In 1860, Baltimore cheered a Prince of Wales as he passed through

November 30, 2008

Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, recently celebrated his 60th birthday, and crossed a certain historical meridian.

Recent columns

• Sit in a good chair, unfold a map, and suddenly you are transported

  November 23, 2008

  For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated with maps. All types of maps: highway, railroad, maritime (called more correctly charts) or topographical.

• Maryland's black troops from the Great War paraded home in style

  November 16, 2008

  Some 400,000 African-Americans answered their country's call during World War I and served in the Army's segregated units.

• They all liked Ike, and claimed credit for the slogan

  November 9, 2008

  Our faithful Chestertown correspondent and longtime friend, Douglas R. Price, who in his younger days was a member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House staff, sent me a letter the other day explaining the history of "I Like Ike," which became his former boss' 1952 campaign song.

• When Wilson beat Hughes, Baltimore blinked

  November 2, 2008

  If you thought the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 were cliffhangers, how about the election of 1916 that faced off incumbent Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, against the Republican Party's nominee, Charles Evans Hughes, former associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

• They're not writing campaign songs like these any more

  October 26, 2008

  There is nothing musical that has a shorter shelf life than the custom-written presidential campaign song, unless it's one the anointed party candidate has copped from the popular music world and adopted as his campaign theme without altering lyrics.

• Gold coin and Rodgers Forge stories return

  October 19, 2008

  Weeks later, and I'm still getting mail and phone calls about columns I wrote in September and August.

• A pioneer in teaching Russian to high schoolers

  October 12, 2008

  Earlier this week, I wrote about the death of Joseph Glus, 84, a longtime Charles Village resident who was hired as the first Russian-language teacher by Baltimore County's public schools in 1959.

• Jervis Langdon: the man behind the railroad

  October 5, 2008

  Why is it that most biographies of railroad presidents and business tycoons fall flatter than a Michael Phelps diner pancake?

• A platterful of fond Connolly's memories

  July 27, 2008

  Even though Connolly's Pier 5 Pratt Street seafood house served up its last crab cake platter in 1991, Baltimoreans near and far still fondly recall the old, no-frills restaurant and wish that such a place still existed.