Members like YOU make our mission work.
Your membership support honors Baltimore’s rich industrial legacy and fuels ongoing innovation. With your help we inspire tomorrow’s workers through the untold stories of yesterday’s everyday heroes—the working men and women who engineered previously unthinkable progress.
Membership levels and benefits
Upcoming Members-only opportunities
Members-only: Beth Ship—Building on a Legacy
Hear Senior Museum Educator Jack Burkert tell the story of the Beth Steel shipyards. First of the ship building legacy they inherited and then how the employees and the company continued designing, building, repairing and converting ships until the virtual end of commercial shipbuilding in America in the 1980s.
Learn more or register here.
Get up close and industrial
Members-only: The 20th-Century Woman at Work
This picture taken of a woman at the Fairfield Shipyard in the 1940’s tells us a lot about her, even if we don’t know who she is. The way we dress for work can offer clues about what we do for a living, where we are employed, and even our professional rank.
Hear volunteer curator Debbie Farthing tell the story of how she used photos like this one, and the BMI’s garment collection to create the BMI’s exhibit, The 20th-Century Woman at Work.
Learn more or watch the recording here.
The Virtual Summer Road Trip is complete.These programs were a special collaboration for members of the National Museum of Industrial History, the Baltimore Museum of Industry, and Rivers of Steel.
A Zoom conversation with J. M. Giordano
Thurs 7/2 @ 7:30 pm
It was great to “see” so many of you as we kicked off our Members-only Virtual Summer Road Trip series with a conversation between photojournalist J.M. Giordano and BMI Research Historian Joseph Abel.
If you missed this leg of the trip, you can catch up by watching a recording of the program.
A Virtual Tour with Rivers of Steel
Wed 8/26 @ 7:30 pm
Thanks to all who joined us for a virtual visit to the Rivers of Steel W.A. Young & Sons Foundry and Machine Shop. Nestled in historic Rices Landing, Greene County, Pennsylvania, the Machine Shop is an astonishing industrial treasure.
We toured the blacksmith shop, pattern shop, hardware store, and foundry—and marveled as the machines were switched on for a live demonstration of this turn-of-the-last century technology!
Watch the recording available here.
Bethlehem Steel: An Insider’s Perspective with the National Museum of Industrial History
Tues 9/15 @ 6 pm
Hosted by long-time Bethlehem Steel employee Don Young, this virtual tour will lead viewers through the museum’s Iron & Steel gallery giving newcomers and even museum regulars new insight into one of our most popular areas.
Mr. Young spent 33 years working at the Bethlehem plant, and 56 years total working for Bethlehem Steel and its successor as an electric furnace melt department foreman. A graduate of Drexel University, he is the co-author of Bethlehem Steel: A Photographic History.
A Members-only preview of Senior Museum Educator Jack Burkert’s newest presentation in the BMI’s local history series, January 2021
A virtual tour focusing on the role of Black workers in Baltimore’s history, August 2020
An Insider Look at the Garment Industry, insights into the industry – past, present, and future, December 2019
Membership benefits
About our reciprocal programs
The BMI is a member of three reciprocal museum organizations. All BMI Builders’ Circle members receive GBHA and ROAM membership. BMI members at the Supporter level and higher also receive NARM membership.
BMI members of GBHA and ROAM will receive free general admission for themselves and one guest when visiting participating institutions.
NARM cardholders receive free general admission when visiting participating institutions. Guests are not included.
Find out before you visit! Each museum may offer additional benefits, so make the most of your membership and contact them before you go. Click on the icons below to find out more.
GBHA
Greater Baltimore History Alliance
ROAM
Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums
NARM
North American Reciprocal Museum Association
Local Partners
Behind-the-scenes tours of local industries are one of our most popular benefits of membership. Notifications go out 3 – 4 weeks in advance via e-mail. Group sizes are limited and tours fill up quickly—so register early!
Visted in 2019: Bakery Express / Ms. Desserts, Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, DAP, Domino Sugar, Dundalk and Seagirt Marine Terminals, H&S Bakery
Restaurants
Present your BMI membership card to receive a 15% discount at these local restaurants: