Pioneering Woman:
DR. JOANNE MARTIN
A
s one half of the couple that founded
the National Great Blacks In Wax
Museum, Dr. Joanne Martin is
practically a Baltimore institution in her own
right. Alongside her late husband, Elmer, Dr.
Martin took a dream of celebrating African
American history, supporting the community
and improving race relations and turned
it into a landmark attraction that’s been
in business for nearly four decades. It was
the first wax museum of African American
history in the country.
Dr. Joanne Martin
In the early 1980s, the Martins took the
money they had saved for a down payment on a home and, instead,
invested in four wax figures. After a few years of displaying their figures
at schools, churches and malls, they opened a small storefront downtown
with 21 figures in 1983. By the end of the decade, they had moved into a
15,000-square-foot abandoned firehouse on North Avenue after receiving
more than $300,000 in grants and loans. These days, the museum brings
in nearly 300,000 visitors yearly to see its unflinching depictions of African
American history told through more than 100 wax figures. A planned
expansion will encompass the entire block to comprise more than 120,000
square feet of interactive exhibits. The expansion will also redevelop
adjacent dilapidated properties into a memorial garden. For Martin,
expanding the museum and revitalizing the surrounding neighborhood is
essential to the original mission.
3)
MARY YOUNG
PICKERSGILL
Though Francis Scott Key gets
much of the credit for the moment that
sparked the writing of the National Anthem
during the War of 1812, Baltimore native
Mary Young Pickersgill was the woman
behind the inspiring grand flag. The
daughter of an accomplished flag maker,
Pickersgill was commissioned by Major
Armistead to make a flag for Fort McHenry,
with instructions to make it so large that the
British would have no trouble seeing it from
afar. She made the flag with the help of her
mother, two nieces, an apprentice and other
women in her Jonestown neighborhood,
and she earned a little more than $400
for the work. Her flag now resides at the
Smithsonian Museum of American History
in Washington, but a replica is flown over
Fort McHenry each day.
WHERE TO CELEBRATE HER:
The late-1700s home where Pickersgill
lived and sewed the flag still stands in the
Jonestown neighborhood of Baltimore, east
of downtown, where it is now a historic
landmark known as the Star-Spangled Banner
Flag House. The home contains antiques
of the era and items from the family, and a
newer museum next door features exhibits
on the War of 1812 and the Battle of Baltimore.
“A primary motivation for establishing the museum was to use education,
history and example to help mainly culturally disadvantaged youth
overcome feelings of alienation, defeatism and despair,” writes Martin in a
message on the museum’s website. “Of the hundreds of thousands of people
who visit the museum each year, many are African American children. As
a result of their exposure to the museum and its programs, these young
people know more about their heritage and have a greater understanding
of significant contributions to civilization by people of African descent.
Ultimately, they are better prepared to challenge those who would tell them
they have no history worth remembering.” Q
National
Great Blacks In
Wax Museum
B A LT I M O R E . O R G
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