In the spring of 2022, Baltimore artist and participatory-history specialist Lauren Muney hand-created custom silhouettes(profile portraits)of Baltimore City, Maryland, residents for long-term public installation at the Peale. These faces will encircle several rooms of the historic Peale walls, giving visitors, residents and guests the opportunity to feel the Baltimore ‘family’ all around them. The exhibition will be installed in August 2022. Some sitters also contributed stories about their lives and experiences in Baltimore.
Barbara Borenstein Blumenthal (00:03): My name is Barbara Bornstein Blumenthal. I was born in Baltimore in 1953. And I grew up and lived in Northwest Baltimore, very near Pikesville. But not in Pikesville. Until I went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1971. I've lived in Northampton since then.
Barbara Borenstein Blumenthal (00:29): When I was in high school and the first couple years of college, I worked in the summers and during January at The Peale Museum, which was then all the city's history museum. Very different from the vibrant place it's become today. And I helped catalog books there. And my most interesting project was cataloging negatives by A. Aubrey Bodine, with the curator there. We worked in a basement, which today just wouldn't be allowed. I don't think there was another exit. But I learned to be very good at reading negatives instead of looking at the print of a photograph. And I even recognized a neighbor of mine who had been an opera singer working with Rosa Ponselle.
Barbara Borenstein Blumenthal (01:15): But that project was really wonderful. And because of Bodine's capturing of so many aspects of the docks of Baltimore and the neighborhoods of Baltimore. Even though some of his photographs were staged, they were still a wonderful introduction to me. To an older Baltimore that I really didn't know, growing up in basically the suburb of the city. But again, in the city. I went to public schools in Baltimore my whole educational career. Cross Country Elementary School. Pimlico Junior High School. Northwestern High School. And even though where I lived we did lock our doors, it was still a place where kids could ride their bikes to their friend's house after school. Of course, no cell phones, and we all felt quite safe and wonderful.
Barbara Borenstein Blumenthal (02:07): I did [inaudible 00:02:08] sometime in downtown Baltimore. Love Lexington Market. And since I moved away, I try to visit Baltimore once a year. And have really enjoyed seeing the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor. The one thing I really miss about not living in Baltimore is steamed blue crabs. People in New England just don't get it, that snow crabs or other crabs are not blue crabs. So here's a shout out to Baltimore steamed crabs, and especially The Peale Museum, which will always have a tender place in my heart.
Asset ID: PL-PF-2022.11.08.a
