City collects Mt. Clare Mansion artifacts in dispute
265 boxes of slave-era artifacts are part of the tug-of-war between the Carroll Park Foundation and Recreation and Parks Department
Above: A city crew (background) handling slave-era artifacts moved today from a storage locker.
True to its word, Baltimore City retrieved 265 boxes of slave and other 18th century artifacts collected from the grounds of Mt. Clare Mansion by a private foundation whose contract was terminated today.
The pickup at the EZ Storage facility on Old Pimlico Road followed months of acrimony between the Recreation and Parks Department and the Carroll Park Foundation, which was given rights to collect the artifacts in 1991.
The Brew described the dispute in a lengthy article last week.
More than 20 city and state personnel were on hand this morning to gain possession of the collection, according to Pamela Charshee, executive director of the foundation, who said the city has no plans on how to use the material.
For months, Charshee has appealed to city, state and federal officials to reach a compromise in which the foundation would remain in possession of the collection. A representative of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake rebuffed the group following allegations that the collection was not in good order and open to the public.
Charshee claims the closing of a city school, where the collection had been kept, forced the foundation to store the material in a climate-controlled locker earlier this year.
The license to excavate the “historic zone” around Mt. Clare Mansion, now revoked, gave the group the full responsibility (and expense) of maintaining the collection. The artifacts, however, remained the property of the city through Recreation and Parks.
“Operation Shock and Awe”
Charshee said her group was not informed today where the artifacts were to be stored, but had been told earlier that the collection was headed for the City Archive.
Rec and Parks has not responded to requests for comment about the artifacts and the reasons for its dissatisfaction with the foundation’s work.
Dubbing today’s removal “Operation Shock and Awe,” Charshee said that the boxes were roughly loaded onto two flat-bed trucks (“glad it wasn’t raining”) as representatives of the mayor’s office, Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP), Maryland Historical Trust, and Baltimore County police officers looked on.
“After all the work we have done to upgrade the collection, seeing it mishandled this way was very difficult to watch,” she said tonight.