Coming into Hopkins, the only things I really knew about Baltimore were that it had a pretty nice Hard Rock and that it was where Zac Efron lived in Hairspray.
While I’ve spent the last few years exploring and learning to love this city, I’ll be the first to say that though I feel I know it, I don’t really know a ton about it.
Neighborhoods and bus routes can tell you what living in a place is like right now, but I wanted to know what had come before me.
To answer these questions, I took a trip to the Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI).The BMI does exactly what it says on the can: catalog the many industries that helped shape the city. It also provides insight into what Charm City was like long before we were here.
One of the most technically impressive exhibits in the museum is its printing shop. As a member of The News-Letter, this is dear to my heart, and the space shows the way that Baltimoreans helped advance the printing industry.
Living in an age of iPhones and the Applied Physics Laboratory, it’s easy to downplay older generations as being slow when it comes to technology. However, getting to learn about the ingenuity of men like Ottmar Mergenthaler, the man who revolutionized typewriters, is a real eye-opener.
And, yes, you can keep an eye out for many Hopkins building names throughout the entire museum.
Another major Baltimore innovation the museum explores is the city’s textile industry.
Baltimore and its relationship with the Civil War has a been a hot button issue in the news. The BMI has a markedly less racist display dedicated to the manufacturing of clothes in the city.
This business boomed during the war, and Baltimore was at the forefront of greater standardization and efficiency.
While the lengths of men’s dress shirt sleeves may not seem like the most thrilling thing, the machinery is awesome to see.
If you can, find a docent to start up the old sewing machines. The noise is defeaning, and the thought of an entire warehouse using the equipment totally explains why no one over 80 can hear when they’ve left their turn signal on.
Other highlights include Baltimore’s neon industry, the museum’s canning exhibit and the display dedicated to television and radio in Baltimore.
For the more technically inclined, there’s also a huge machine shop. Most of it was lost on me, but if you know anything about repairing motors or strengthening metal, there’s probably a lot there for you.
My favorite exhibit in the entire museum is one of the smaller ones: a re-creation of an old-school Baltimore pharmacy.
Full disclosure: I love slice-of-life everything. Films, art, plays and now, I guess, museum pieces.
While the tiny shops may not have brought in the money of printing, or the work force of canning, they were an important fixture in the lives of many Baltimoreans.
Beyond the CVS you picture when you hear the word pharmacy, the exhibit also features a soda counter and lots of vintage charm.
Maybe I’m just a cheesy nerd, but it was kind of fun to check out the hang out spots of old; We’ve come a long way to Bird in Hand.
The museum’s biggest flaw is its location. Located on Key Highway, floating between Fed Hill and Locust Point, it isn’t the most local spot for a Hopkins student.
You can get there by taking the Charm City Circulator route to Lee Street and then transferring onto the Banner route to the Boyle Street stop. The museum will be right there, water side.
For a half-price sandwich at Carma’s, you could learn a little bit more about the city we live in.
