Wednesday, February 20, 2019

The Baltimore Museum of Industry Part II

A continuation of yesterpost...

Several exhibits at the Baltimore Museum of Industry show different industries in different times. Below is the "Garment Loft," dedicated to the clothing production industry.

Making clothing

Across the hall is a print shop with presses and other equipment for putting out newspapers and a variety of reading materials.

The print shop

A linotype

Across the hall is a recreated druggists' shop, the forerunner of today's pharmacies. This shop has a vintage soda fountain along with the classic apothecary's cabinet.

Druggist...why don't they call them that now?

Soda-shop part of the druggist

Drugs and household items for sale

The temporary exhibit "Why We Work" (on display till April 14, 2019) shows photos of various workers on their jobs and asks visitors to give feedback on three questions about job satisfaction. Visitors choose a sheet that describes their industry and use the stickers on the sheet to indicate their answers on the three walls. My kids loved putting stickers on walls without getting into trouble.

Why We Work

One gallery has a wall lined with small displays on local industries, some no longer around, some still going strong. I didn't realize Black and Dekker was from Baltimore.

America's first railroad!

Silversmiths!

A communications exhibit shows everything from semaphore flags to telegraphs to telephones to television. Semaphore is just as confusing and hard as Morse Code. Practice and regular use would probably make it easy, but ten minutes in a museum is not enough to become an expert.

Trying to figure out semaphore

An old-fashioned phone booth!

The chart below was amazing to me. It lists the types of homes--those with only cell phones, those with land lines and cell phones, and those with only land lines. Just slightly more than half of households are cell phone only!

Chart on phone usage

Near the truck in the wall, we saw an old-time elevator that was charming but no longer functional.

Elevator

This factory bell was used at the Hooper Mill to call workers to the start of their day. The bell is from 1854, and the factory made cotton sails for clipper ships.

Cast-iron factory bell

This model of the Baltimore Harbor shows what it looked like in 1930. The model was made by Joseph F. Schmitt.

Old time harbor

Right nearby is a recreation of what a dockside would have been like.

Dockside

We headed out for one last look at the 1942 "whirley crane" that was used in ship-building during World War II. The "whirley" part comes from the fact that it can rotate 360 degrees.

Farewell, crane!

The museum was a lot of fun to visit. We recommend it highly!

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