Portal:Baltimore

The Baltimore Portal

A panoramic view of the Baltimore Inner Harbor

Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the 30th-most populous U.S. city with a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, while the Baltimore metropolitan area at 2.86 million residents is the 22nd-largest metropolitan area in the nation. The city is also part of the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area, which had a population of 9.97 million in 2020. Baltimore was designated as an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851. Though not located under the jurisdiction of any county in the state, it forms part of the Central Maryland region together with the surrounding county that shares its name.

The land that is present-day Baltimore was used as hunting ground by Paleo-Indians. In the early 1600s, the Susquehannock began to hunt there. People from the Province of Maryland established the Port of Baltimore in 1706 to support the tobacco trade with Europe and established the Town of Baltimore in 1729. During the American Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress briefly moved its deliberations to the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777 prior to the capture of Philadelphia to British troops, which permitted Baltimore to serve briefly as the nation's capital before it returned to Philadelphia. The Battle of Baltimore was pivotal during the War of 1812, culminating in the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, during which Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner" and was designated as the national anthem in 1931. During the Pratt Street Riot of 1861, the city was the site of some of the earliest violence associated with the American Civil War. (Full article...)

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Baltimore City Hall is the official seat of government of the City of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland. The City Hall houses the offices of the Mayor and those of the City Council of Baltimore. The building also hosts the city Comptroller, some various city departments, agencies and boards/commissions along with the historic chambers of the Baltimore City Council. Situated on a city block bounded by East Lexington Street on the north, Guilford Avenue (formerly North Street) on the west, East Fayette Street on the south and North Holliday Street with City Hall Plaza and the War Memorial Plaza to the east, the six-story structure was designed by the then 22-year-old new architect, George Aloysius Frederick (1842–1924) in the Second Empire style, a Baroque revival, with prominent Mansard roofs with richly-framed dormers, and two floors of a repeating Serlian window motif over an urbanely rusticated basement. (Full article...)

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Fort McHenry, which served as the inspiration for The Star-Spangled Banner

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Holiday with her dog, Mister c. 1947

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.

After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem where she was heard by producer John Hammond, who liked her voice. Holiday signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Her collaboration with Teddy Wilson produced the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. However, by the late 1940s, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, Holiday performed a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. She was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s, with two further sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall. Because of personal struggles and an altered voice, Holiday's final recordings were met with mixed reaction, but were mild commercial successes. Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958. Holiday died of heart failure on July 17, 1959, at age 44. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

... that one of the items on display at the Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts was George Washington's shaving brush?
... that Darryl De Sousa created a Baltimore Police Department unit to give lie detector tests to other units?
... that Baltimore County Police Department leader Carroll E. Stansbury assigned officers to combat chicken theft?
... that Charles J. M. Gwinn was the first state's attorney of Baltimore elected under the Maryland Constitution of 1851, which he had helped to draft?
... that the writer of "Crabs for Christmas" joked that it contributed to Baltimore's population decline?

General images -

The following are images from various Baltimore-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Marble steps, East Fort Avenue, Locust Point, August 2014 (from Culture of Baltimore)
Image 2An 1864 map of Baltimore (from History of Baltimore)
Image 3Baltimore Street Map, 1838 (from History of Baltimore)
Image 4Blue crabs (from Culture of Baltimore)
Image 5Baltimore railroad strike of 1877 (from History of Baltimore)
Image 6Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, looking West from East Pratt and North Gay Streets (from Great Baltimore Fire)
Image 7Sharp Street Church was established 1787, the existing building having been erected in 1898 (from History of Baltimore)
Image 8An illustration of the aftermath of the Great Baltimore Fire in February 1904 (from Great Baltimore Fire)
Image 9Worker assembling an aircraft at the Glenn L. Martin plant in Baltimore (from History of Baltimore)
Image 10Marylanders steam blue crabs, usually in water, beer and Old Bay Seasoning. (from Culture of Baltimore)
Image 11View of Baltimore from Chapel Hill, by Francis Guy, 1802-03 (Brooklyn Museum) (from History of Baltimore)
Image 12Simple row houses like these in Locust Point make up much of Baltimore's housing stock. (from Culture of Baltimore)
Image 13Mount Clare Mansion, known today as the Mount Clare Museum House, is the oldest Colonial-era structure in Baltimore. (from History of Baltimore)
Image 14Francis Kenrick, the sixth Archbishop of Baltimore (1851–1863). (from History of Baltimore)
Image 15John E. Hurst Building, site of the fire's outbreak (from Great Baltimore Fire)
Image 16View of Baltimore by William Henry Bartlett (1809–1854) (from History of Baltimore)
Image 17Some of the more upscale rowhouses in Baltimore, like these brightly painted homes in Charles Village, have complete porches instead of stoops (from Culture of Baltimore)
Image 18The Baltimore riot of 1861 (from History of Baltimore)
Image 19East Midway (from List of Baltimore neighborhoods)
Image 20Baltimore Street Map, 1892 (from History of Baltimore)
Image 21West Baltimore (from List of Baltimore neighborhoods)
Image 22South Baltimore (from List of Baltimore neighborhoods)
Image 23Same view in 1906, 2 years after the fire (from Great Baltimore Fire)
Image 24Map of Chesapeake Bay area by John Senex, 1719, with Baltimore County labeled near Maryland's border with Pennsylvania. (from History of Baltimore)
Image 25Baltimore & Ohio Railroad engine and passenger car from the 1830s. (from History of Baltimore)
Image 26Storefront of establishment selling Lake Trout in Baltimore (from Culture of Baltimore)
Image 27Child labor at J.S. Farrand Packing Company in Baltimore, 1909. Photo by Lewis Hine. (from History of Baltimore)

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City of Baltimore
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History	National Register sites Baltimore City Landmarks Historical timeline Battle of Baltimore Defenders Day Baltimore bank riot Riot of 1861 Baltimore Crew Great Baltimore Fire Fort Holabird Riot of 1968 Howard Street Tunnel fire 2015 Baltimore protests Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse
Industry	Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Bethlehem Steel Constellation CoverGirl DeBaufre Bakeries Hecht's Grace JoS. A. Bank Clothiers Legg Mason McCormick & Company Schmidt Bakeries T. Rowe Price Royal Farms Under Armour
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Misc.	Baltimore metropolitan area Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area
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