Maryland Etc. Trip: Baltimore, Annapolis, and the Eastern Shore (1.2-3.24)

We saw strange and wondrous things as we toured Maryland's  Eastern Shore, Baltimore, and Annapolis on April 2 and 3, 2024.  One of those strange and wondrous things was this beaded statue at the Baltimore Museum of Art!  It was part of an installation by artist Raul de Nieves.  There were several creatures sitting on benches near the entrance to the museum.

As we studied the history of the Civil War, we learned that, although Maryland never left the Union, it was a slave state.  Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman both escaped from plantations on the eastern shore of the Potomac River, in Maryland.

We searched for the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park as we traveled across the fields of the Eastern Shore, but we simply could not find it through our GPS or road signs.  Another time.

We drove to the end of a peninsula, jutting into the Potomac.  It was a redneck sort of place, with fishing boats, extra-big pickup trucks, and a white clapboard church surrounded by a cemetery.

One of the boats was named "Aquaholic."

We drove across the lengthy Potomac Bridge, connecting the eastern and western shores of Maryland.

As Dave and I entered Baltimore, we detoured to the suburb of Bel Aire, to see if Dave's parents' home from the 1960s was still there.  It was, and it looked just as Dave remembered.  He moved to SLC as a teenager.

We visited Ft. McHenry, facing the Potomac and guarding the bay leading to Baltimore.  We learned about the British battle, in the War of 1812, which inspired Francis Scott Keyes to write "The Star Spangled Banner."

Since it was a rainy day, we visited museums.  Baltimore has two spectacular ones--the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Museum.  The Baltimore Museum of Art had a special exhibition of works by the black artist, Joyce Scott.  I especially liked this sculpture of a mother and her newborn baby.  The baby is fashioned of translucent glass, which seemed just right for a pure, heavenly spirit encased in a brand new body and sent to earth.

I also loved Scott's quilts.  Handmade quilts seem a particularly good metaphor for women's lives, made up of a bit of this and a bit of that, which women try to arrange artfully, as they fill their lives with disparate tasks relating to family, community, and work.
 

One of the Baltimore Museum's new acquisitions was this painting by Kinde Wiley.  Wiley's paintings frame young black men in classical settings, in this case a stained glass window, typically framing saints.  Wiley impliedly gives young black men the honor and dignity they are typically not awarded in real life.

The Walters is a smaller museum, focusing on just a few artistic periods.  I spent my time in the medieval section, enjoying stained glass and medieval sculptures.  This stained glass window shows King Louis of France in prayer.

The Walters has a great collection of Ethiopian art, including this painting of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.  I came to love that style through both seeing artworks in Ethiopia and learning more about Ethiopian art after I left the country.

I loved this group of statues by a modern Ethiopian artist.  The statues are titled "Peacemaker."  They include impressions of Ethiopian crosses.   This installation speaks to me because I brought home a whole bagful of Ethiopian crosses from our last trip to Africa.  I bought a copy of each of the many variations that I could find.  During our trip to Africa, Camille mentioned to an Ethiopian acquaintance that she is a Christian. The acquaintance didn't believe it, since she didn't wear a cross around her neck, as the Ethiopian Christians did!  Hopefully, Christians are usually peacemakers, rather than warriors.

After a big day in and out of the rain, Dave and I warmed up with Maryland crab cakes, the local delicacy.  We ate at Dock Street, on the Annapolis wharf.

The highlight of April 3 was our visit to the U.S. Naval Academy.  My parents were both Navy officers during World War II, and my dad remembered, his whole life, attending Army/Navy games when he taught naval officers at Princeton.  I thought of my dad as we toured the elaborate Naval Academy campus in Annapolis, Maryland.

Our guide, whose father was an engineer in the Navy, showed us around the areas of campus that were most important to the cadets, from their exercise areas to their dormitories to the campus chapel.

The chapel had a full-time organist, who was studying his music as we wandered past him.

We passed the wall of trophies from the Army/Navy football games.

Our guide showed us the homes the faculty members lived in.  They seemed fancy for college professors!

We finished our tour of the Naval Academy by visiting the tomb of John Paul Jones, founder of the U.S. Navy. The tomb was decorated with dolphins and other sea creatures!

Before leaving Annapolis, we also visited the Maryland statehouse.  The US Congress met briefly in this building at the end of the Revolutionary War.

It was here that George Washington made his report to Congress and then resigned his commission at the end of the Revolutionary War.  He expected to return to his prior life as a Virginia planter, but he was called back to be the first U.S. president.