Discover Maryland
Open through January 2024
Who are Marylanders, why are they so obsessed with their flag, and what does duckpin bowling have to do with the Baltimore Orioles? This exhibition explores how Maryland and its people have changed since its founding in 1634. Learn how the dynamic geography of the state drove its industry, population, and the identity of Marylanders, and how the arts and culture of Maryland reflect on its past. For traveling visitors and lifelong Marylanders, Discover Maryland shows there is much to uncover about Maryland.
Image: Summer In Baltimore, Tom Patton Miller (1945-2000), 1993. Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore City Life Museum Collection, BCLM-1993.27.1
Image inset: Duck pin bowling ball and pin and Orioles baseball team cleats.
Who Are Marylanders?
As visitors enter Discover Maryland beside a floor-to-ceiling photograph of the Maryland flag — where selfie photos are encouraged — they discover the answers to four key questions through artwork, objects, and artifacts on display from MCHC’s vast collection: Who are Marylanders? What caused Maryland’s economy to change over four centuries? Why does Maryland pride itself on its distinctive culture? How did life in Maryland change from 1634 to today?
Highlights of the exhibition include a combination of fine and decorative art and everyday objects. Paintings by renowned early landscape painter Francis Guy of regions in Maryland are juxtaposed with tobacco tools, pieces of glass, and a milk crate; a clay food vessel made by Indigenous people dating to 500-200 BC sits between two drastically different portrayals of the founding of Maryland; jazz musician Eubie Blake’s traveling reed organ, a painted folding screen by Tom Miller, and a painting by Herman Maril sit alongside the electric sign from Baltimore’s former Club Hippo and relics from the long history of sports and fandom in Maryland. A handmade diorama room for children also shows how Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay have changed over thousands of years by the people who have inhabited the land.
Your History Lives Here
Since 1844, we have collected, preserved, and interpreted Maryland's diverse history, art, and culture. Visit and see it at the Maryland Center for History and Culture.
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