Jim,

I have been working on this post off and on all day and some people  
have already recommended some of these stops, but what the heck. Here  
goes.

Bear in mind although Baltimore is my home town I have not been back  
in a couple of years. My info may be a smidge old.

Depending on your tastes and needs Baltimore is a wealth of  
interesting museums and places to eat.

My recommendation would be to get to the Inner Harbor and get a Day  
Pass or Weekend Pass for one of the Water Taxis and just take it from  
one stop to the other, getting off at each landing and enjoying the  
sites and sights.

Using that as your base you can visit the following, all of which I  
recommend:

The Maryland Science Center

The American Visionary Art Museum

The Baltimore Museum of Industry (the best museum on Baltimore history  
with cutting edge, award winning hands-on programs like the Assembly  
Line and Kids Cannery)

Fort McHenry: Eating suggestion. Go to Cross Street Market and  
assemble a meal from the various stalls and take it to Fort McHenry  
for a picnic on the water. If it is raining go to Rallo's on Fort  
Avenue for good Diner grub from waitresses who will call you Hon. I  
recommend the bread, split pea soup and French Fries with gravy.

Fells Point for excellent seafood at a number of bars/restaurants like  
Bertha's, John Stevens, the Wharf Rat, the Cat's Eye, and the  
Waterfront and quaint maritime architecture. (I recommend you actively  
eschew Harbor Place for good Baltimore seafood.) Just don't go at  
night as it turns into a drunken college town. There are a couple of  
new museums that sprang up since i left in 1999. This is also the  
neighborhood where they filmed most of the 90's television show  
Homicide: Life on the Streets. If you were a fan, you will recognize a  
lot the of the scenery.

Little Italy

The Baltimore Maritime Museum (which I believe is now run by Living  
Classrooms)

The National Aquarium (of course)

Baltimore Public Works Museum.

The Constellation.

I hear the new Reginald Lewis African-American MUseum is a good stop,  
but I have not returned to Baltimore since it opened.

You can get a good visit to Baltimore by sticking to the Water taxi  
routes. However you'll miss the following:

THe B&O Railroad Museum. 20 some acres or so with 200 pieces of  
rolling stock. Their round house roof (123 feet high) caved in a  
couple of years ago from snow build up. Their recovery is the single  
best "lemonade from lemons" story in American museum history and they  
interpret it quite nicely.

The National Museum of Dentistry. Yeah, I know. But if you are  
anywhere near Camden Yards you should stop in. They take a topic  
almost no one cares about, and many are even scared of, and make it  
interesting and fun. My guess is you have already seen some of their  
exhibits since their fabricators have used images in their ads in  
Museum News. It's a small museum and can see it in an hour and it is  
really fun.

Great Blacks in Wax on North Avenue. Don't laugh until you go. They  
have the normal wax museum like displays with famous figures in  
diorama-like exhibitions. But they have two exhibits that every  
American should see. One of a hold of a slave ship with attendant  
sound effects and another on lynching. If you think lynching was just  
about ropes and nooses, you don't know jack about lynching in the Jim  
Crow south. Newspaper accounts of mutilations and torture accompany  
large-as-life, gruesome displays of the activities in question. It  
isn't for the faint of heart or kids, but it is a part of US history  
and I don't think any museum on tourism main street will ever be able  
to do an exhibit like this. The neighborhood can be sketchy but if you  
are a museum professional, leave what you think you know about wax  
museums in the hotel room and see what a marginalized community can do  
for itself to recover a lost past on their own.

Lunch at the Women's Industrial Exchange. If this restaurant has  
closed, please don't tell me. It is close to the epicenter of  
Baltimore on Charles Street. The waitresses are old and surly and all  
wear thick orthopedic shoes, the service can be slow their blue plate  
special is served on a blue plate, and it is the only restaurant I  
have ever eaten at that served tomato aspic. I didn't eat it, mind  
you. Just knowing it is there is charm enough for me.  Their is no  
better lunch experience in Baltimore.


That's all I can think of for now. I will leave you with the web site  
of the Greater Baltimore Area History Alliance. I am sure you will  
find SOMETHING to your tastes there.

http://www.baltimoremuseums.org/

Have fun. If you make it to Poe's grave at Westminster Hall tell him I  
said hey.

Matt White


On Monday, April 13, 2009, at 09:51AM, "Sarah Gamble" <[log in to unmask] 
 > wrote:
> Baltimore has a lot of wonderful, unique things to see and do!  I  
> would
> highly recommend the Baltimore Streetcar Museum
> (http://www.baltimorestreetcar.org/) where, for the price of  
> admission, you
> can ride on original Baltimore streetcars!
>
>
>
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]  
> On Behalf
> Of James Schulte
> Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 1:48 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] suggestions
>
>
>
> Last year at this time of the year I sent out a query for great  
> places to
> visit in Alexandria Virginia and your responses were wonderful. This  
> year
> I'm heading to two places Baltimore Maryland and Lancaster Pa, any
> suggestions on sites to visit and more importantly places to eat? We  
> are
> alrrady visiting the aquarium
>
> Jim
>
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