Baltimore - The Monumental City - 1895
April 2024 Baltimore has been known as "The Monumental City" since 1827, when President John Quincy Adams gave a toast referring to it as such after visiting the city[1]. The nickname refers to the many monuments and memorials in Baltimore, including the Battle Monument which became the city's official emblem[1].In 1895, a book titled "The Monumental City: Its Past History and Present Resources" was published as a souvenir for the 121st anniversary of the Baltimore American newspaper, which was founded in 1773[2][4]. The book provided a historical overview of Baltimore up to that point in time[4].The book was likely named "The Monumental City" as a reference to Baltimore's long-standing nickname[1][2]. It highlighted the city's history, monuments, and resources as of 1895, over 60 years after the city had first been called "The Monumental City" by President Adams[1][4].Citations:[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore [2] https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/001800/001819/html/1819sources.html [3] https://chap.baltimorecity.gov/woodberry [4] https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01003462/ [5] https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/733822 https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-is-the-gJGSbXUZS56e5a74SDvsQg#0 Voice Note TranscriptionI love this book about Baltimore, The Monumental City from 1895.Apparently, the Monumental City is a reference to all the monuments, memorials in Baltimore, including the Battle Monument. And um it's one of these you know just around the turn of the century very proud of their community kind of um documents promoting a city and telling us who all the people were in the city and somewhat like the bird's eye view maps are a tradition these books about cities and states and touting all the wonderful people in the community it's very patriotic very very excited about the future. In particular, the images that I found most interesting were number 10,this picture of a woman, a giant woman over the city, the harbor, the fruits and vegetables, the ships being built, the metalworking that's going on. That's image number 10.And then. And also image number 26was interesting. This is a picture of a house. When you look a little closer, there's a horse -drawn carriage and a man riding on a horse and a couple people on bicycles. And, of course, cars were, within the next two decades, going to become quite prevalent. The next page that was of interest was 39.This is one of those pages of all the dignitaries, the people in the city, all dressed in their finest. And 90,100except for two of the people pictured in this book are men. But interestingly, in the two pages where women are featured, they're on the top of the page. That's page 39.And then also page 43,an even younger crop of people and a woman on the top of the page. And then page 94,which is of a factory, and I was struck by the gaze of one of the workers in the factory, somewhat haunting gaze. And then the last page was of a steel, a steel mill, page 114,the foundry in particular, and all the metalworking going on, and these people standing and very proud of their, of what they were doing, stopping for a break, and then back at it, and it looks like hard work. keyword: 19thCentury