Baltimor

Title

Baltimor

Description

Total view of Baltimor

ca. 1845

Artist

Ahrens

Historical Description

The city was founded in 1729 and named after the first and second Baron Baltimore, the British founders of the Maryland colony. The name Baltimore is of Irish origin and named after another Baltimore in County Longford, Ireland. The name Baltimore comes from the Irish: "Baile an Tí Mhóir", which means "place of the great house". Initially established as a port for the tobacco trade, the city quickly became the center of trade with Europe and the Caribbean. When Philadelphia was occupied by the British in 1777, the Continental Congress met in Baltimore. In the British-American War of 1812, the British made an attempt to eliminate privateers operating out of Baltimore. The Battle of Fort McHenry in 1814 that resulted inspired Francis Scott Key to write the lyrics of what would become the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. In 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad laid the cornerstone for the first railroad in the United States in Baltimore. From 1831 to 1835, the young Edgar Allan Poe lived in Baltimore with his aunt Maria Clemm. He began his career here in great poverty as an inventor and master of the short story, then lived in Richmond (Virginia), Philadelphia and New York City, he died in Baltimore. Due to the good railroad connection to the Midwest and the establishment of a regular steamship connection of the North German Lloyd from Bremerhaven to Baltimore, the port developed into the second largest immigration port of the USA after New York.