Online Resources

There are a number of online collections and web guides that have facilitated our research.  Here is a selection of some of those resources:

Baltimore City Maps 1900 to 1929
Historic Map Collections of the JHU Sheridan Libraries

The Geography of Baltimore City: Sources
Baltimore City Archives

Baltimore: Research Resources
Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University

PP30, Hughes Studio Photograph Collection, 1940-1956
Maryland Historical Society Library
[Please note: MDHS is in the process of redesigning their website, so this URL may change]

PP8, Hughes Collection, 1910-1946
Maryland Historical Society Library
[Please note: MDHS is in the process of redesigning their website, so this URL may change]

Mapping Pavement

Call No: GPML: G3844 .B3P2 1926 .B3,
Historic Map Collections of the Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University

This 1926 map, created by the Department of Public Works' Bureau of Highways, shows the extent of street paving in Baltimore.  The red lines indicate work done between 1923 and 1926.

For a closer look at this image, check out a high-res version directly from the source.  Please note that Growing Baltimore used a detail from this map to create the blog's header.

Selected Bibliography

Argersinger, Jo Ann E. Toward a New Deal in Baltimore: People and Government in the

Great Depression. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

Boger, Gretchen. “The Meaning of Neighborhood in the Modern City: Baltimore’s

Residential Segregation Ordinances, 1910-1913.” Journal of Urban History 35, no. 2 (2009): 236-258.

Counihan, Harold J. Moving Maryland Forward. Baltimore: Maryland Department of

Transportation, State Highway Administration, 2008.

Durr, Kenneth. "When Southern Politics Came North: The Roots of White Working-

Class Conservatism n Baltimore, 1940-1964." Labor History 37, no. 3 (1996): 309-331.

Farrell, Michael R. The History of Baltimore Streetcars. Sykesville: Greenberg

Publishing Company, Inc. 1992.

Fischler, Stanley I. Moving Millions: An Insider Look at Mass Transit. New York:

Harper & Row, Publisher, 1979.

Fogelson, Robert M. Downtown: It’s Rise and Fall, 1880-1950. New Haven: Yale

University Press, 2001.

Glazer, Aaron Michael. "Fade to Gas: The Conversion of Baltimore’s Mass Transit

System from Streetcars to Diesel-Powered Buses." Maryland Historical Magazine 97, no. 3 (September 2002): 337-357.

Goddard, Stephen B. Getting There: The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail in the

American Century. New York: BasicBooks, 1994.

Hayward, Mary Ellen. Baltimore’s Alley Houses: Homes for Working People Since the

1780s. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

Hayward, Mary Ellen and Charles Belfoure. The Baltimore Rowhouse. New York:

Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.

Henderson, Peter Harry. “Local Deals and the New Deal State: Implementing Federal

Public Housing in Baltimore, 1933-1968.” PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1994.

Mueller, Kevin A. The Best Way to Go: The History of the BTC, Baltimore Transit

Company. S.I.: K.A. Mueller, 1997.

Orser, William. “The Making of a Baltimore Rowhouse Community: The Edmonson

Avenue Area, 1915-1945.” Maryland Historical Magazine 80, no. 3 (1985): 203-227.

Pietila, Antero. Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City.

Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010.

Rice, Roger L. “Residential Segregation by Law, 1910-1917.” The Journal of Southern

History 34, no. 2 (1968): 179-199.

Sachs, Bernard J., George F. Nixon, and Harold E. Cox. Baltimore Streetcars: 1905-

1963: The Semi-Convertibles Era. Baltimore: The Baltimore Streetcar Museum, Inc., 1984.

Weiner, Deborah. "From Modern Victory to Postmodern Defeat: Two Baltimore Housing

Projects." Maryland Historian 26 (1995): 23-48.

Researching Schools and Water

Some of the books and online resources used to research these themes are available here.  Or, to view the complete bibliography for these two topics...

Strayer Report

The Strayer School Survey, commissioned by the city in 1921, was an important planning document that led to significant improvements in the Baltimore's schools.  Public shock produced by the Strayer Survey led to three large loans, totaling 32 million dollars, for school construction in the 1930s. As a result of this funding, fifteen new schools were built and increases were seen in teacher salaries and schools' operating budgets.

Included below is an online version of the Strayer Report, which has been digitized by the Google Book project.  See for yourself the kinds of detailed information this survey provided about the physical conditions at the city's public schools.