Baltimore's Cultural Revolution

When it was founded by George Peabody in 1857, the Peabody Institute was the first of its kind in the nation. With its scholars' library, public lecture series, academy of music, and art gallery, the Peabody transformed the arts in Baltimore, creating the country's first cultural center. "More importantly, the Peabody Institute set the standard for improving the cultural life of the nation," notes Peabody archivist Elizabeth Schaaf. Over the ensuing decades, Peabody students and faculty continued to enrich the city's musical life, by launching new arts enterprises and lending their considerable talents to existing ones. Herewith, a sampling...

For decades, Baltimore City's municipal music program provided support for three park bands and two symphony orchestras. The City Park Band, pictured here in Druid Hill Park in 1941, included many Peabody-trained musicians. The group delighted residents throughout the city with outdoor concerts throughout the summertime months.

In 1942, Peabody's new director, Reginald Stewart, rescued the Baltimore Symphony after it collapsed in the wake of a bitter strike. The BSO announced its opening 1942-1943 season proclaiming it had become a full-time orchestra of 90 musicians. Under the leadership of Maestro Stewart, the BSO became musical ambassadors for the state of Maryland. When wartime restrictions on travel lightened, the orchestra toured the East Coast'from Toronto, Quebec, and Ottawa to Key West, Florida—in Pullman cars. Here, Stewart is shown with a Pennsylvania Railroad engineer just before their departure from Penn Station.

Peabody Institute trustees used money from the estate of internationally renowned Maryland sculptor William Henry Rinehart to establish the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, in 1896. The Naiad in the fountain in front of Peabody and the Sea Urchin in the pool near the Johns Hopkins Club at Homewood were both created by Rinehart students.

Throughout the 1940s, Baltimore's major radio stations had their own orchestras and ensembles. Many Peabody musicians and members of the Baltimore Symphony rushed to the stations after rehearsals to play for the live broadcasts from these stations. Pictured here: The WFBR orchestra.