Baltimore County, MD smARTS, 12 Oct 2016

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From YouTube: Kathleen Barry, Historical Society of Baltimore County : smARTS October 2016

Description

Kathleen Barry, Executive Director of the Historical Society of Baltimore County shares information about the rich archives and collections at the Alms House in Cockeysville.

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The historical society of baltimore county is located in the historic almshouse building in cockeysville.

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Beyond the lectures,, the tours, and special events,, the society is the steward of a fascinating archive.

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Of baltimore county history., their executive director,, kathleen barry,, is here to tell us more.

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welcome to smarts!. Thank you very much. and welcome to your job. you're, relatively new. In the position I understand.

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I am. thank you.

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And are you enjoying it? yes,, I am. okay, well good.

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Let's talk a little bit about the archive., if I were interested in finding out more about it,, can you kind of give me a brief description?.

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Sure. well, there's kind of four general areas. I'd like to highlight: quickly.

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One of the areas people are very interested in, of course, is genealogy., so they want to come to us to find out their family history and we have our surname files,. We have cemetery transcription files,.

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Have a variety of old directories and places you can find listings.

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Of older residents, -- or people from the past of course.

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And we have a lot of published and unpublished. Family histories.

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That people have already done that people can come in and consult.

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And we have our volunteers,, so I should say, are quite knowledgeable.

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They're a great resource. oh,, they're, terrific, yes., and if they can help, you find what you're looking for --.

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Whether you're an advanced researcher or a beginner,, and if we don't have it, they'll, probably find out where it is.

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okay, all right.. So that's one part of the archive.

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yes. another area is historic. Properties; people are very interested in finding out about old buildings around the county.

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And for that we have a wonderful photograph collection, with,.

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Gosh, eight to nine thousand items,, many of which record historic properties around the county,, some of which no longer exist.

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Oh, wow., so that's a great resource.. We have about 500 maps and atlases to locate things.

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Now,, I just want to ask you quickly:.

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Is this something you have to come to the almshouse to-- on-site.

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Or is it something you can access online as well?

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generally,? You need to come to us.

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Okay. and use our reading room and we'll bring things out for you. terrific. yes., and we also have-- our volunteers can help people negotiate online databases for historical properties, and we have subject files too on many properties,, which might just be a few news clippings or in some cases we have more substantial collections..

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Just this week, somebody gave us a couple boxes of material on the building of an art deco mansion in may's chapel in 1939.

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Really?, I didn't know that such a thing existed.

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So that's interesting. yes.

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Renowned architect,, and so we have documents about the building of it and then the renovation of it., interesting --, which brings up a subject:.

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I guess you're always interested in people bringing-- if they think they have some interesting information that you would be interested in,.

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They should also bring it to your attention. certainly., we're always interested in hearing about people.

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Who want to donate things. if they have anything to do with baltimore county history,, we're interested in hearing from you. okay, great. now,. You've only been there since april.

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But I'm sure you've had a lot of time to look at the different collections..

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Do you have some favorites?.

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Well, for objects,, we have some pretty spectacular objects in the museum collection,, which is about 10,000 items,.

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So we have an awful lot.

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But,, a real standout item for me is our stieff square. Grand piano.

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And this is an interesting item for several reasons..

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The square. Grand pianos are not-- people kind of forgot about them.

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But they were actually a predominant style of piano in the 19th century,.

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The most popular style. they're, not really square. they're rectangular actually, but..., and it was made by charles m. stieff company in baltimore,.

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Which was a pretty important piano maker back then.

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people hear the stieff name and they'll, probably think of silver --.

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Same family, earlier business.

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They started the piano making business about 1840.

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silver-making didn't start--. It was the grandson who started that business in the 1890s.

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So that's a great item.. We also have some terrific textiles and quilts.

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And for me, those are personal favorites.

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we have wonderful quilts from the 19th century.

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and actually our oldest quilt, I believe, is from about 1790.

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Oh,, how wonderful! and the, you know, the hand stitching on that is still in wonderful condition..

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So folks can come to the society.

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And take all these wonderful objects: in. quickly,! In the two seconds we have left,. If you want to look at some photos,, can you access them??

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I know there, but also on online or not?.

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They are available online. they're, password protected, but if you're interested in looking at them,, you should come-- just get in touch with us..

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Our website is www.hsobc.org.

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Very good. and you can email or call us.

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All right. kathleen, thanks so much! thank you.

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well, delve into your family genealogies,, learn more about your neighborhood's history, and explore the people and places of baltimore county at the historical society of baltimore county.