1851-1900
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Maryland Institute
 
 
 
 
 

School for the Blind
 
 
 
 
 
 

Home of the Friendless
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Women offering water
 
 
 
 

Samuel Shoemaker
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Douglass Institute stock certificate
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Peabody Institute
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

School for Deaf and Dumb
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

House of Reformation
(Cheltenham)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hebrew Orphan Asylum
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Industrial School
 
 
 
 
 
 

Home for Incurables
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Asylum for Feeble-Minded
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mary E. Garrett
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Enoch Pratt
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Plan of the City of Baltimore by Thos.. H. Poppleton, 1822 [1852], MSA SC 1213-1-292 
 

1851
Maryland Institute for the Mechanic Arts (now Maryland Institutc)
occupies its new building.

In London, George Peabody and Charles James Eaton, president of
the Library Company of Baltimore, discuss Peabody's desire to
make a gift to Baltimore.

1852
Statewide convention of free African-Americans is held.

Loyola College founded.

Johns Hopkins becomes a manager of the Maryland State Asylum
for the Insane; Enoch Pratt will serve later as a manager.

Moses Shepherd founds Shepherd Asylum and names trustees.

Benjamin F. Newcomer is a founder of the Maryland Institution
for The Instruction of the Blind.

1854
In London, George Peabody and Reverdy Johnson discuss
Peabody's letter to William E. Mayhew stating his desire to found a
cultural institution in Baltimore.

Mary Elizabeth Garrett is born. She will be a founder of Bryn Mawr
School, provider of funds for opening the Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine in 1893, and a benefactor of Bryn Mawr College.

The Library Company of Baltimore merges with the Maryland
Historical Society, with the stipulation that the library will be free
to the public for reference.

Home of the Friendless founded.

1855
Maryland Historical Society proposes a public library for Baltimore
City.

John Pendleton Kennedy diary entry quotes George Peabody
during London visit with the philanthropist: "Quite frankly, I
suppose you Baltimore people do not care to have an institution
established among you as I have heard nothing of the suggestion I
made through Mr. Mayhew years ago."

1856
Hebrew Benevolent Society founded.

1857
George Peabody visits Baltimore and accepts plan presented by
Kennedy, Mayhew, and Eaton for the Peabody Institute. Peabody
gives $300,000 to fund the Institution.

Moses Sheppard dies. He bequeaths $570,000 to the Sheppard
Asylum (now Sheppard-Pratt Hospital).

Baltimore YMCA builds first YMCA building in the United States.
Donors include John W. Garrett and Johns Hopkins.

1858
Baltimore City names McDonogh School trustees.

1859
George Peabody adds $200,000 to his 1857 gift for the Peabody
Institute.

Peter Cooper founds Cooper Union of New York for instruction of
the industrial classes.

1860
Children's Aid Society created to provide guardianships and homes
for children.

1861-
1865
The Civil War divides Baltimoreans. George Peabody, Johns
Hopkins, John W, Garrett, and Enoch Pratt support the Union. William
Walters, a secessionist sympathizer, moves to Europe. The
opening of Peabody Institute is delayed by dissension between pro-
Union and pro-Confederacy trustees.

1861
Population of Baltimore City and County: white, 251,242; free
black, 29, 911; slaves, 5,400.

Union Relief Association is formed. The Association was first
organized to provide aid, comfort, and meals to Union soldiers stationed in 
Baltimore or in transit through the city. By 1865 it was estimated that the 
group had served approximately one million meals to US soldiers,
confederate P.O.W's, and refugees from the south.

Local female volunteers assist staff at the seven major US military hospitals
located in Baltimore.

1863
In the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg, Samuel Shoemaker, a Baltimore
businessman, sends his employees to assist at the field hospitals in 
Pennsylvania. Shoemaker also underwrites the cost of several wagons of
supplies. 

1864
Maryland Fair for US Soldier Relief is held in Baltimore. Organized by
women, the ten-day event raised over $80,000 for sick and wounded
Union soldiers. 

Slavery abolished in Maryland upon adoption of constitution of 1864. New
constitution also provides for a uniform centralized tax supported public 
school system.

Baltimore Quakers form a "Freedman's Aid Society." Rebecca Sinclair
Dorsey and other women appeal to Baltimore's Mayor for additional funding
to continue and expand their work of assisting the often sick and poorly-
clothed ex-slaves that daily arrive in Baltimore. 

German Protestant's Orphan Asylum founded.

Judge Hugh Lennox Bond leads in formation of Baltimore
Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored
People, which in turn founds Baltimore Normal School for
Colored Teachers and Schools for Colored Children.

1865
Normal School (now Towson University) is chartered to train
teachers.

Douglass Institute for the Intellectual Advancement of the Colored
Portion of the Community is founded. Stock is sold at $10 per share and
African-American purchasers enthusiastically support the effort. Scipio
Goldsborough, whose occupation in the 1860 city directory is listed as a
waiter, buys 50 shares. 

The Pratt Free School founded in North Marlborough, Massachusetts, 
with funding by Enoch Pratt.

1866
George Peabody gives $20,000 to establish a publications fund at
the Maryland Historical Society.

The Southern Relief Fair, designed to raise funds to assist the impoverished
people of the South, garners over $100,000 in donations. Maryland women,
mostly former secessionist sympathizers, play the leadership role in this 
enterprise. 

The Female House of Refuge opens

The German Ladies Relief Association, to provide assistance to German
immigrants, is formed. 

Peabody Institute Library opens.

1867
Discussion of giving by John W. Garrett, George Peabody, and Johns
Hopkins leads to Hopkins naming two interlocking boards of
trustees, which in turn secure legislative acts incorporating the
Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins University.

African-Americans from throughout the state, many former slaves,
contribute $19,000 to partially underwrite the cost of teacher salaries, books,
and heating fuel for the colored schools.

The Shelter of Orphans of Colored Soldiers and Friendless Colored Children
is founded. Operational funding comes largely from the African-American
community. The Sharp Street, Orchard Street, and Bethel Methodist
Episcopal churches donate Sunday offerings and hold fund-raising fairs. 

Maryland School for the Deaf and Dumb founded.

1869
George Peabody dies in London. His funeral train in America is the
longest in history to date. Before his death he gives an additional
$900,000 for the Peabody Institute, bringing the total of his gifts to
the institution to $1,400,000.

1870
Enoch Pratt helps to fund the Working Man's Institute and Library
in the Canton area of Baltimore.

Baltimore City Hospital Dispensary established.

Association for Improvement of the Condition of the Poor is
founded to coordinate charities.

Enoch Pratt donates 700 acres in Prince Georges County to found the House 
of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children (Cheltenham). Before
this time African-American boys, some as young as eight years old, who
committed crimes were routinely confined in jails and the state penitentiary.

1871
John H. B. Latrobe succeeds Brantz Mayer as president of the
Maryland Historical Society.

William T. Walters opens his art collection to the public to raise
money for the poor.

1872
Henry Watson bequeaths $100,000 to the Children's Aid Society,
which is renamed Henry Watson Children's Aid Society.

Baltimore City received $580,000 from the estate of John
McDonogh. Trustees appointed in 1858 use the money to found the 
McDonogh School for Poor Boys.

Hebrew Orphan Asylum opens and is run by the Hebrew Ladies' Aid
Society. 

1873
Johns Hopkins dies, leaving $7,000,000, the largest philanthropic
gift in America to date, to fund the Johns Hopkins Hospital and
University. Hopkins had stated to the trustees by letter his wish
that the hospital care for "the indigent sick" and "the poor of the
city and state of all races who are stricken down by any casualty."

Johns Hopkins bequest also underwrites the founding of The Johns
Hopkins Colored Orphan Asylum.

1874
Sisters of Mercy arrive in Baltimore to take responsibility for
Baltimore City Hospital Dispensary, which in 1919 will become
Mercy Hospital.

1875
Thomas Wilson founds the Sanitarium for Children of
Baltimore City.

1876
The Johns Hopkins University opens. Daniel Colt Gilman is the first
president of the university.

John Shaw Billings is selected to supervise the construction of the
Johns Hopkins Hospital.

1879
Thomas Wilson founds and funds the Fuel Saving Society with a
$100,000 gift.

Thomas Wilson dies, bequeathing $300,000 to the Sanitarium for
Children of Baltimore City, founded by him in 1875.

YMCA branch founded at the Johns Hopkins University.

The Women's Industrial Exchange founded. 

1881
Charity Organization Society founded, with Daniel Colt Gilman as
first president

The Shelter for the Aged and Infirm Colored People Founded.

1882
General German Aged People's Home opens.

Baltimore City accepts Enoch Pratt's gifts of $230,000 for library
buildings and $333,333 for endowment of the Enoch Pratt Free
Library.

The Industrial School for Colored Girls opens.

The Hospital For the Women of Maryland founded.

1883
Baltimore YWCA founded.

1884
Peabody Institute Museum opens with works of art given by John
W. McCoy and John W. Garrett.

John W. Garrett's will provides $6,000 annually to improve the
condition of the poor In Baltimore and $50,000 annually for
general benevolent purposes.

Home for Incurables founded to care for the chronically-ill poor.

1885
Women's College of Baltimore founded (now Goucher College)

Bryn Mawr School for Girls founded.

1886
Enoch Pratt Free Library opens.

Samuel Ready Asylum of Female Orphans opens, with $151,000
invested in buildings and a $506,000 endowment.

Maryland State Lunacy Commission founded. This Baltimore-based group
would spearhead the movement for the removal Maryland's indigent
mentally ill from county almshouses and jails into state institutions. 

John W. Glen becomes chairman of the Charity Organization
Society's executive committee.

Asylum and Training School for Feeble-Minded Children incorporated.

1887
Mary Sloan Frick Garrett founds Mt. Airy Sanitarium for Children.

Baltimore Day Nursery, "to take charge of children whose mothers are
obliged to work," opened.

1888
Henrietta Szold opens School for Jewish immigrant children.

Johns Hopkins Hospital opens.

Robert Garrett Hospital for Children opens.

1890
Morgan College formed from Centenary Biblical Institute.

1891
Sheppard Asylum opens (now Sheppard-Pratt Hospital).

1892
Mary Elizabeth Garrett, daughter of John W. Garrett, gives
$306,977 to bring to $500,000 the amount raised by women's
groups for opening the Johns Hopkins Medical School, with the
condition that women be admitted.

1893
Review of Reviews article estimates that the United States has 4,000
millionaires. Baltimore's millionaires are rated the most
philanthropic in America.

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine opens.

Edward A. Lawrence, Jr., founds Lawrence House, Baltimore's first
settlement house.

1894
Provident Hospital founded by three black physicians, William T.
Carr, Marcus Cargill, and William H. Thompson.

1896
Enoch Pratt dies, bequeathing $1,500,000 to the Sheppard Asylum
(now Sheppard-Pratt Hospital).

College of Notre Dame opens, the first Roman Catholic college for
women in the United States.

1897
Maryland Public Health Association founded.

Baltimore banker and philanthropist Benjamin F. Newcomer offers
$50,000 for a proposed public library in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Arts Society organized by Theodore Marburg.

Dr. William Osler criticizes the general level of care of Maryland's
mentally ill. His comments prompt the Maryland State Lunacy
Commission and the members of the Medical-Churigical Society of
Maryland to press for reforms. 

1898
Colored Young Women's Christian Association (CYWCA) is formed.

1900
Playground Athletic League founded.