In the spring of 2022, Baltimore artist and participatory-history specialist Lauren Muney hand-created custom silhouettes(profile portraits)of Baltimore City, Maryland, residents for long-term public installation at the Peale. These faces will encircle several rooms of the historic Peale walls, giving visitors, residents and guests the opportunity to feel the Baltimore ‘family’ all around them. The exhibition will be installed in August 2022. Some sitters also contributed stories about their lives and experiences in Baltimore.

Speaker 1 (00:02): Baltimore's an interesting place and I enjoy being there, but one of the things I've noticed about it is that it has an unbelievable number of signs that say, "No right turn on red." I think they probably have more than any other city in the country, certainly anywhere I've seen. I did [inaudible 00:00:25] that Baltimore pass or Maryland pass the Climate Solutions Now Act.

Speaker 1 (00:29): And I'm hoping in part of that, as part of that act, they could remove about 50% of the "no right turn on red" signs in Baltimore because there's probably half of them, maybe more than that, people can safely turn right. And all they're doing is sitting at intersections for minutes at a time, spewing pollution into Baltimore's air. So, hoping the next time I visit Baltimore, half of those will be gone. Thanks.

Asset ID: 2022.11.06

In the spring of 2022, Baltimore artist and participatory-history specialist Lauren Muney hand-created custom silhouettes(profile portraits)of Baltimore City, Maryland, residents for long-term public installation at the Peale. These faces will encircle several rooms of the historic Peale walls, giving visitors, residents and guests the opportunity to feel the Baltimore ‘family’ all around them. The exhibition will be installed in August 2022. Some sitters also contributed stories about their lives and experiences in Baltimore.

Deeyonna Bluu (00:00): Hi. I'm. Deeyonna Blue, and I'm a transgender of Baltimore of the history of the Peale Faces and Silhouettes. And one memory I have living in Baltimore is very much so minding your business and living in [inaudible 00:00:17] world and being successful at the same time, which stating being in a part of history is very exciting, very educating.

Deeyonna Bluu (00:27): And I've been living here for over 24 years now, and I will be on the wall for another 10 plus years of this history. And I want other kids to see that you can get your face on the wall, too.

Asset ID: 2022.11.05

In the spring of 2022, Baltimore artist and participatory-history specialist Lauren Muney hand-created custom silhouettes(profile portraits)of Baltimore City, Maryland, residents for long-term public installation at the Peale. These faces will encircle several rooms of the historic Peale walls, giving visitors, residents and guests the opportunity to feel the Baltimore ‘family’ all around them. The exhibition will be installed in August 2022. Some sitters also contributed stories about their lives and experiences in Baltimore.

Karen Cook (00:01): My name is Karen Cook. My maiden name is Myers. I was born in east Baltimore in 1963 on Ashland Avenue. Eric Roho had white marble steps, and I remember women and children would scrub these marble steps so that they would sparkle in the sun. Other memories of mine are, remember the Arabers with their horse drawn wagons who yelled out while trying to sell vegetables and fruits. My mom would take us for a lot of walks, she didn't drive, and we would go to Patterson and Bocek Parks. People sat outside a lot on their steps or stoops to talk while the kids played and, especially during hot summer evenings, everybody was sitting out and all the doors and windows were open because no one had air conditioning.

Karen Cook (00:59): Painted screens were popular when I was a child, I remember seeing them in windows and storm doors. There was an ice truck that would deliver giant blocks of ice to homes and to businesses and the driver would stop a lot of times during hot summer days and use an ice pick to break off pieces of ice to give us kids. That was a real treat. I remember the chaos of 1968 during the riots after Martin Luther King was assassinated. I was pretty young so I didn't really understand everything that was going on and why, but I remember trucks of national guardsmen patrolling the streets. It was very scary.

Karen Cook (01:41): We had a black and white TV with about three working channels. Dad would use aluminum foil to put on the antennas or rabbit ears to try to get a better signal. You didn't have a remote control so you had to get up and manually change the channel. We children would collect glass Coke bottles and take them to the corner store for a deposit. Might have been five cents that you could get for a bottle at the time. They had a lot of penny candy in the stores so five cents to us was a lot of money. I remember getting a pickled onion for, I think, about five cents.

Karen Cook (02:21): Christmas time, there was many great memories. We had an artificial aluminum, silver tree. There was a color wheel that you would plug in. It had four different colors and we would sit mesmerized on the floor watching the tree turn these four different colors. Some of the ornaments were pretty old. If you dropped some of the balls, they would splinter into a thousand pieces. Department stores, such as Levinson and Klein, would have these huge Christmas displays which included moving figures and train sets. It was a treat to walk and just look in each window.

Karen Cook (02:55): In the evening, dad would drive us around in the car through the neighborhood so we could watch people's Christmas displays. They had a lot of moving things and, of course, the Christmas lights. Dad would threaten to call Santa Claus if we didn't go to bed early enough on Christmas Eve. We had these old black rotary phones and he would pick up the phone pretending he was calling Santa Claus. It was a tradition for dad to wait until Christmas Eve to put the tree up because that's what his family had done.

Asset ID: 2022.11.04

Transcription abbreviated: Contact the Peale for a complete transcript.

Photo courtesy of Karen Cook

In the spring of 2022, Baltimore artist and participatory-history specialist Lauren Muney hand-created custom silhouettes(profile portraits)of Baltimore City, Maryland, residents for long-term public installation at the Peale. These faces will encircle several rooms of the historic Peale walls, giving visitors, residents and guests the opportunity to feel the Baltimore ‘family’ all around them. The exhibition will be installed in August 2022. Some sitters also contributed stories about their lives and experiences in Baltimore.

Speaker 1 (00:01): Okay.

Dr. Al Hathaway (00:02): Dr. Al Hathaway. I'm happy to just to share a little snippet of Baltimore. Born and raised here. I had the opportunity to serve as the pastor of Union Baptist Church, a part of that rich history and trans tradition. I just remember the excitement back in 1963 of the Gwynn Oak Park desegregation. There was this activity going on. There were ministers, people from all over the country were there.

Dr. Al Hathaway (00:30): They wanted to make certain that the young children of that era had the opportunity to play in an amusement park. That was right off of Gwynn Oak Avenue. At that time, I was just 12 years old. And I remember riding the bus line and looking out the window, not being able to see and participate in the excitement that was going on right on the other side of the fence. And then they had this glorious day in July when they opened up Gwynns Falls Park and young people could enter in.

Dr. Al Hathaway (00:56): And I was a part of that early group that entered into Gwynn Oak Park and had the opportunity to ride on the swan ride in the water, to ride on the merry go round, which in that day you had visions of being a cowboy. So you got on the horse and a horse went up and down. It was so powerful that experience that it told me the power of how civil disobedience, how protests can make change.

Dr. Al Hathaway (01:23): And then what I realized going back years later, I've taken my children on the National Mall and I was able to show them that same merry go round that I rode as a child there in Gwynn Oak Park is now on the National Mall where people from now forever can memorize that protest that happened here in Baltimore City in 1963, which was the prelude to the great March on Washington that was in August of 1963. Just an amazing experience. Baltimore is an amazing city and I'm so proud to be a native of this city.

Speaker 1 (01:55): Thank you.

Asset ID: 2022.11.02

Silhouette of Beth by Lauren Muney, Silhouettes by Hand. All rights reserved.

In the spring of 2022, Baltimore artist and participatory-history specialist Lauren Muney hand-created custom silhouettes(profile portraits)of Baltimore City, Maryland, residents for long-term public installation at the Peale. These faces will encircle several rooms of the historic Peale walls, giving visitors, residents and guests the opportunity to feel the Baltimore ‘family’ all around them. The exhibition will be installed in August 2022. Some sitters also contributed stories about their lives and experiences in Baltimore.

Beth (00:00): It was in the mid-fifties when my mom came into my bedroom and said, "We're going to go to Baltimore to visit Aunt Dorothy and see her new baby." Living in Cumberland, Maryland and only knowing the mountains and loving to ride trains, this was a real adventure so off we went, probably on the Capitol Limited but I'm not sure which train. We come into Camden Station and my Uncle Jack picks us up in his black Cadillac convertible. Wow. We come along the Baltimore Waterfront and for the first time I see skyscrapers, I see water, I see row houses. I see the most magical place in the whole world. I was nine-years-old at the time and it was quite a thrill.

Beth (01:07): We get to where my auntie was living at the time, which was the Canton Highlandtown area, and I spend the day with my new found cousins. We went to see Tom Sawyer at the Grand Theater on Conkling Street. We went to Sacred Heart Church and lit some candles. We went on the avenue in Highlandtown and shopped. We hung around her grandmother's house on Dean Street, we had a steady stream of relatives coming in and out. It was just wonderful. It made such an impression on me that I just held that in my heart for years and years.

Beth (01:57): My dad worked for the B&O Railroad so he got transferred to exciting places like Kaiser, West, Virginia, Dubois, Pennsylvania, McKeesport, all these exciting mining towns. One day he came home and, because the B&O and C&O had merged, said we're going to Baltimore. Well, I ran upstairs and jumped on my bed. I was so excited. I was 13 at the time and the thought of moving to Baltimore was more than I could comprehend. I was overwhelmed with joy. We did move to Baltimore and we settled in Parkville where I lived to graduate high school, get married, raise my kids, and had a nice little life. I would take the 19 and then down over to Eirman Avenue, the bus, to get to Highlandtown.

Beth (02:54): I worked at the St. James Branch of First National Bank for a while and I was always drawn to that area. After 20 years of marriage, unfortunately, I got divorced and I was in a position to pick a place to live on my own and, sure enough, I was drawn back, I had to come back to the Canton Highlandtown area and that's where I've been living ever since. I'm in my mid-seventies now living on the water, which is the highlight, and always remember that very special day, the very special day that I got to meet and love Baltimore.

Asset ID: 2022.11.01

Silhouette of Beth by Lauren Muney, Silhouettes by Hand. All rights reserved.

In 2020 and early 2021, the Peale participated in the Lexington Market Public History Initiative in an effort to collect stories and memories about the world-famous Lexington Market as the market itself prepared for a redesign and reopening. The initiative’s core partners were Baltimore Heritage, Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, Lexington Market, Inc., Market Center Community Development Corporation, Seawall, and the Peale, and the work was partially enabled by a Pathways Grant from the Maryland Center for History and Culture. This project was financed in part by the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s Thomas V. “Mike” Miller History Fund.

Vergie Jennings: I have, through my readings and other things, know that during the time that the Lexington Market was started that slave trade was going on during that time, a lot of slave trading. And because we are a seaport and because there's easy access to the South from Baltimore, that I don't have any proof that it happened, but because of the construction of the Lexington Market and then finding tunnels and whatever under the market that nobody knew about originally, I'm suspecting that there was some slave trading going on there. It was happening, I know around the Fayette Street area, which is very, very close to the market like a block away. I can't imagine that a place as open as that market with all of the slave trading going on around it, that there was no slave trading going on at that market. And I mean, everything that I've read has led me to believe that, even though there's no proof.

Vergie Jennings: Baltimore was a big slave trading port. It was, it had to be because of the people coming in and all the ships coming in that were bringing slaves here. They were also transporting them from one place to another. And they were transporting them a lot of times from Baltimore South of here. Okay? And a lot of times all the way South. And so, there was no reason not to believe that there was slave trading going on, though. We know that it was going on very close to the market, okay? And with all that open area, and actually it was a lot larger area than it is now, so it was covering a lot of area in the beginning. There is no reason to believe that there was not slave trading going on there.

Vergie Jennings: So many things have been buried and not talked about because people don't want to talk about it. I mean, even people who they found were slaves and they interviewed them, they would never admit that they were slaves because it was degrading to them so they wouldn't talk about it. And it's the same thing. People don't want to talk about all of that because it brings up so much animosity and hurt for some people, so they don't want to talk about it. They don't want to find out what really happened.

Speaker 2 (02:54): Yeah.

Vergie Jennings: (02:55): And if you think about how this state is, we have a lot of waterfront. Okay? All on the Eastern shore. That's where Harriet Tubman was doing all of her getting to slaves to freedom, basically. That was part of her underground railroad thing right here on the Eastern shore.

Asset ID: 9163

Transcript Abbreviated: Contact the Peale for a complete transcript.

Photo of Lexington Market, ca. 1903, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

In 2020 and early 2021, the Peale participated in the Lexington Market Public History Initiative in an effort to collect stories and memories about the world-famous Lexington Market as the market itself prepared for a redesign and reopening. The initiative’s core partners were Baltimore Heritage, Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, Lexington Market, Inc., Market Center Community Development Corporation, Seawall, and the Peale, and the work was partially enabled by a Pathways Grant from the Maryland Center for History and Culture. This project was financed in part by the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s Thomas V. “Mike” Miller History Fund.

Vergie Jennings (00:00): This is Vergie Jennings, and I was born in Baltimore in 1943 on Paca Street, just about two and a half blocks from the Lexington Market. And I lived on Paca Street until I was about 13 or 14 years old. My mother started taking me to the Lexington Market when I was about three or so, that I can remember. And so, it was always a place that I was familiar with and that I liked to go to, and that my mom often shopped there because it was close. And during that time you did not have food markets and those kind of places to go get food.

Vergie Jennings: When I was six, was when the fire at Lexington Market occurred. That was in 1949. I was born in 1943. So we were awakened in the middle of the night with all of this noise and fire engines and all that stuff. And of course, it was very frightening because we didn't know what was going on. And I was six at the time. So of course, I did not really know what was going on, but everybody went outside, just to see because we could hear fire engines and whatever. So when you went outside, you could see these, because I lived, like I said, about two and a half blocks from the Market on Paca Street. So you could see the glow from the flame, and the smoke was horrendous. And you could hear the fire trucks and whatever. So, that was really scary. So I'm very kind of familiar with that fire that happened there.

And before then, it was an open air market where it was just stalls. Just stalls. It wasn't anything like it is today. There was no building, nothing like that. It was just stalls. So, these wooden stalls and at night, or they left there early in the afternoon because they opened, I think like two o'clock in the morning. And they opened that early for people to bring in their wares, whatever they were selling. But also for the Arabs who were people who sold fruits, vegetables, meats, and whatever, and fish off of their horse-drawn wagons. They closed early in the day, probably around 12 o'clock or one o'clock, I'm not sure. But I know they closed early in the day.

Vergie Jennings: And one of the other things that happened during that time was that this again was after the end of World War II, which stopped, ended, I think somewhere around 1944 or '45. And they were rationing foods and people were getting rations because things were not plentiful. People didn't have money to buy food and whatever. So one of the things that some of the people who lived in that area did, was to go to that market after it closed and any bits of food, and produce and whatever that they could collect, they would get it and they would take it home and use it for food for their families.

Vergie Jennings: One other thing that was going on during that time was, there were a lot of Arabs because that's how people in outlying neighborhoods, areas got produce and whatever brought to them, was by these people who were selling it on their horse and wagons.

Asset ID: 9162

Transcript abbreviated: Contact the Peale for a complete transcript

Photo of Lexington Market, ca. 1903, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

In 2020 and early 2021, the Peale participated in the Lexington Market Public History Initiative in an effort to collect stories and memories about the world-famous Lexington Market as the market itself prepared for a redesign and reopening. The initiative’s core partners were Baltimore Heritage, Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, Lexington Market, Inc., Market Center Community Development Corporation, Seawall, and the Peale, and the work was partially enabled by a Pathways Grant from the Maryland Center for History and Culture. This project was financed in part by the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s Thomas V. “Mike” Miller History Fund.

Unique Robinson: My name is Unique Robinson. Poet, performer, educator, and of course, West Baltimore native. This is a story about Lexington Market from my perspective.

Unique Robinson: And what can I say about Lexington Market other than the fact that it raised me, kept my belly full. Well with fried shrimp I was able to eat that my cousins didn't take away from me. It kept entertainment buzzing and kept the community for a generation that needed it. My maternal family was raised in Lexington Terrace Project. So Lexington Market was the back porch. It was a supermarket, it was the seller zone for my relatives fix, or fixes. It was stopping at your favorite stalls in the old or new market, or both, depending on what you got to taste for that day.

Unique Robinson: Mary Mervis, which I called Mary Mary's for a lot of my young life, because the cursive confused me, always had a mass of people crowding in front of an elevated platform, and a cooler full of lunch meat. Corn beef sandwiches of course would a fan favorite and cold cuts were the second. Everyone always seemed to be in a hurry. The customers, the clerks slicing meat rapidly and jumping back to take orders, take dollars, food stamps and the like. It was so packed, so popular that they had two stalls. And my mother and Aunt Sonia often raised hell at both of them.

Unique Robinson: They'd either get into an altercation with the clerk because she was nasty, or nasty itch if it was my aunt talking, or about how to slice the meat. Not too thick, not too thin. And my mother, whose name was Carla, would regularly ask the clerks to hold up the meat as they sliced it to check for her own precision. This of course pissed the clerks off, who again are on a constant rush, remember? This also pissed off the customers in line with both stalls reaching beyond their actual length. And I would stare, childhood me, at the cartoon characters painted on the green border at the top of the stall wrapping around it's about 12 by four or five frame. Donald Duck, Bart Simpson, Snoopy, probably. All of them shouting into each other in bubble form about how delicious the sandwiches were, and how Mary Mervis just couldn't be beat.

Unique Robinson: This was true, as there was a rival deli spot directly in front of Mary Mervis is called The Baron, which gleamed in red, old English font on its side, which was frequently underpopulated. Almost ghost town in comparison to the one across. Sometimes my mother would order from them, but rarely. Other times my mom would have a craving for Park's Fried Chicken, asking for one or two wings at a time. And everybody knew Parks had the best chicken in the new market, with the lines often protruding past both of their stalls too. And I would later have the same craving in high school. City forever, class of '05. You already know. When me and my friends would pull out of school rushing to take the 36 downtown. Douse everything in salt, pepper, ketchup, including the city itself.

Asset ID: 8871

Transcript abbreviated: Contact the Peale for a complete transcript.

Photo courtesy of Unique Robinson

In 2020 and early 2021, the Peale participated in the Lexington Market Public History Initiative in an effort to collect stories and memories about the world-famous Lexington Market as the market itself prepared for a redesign and reopening. The initiative’s core partners were Baltimore Heritage, Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, Lexington Market, Inc., Market Center Community Development Corporation, Seawall, and the Peale, and the work was partially enabled by a Pathways Grant from the Maryland Center for History and Culture. This project was financed in part by the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s Thomas V. “Mike” Miller History Fund.

Tyrone Keys: Hi, my name is Tyrone Keys, and I wanted to share a short story about Lexington Market. This was, wow, that'd be back in the early eighties, I would remember, late seventies, even maybe. But my mother used to take me to Lexington Market as a young boy. She would do her shopping there. Now we were from West Baltimore, so we would travel by bus down to Lexington Market. We had to do at least one transfer to get there. She would go through purchasing all of her items like produce meat and whatnot for the week. And then she would end the trip each time by we would stop by the constant hot dog stand and get a hot dog and a little fountain drink, and we would stand there and we would eat it. And it was just great.

Tyrone Keys: And then we would get back on the bus and go back home. Very simple, but very meaningful. I will never forget it. And up until maybe a few years ago, I would continue to go to Lexington Market just to recreate that nostalgia that she had built in me around that stand. I would go there and eat from that stand. I worked downtown on Pratt Street in the early two thousands and at least once or twice a week, I would go to that hot dog stand and just be in Lexington Market because it was a very familiar place growing up. Really loved Lexington Market. And that is my story, so have a great day.

Asset ID: 9164

Photo of Lexington Market, ca. 1903, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

In 2020 and early 2021, the Peale participated in the Lexington Market Public History Initiative in an effort to collect stories and memories about the world-famous Lexington Market as the market itself prepared for a redesign and reopening. The initiative’s core partners were Baltimore Heritage, Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, Lexington Market, Inc., Market Center Community Development Corporation, Seawall, and the Peale, and the work was partially enabled by a Pathways Grant from the Maryland Center for History and Culture. The Lexington Market Public History Initiative was financed in part by the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s Thomas V. “Mike” Miller History Fund. This story was recorded by Adam Droneburg, Dan Goodrich, Nicole King and others of the Baltimore Sound Society for an earlier project.

Steve (00:00): Fresh ... fresh vegetables and also natural smoothies ... fruit smoothies, and also vegetables. My names a Steve, I own the Garden Produce. I been here total of eight years, with the Garden Produce about a year and seven month. But when I stepped in, my main focus was providing the freshest in the market. Freshest product that's available that day, which at [inaudible 00:00:27] step, that's what I did.

Steve: I'm not food person. I'm a construction guy. But somehow friend of mine thought I fit in better with the produce, which it worked out. No, I came here when I was 15 years old, it's been 43 years. Well, I tried to help people who needs help, especially people who has a problem with the language. Not because I'm smarter than they are, but I speak little bit more English than other people. So whoever needs ... whoever need a translation, I don't mind helping them out.

Steve: The environment is different every day. You don't know what type of customer that you're going to run into. Because of this is the one unique place where I don't think I ever been at any other market like this before, until I came here. But I truly enjoy being here and running into different people. This truly worked for me, I like what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (01:27): Our next stop is the iconic Bergers Bakery. If you're facing garden produce with Mary Mervis behind you, Bergers is up the path ahead of you, just to the right of garden produce. Follow that path past several stands. And when you pass Pandora's box, take a left. Burgers Bakery will be on your right past a bank of tables.

Asset ID: 9160

Photo of Lexington Market, ca. 1903, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print