This very distinctive metropolis on an arm of Chesapeake Bay remains one of America's most diverse, venerable (founded 1729), and dynamic cities in the USA, site of country-changing events; cradle of figure who themselves have made inestimable contributions to this country's history and culture; and by all accounts an urb still on the move and successfully reinventing itself.
Home today to distinguished institutions such as one of the USA's foremost universities, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore played a key part in the American Revolution, and it was here, watching the British assault on Fort McHenry (above), during the War of 1812, that Francis Scott Key penned the national anthem. Other figures which lived and drew inspiration from the city include slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass; literary legends Edgar Allan Poe and H.L. Mencken; jazz giants Eubie Blake and Billie Holiday, and in our own time, zany gay filmmaker John Waters (do read my colleague Ed Wetschler's marvelous post Offbeat Baltimore: John Waters Rules).
Read more in my post Baltimore's True Essence - and Yes, a Great Visit.
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