It began with a visit, on a calm December day, to a spacious, sunlit farmhouse on the edge of Leakin Park. There I encountered for the first time John Clark Mayden’s Baltimore “street portraits”—photographs set worlds away from that peaceful location … or so you might think. I was there with Dr. Lawrence Jackson, Bloomberg […]
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Beloved Community
Today, we commemorate the 51st anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death: his assassination by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee, where King was preparing to march on behalf of sanitation workers on strike. In marking this tragic anniversary, we also celebrate the U.S. Civil Rights Movement King did so much to advance. Indeed, […]
A Century of Poppies
Sunday was Veterans Day, which is observed on November 11 because it was on November 11, 1918, at 11 am, that the World War I armistice between Germany and the Allied nations came into effect. (The peace treaties that officially resolved the conflict were not signed until 1919, including, most famously, the Treaty of Versailles.) […]
“This book is not about heroes”: Poetry and World War I
The post is guest-authored by senior Lucy Eills, a Writing Seminars major and curator of a new exhibition opening today on M-level of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, the outcome of a Sheridan Libraries / Alexander Grass Humanities Institute Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award. Over its four and a quarter years, World War I saw over […]
The Spirit of ’68
1968 was marked by war and protest, tragedy and revolution—a year around which a whole era of political turmoil, cultural change, and social unrest turned. So much happened in one year, including: The Tet Offensive and the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. The “Prague Spring” liberalizations in Czechoslovakia, followed by the Soviet invasion. The assassination […]
A Tour of Edgar Allan Poe’s Baltimore: April 14
This guest post is from senior Samantha Smart, who received an Arts Innovation Grant to bring more Hopkins students into contact with one of Baltimore’s most intriguing historical figures, Edgar Allan Poe. Every September, football fans put on their purple jerseys and migrate to M&T Bank Stadium for the National Football League’s Opening Day. Every […]
Fifty Years Later: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Beloved Community
Today, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death: his assassination by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee, where King was preparing to march on behalf of sanitation workers on strike. In marking this tragic anniversary, we also celebrate the U.S. Civil Rights Movement King did so much to advance. Indeed, […]
Ephemera at the World’s Fair
The Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center is pleased to host “Downfall of the Exhibition: Ephemera and Opposition at the Crystal Palace,” a presentation by Jo Briggs, Associate Curator of 18th- and 19th- Century Art at the Walters Art Museum. Please join us on Wednesday, March 7, 5:15 pm, in the Macksey Room, Brody Learning […]
Happy Birthday Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland, around 1818; the exact date of his birth was unknown to him, but he chose to celebrate it on February 14. In honor of his 200th birthday, we’re highlighting some of his many writings and speeches in the Special Collections Reading Room, […]
The Selfie Strikes Back
February 6, American Selfie exhibit opens February 7, Deborah Willis, “Locating the Self-Portrait in Postcard and Photobooth Imagery,” Mason Hall Auditorium, 5:30 pm Most of us take selfies for a variety of reasons: to commemorate an event, to share our everyday activities with friends, to record our presence in special places. Yes, selfies are also […]