Tuesday afternoon in the city

The

Baltimore Museum of Art was closed today, but I went on a special tour through the museum-- just 6 of us, with a museum curator who led us through the collection that the BMA received from Mary Frick Garrett Jacobs.

Mrs. Jacobs' home was on West Mt. Vernon Place, which now houses the ESB, Engineering Society of Baltimore, one of the loveliest interiors in the city. 

At the BMA today, our guide showed us letters that Mrs. Jacobs wrote, concerning pieces of art she was negotiating to buy. She had a discerning eye, and a willingness to scrutinize the value of her purchases. Her 4 homes were filled with art, pieces which she moved from home to home according to the season of the year.  She was a wealthy woman on her own, and married into the Garrett family that owned the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, sometimes referred to by those in the know, as the Best and Only.

I love behind the scenes tours, and the chance to walk thru the museum without distractions and with our own private guide. I learned a lot, and have some homework to do.  On the way home, I was hungry and stopped at Sophia's in the Broadway Market for a yummy sandwich: a llightly toasted bagel with cream cheese, salmon, (that's lox) a siice of onion, tomato, and a cup of Sophia's yummy tomato soup with noodles. I was a happy chick this afternoon.   Zippy

Winner: Best Tours of BALTIMORE by Baltimore Magazine - 1989

Winner: Best Tour Guide in BALTIMORE by CITY PAPER - 2005

zippytours@gmail.com

    410 - 522 - 7334

 

great fun today

22 May, 2016

I was 5 minutes from home today, on Pier 13 down on the industrial waterfront. It's Maritime day, when what is normally off-limits, is open to the public.  Tug boats, fire boats, coast guard, merchant marine, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, SAIL Baltimore, etc, and a ship and personnel from the Maritime school in San Francisco who happened to be in the area on a 2 month assignment.

If I knew how to add photos to an email.... I'd  share some of what I saw, but I don't...

So it's a chance for me to learn some more about these areas that are as far as you will get from the tourist
areas at the inner harbor. Hooray !!  

I went aboard the nuclear ship for a tour.  It was fascinating.  I collected some goodies, freebies from Domino Sugars, and others etc, and data from half a dozen maritime agencies.  It gives me stuff to talk about (that other guides do not have) when I lead tours or give talks. I saw the coal piers, it's an area heavily guarded by homeland security.
I had many times taken people up to their gates, but until today, not gone behind. We were taken in a small SUV, just 6 people, with personnel from the company.  I have a business card and now have a contact, and will be able to take other people inside.  I love this stuff. 
Whenever I am on a tour, the other people on the tour thank me afterwards, because I ask the best questions, which draws out more data than the guides normally talk about.  I know how to phrase questions.  I should have been a reporter.
Zippy

PS I think it would be fascinating to go on a cruise on a tug boat, or a merchant vessel. The big cruise ships are boring boring boring!

PPS.  If you saw the film, "Ladder 49," one site used in that movie is the old grain elevator.  That's where I was

Winner: Best Tours of BALTIMORE by Baltimore Magazine - 1989

Winner: Best Tour Guide in BALTIMORE by CITY PAPER - 2005

zippytours@gmail.com

    410 - 522 - 7334

 

I highly recommend

This Free Fine workshop was the best one I have ever attended on ANY subject. 

It was Excellent!
If you ever get a chance to take this one-day course, do not hesitate!  It included a free bkfst
and lunch, but the best part was Judy herself.  A fine fine speaker and teacher with the best audio-visuals

I've ever seen. If you are researching your family's history, and want to discover the tools you need, take this course.

Judy G. Russell, the legal Genealogist  4 lectures on the intersection of family history research and the law. 
Topics range from using court records to understanding DNA testing

Winner: Best Tours of BALTIMORE by Baltimore Magazine - 1989

Winner: Best Tour Guide in BALTIMORE by CITY PAPER - 2005

zippytours@gmail.com

    410 - 522 - 7334

 

At the Jewish Museum TODAY

I heard a fascinating talk by Dr. Alan Kraut (A history professor from American University in DC, 

who specializes in US Immigration). He posed the question:

What happens after immigration? 
He spoke of 19th C immigration into the US, with an emphasis on the Jews who came to America. 

He was highly informative, especially for me, with my background.

Then I walked thru the new exhibit: 

Beyond Chicken Soup

Jews & Medicine in America 

There is so much to study at the exhibit that I will have to go back and see it again.  As a member I can
bring a friend for free on Wednesday.   I would highly recommend that you all go see it.  I believe
the exhibit will be there until June 2016

I'm a Registered Nurse who trained at a Jewish Hospital in Baltimore, a city where we had a lot of immigrants.

My mother's sister trained at that hospital, before me, as did the Sinai doctor my aunt married.
When I did private duty nursing at Sinai, one of my patients had typhoid.
And I was a PHN, a Public Health Nurse in south east Baltimore, near the piers where immigrants lived in

tight urban settings.  We had tuberculosis clinics in Baltimore in the 1960's, and I made home visits to many

Tb patients.

I am hands-on familiar with what Doctor K described. Immigrants brought in bugs that were new to us. 
I took Johns Hopkins public health physicians on a Fell's Point walking tour to describe and point out the
neighborhood's role as a source of so many communicable diseases.

The museum's exhibit covers much of the early history of Jewish men becoming doctors, as opposed to baseball players,

a topic Dr. Kraut covered in his hour-plus talk.  I wasn't bored for a minute!    Zippy

Winner: Best Tours of BALTIMORE by Baltimore Magazine - 1989

Winner: Best Tour Guide in BALTIMORE by CITY PAPER - 2005

zippytours@gmail.com

    410 - 522 - 7334

 

Lena Horne

On Mar 8, 2016, at 8:53 PM, Zippy Larson <zippytours@gmail.com> wrote:

At the Pratt, her daughter spoke, and captivated us all with her stories about her Mom. If you ever heard the

beautiful Miss Lena Horne sing, and loved her, you would have relished the family stories I heard.

Her daughter, who attended Radcliffe, (sp) shared personal memories, tonight, about the Calhouns
who stayed in the South and those who moved to the North, and the history of the family from the Civil War to WW2.

It surely is one good reason to live in the city. I left my house at 6:35, easily found a parking space a block
from the Pratt, the talk began at 7, I found a front row seat, and I was on my way home by 8:00PM.

What an over the moon evening!!   Zippy

PS. Cab Calloway's daughter was sitting right in front of me!

Winner: Best Tours of BALTIMORE by Baltimore Magazine - 1989

Winner: Best Tour Guide in BALTIMORE by CITY PAPER - 2005

zippytours@gmail.com

    410 - 522 - 7334