Did You Know?

Interesting Facts About Baltimore

Baltimore is a city of 640,961 residents located in Maryland on the Patapsco River near the Chesapeake Bay. Many people know that America’s national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” was written in Baltimore. However, many people do not know that the melody of our national anthem was derived from a popular British drinking song from the mid-1760’s titled “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The following is a collection of interesting facts about a few of Baltimore’s cultural institutions, some of its famous citizens and brief introduction to “Balmorese.”

Famous Baltimoreans

Edgar Allen Poe
Harriet Tubman
Frederick Douglass
Dorothy Hamill
Francis Scott Key
Thurgood Marshall
Upton Sinclair
David Byrne
Cab Calloway
Barry Levinson
Jada Pinkett Smith

Billie Holiday
Babe Ruth
Phillip Glass
Tom Clancy
Frank Zappa
Tupac Shakur
John Waters
Tori Amos
Eubie Blake
Ann Tyler
David Simon

Since 1949, on the anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe’s birth, an anonymous person dubbed the “Poe Toaster” has left a partial bottle of cognac and three roses on Poe’s grave.
Each May the American Visionary Art Museum hosts a kinetic sculpture race on the shore of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The eight hour race, spanning 15 miles, features amphibious, human powered works of art custom built for the race.
The Baltimore Museum of Art was founded in 1914 with a single painting. The BMA now has 90,000 works of art–including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world.
The Hippodrome Theatre, founded in 1931, was a top vaudeville house, presenting such notables as Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, Martha Raye, Milton Berle and Benny Goodman and his orchestra.
During the 19th and early 20th century, William T. Walters and his son, Henry, collected nearly 22,000 works of art ranging from European master paintings to Greek and Roman antiquities. In doing so, they built the foundation for the Walter’s Art Museum that offers a unique survey of 55 centuries of art.

Useful ‘Balmorese’ Phrases:

Ballmer: location of NASAA’s Assembly 2007
Chimley: ventilation for a fireplace
Chest Peak: a body of water near Ballmer
Droodle Pork: Druid Hill Park
Farn Gins: red trucks that put out fires
Looney Yum Fool: aluminum foil
Merlin: state Ballmer is located in
Nap Lis: state capitol of Merlin
Pockeybook: a woman’s purse
Tawlet: a toilet or bathroom
Share: a shower (usually near a tawlet)

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American Culture & History is the largest African American museum on the East Coast.
Founded in 1826, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is the oldest fully accredited, degree-granting college of art in the country. MICA consistently ranks among the nation’s top programs in visual arts and design.

For more opportunities to explore Baltimore while in town for NASAA’s annual meeting go to: www.baltimore.org

“See you in Ballmer, hon!”