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Walking Tour of Mt. Vernon LibrariesBaltimore’s cultural and arts center preserves and celebrates the breadth of Baltimore’s 19th-and 20th-century brilliance with its extraordinary collection of historical and cultural institutions. This walking tour of Mt. Vernon Cultural District Libraries showcases the libraries of four of Baltimore’s most illustrious institutions.
Highlights of the tour will include the African American department, which contains comprehensive historical and contemporary materials relating to African Americans in Maryland and around the world, and the H. L. Mencken and Edgar Allan Poe rooms.
At the internationally renowned Walters Art Museum you will tour the main library supporting the museum’s distinguished collection of world art from antiquity to the 21st century. Enjoy a fascinating glimpse of the illuminated manuscript library, with more than 900 illuminated manuscripts ranging from 300 BC to the 19th century. Highlights include a manuscript used by St. Francis, epic tales enjoyed by Mughal emperors, letters of Catharine the Great, and Napoleon’s diary. Your last stop will be the Peabody Institute, established in 1857 by philanthropist George Peabody as Baltimore’s cultural and arts center. The George Peabody Library’s 300,000 volume Victorian research collection includes books dating from the 15th century, with particular strength in the 19th century. An intellectual and architectural treasure, it has been described as a “cathedral of books.”
Lunch on your own at any of Mt. Vernon’s numerous coffee shops, urban bistros and specialty restaurants including Clayton & Co. Fine Books and Dark Sky Cafe, Donna’s, and Sascha’s. For more information please consult the Mt. Vernon Cultural District Web site.
Price: $28.00 Included: Tax & Gratuity Notes: Lunch on Your Own Special Consideration
How To Register: Click here to print off the tour registration form. Completed forms should be faxed or mailed by February 28, 2007, to: Image Citations and Credits: The Star-Spangled Banner, 14 September 1814 The George Peabody Library |
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Your first stop will be the Enoch Pratt Free Library, just three miles north of the Inner Harbor. Philanthropist Enoch Pratt's gift to the city in 1882 created one of the first urban public library systems in the country. The original Central Library opened in1886 on Mulberry Street. The current Central Library building on Cathedral Street opened in 1933 and features a street level entrance flanked with large department-store style windows.
Next, visit the Maryland Historical Society, Maryland’s oldest cultural institution with its library of over seven million items. Highlights include Francis Scott Key's original manuscript of "The Star-Spangled Banner," papers of Maryland's colonial governors and signers of the Declaration of Independence, and over 700,000 photographs that bring four centuries of Maryland history to life.
Adjoining the Peabody Library is the music conservatory, one of the nation’s major sources of professionally trained musicians. The Arthur Friedheim Library, established when the Institute opened in 1866, includes over 100,000 books, scores and sound recordings. Highlights of its special collections include a signed Beethoven canon, and many rare 18th and 19th century scores.