The Natural History Society of Maryland is a private nonprofit dedicated to conserving Maryland’s natural heritage and educating its citizens on the natural sciences. NHSM manages a small museum in Baltimore County where it offers programs, lectures, workshops, and courses on a wide variety of natural science subjects.
The natural history collections date from the 1800s and include minerals, fossils, flora, fauna, and artifacts from Maryland and the mid-Atlantic region. These collections are both historically and scientifically significant to the state.
The NHSM is working to build a community where everyone feels welcome; where everyone has the same opportunity to learn about the natural world; and where everyone can grow to their full potential as naturalists and stewards of our fragile planet. For more information, visit our website: https://www.marylandnature.org/about-us/
Digital Maryland is a collaborative, statewide digital preservation program of the Enoch Pratt Free Library / Maryland State Library Resource Center. The goal of the project is to facilitate the digitization, digital preservation, and access for historical and cultural documents, images, audio, and video that record Maryland’s history.
Learn MorePartnering with Digital Maryland has many benefits and can be adjusted to suit the needs of the organization or collection.
Learn About PartnershipThe Kelly Collection is comprised of photographs, letters, documents, and artifacts belonging to C. Markland Kelly, Sr. and Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr., dating to the 19th century through the end of Mr. Kelly's life in 1965. The collection encapsulates Baltimore politics of the 1930s and 1940s, the Kelly Buick automobile business, changes to the urban landscape of Baltimore, family life, and WWII-era culture.
The Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr. Memorial Foundation’s Political and Civic Photograph Collection consists of images taken during C. Markland Kelly, Sr.’s appointment as chairman of the Park Board and Stadium Committee (1935-1943) and as City Council President (1943-1951).
The PGCMLS history collection consists of digitized memorabilia of library documents, program services, promotional material, photographs of bookmobiles and library facilities, and oral histories of current and former library system employees. Most of the records document the library system’s early history, primarily the 1940’s-1970’s period. This collection offers a visual and audio overview of some of the most important events that document the library history.
View CollectionDuring the early twentieth century, when progressive reformers were attempting to address problems resulting from industrialism and urbanization, Vice Commissions were set up in cities across the country. Their primary concerns were so-called “white slavery,” a term that was used for the practice of organized coercion of unwilling persons into prostitution, and other crimes involving the commercialized sex industry. Historians often point to fears arising from increased numbers of immigrants and increased urbanization as providing the impetus for the establishment of these commissions.
The Maryland Vice Commission was appointed by Maryland Governor Phillips Lee Goldsborough in 1913. It began to report out in 1915. Its main concern was prostitution, whether to keep it segregated in vice districts, where there were disorderly houses, or to break up the vice districts, which could result in streetwalking and pimping. Because investigators discovered such an abundance of vice, the report was controversial and caused official embarrassment, especially in Baltimore. In fact, Baltimore’s mayor called it, “entirely untrue, improper and unfair.” The typewritten, marked-up volumes digitized here are from the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Maryland Department. Only the fifth volume was commercially published.