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Baltimore, its firsts and onlys
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The bus outside the Art Museum, it can actually be driven if need be!
Well it's not likely you are going to see many UFOs, gang rapes (hopefully not!) or have any alien sightings, but what you will see are sights that are certainly unique. Did you know, for instance, that the city of Baltimore has many of the nation's first and only attractions? And those attractions are worth checking out.
Take the USS Constellation, for instance. Boat lovers will delight at this battleship that’s docked right here at the Inner Harbor, a place of vibrant life at any time of the day or night.
Check out the various decks on the ship. There’s even a sick bay there but this was not the place to find “time off”. Indeed the berths there were made of hard wood and it was located in the bow of the ship, one of the rockiest places on the boat to be. You’d have to be really sick to put up with the constant buffeting the ship would receive from the ocean. If you weren’t sick when you went in, you certainly were when you came out!
American Visionary Art Museum
Battleships are one form of transportation, buses are another. And you’ll see one at the American Visionary Art Museum. But this colorful, shiny bus outside the museum was made by kids. It can be driven, although it’s not street legal.
The whirlygig beside it sports street signs and all sorts of left-overs. Creator 76-year old Vollis Simpson says “I had a lot of junk and needed to do SOMETHING with it,”
Check out the mosaic panels all over the front of the museum – these were all made by delinquent kids. It gives them a great way to contribute to a society you feel they once hated. Everything inside and outside were done by people who don’t typically call themselves artists.
One wooden sculpture is of a man with a carved-out chest. He himself suffered from TB and the sculpture is made from an apple tree. Unfortunately he committed suicide two years after completing the sculpture.
Understandably, this museum has been voted one of the “Top 10 Places to see before you’re 10” by Travel & Leisure in 2008. I’d say it’s one of the top 10 places you should see, no matter what you’re age.
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum
Don’t fail to see the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, whose first stone was laid in 1828 and whose first shovel-full of dirt was dug by Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Carroll was the last signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Did you know that railroads are responsible for our present day times zones? People were not happy with the timetables trains were running on, so time zones were invented to accommodate the problem of arrival and departure times. The roundhouse is a real eye-catcher but its builder actually wanted to built a cathedral instead. Francis Baldwin at least can feel happy that his roundhouse is now nicknamed “Baldwin’s Cathedral” instead. Horses originally pulled carts along rails but they were eventually replaced by steam since horses ate all day (and were expensive) and steam didn’t.
National Great Blacks In Wax Museum
The B&O Railroad Museum is definitely a Baltimore first, but so too is the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum that started in 1983 with just 22 wax figures. The founder, Dr. Joanne Martin, with her late husband, used to take her exhibits around Baltimore and then take them home with her afterward in her vehicle!
Some of the exhibitions are sad and cruel – like those on display showing the slaves being processed. Some were force-fed, some were confined with iron masks on their faces as the white people attempted to turn their captives into obedient slaves. Well known blacks including Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and of course our current President Obama, are all depicted in wax in the museum
Not surprisingly, this museum has been deemed “The most visited museum in Baltimore” by Baltimore Magazine in April 2002.
Westminster Hall
From the most visited museum to the most visited cemetery, Baltimore has that too. The most famous resident here, however, is Edgar Allan Poe and every year on his birthday there is a party for him. And the reason Edgar Allan Poe is here in the first place? His grandfather purchased a plot here. Poe’s grandmother actually made pants for Lafayette’s troops and it’s said that Lafayette himself came back to the cemetery and kissed Poe’s grandfather’s grave.
Edgar Allan Poe is not everyone’s favorite but he was a starving artist and decided to write short stories for money. His horror stories were actually based on things he read in the newspapers. People really were being buried alive and bodies were really being stolen by body snatchers (they were sold to medical schools for a lot of money). Strangely, the jewelry was left behind – stealing jewelry was a much great offense than stealing a body!
Fort McHenry
Don’t miss either the place where the National Anthem was written by Francis Scott Key. Not knowing if the battle against the British were won or lost, seaman Scott Key spotted the flag through a spyglass and penciled those famous lines. More than 50,000 people had climbed on to the roofs of their houses to learn what the result of the battle that would determine their future was. With jubilation they saw the 15 stars and stripes flying high and proud and knew America had won the war.
Even if you (hopefully) don't get involved in gang rapes or get an alien sighting, what you will see in Baltimore definitely still classifies as "out of this world.".
For more articles by this author, click here: http://www.examiner.com/x-29076-SF-World-Travel-Examiner
References:
For more information, contact the Baltimore CVB: www.baltimore.org
USS Constellation, www.constellation.org
American Visionary Art Museum, www.avam.org
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, www.borail.org
National Great Blacks In Wax Museum, www.ngbiwm.com
Westminster Hall & Burial Grounds, www.westminsterhall.org
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (for a great evening out), www.bsomusic.org
Fort McHenry, www.nps.gov/fomc
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