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Blizzard of 1922 at Howard and Lexington Streets
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Losing Winter

Open through February 19, 2023

A frozen lake, a buried street, shoveling feet of snow as it begins to fall again—these special winter experiences serve as landmarks in our life and memory. Yet with each year, we find such moments are disappearing. At the heart of this participatory exhibition and art project are Marylanders’ memories about the winter season, collected by featured artist, Lynn Cazabon. These recollections intersect with individual lifetimes and places found in the film and photograph collections at MCHC, UMBC’s Special Collections, MARMIA’s WJZ-TV collection, private collections, and interviews conducted by Cazabon. Memories and images intertwine, providing a window into personal loss in the face of a changing climate.

Image: Druid Hill Park snow scene, Baltimore, A. Aubrey Bodine (1906-1970), c. 1930. Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore City Life Museum Collection, B959-4

Image inset: Shoppers waiting for trolley in snow, Howard Street and Lexington Street, Baltimore, unknown photographer, photograph, January 28, 1922. Maryland Center for History and Culture, H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Baltimore City Life Museum Collection, MC1909

More About the Exhibition

Visitors to the exhibition will walk through the decades of winters past, from images of Maryland’s 1899 blizzard, to “Snowmageddon” in 2010. Home movies and weather reports from the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s from MCHC’s archive will be on view, including a report from Oprah Winfrey as a WJZ reporter interviewing ice skaters at Memorial Stadium.

Losing Winter was inspired by artist Lynn Cazabon’s own childhood growing up in Michigan and chilly winters that froze Lake St. Clair. Cazabon worked with MCHC’s staff to conduct participatory workshops throughout the winter and spring of 2021 to gather Marylander’s memories of winters past for inclusion in the Losing Winter exhibition. The exhibition also includes a view of the Losing Winter mobile app showing the collected memories within an augmented reality interface. Visitors to the exhibition can contribute their own memories to the project by recording a memory using their own mobile phone and submitting it (see explanation below).

Cazabon explains, "Losing Winter uses the season of winter as a lens through which to learn about the personal and cultural impacts of climate change on the scale of individual lifetimes. The historical photographs and films in the exhibition provide a context for these memories, showing winters in Maryland over the past 100 years.”

The Losing Winter mobile app is available for free download for iOS devices via the App Store.

virtual programming

UNLOCKING THE EXHIBITION: CREATING LOSING WINTER

Original Air Date: September 16, 2021

This virtual program offers an inside look at one of MCHC’s newest exhibitions, Losing Winter. Featured artist Lynn Cazabon, Joe Tropea, MCHC Curator of Films & Photographs, and Beth Saunders, Curator and Head of Special Collections & Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, discuss the concept behind this participatory project and how the photograph collections at both MCHC and UMBC and the virtual reality app complement and juxtapose collected memories of winter.

LET’S TALK ABOUT WEATHER: CHANGING PATTERNS IN MARYLAND

Original Air Date: November 10, 2021

How have your memories of winter changed throughout your lifetime? Watch this discussion about changing weather patterns over time and the impact of the earlier onset of spring on plant species in Maryland with Lynn Cazabon, the featured artist of MCHC’s exhibition Losing Winter, as well as Dan Barrie, Modeling, Analysis, Predictions & Projections Program Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Erin Posthumus, Outreach Coordinator at the USA National Phenology Network. Plus a special appearance by WJZ-TV weatherman Bob Turk.




Participate in the Exhibition by Sharing Your Winter Memory

You can contribute a memory by recording a selfie-video using your own mobile phone.

Instructions:

Share your winter memory
Click the image to hear a winter memory and to listen to the submission instructions
  1. Choose a noteworthy memory that is connected to and/or occurred in the season of winter in Maryland. Of particular interest are memories of discrete events from your childhood.
  2. For the setting, choose a well-lit location that is quiet and where you will not be interrupted. If possible, go outside.
  3. Using the camera video mode on your phone, rotate the view towards yourself and fill the frame with your face. Hold your smart phone in vertical or portrait orientation.
  4. Press the record button. Speaking clearly, narrate the memory. Include as many details as you can, such as the location where the memory took place (e.g, in Hagerstown at my grandmother’s house), the time period, and your approximate age.
  5. Once you’re satisfied with the video, upload it here: https://rebrand.ly/losingwinter
  6. If you have any questions or problems with sharing your video, please contact us at: losingwintermchc@gmail.com

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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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