Growing Up in Baltimore: A Photographic History
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About this ebook
A tribute to the enduring courage and spirit of children of Baltimore from the mid 1800s-early 1900s.
In a city that has been, at once, blessed with a rich port and torn apart by war, filled with pristine parks and scarred by the ravages of industrial life, childhood has reflected the ever-changing times and culture in American life. From baseball games and trips to the zoo to schoolyard pals and amusement park rides, children explored the world around them. The nostalgia and innocence of well-born youth, however, mingled with the harsher realities that many boys and girls knew as their daily lives - laboring in the mills and factories, the haphazard destruction of fires and storms, the segregation of public places and the cold and hunger so keenly felt during the Great Depression.
Eden Unger Bowditch
Drawing on the outstanding images held in places such as the Enoch Pratt Free Library Photographic Archives and the University of Maryland Baltimore County's Bafford Collection, as well as private collections, school archives, and family albums, author Eden Unger Bowditch has compiled a fascinating glimpse into the life of the child-in all its forms-of Baltimore's past. Showcasing valuable photographs by Lewis Hine, the Baltimore Camera Club, and contemporary amateur photographers, this one-of-a-kind volume will entertain and educate readers of all ages. In its depiction of children at home and at play, at school and at work, Growing Up in Baltimore poignantly illustrates how much things have changed, and how children, in so many ways, will always be the same.
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Growing Up in Baltimore - Eden Unger Bowditch
him.
INTRODUCTION
Researching this book has truly been an adventure. Baltimore is a city steeped in history. I see the city with more empathy and awe than I ever could have before undertaking this project and became totally absorbed in the task. I spent week after week poring through the 16,000 photos in the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s archives and I spent afternoons with private collectors who were willing to share their photographed histories. I gained a great deal of insight into the history of the schools as I spoke with archivists and searched through old school pictures. I wiped tears from my eyes as I looked through Lewis Hine photos and found that, nearly a century later, they still evoke the reaction that was intended when Hine took them for the National Committee on Child Labor in 1909. Evergreen House generously allowed me access to their collection documenting the grandeur and privilege of the Garrett family and friends. I also found some shocking and beautiful photos at the Maryland School for the Blind.
Of course, without the great wealth of artists taking photographs in Baltimore from the mid-1800s through the 1930s, this truly would have been impossible. The Baltimore Camera Club, established in September of 1883, was one of this country’s oldest camera clubs, and its members took numerous photos of parks, events, catastrophes, and post-fire Baltimore. Lewis Hine took photos of children working in the fields outside of Baltimore and families packing up to leave for the country to work at the berry farms. He took photos of children in the canneries and the mills. David Bachrach and his studio took a huge number of celebrity photos as well as shots of the parks and local families. Bachrach, who came to this country from Germany in 1848 and attended Baltimore public schools, was the photographic assistant at the Gettysburg Address and participated in the now famous photo of Lincoln, the first President to be photographed. In 1868 Bachrach opened his own studio, and Bachrach Studios photographed every President after Lincoln until the studio closed in 1974. Amiger Studios in Woodberry was located on what is now Thirty-sixth Street, then called Third Avenue, and Amiger took many of the photos from the Hampden/Woodberry area during the age of the Civil War and after. Semi-professional photographers like James Lewis created their own collections of images, many uncropped and showing behind-the-scenes views that truly capture a sense of photography verité. Luckily, many of these wonderful photographs have been preserved for us to enjoy.
It was my good fortune that some of these photographs had been recently collected for various centennial anniversaries and celebrations. Still, even with that luck, the hours put in to this project cannot be discounted. My husband spent many of them with me, helping with the layout and reading through everything. It was exhausting but even that was a pleasure. Perhaps the most difficult chore was choosing which photos would not be included. There were so many incredible pictures, this book could have been one of three volumes. There is something haunting about seeing the face of a child, looking so much like our own children, who has long since died of old age. Or discovering that the child in the photo that is now so familiar died shortly after having his image imprinted forever on glass. We must remember that for every child that happened to stand in front of a camera, thousands never did and are lost forever from our sight. But we are lucky that avid photographers pursued these young subjects and have left them for posterity. Seeing these children from so very long ago is really an experience not to be missed. I am so pleased to be able to share this intimate look into childhood in yesterday’s Baltimore. Growing Up in Baltimore: A Photographic History will take you on a journey back into the lives of so many children, some we know and some we never will; all were captured for that single moment and remain there, as they were, for all time. It is quite a journey and, having taken it myself, I can say it really is an adventure.
Eden Unger Bowditch is a freelance writer and author. She currently serves on the board of directors at Cylburn Arboretum Association and formerly as editor of the Urbanite Magazine. Eden lives with her family in Baltimore.
This is a lower school gym class at the Bryn Mawr School, c. 1890. (Courtesy of the Bryn Mawr School, Baltimore.)
One
CHILDREN AT HOME
Seeing children with their families and in their home environment gives us an intimate picture of private life during a particular time. Most often we find photos of families that had wealth since they were the ones who could afford to have photographs taken. But anonymous children were very often the chosen subjects of photographers. Many children who were captured on film by interested strangers may never have had a chance to see these images of themselves. Some of the children living in poverty may have elicited sympathy or concern from those taking the pictures. As a result, we have a chance to see both children in the most elegant, affluent stately manors and children living with their families in squalid hovels with little hope for anything better. In the times of great industrial success, there were the children of laborers who were not privy to the wealth that their parents’ sweat helped to create and there were those born into families that had more than enough and would never understand want. Children born into slavery in Baltimore may have been luckier than others born on