Baltimore history lives...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:27:54 -0500
digital-collections, photography, special-collections

Now Online

View photographs from the Hughes Company photography studio and experience Baltimore life during 1905-1940. Find out what your neighborhood street looked like back then; compare familiar buildings and structures--such as the Hippodrome Theater and Bromo Seltzer tower--with how they look now; peruse images of Flower Mart from the 1920s; make your way through the old outdoor markets of Eutaw and Lexington Streets; or see horse drawn carts, streetcars, and early automobiles traverse the city.

[Clothed children under outdoor showers in street]

The Basics of the Collection

The 2,682 glass negatives from the Hughes Company Glass Negative Collection were scanned and converted into digital positives. The collection features images of Baltimore and environs, including street scenes, buildings, churches, schools, store fronts, monuments, and signs. Also included are commercial photographs from local businesses and community groups, such as company portraits, student groups, advertising images, machinery, and people at work.

[William Tell School #6 Parade]

The History of the Company

The Hughes Company was a commercial photography studio in Baltimore, MD founded circa 1878 by James F. Hughes. Business was good for Hughes, and the studio thrived into the 1890s.
After his death in the early 1900s, the company was sold to his studio assistant, photographer James W. Scott. The studio experienced a boom of production, generating advertising photographs for clients as diverse as Westinghouse Company and the Baltimore Sun, as well as local businesses and school and church groups. The glass negatives in the digital collection were created during this period.
In 1939, Scott trained his son, Gaither, in both photography and the operation of the studio. Gaither Scott later took over the studio and eventually moved the company to Annapolis in the 1970s, where he retired and finally closed the business.
Scott divided the collection and gave the Hughes Company negatives to three different institutions, including UMBC, the Maryland Historical Society and the Peale Museum.

[Group portrait of Girls' Latin School purple basketball team]

How You Can Participate

You can help us enrich the collection by providing additional details about the images. If you recognize a building, a person, or know further information about an image, please email Special Collections at speccoll@umbc.edu.

[U.S. Woolen Mills Co. at Calvert and Baltimore Streets]

Additional Resources

Growing Baltimore is a project carried out by UMBC Public History graduate students Aiden Faust, Ryan McCormick and Trisha Okine, who created an online exhibit using images from the Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection to illustrate expansion and development of Baltimore City from 1918-1939.

A portion of UMBC's Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection can be viewed on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/umbclibrary/sets/72157622584312332/.

[Aerial view of Baltimore looking south]