Maryland has museums devoted to African Americans, artists, war veterans and sports legends.
Starting this spring, it will have a center devoted to more than half the state's adult population: women.
When the Maryland Women's Heritage Center and Museum opens in downtown Baltimore, planners say, it will be the first of its kind in the nation - a community forum that will recognize stories of achievement by Maryland women - from Harriet Tubman to Rachel Carson to Marin Alsop.
Women's "extraordinary accomplishments have largely been invisible," said Jill Moss Greenberg, an educator, activist and historian who serves as the center's executive director. "The Maryland Women's Heritage Center and Museum will overcome this omission by making history complete. Our motto is: 'Adding herstory to history to tell ourstory,' so everyone is included."
It won't just be about the past, said Frances Hughes Glendening, former first lady of Maryland and president of the heritage center's executive board. "This will be a center of activity - a place where you can get information, a place to meet, a place to take action. ... This will be about the past and the present and the future."
The nonprofit heritage center is an outgrowth of the Maryland Women's History Project, which began as a collaboration between two public agencies, the Maryland Commission for Women and the Maryland State Department of Education.
Greenberg, who had the idea for the center, said planning goes back to 1980, when the history project was launched and the first honorees were inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.
She said she has long thought Maryland needs a women's heritage center because when she was a girl and visited local history museums, "there wasn't anyone who looked like me."
Besides Glendening, the executive board includes the current first lady, Catherine Curran O'Malley, and previous first lady Kendel Ehrlich as well as state school Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick and philanthropist Shoshana Cardin.
The heritage center is under construction on the first floor of 39 W. Lexington St., the former Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. headquarters that has been converted to luxury apartments by David Hillman's Southern Management Corp.
The center's directors are aiming to open in March - Women's History Month - but an exact date has not been set.
Hillman donated the 2,500-square-foot space for two years. Greenberg said it will be a temporary location for the center while the directors seek funding for a larger, permanent home.
Plans call for the heritage center to include a mix of exhibits and displays, including tributes to well-known Maryland women in the statewide Hall of Fame and "unsung heroines" who made key contributions to the state and nation.
The Hall of Fame has 125 inductees, including Mary Pickersgill, who made the giant flag that inspired the national anthem; Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross; Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig, co-developer of the "blue baby" heart procedure at Johns Hopkins that saved thousands of lives; and Henrietta Szold, pioneer of modern-day adult education.
The heritage center also will serve as a resource center, a clearinghouse for information about Maryland women, a meeting place for groups that address women's concerns and issues, and a setting for performances and events. There will be a reference library, history archive, student learning center, reception space and gift shop. Large display windows along Liberty Street, where BGE once featured washing machines, stoves and other domestic appliances, will be used to promote the center's exhibits and events.
The heritage center is being designed and built by a women-led team, including architects Diane Cho and Anath Ranon of Cho Benn Holback + Associates and Kelly Stockton of Henry H. Lewis Contractors.
Many of the supplies were donated. Greenberg said the cost of construction, if the center had to pay for it all, would exceed $350,000. The center is raising funds for operating expenses and plans to open with a high percentage of volunteers to keep expenses down.
Greenberg said other women's centers contain elements of what Maryland's will have, including the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y.; the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, and a women's museum in Dallas.
What sets the Maryland center apart, Greenberg said, is that it will have exhibits and resources for people who want to learn about women's achievements, and it will stress the diversity of women who have made contributions.
"As far as we know, we are the only state that is combining the elements we are to create a model that can be replicated by the other 49 states," she said. "It will offer the people of Maryland a unique opportunity to recognize and learn from women's past and present achievements, and to come together to shape a better future."
The exhibits will feature women in sports, business, the arts, science, education and politics. Many represent firsts for the state and nation, such as Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, the first female director of a major American art museum; Marin Alsop, the first woman to become conductor of a major American orchestra; Elizabeth Seton, the first American-born saint; and "Silent Spring" author Rachel Carson, who is widely considered the mother of the environmentalist movement.
Like the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, Greenberg said, the women's heritage center will address disenfranchisement and discrimination.
She points to times before women could vote or when female legislators couldn't head committees in the state legislature.
She said the center plans to display a fur-covered toilet seat that was given to former Del. Pauline H. Menes by then-House Speaker Thomas Hunter Lowe, who appointed her chair of the Women's Restroom Committee. She had complained about a lack of restroom facilities for women.
Asked whether disgraced Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon will find her way into the heritage center, Greenberg said that is inevitable. Dixon, the first woman to be mayor of Baltimore, will leave office Thursday after a jury found her guilty of embezzling about $500 in retail gift cards meant for charity.
"It's heartbreaking that this has happened, but it's part of the history of Baltimore and Maryland now," Greenberg said.
Nancy Hinds, vice president of public affairs for Visit Baltimore!, a group that promotes the city, said she thinks the center will be very popular.
"The fact that it's a first in the country," she said, "will make it even more of a draw."
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