The History of the University of Baltimore

There are multiple ways to learn more about the history of the UB. The UB photographs and Yearbook collections are the best way to start. The University of Baltimore Photographs Collection includes images from the University Archives that depict the past athletics programs, the campus, significant events, and student life. The photographs are drawn from archival collections that were generated by a diverse set of units in the University and span over the period from 1925 to the present.

Below, there are some pictures from this collection:

Former Odorite Building 1994

The former Odorite building at the southeast corner of Maryland Ave. and Mount Royal Ave. 

(The current location of the University of Baltimore Student Center)

 University of Baltimore Campus 1990

Aerial view looking west featuring the Academic Center, Charles Hall, Charles Hall Annex, the Lyric Theatre, The Law Center, Penn Station, and the Jones Falls Expressway

Edgar Allen Poe Statue Installation in Gordon Plaza 1993

Edgar Allen Poe statue being lowered onto a plinth in Gordon Plaza 

Edgar Allen Poe Statue 1984

 Cover image from the spring 1984 edition of the Newsmagazine

Also, the University of Baltimore Yearbook Collection contains issues of the UB student yearbook from 1928 to 1975.

The University of Baltimore was founded in 1925 to provide an opportunity for working adults to receive degrees in law and business, graduating its first class in 1928. This graduating class began the tradition of publishing an annual yearbook, known as The Reporter. 

If you want to know more about UB Archives you can browse the complete database here.

New to the Archives in 2017

Definition from the Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology

So far this year, the library’s Special Collections department has accessioned four brand new archival collections about 20th century Baltimore history. We’re proud of this accomplishment! But what does that really mean?

The Society of American Archivists’ Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology  defines the verb ACCESSION in the following way: “To take legal and physical custody of a group of records or other materials and to formally document their receipt.”

You might be asking yourself what types of materials our new collections contain. Many formats are represented, including:

Correspondence, legal case files, newspaper clippings, immigration records, FBI records, historical research files, newsletters, bylaws, reports, conference proceedings, meeting minutes, maps, historical narratives, event flyers, neighborhood data, grant applications, architectural profiles, videos, photographs, audiotapes

But, more importantly for most researchers, what subjects do these collections cover? Although in no way complete, here’s a preview of some of the topics documented in this year’s archival acquisitions:

Community organizing, citizen participation, social work, the anti-war movement, nonviolence, African-American dancers, woman-owned businesses, cultural arts, antipoverty programs, public arts education, black arts movement, civil rights, legal history, desegregation of higher education, racially restrictive covenants, antiwar activism, religious freedom, expatriates, neighborhood history, historic preservation, rezoning, African American history, history of the Catholic Church in Maryland, architectural history, citizen engagement, local politics

So what are the names of these incredible collections? Their titles, with links to their archival database records, are provided below:

• Seton Hill Collection
• Eva Anderson's Baltimore Dance Theater Collection
• Fred E. Weisgal Papers
• Dick V. Cook Papers

Want to know more? Browse the complete Baltimore Regional Studies Archives database and find primary sources for your research today!

Scares in the Stacks

The Raven, University Art Collection.

“Not incredibly scary” or even “not scary at all” is probably how many would describe the features that make up Special Collections’ October exhibit “Scares in Special Collections.”  Honestly, if you want to be scared or unsettled or irked, there is no shortage of archival caches at Langsdale to sift through--  you can find out about discrimination (ACLU of Maryland for one, and many, many others), challenges to reproductive freedom (Planned Parenthood of Maryland Collection), LGBTQ-bashing, injustice, and the AIDS crisis (The GLCCB collection), or deadly workplace hazards and unfair labor practices (The White Lung Association collection). But since October is one of the most lovely months on the calendar, I thought I’d keep it light. You can view the display in the hallway on the 2nd Floor of Learning Commons, but let me post a few images here for your seasonal amusement.

Archives Are for Everyone

When some people think of archives, they imagine documents and artifacts that are rarefied, specialized, and only available through tightly monitored access. While preservation does require that archives are arranged systematically and treated with care, archival materials are not meant to be vaunted and intangible.  They are historical primary sources, but communities and individuals make up history, and as such, are deeply connected to what they choose to document and keep. Archives are for everyone.

Langsdale Special Collections’ own Angela Rodgers-Koukoui--with assistance from Smithsonian Audiovisual Archivist and Baltimorean Megan McShea--is sharing the secrets of archival preservation in Special Collections' Community Archives workshop (#bemorearchives) that will take place for 3 Saturdays in October, part of Baltimore’s #FreeFall program. We had some questions for Angela and Megan about what people can expect, and what the workshop is all about.

Langsdale Lends a Hand with 'Rat Film' Research

Inspection by Health Department, courtesy of the CPHA Collection, via flickr

Next week, Langsdale Special Collections is hosting a colloquium where three fellows are going to give presentations on their research into structural inequality, sharing the information they unearthed in Special Collections over the summer. I say this not only to mention that it’s happening (September 28th at 4 p.m., Learning Commons Town Hall-- see you there!), but because whenever we’re promoting the fellowship, I have go-to collections I use to illustrate the concept, and The Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) records is one of the best to draw upon. Most of the digitized photos in the CPHA flickr album perfectly portray urban blight and how society has failed its most vulnerable citizens-- scenes of trash-strewn alleys, decaying structures, toppling fences, lean-to shacks, and children playing in the rubble circa the 1940s and ‘50s.  Contextually, many of these photos were taken during inspections by the Health Department, who were surveying the area’s cleanliness and overall habitability for its citizenry.

The Other Side of Summer

Dance Troupe, 1972. Robert Breck Chapman Collection. Via flickr

When I decided last week to do a seasonal library display of items in Special Collections with a theme of “summertime leisure”, I couldn’t imagine a fluffier, less serious topic. I thought that-- aside from having multiple boxes across collections retrieved from storage-- the whole thing would be a breeze; just rainbows and kittens and glitter and sunshine all the way. Of course, mostly, it is:  selecting photographs taken by Robert Breck Chapman, former photographer for City Hall, is always an opportunity to gaze at beautifully composed images capturing city life during the 1970s. Also, poring through scenes from the Post Card Project-- featuring kitschy vintage paper and ephemera-- is pretty fun.

Be Kind, Rewind: Putting Endangered Collections First

Quad Tape, soon to appear at a nonprofit regional archive near you.

Tick-tock! Time is running out for videophiles to enjoy the glitchy, retro pleasures of analog media. Last year, the last videocassette recorder (VCR) was manufactured in Japan, and preservation experts recommend migrating VHS and other types of analog video to digital formats within 10 to 12 years. Langsdale Special Collections has been caring for two major audiovisual news morgues: the WMAR collection and the WJZ collection, which both consist of raw footage and broadcast materials from the two local network-affiliated television stations. 

Location, Location, Location

If you’ve visited the library recently and come away feeling a little starstruck, you’re not alone. That’s because Langsdale is featured extensively in the buzzy new true crime documentary The Keepers on Netflix, about the 50-year-old mystery of a slain Baltimore nun and the tragic sexual abuse scandal that erupted in its wake.

Helping An Undergrad Illuminate Local LGBTQ+ History

Christine Wertz '17 takes a page from history

Many of the most crucial battles in the LGBT+ movement happened in the 1980s, and--as history major Christine Wertz discovered-- a number of them happened right here in Baltimore.  Christine already had a topic in mind when she received instruction in doing research for her senior capstone course. But in utilizing Langsdale Library’s various resources-- courtesy of sundry departments within the library--she was able to turn her research about the major legislative battles of the LGBT rights movement into an exhibition, currently featured in the Helen P. Denit Honors Lounge.

A Beautiful Day in the 'Gayborhood'

these presentations put the "power" in Powerpoint!

 Natalie may have seemed like the most studious and reserved person in her study group, but after spending time in Langsdale Special Collections, she was dishing the dirt like a millennial-age Hedda Hopper.

"Tea" being spilled.

Her presentation on gossip in the Baltimore Gay Life Newspapers (Natalie perused issues dating from 1979 to about 1990, although the archives extend to 2015) included a talk about the importance of discreetly disseminating information in the LGBT community, and was focused on the history of formal gossip columns in the tabloid. Journalists with pseudonyms-- blasts from the past-- like gossip columnists Alexander St. John and Mother Margaret were name-checked. But best of all, Natalie and her classmates had, through their visits with Special Collections, had been among the first folks to unlock this trove of newspapers in their entirety, unearthing stories of Baltimore’s past through the lens of the gay community.

During January, Natalie was among 25 Johns Hopkins University students who got a closer look at one of Baltimore’s (velvet?) gold-mines, the collection the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB) records donated to University of Baltimore in 2013. Langsdale Special Collections hosted this large group-study project for students taking an intersession class taught by JHU instructor Mo Speller. These students--mostly undergraduates-- were tasked with poring through roughly 23 boxes of Gay Life newspapers for their examination of “Gayborhood” Histories. 

Students engaged in fact-finding

Among the other presentations given by Mr. Speller’s students: a statistical analyses of back-page personal ads; a discussion of major activist movements in the 1970s; AIDS and its reportage in the local press; and insights on how sexual mores have changed and how lawmakers systematically targeted the LGBT community. Discrimination against women, people of color, and transgendered folks-- from outside of and even within the Baltimore scene-- was a common thread that ran throughout the students’ discoveries in working with the source materials.  

Mo Speller instructing his 'Baltimore Gayborhoods' class

Not only was this the inaugural outing for this collection since it was acquired by UB, but it was also the first time Special Collections has hosted an enormous group in our Learning Commons space. Our hope is that UB students and faculty will utilize this invaluable repository of the region’s gay / cultural history as source materials in their own research. In addition to newspapers, 
the scope and breadth of this collection is amazing: photographs, organizational records, and memorabilia (click here for details-- worth it, I promise.)  In the meantime, we were overjoyed that through archival research, these January-term scholars caught a glimpse of Baltimore's fabulous past.

The Joy of Archives

Holiday billboards on Antique Row. From the BLI Collection. 

University of Baltimore has a brief holiday respite coming up this week-- a perfect time to reflect on what is sparking joy for us in Langsdale Library Special Collections. To wit: