An excellent museum exhibit on the impact on Maryland of the War of 1812 is on display at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. Here is a fine example of what a clever design team can do with a wealth of military and civilian artifacts and beautiful paintings. “In Full Glory Reflected” focuses on the importance of Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay to the course of a war that lasted about 2½ years and whose scope swept from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the coast of New England to the Mississippi River.
Visitors entering the gallery first view exhibits, panels, and paintings depicting Baltimore’s growth from a village in 1729 to a maturing 19th-century seaport, whose wealth was based on maritime trade, the port’s shipping industry, and the many mills that ground grain from the fields of Maryland and Pennsylvania. The shipbuilding neighborhood of Fell’s Point, which specialized in schooners and brigs, attracted shipwrights, sailmakers, riggers, caulkers, and ropemakers, whose skills were needed in the highly specialized industry. The exhibit displays the tools of each. Merchants who owned or had shares in those vessels became backers of privateers when, shortly after the war began, they converted their trading schooners and brigs into privately owned warships.
Underscoring one of the causes of the war, a mural based on an illustration by Howard Pyle depicts a group of sailors being impressed from an American merchant ship. Close by hangs a portrait of Attorney General William Pinkney (a Marylander) and the silver inkstand he used when drafting the Declaration of War for President James Madison in 1812. A model of the frigate Constellation, which was built in Baltimore, posts a legend explaining that although her commander, Captain Charles Stewart, attempted to gain the Atlantic in 1813, the British blockade of the Chesapeake forced him to withdraw up the Elizabeth River for the duration of the war.
A handsome model of the sloop-of-war Hornet, with her gilded-eagle stern carving placed on the wall above, commemorates her capture of HM brig Peacock and her later success against HMS Penguin.
A mural depicts the British training as many as 300 former slaves as colonial marines on Tangier Island in the southern bay. Commodore Joshua Barney’s portrait hangs near a mural of the Chesapeake Flotilla of navy gunboats that challenged the British control of the bay in 1814, only to be trapped in the Patuxent River after two hard-fought battles at St. Leonard’s Creek.
A third gallery is devoted to the Battle of Bladensburg, the burning of Washington, the Battle of North Point, and the Battle of Fort McHenry, all of which took place in August and September 1814. The display contains military artifacts used in the battles, including a period musket; bayonets; a sword, dirk, and canteen; and cannonballs.
Visitors are treated to superb Rembrandt Peale portraits of Major General Samuel Smith, commander of American forces at Baltimore; Major General John Stricker, commander of the militias at North Point; and Major George Armistead, who commanded at Fort McHenry. Interestingly, one of the actual “bombs” or mortar shells used to bombard the fort is on display, as well as a replica of one of the infamous Congreve rockets, which the Royal Navy used to terrorize its enemies. In fact, they looked and sounded more dangerous than they were.
The role the U.S. Navy played in helping defend Baltimore is attributed to Commodore John Rodgers, whom General Smith put in charge of the batteries on Hampstead Hill and the naval defenses covering the flanks of Fort McHenry. On display are examples of the magnificent 50-piece silver service that the City of Baltimore presented to Rodgers. Here, too, is an outstanding rendering by Alfred Jacob Miller, The Battle of Fort McHenry, hanging above a well-preserved manuscript copy of Francis Scott Key’s lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“In Full Glory Reflected” will remain on display until 2015. The Maryland Historical Society’s director, Burt Kummerow, assures us this will be an evolving exhibit with new artifacts and displays added as the timeline changes. A well-illustrated companion volume, In Full Glory Reflected: Discovering the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake, by Mr. Kummerow and Ralph Eshelman, is available for sale at the Society’s gift shop.
Maryland Historical Society
201 West Monument Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Tel.: (410) 685-3750
http://www.mdhs.org/
Open Wed.–Sat. 1000–1700; Sun. 1200–1700 (Museum only)
Closed Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas.
Museum admission free for children under 3, adults $6, seniors $5, students with ID and children 3-18 $4. Library admission free for members, $6 non-members.