See you in Baltimore! It's time to get ready for the big show!

Information Outlook, April, 2006 by Edna W. Paulson, Mary Woodfill

Baltimore is a unique American city. It has vibrant neighborhoods, an industrial past, a varied population, delectable food, and an important place in American history. Its attractions are so great, some people call it Charm City. You'll call it a great place for a Special Library Association convention. The Maryland Chapter of SLA is delighted that the convention is coming to Baltimore June 11-14, and we want to share some things about the area that we hope will encourage you to come and enjoy your time here.

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The Baltimore Convention Center, site of the convention, is located in the heart of downtown Baltimore. Many restaurants, historic sites, museums, and other attractions are within easy reach by foot or nearby public transportation.

The public transportation system in Baltimore includes buses, a subway, and a light rail (aboveground) system. The Maryland Transit Administration's Web site has schedules and maps you can consult or print out to help in your advance planning (www.mtamaryland.com).

History

Baltimore has been important in the history of the United States almost since the first European settlers arrived in Maryland on the Ark and the Dove in 1634. Many sites in the city are important in that history. This article can only hint at Baltimore's people and events that have influenced history.

Settlers were attracted early to the Inner Harbor area, with its sheltered anchorage fed by rivers and its easy access to the Chesapeake Bay. In the early 1700s, there were tobacco warehouses in the area now known as Fells Point. By the 1750s, Baltimore was a center of shipping to the West Indies, with cargoes including iron, tobacco, wooden products, flour from Baltimore-area mills, and other staple foodstuffs. The area included people from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Africa, and French speakers deported from Canada.

Baltimoreans were enthusiastic supporters of the American Revolution. They built ships for the new U.S. Navy and designed fast clippers for privateers (private ships that raided enemy shipping). Many Baltimore natives served with distinction in battles from Long Island to South Carolina.

By 1790 Baltimore's population had reached 13,000. By 1810 it had grown to 45,000. The city was a major port for exports from the growing settlements to the west, and became an industrial center as well. The Shot Tower at 801 E. Fayette Street was built in 1828. Its 234-foot height allowed molten lead to form uniform pellets as it fell, producing ammunition of high quality. In the same year, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was founded to facilitate trade with the West.

Renewed hostilities with Britain in the War of 1812 produced one of Baltimore's best-known contributions to American history, the national anthem. Author Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner" after seeing the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry after bombardment by the British, a sign that the British attack had failed. The fort is named for James McHenry, a Baltimore resident who was secretary of war in the late 1790s. It is now a National Historic Site. Arrangements can be made at the gift shop for a flag purchased there to be flown over the fort (www.nps.gov/fomc/home.htm).

The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House at 844 East Pratt Street was the home of Mary Young Pickersgill and her mother, who created the flag that inspired Key. The original flag is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it is being restored. The Flag House has a glass replica made in France (www.flaghouse.org).

In the years before the Civil War, the divisions of the country were mirrored in Baltimore. Maryland was a slaveholding state, but Baltimore had the largest population of free black people in the U.S., and Maryland did not join the Confederacy. As the war broke out, Southern sympathizers in Baltimore fired on U.S. troops moving through the city to South Carolina. Baltimore was occupied by Union troops for much of the war, since the city's status as a hub of trade and communication made it vital to Washington, D.C. After the war, Baltimore banks contributed heavily to the rebuilding of the economy and infrastructure of the Southern states, and many freed slaves came there to find a better life.

By 1870, Baltimore's population was more than twice Washington's. Steamboats were replacing the sailing ships, and industry was growing. Canning of vegetables and oysters joined other industries as the city thrived. This prosperity was expressed in works of philanthropy. The Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University and its hospital, the Walters Art Museum, and the Enoch Pratt Free Library were all founded during the late 1800s by Baltimore businessmen. (See the sidebar for more about these institutions.) When a fire destroyed much of the original downtown area in 1904, the area was rebuilt and the layout of streets improved. Two buildings that escaped the fire are located at Charles and Lexington Streets: the Fidelity Building (1894) and the Central Savings Bank Building (1890).