After 176 years, the Maryland Historical Society is rebranding itself as the Maryland Center for History and Culture.
“This new identity reflects the organization’s mission to define itself as a space where the community can come to discover and develop a deeper understanding of our nation’s history and culture through a Maryland prism,” the organization said in a statement.
The center will reopen by appointment from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 9 to 11, and it will reopen to the public on Sept. 12.
The organization will also unveil a new website and visual identity today, Sept. 9, to accompany its name change.
With the reopening, the museum will reveal three new exhibitions, including one virtual and two in-person exhibitions.
The virtual exhibition, “Forgotten Fight: The Struggle for Voting Rights in Maryland,” will allow visitors to step into the roles of various Marylanders involved in the suffrage movements for Black people and women. The exhibition will celebrate the 150th and 100th anniversaries of the ratification of the 15th and 19th amendments, respectively.
That exhibition will open virtually on Sept. 9.
The two in-person exhibitions, which will both open Sept. 12, include “Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters” and “Wild and Untamed: Dunton’s Discovery of the Baltimore Album Quilts.”
The former will take visitors on a journey through the history of movie theaters in Baltimore City, including the first moving-picture show shown in Maryland and Baltimore’s first purpose-built movie theater. The exhibition will combine contemporary photographs by Baltimore Sun photojournalist Amy Davis with historic photographs and memorabilia, according to the Maryland Historical Society’s website.
The latter exhibition will highlight Dr. William Rush Dunton Jr., the “father of occupational therapy”; Dunton’s use of quilt marking in therapeutic treatment; and his research about Baltimore’s tradition of album quilts, according to the website.
