For years, our photographers have covered inaugurations – from presidents to governor’s to other political figures. Here’s a quick throwback to 1920 and the inauguration of Maryland Governor Albert C. Ritchie.
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Crownsville Hospital Center was founded in 1911 as the Hospital for the Negro Insane, a place to house African-American psychiatric patients separately from white patients in the other state hospitals.The first patients helped build the hospital’s first buildings on land that previously was a farm. Some patients weren’t even mentally ill, and scores who died at the hospital were buried in anonymous graves.
At one time, 30 percent of the patients died at the hospital, now a group of buildings boarded up and crumbling on Generals Highway.
The hospital eventually was integrated and became a modern mental health facility before it was closed in 2004 because of a declining patient population. Since then, the campus sat largely vacant.
Throughout the 1970s, there were several scuffles inside the Baltimore City jail, most notably in February and September 1971 among uproar in the Attica, N.Y. jail.
Reports suggest that by the summer of 1971, the state prison in Attica was ready to explode. From History, “inmates were frustrated with chronic overcrowding, censorship of letters, and living conditions that limited them to one shower per week and one roll of toilet paper each month. Some Attica prisoners, adopting the radical spirit of the times, began to perceive themselves as political prisoners rather than convicted criminals.”
Baltimoreans were excited by the news that they would get a glimpse of the giant Hindenburg, which was to circle the city on its way to Lakehurst (N.J.) Naval Air Station on August 11, 1936.
Like its predecessor, the Graf Zeppelin, it was designed for ’round-the-world passenger (and some light freight) flights.
The 804-foot-long dirigible Hindenburg, the “Titanic of the Skies,” soared above the Bromo-Seltzer Tower, Redwood Street and near the old Sun building less than a year before it was destroyed. Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), there were 35 fatalities. There was also one death of a ground crewman.
More from the Archives | Retro: Front pages | 175 years of Sun photography
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Tracking down Chesapeake Blue Crabs is easier said than done. These creatures have a mind of their own, and can easily migrate tens of miles a day. So naturally the chase becomes part of the job.
Here’s a look down memory lane at some retro crabbing photos from The Sun’s photo archives.
MORE ON MARYLAND CRABS: How to | How much | The latest
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Fifty years ago this week the Civil Rights Act of 1964 voided all discriminatory laws (de jure segregation) in the public arena. It went a step further than each of its predecessors of 1866, 1871, 1875, 1957 and 1960 by outlawing racial segregation in schools, the workplace and other public spaces. Considered the most important act in its lineage, ponder for a moment the fact that America, land of the free, required at least five more acts of congress to even begin moving toward equality for all.
For those keeping score at home, there was the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Civil Rights bills passed in 1968 (Fair Housing), 1987 (featuring an override of President Reagan’s veto), 1990 (job discrimination), and 1991 (right to trial by jury in discrimination cases).
It’s important to remember and celebrate this important legislation. But equally important is to remember the struggle that led to it, the people behind the scenes, and what came after. To commemorate this anniversary, Joe Tropea, the Curator of Films & Photographs, and Digital Projects Coordinator at the Maryland Historical Society, selected photographs from three MdHS collections (Paul Henderson, Richard Childress, and Theodore McKeldin) that highlight the struggle, high and low points, and remind us of what it means to be human.
A Viscount in the Armoured Cavalry Branch of the French Army left behind a collection of hundreds of glass plates taken during World War One that have never before been published. The images, by an unknown photographer, show daily life of soldiers in the trenches, destruction of towns and military leaders. The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War (WWI). – Reuters
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In 2002, the stark signs erected around town by Baltimore’s “Believe” campaign intrigued photographer Amy Davis. “I wondered what impact, if any, they would have on people in those communities,” she says. Using an old-fashioned camera set up on a tripod, she invited passers-by to discuss their lives and beliefs.
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A pretty pattern, but what is it, you say? Here are a number of abstractions made by Sun photographer A. Aubrey Bodine, filed on April 17, 1955. See if you can name the locations in the comments below.
Follow @baltsunphoto on Twitter Friday, April 17, for answers.
March Madness is in full swing, with basketball fans everywhere keeping one eye on the tube and another on their already busted brackets. We’ve already had some impressive upsets (thanks, Duke).
Here’s a look at some old-school dunks, dodges and dives from college hoopsters from past times.
Baltimore neighborhoods
Baltimore street photographers
Year in review
Freddie Gray: protests, aftermath
24 hours with...
A. Aubrey Bodine
Viewing Baltimore from above