East Baltimore documentary photography project

In 1976, in recognition of the 200th anniversary of the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts funded a series of photographic survey projects across the country to create “a new visual record of a changing nation.” One of these projects was the East Baltimore Documentary Photography Project (1976-1980). This project originated out of a social documentary photography class taught by Linda G. Rich (1949-1998) in 1976 at the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA). Rich was joined in this project by two of her students Joan Clark Netherwood (1932-2021) and Elinor B. Cahn (1925-2020).

Rich, Netherwood, and Cahn aimed for their photographic survey to show the concept of the “neighborhood” as it is revitalized, maintained, and changed across many years. Their intent was to “photograph the people, to enter their lives, and to see them as they see themselves.” They spent time familiarizing themselves with local East Baltimore neighborhoods to get unprecedented access to religious and cultural communities, local stores and businesses, and family homes. Some of the photographs in the survey even came from the personal archives of the families they were photographing. Alongside these images they also interviewed many of their subjects and recorded oral history interviews.

The East Baltimore area had long since been a home to many immigrant communities. The height of immigration to the area was from 1880 to 1921 when millions of Eastern and Southern Europeans immigrated to the United States and settled along the Eastern seaboard. Earlier immigrant groups such as Irish and German residents moved from the city of Baltimore to the suburbs and people from Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Greece, and Italy moved in. This immigration mostly ended in 1921 with the implementation of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. This Act established new immigration quotas which severely limited immigration from places such as Southern and Eastern Europe. During World War II the massive ramping up of steel production and shipbuilding attracted African American, Indigenous, and lower income Appalachian communities to settle in Baltimore, though many did so on the fringes of the city where housing was cheaper in many East Baltimore neighborhoods. The East Baltimore Documentary Photography Project captured the unique mixing of many of these communities as they co-existed in the 1970s and 1980s, reflecting many ideas about the “melting pot” nature of the United States of America.

The collection from the East Baltimore Documentary Photography Project is split among several institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the University of Baltimore, Maryland Special Collections, and the Maryland Center for History and Culture. It consists of more than 10,000 photographs, transcribed interviews, and audio tapes. The photographs in the Maryland Center for History and Culture were originally held in the Peale Museum. The photographs in the Smithsonian were originally held by the National Endowment of the Arts. The collection housed in the University of Baltimore, Maryland Special Collections includes the audio tapes, transcribed interviews, negatives, and papers concerning the project. In 1981, Johns Hopkins University Press published a book of over 100 photographs from the collection alongside some excerpts from their interviews.