Reflecting on a Decade of Change
by Auni Gelles Spring 2022 marked a decade since steelmaking ceased at the Sparrows Point steel mill. Founded by the Pennsylvania Steel Company in the 1890s, this Baltimore County mill reached its peak production in the 1950s and was once the largest steel plant in the world. Often associated with Bethlehem Steel, the company that […]
Read moreProject Update – Sept. 2021
By Anita Kassof, Beth Maloney, and Auni Gelles Fall 2021 marks three years since the Baltimore Museum of Industry began our Bethlehem Steel Legacy Project, a multiyear project to document and tell the story of the Bethlehem Steel mill at Sparrows Point—once the largest steel plant in the world. We’re sharing a behind-the-scenes update on […]
Read moreMemories of a “Looper”: Bob Casey, Combustion Engineer
Compiled by Deb Weiner Bob Casey had a career in steelmaking before leaving Sparrows Point to become a museum curator. Starting with a stint as an intern here at the BMI, he eventually retired as Curator of Transportation at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. Recently he donated four items from his time at […]
Read moreSECNAV visits Sparrow Point Shipyard
by Ken Jones In the early 1980s the U.S. shipbuilding industry was in a slump. Construction of new merchant ships was steadily declining. According to the American Council on Shipbuilding, in 1975 the industry produced 75 commercial ships, in 1979 it produced 22, and by 1985 it produced only five—a staggering 75% decrease in production […]
Read moreWomen of Steel, Reimagined
by Claire Mullins and Beth Maloney Towards the end of 2019, cultural institutions across the nation began announcing exhibitions and programs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. With our Bethlehem Steel Legacy Project—a multi-year initiative to preserve the stories of Baltimore’s steel […]
Read moreVoices of Sparrows Point
By Deb Weiner and Auni Gelles Since we launched the Bethlehem Steel Legacy Project in January 2019, BMI staff have sought first-person accounts from individuals who worked at Bethlehem Steel, lived in or around Sparrows Point, or were related to employees. We’ve attended community meetings at Tradepoint Atlantic and around the Dundalk area; held story […]
Read morePodcast Project in the Works
by Beth Maloney and Auni Gelles How do you tell an enormous and complicated story, make it accessible to as many people as possible (during a global pandemic), respect varying individual experiences and opinions, and show just how important that story is? One answer: Use every tool you have. In this vein, we are thrilled […]
Read moreSparrows Point Shipyard: 100 years of shipbuilding
By Ken Jones As mentioned in my previous posts on the Baltimore Yards and Fairfield Yard, I have been helping process and catalogue the BMI’s Bethlehem Steel collection. As I do my work, I find myself reading the materials or closely looking at the photos I am processing. I’ve become fascinated by this collection of […]
Read moreBuilding a Community Collection
By Beth Maloney and Auni Gelles The Covid-19 pandemic has changed not only the nature of work for so many across our city but also the ways we are connecting, communicating, and staying close to one another. Even though the BMI is closed, we are working remotely and thinking about how to adapt our existing […]
Read moreThe Bethlehem Baltimore Shipyards: Varied Origins, Histories, and Missions
by Ken Jones Being a mid-century born native Baltimorean I was always well aware of “The Point.” I had an uncle that worked there, and a neighbor or two as well. As a kid I knew that they worked there because of the orange dust on their cars or because they had more vacation days […]
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