:
Trace Architects
"Trace Architects is committed to using architecture as a tool for neighborhood sustainability. We are passionate about our profession and that translates into projects that energize not only the individual but the community.”
The 2024 Season Of Baltimore History Evenings
Thursday, February 15, 2024, at 7pm via Zoom
“Baltimore Jazz History” with Charles Funn
Charles Funn, a graduate of Morgan Stage College, is a noted professional musician and a retired band instructor (44 years) with the Baltimore City Public School System. He has played behind and with Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Sammy Davis Jr., Gladys Knight, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Dells, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, The Morgan State University Concert and Jazz Bands and The Howard University Jazz Ensemble. He currently performs with the Dr. Phil Butts Big Band, Bowie State University Community Jazz Ensemble, The New World Outreach Jazz Orchestra, The Clarence Knight Orchestra and The Charles Funn Big Band. His career awards include numerous mayoral citations, the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Hero Award for 2015, The Benny Golson Jazz Masters Award for 2018 presented by Howard University, and The Baltimore Jazz Alliance Award for 2022. Mr. Funn started, trained and developed countless future musicians as he nurtured and guided the musical development of Baltimore.
Thursday, March 21, 2024, at 7pm via Zoom
Baltimore’s Historic Sharp-Leadenhall Neighborhood
Presented by Betty Bland-Thomas
Ms. Bland-Thomas is a neighborhood historian and community activist who preserves the history of Sharp-Leadenhall. The neighborhood is located between M&TBank Stadium and Federal Hill, in historic South Baltimore. It was established by formerly enslaved residents and German immigrants about 1790 and is rich with African American history. The community was home to significant churches, the Baltimore Abolitionist Society and the African Academy of Baltimore.
Thursday, April 18, 2024, at 7pm via Zoom
“Doing Queer History in Public” — Baltimore’s LGBTQ+ history
Presented by Kate Drabinski, Ph.D.
Dr. Kate Drabinski is Principal Lecturer of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She is also the Director of the Women Involved in Learning and Leadership (WILL+) program, a co-curricular program and Living-Learning community sponsored by GWST. Her research interests include transgender studies, critical pedagogy, public history, and theories of activism. She is on the Editorial Board of the journal Radical Teacher and the Baltimore Heritage LGBT History Committee.
Thursday, May 16, 2024, time and location to be announced
“Searching for "Precious Stones":
An Exploration of Baltimore's Arts, Culture & Health Efforts from 1968-2023”
Presented by David O. Fakunle, Ph.D.
Dr. Fakunle serves as Assistant Professor in the Public Health Program at the Morgan State University School of Community Health & Policy, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, and Associate Faculty in the Mental Health department of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His interests include stressors within the built environment, societal manifestations of racism, and the use of arts and culture to strengthen health, equity and ultimately, liberation.
Thursday, June 20, 2024, time and location to be announced
“Introspection”
Presented by Dr. Joyce J. Scott
Joyce J. Scott is a Baltimore multidisciplinary artist and a MacArthur Fellow who holds three honorary doctorates from institutions including the Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland Institute College of Art. A 50-year retrospective of her work is on exhibition March 24 - July 15 at The Baltimore Museum of Art: Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams, curated by Cecilia Wichmann and Catharina Manchanda.
The 2023 Season of Baltimore History Evenings
Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 7pm via Zoom
Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore
Dr. Lawrence B. Jackson's 2022 memoir Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore is at once a personal and expansive exploration of how history and race shape how we experience our city. In his Baltimore History Evening presentation, he will share reflections from researching and writing Shelter. Professor Jackson earned a PhD in English and American literature at Stanford University, and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the William J. Fulbright program. He began his teaching career at Howard University in 1997 and he is now Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of English and History at Johns Hopkins University, where he directs the Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts. His latest book is Hold It Real Still: Clint Eastwood, Race and the Cinema of the American West.
Thursday, February 16, 2023, at 7pm via Zoom
The Art and Legacy of Tom Miller
Deyane Moses, artist and archivist, will present “The Art and Legacy of Tom Miller.” Artist Tom Miller of Baltimore was known for his colorful, whimsical “Afro-Deco” murals, painted furniture and screenprints. Moses, an alumna of MICA, is the organizer of the annual Tom Miller Week celebration at University of Baltimore.
Thursday, March 16, 2023, at 7pm via Zoom
Dr. Jose Felipe Anderson, lawyer, professor and author, will present “As Goes Maryland…”: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Legal Laboratory that Changed a Nation.
Thursday, April 20, 2023, at 7pm via Zoom
Dr. Anne Sarah Rubin will present “Slave Streets, Free Streets: Mapping Early Baltimore’s Working Class.”
Thursday, May 18, 2023, at 7pm via Zoom
Dr. Amy Rosenkrans will present “Memories of the Baltimore Woman’s Industrial Exchange.”
Thursday, June 15, 2023, at 7pm via Zoom
E. Evans Paull will present “Stop the Road: Stories from the Trenches of Baltimore's Road Wars.”
The 2022 Season of Baltimore History Evenings consisted of The Following Discussions:
January 20, 2022, at 7pm via Zoom
Fiction for the Harassed and Frustrated: The Black Literary Tradition in Baltimore
Harlem might be more famous, but Baltimore was in the mix, too. We’ll join Dr. Kim Gallon via Zoom at 7:00 PM on January 20, 2022, to hear her latest research into Black literary movements in Baltimore that were contemporaneous with and exceeded the Harlem Renaissance. Dr. Gallon is Associate Professor of History at Purdue University, and the Founder and Director of the Black Press Research Collaborative.
February 17, 2022, at 7pm via Zoom
Eden of the Epicure: Baltimore’s Lexington Market
Baltimoreans love to wax nostalgic about Lexington Market. But what do we know about its origins and growth, stall keepers and their fare, and how it became “world famous?” Dean Krimmel will share some of his findings—and surprises—from a recent research project inspired by the construction of the new market building that will open in 2022. Dean Krimmel, Interpretive Planning & Research, Creative Museum Services.
March 17, 2022, at 7pm via Zoom
Cuisine a la Maryland: Historic Recipes of Baltimore’s Homes, Hotels and Street Corners
Kara Mae Harris writes about Maryland’s historic recipes. She shares stories of the ingredients and people mixed into the state’s rich culinary heritage. Ms. Harris is the author of the Old Line Plate blog about Maryland’s historic recipes.
April 21, 2022, at 7pm via Zoom
Overlooked Places: Telling the Interconnected History of Maryland Through Recent Archaeology in Baltimore
Dr. Adam Fracchia has led several archaeological excavations in Baltimore, including several recent excavations in West Baltimore. In this talk, he will share his research and findings. Dr. Fracchia is Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland.
May 19, 2022, at 7pm via Zoom
Border State, Border War: Fighting for Freedom and Slavery in Antebellum Maryland
In this talk, University of Maryland Historian Richard Bell situates antebellum Maryland in a rich vein of recent scholarship on the slave experience, interstate sales, fugitivity, free Black life, colonization, and kidnapping in the decades from 1825 to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Dr. Bell is a Professor of History at the University of Maryland, and author of Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped Into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home. Dr. Bell received our 2020 Joseph L. Arnold Prize for Outstanding Writing on Baltimore’s History.
June 16, 2022, at 7pm via Zoom
Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project
The mission of the Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project (LCMP) is to erect a permanent memorial in recognition of the thousands of African Americans who were laid to rest at the historic Laurel Cemetery off Belair Road, to ensure the safety and stability of the site into the foreseeable future, and to educate the public about the rich history of the cemetery and the lives of those buried there. Join us to learn the history of the cemetery, the exciting research and plans for the memorial. Partners in this effort include Coppin State University, University of Baltimore, and the Agnes Kane Callum Baltimore Chapter of the African American Historical and Genealogical Society. Panelists will be Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project leaders, historians and researchers Elgin Klugh, Glenn Blackwell, Donna Tyler Hollie, Ronald Castanzo and Isaac Shearn.
Our previously announced presentation by Jillian Storms has been postponed.
The 2021 Season of Baltimore History Evenings Consisted of the following discussions:
January 21, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Old West Baltimore
Commemorating the Nation’s Largest Registered African American Historic District
We’ll join Philip J. Merrill via Zoom at 7:00 PM on January 21, 2021 to celebrate the publication of his book, Images of America: Old West Baltimore (Arcadia Publishing, 2020).
Watch this presentation the BCHS YouTube channel here.
February 18, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Steam City:
How the Railroads Changed Urban Space and and Economic Life in 19th Century Baltimore—and the Nation
We’ll join David Schley via Zoom at 7:00 PM on February 18, 2021 to discuss the his book, Steam City: Railroads, Urban Space, and Corporate Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Baltimore (The University of Chicago Press, 2020).
March 18, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Through the Lens of Three Generations: The Phillips Family of Photographers
For three generations, Webster Phillips’s family has been documenting life in Baltimore — from segregation to Brown v. Board, Roosevelt to Reagan to Obama. His father and grandfather worked for the The Sun and the AFRO, as well as for themselves, covering major national events with as much care as they covered graduations and birthday parties.
Watch this presentation the BCHS YouTube channel here.
April 15, 2021 at 7:00 PM
A Ride to Remember: from Gwynn Oak Amusement Park to the National Mall.
Amy Nathan and Sharon Langley, co-authors of A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story (Abrams Books for Young Readers, January 7, 2020) tell the story of Gwynn Oak Amusement Park and the 1963 civil rights demonstrations that led to its desegregation. The narrative is told from the perspective of co-author Sharon Langley, whose family was among the first African Americans to be admitted and an iconic photograph captured her riding the carousel. Suitable for young audiences and adults.
May 20, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Parole Femine: Words and Lives of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore
Jean Lee Cole will discuss Parole Femine: Words and Lives of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore (Apprentice House, 2019). Members of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, founded in 1890, met weekly for five decades to share their writing. Club members published over a thousand novels, poems, short stories, plays, and histories. Largely forgotten until now, a new anthology restores the words of these accomplished Baltimore women.
June 17, 2021 at 7:00 PM
John Tilghman, Associate Professor of History at Tuskegee University, will discuss his essay, “‘The Show of Strength Such Has Seldom Seen:’ Blockbusting and the Black Electoral Politics in 1950s Baltimore’s West Side,” for which he was awarded the 2019 Joseph Arnold Prize for Outstanding Writing on Baltimore's History will discuss his winning essay,
The 2020 Program Consisted of the following Baltimore History Evenings:
January 16, 2020
The Invention of Downtown: How Baltimore and the Other North Atlantic Cities Created the Central Business District
Presented by Charles B. Duff, president of Jubilee Baltimore, a frequent lecturer on architectural history, past president of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, and the author of the recently published The North Atlantic Cities.
February 20, 2020
The Jones Falls Valley: Its People and the Things They Made
Presented by BCHS Board Member Nathan Dennies, Chair of the Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance, a community historic preservation organization that works to save the stories and places of Hampden and Woodberry. He works for the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and the American Institute of Architects, Baltimore Chapter, and lives in Woodberry.
March 19, 2020
Cherry Hill: Raising Successful Black Children in Jim Crow Baltimore
Presented by Linda G. Morris, with John H. Morris and Sidney Rauls Ellis. Like many other families, the Morris children and their friends spent formative years in Cherry Hill and went on to successful careers. Her book draws on happy memories, but also solid research on this once idyllic community in segregated Baltimore.
This presentation is available on the BCHS YouTube channel here.
April 16, 2020
The Lumbee Community: Revisiting the Reservation of Baltimore's Fell's Point
Ashley Minner is a community-based visual artist, an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, and Professor of the Practice and folklorist in the Department of American Studies at UMBC. She is a contributor to Baltimore Revisited: Stories of Inequality and Resistance in a U.S. City (2019)
May 21, 2020
Who Lived in Your House? Uncovering the History of a Baltimore Neighborhood
Preparing for the centennial of his North Baltimore subdivision on Cloverhill and Canterbury Roads in Tuscany-Canterbury, Josh set out to discover the history of the neighborhood. Using online resources to trace deeds and relations, Josh built family trees for the homeowners of all 84 houses. He gathered extensive biographical details of those first families and made connections with their descendants, who provided personal recollections and photos. Josh will share some of his exciting finds as well as techniques that residents of any neighborhood can use to explore the history of their homes.
This presentation is available on the BCHS YouTube channel here.
June 18,2020
Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project
Baltimore was a port of entry for enslaved Africans, and it played an even larger role in the domestic slave trade.
This presentation is available for viewing on the BCHS YouTube channel here.
The 2019 Program Consisted of the following well-Attended Baltimore History Evenings:
January 17, 2019
Patrick Whang, an independent scholar working on post-Civil War Baltimore.
The Freedman’s Bank in Baltimore: From Model Branch to Collapsed Dreams
The Baltimore branch of the Freedman’s Bank was one of the larger and more successful branches of a national bank created to benefit free blacks and newly freed slaves after the Civil War. The branch opened on May 3, 1866 with a Board comprised of some of the top leaders of Baltimore’s black society. Less than eight years later, the national bank collapsed, and along with its demise went the hard-earned dreams of thousands of depositors.
February 21, 2019
Antero Pietila, journalist and historian, author of Not in My Neighborhood and The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins.
Johns Hopkins, Pragmatic Opportunist
Johns Hopkins was opposed to slavery, but slavery was central to the economy within which he made his fortune. Some of that fortune came from the whiskey trade—“Hopkins’ Best” bottles are the holy grail of Baltimore bottle collectors—despite Quaker objections to the trade. A generous philanthropist, he was also a hard bargainer.
March 21, 2019
Ida Jones, University archivist, Morgan State University, and author of Baltimore Civil Rights Leader Victorine Q. Adams: The Power of the Ballot (January 2019).
Victorine Adams, Pioneer on the City Council
Victorine Q. Adams was the first African-American woman elected to the Baltimore City Council. Her story has been overshadowed by that of her imposing husband, William “Little Willie” Adams. A self-assured woman aware of the distortion that surrounded her race, gender and class in Baltimore, she created two organizations, educated and registered potential voters, held politicians accountable to their constituencies, participated in philanthropic endeavors, mentored young women, all while she maintained an impeccable reputation and social life.
April 18, 2019
A program featuring documentary footage, live music, and commentary.
Hazel Dickens: The Voice of Appalachian Baltimore
Hazel Dickens was part of the post-World War II southern migration to Baltimore. She represents important themes in Baltimore women’s, labor, migration, and music history; from the low-paid factory jobs open to women and migrants and her pioneering role as a woman playing country music, to national recognition for her contribution to the folk and traditional arts in American life.
May 16, 2019
Ross Jones, Retired Johns Hopkins University Administrator and author of Elisabeth Gilman: Crusader for Justice
Elisabeth Gilman: Crusader for Social Justice
A genuine Baltimore blue blood and the daughter of Daniel Coit Gilman, the first president of The Johns Hopkins University, Elisabeth Gilman had a long career as a reformer. Her career included a run as the Socialist Party candidate for Maryland governor in 1930. She was an advocate of civil liberties and racial equality, and a founder of The Maryland Civil Liberties Committee.
June 20, 2019
Garrett Power, Emeritus Professor, University of Maryland School of Law
Samuel Smith: Patriotism, Profits, and the Panic of 1819
Samuel Smith is widely remembered as a U.S. Senator, a patriot, and veteran of the Revolution and the War of 1812. However, he was also a merchant, and his firm was intimately involved in the first great financial disaster of the new republic. How much did he know?
