Morgan State University has a Ph.D. program in History and African American Studies, a masters program in landscape architecture, and an undergraduate program in Sociology/Anthropology. It also has exceptional facilities: the $40 million Morgan Fine Arts Center, opened in 2001; the James E. Lewis Museum of Art, which maintains a collection of over 3,000 pieces, including African, African-American and European art work; and, the Beaulah Davis Room in Soper Library, which holds a collection of rare books and other memorabilia associated with local, national and global Africana history and culture. Morgan receives more applications from African American high school students than almost any institution in the country, and an above-average percentage of Morgan's undergraduates continue with graduate studies.
Proposed Programs: Morgan is building toward reinstatement of the Museology program and toward re-establishing itself as a regional leader in historic preservation and museum studies, as well as a cultural center in the Northeast corridor of Baltimore. More than a decade ago, Morgan approved its Master of Arts Degree Program in Museum Studies but could not implement it due to a lack of funding. The administration has approved a plan to implement the program with two new faculty positions, graduate fellowships and assistantships. In addition, the Maryland Historical Society is collaborating with the University to provide students with internships. Goucher College and the History Department of Morgan have been approached by the National Park Service to develop improved classes that will bring more African American students into historic preservation, archaeology and public interpretation programs.
Investments Toward IMPART: The Center for Museum Studies applied for federal Title III funds to implement the program over five years. Funds were approved for $59,000 a year to hire an assistant director and secretary for the Center. Those positions have been filled. State funding for two faculty positions is proposed for when the federal grant expires in 2006. Due to the great demand for African American professionals in the field of Museum Studies, the University's administration has agreed to the reestablishment of the Center and its future growth. The Center is working in active partnership with the Banneker-Douglass Museum, the Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture Corporation and the Consortium of African and African American Museums. The fine arts program, of which the Center is a part, has 50 undergraduate students. Increasingly, students from the Ph.D. program in history at the University are interested in taking museum studies courses. In cooperation with the history program, the Center plans to enroll 10 graduate students next year with a focus on museum studies.
African and African-American Burial Sites
The project focused on one important aspect of the Africans and African-Americans dying in Maryland between 1700 and 1870, establishing and documenting the places of their burial.
African and African-American Burial Sites
- Partner: Morgan State University
- Student: Chinyere Goddard and Calvin Gerald
The project focused on one important aspect of the Africans and African-Americans dying in Maryland between 1700 and 1870, establishing and documenting the places of their burial. The historical records show that several thousand individuals from these two populations were buried in Baltimore after 1872 in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. The question was where others were buried in Maryland. A directory needed to be established to document the localities and geographical locations of these burial grounds. Preliminary field research looked mainly at rural cemeteries and churches.
The two IMPART Assistantships were used to establish the base methodology to developing the directory and systematic mapping of the African and African-Americans who lived and died in the subject Maryland counties. The two Morgan State students from the Institute of Architecture & Planning working with the mentor were able to: seek archival resources and communications with authorities at cemeteries and churches in three specified counties in the State of Maryland; research the public records of Prince George's, Dorchester and Somerset counties in Maryland to determine the location of their cemeteries; and review the historical records of each cemetery to determine if it could contain African and African-Americans who died there within the study time period. The overall goal of the study was to establish the geographical locations of these burial grounds, which could be used in the next set of county investigations.
The three sample counties represented the research difficulties in rural and urban situations. At the onset it was established that little information concerning this investigation would be found through the internet. The research process involved numerous visits to libraries and other information centers. Sometimes the information posted was incomplete or erroneous. Working cemeteries were often of little help. Some claimed that their information was not available to the public due to issues of privacy and discrimination. Churches were the best source if such a cemetery existed as part of their responsibility. They sometimes had extensive burial records, e.g., Mount Auburn Cemetery. In the end, though limited, the best source of information was through communications with historians, mortuaries, church members, and family members of those whose graves they sought to find and document. Many hours were spent creating a definitive list of persons who might have the information or where to call next. In documenting the data collected, it was essential to establish a format of presentation.
The research done with the two IMPART Assistantships provided a clear representation of the difficulty in finding the required information. The project raised awareness of the topic's importance as well as the paucity of concern for the history of African-Americans in Maryland.
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Two graduate students from the Institute of Architecture & Planning (Morgan State University) did a site analysis and evaluation of the 33-acre cemetery site to produced a digitized understanding of the site through survey and analysis using GIS-based programs and recordkeeping.
Mount Auburn Cemetery
- Partner: Morgan State University
- Student: Deborah Nunn and Ann Ford
Mount Auburn Cemetery is the oldest African-American cemetery in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. The burial ground was founded in 1868. The Cemetery opened in 1872 by the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, established as the first black congregation in Baltimore (1787) and housing the seminary school that established (1862) what is now Morgan State University. The church was a leader in anti-slavery activism. Former slaves who had escaped to freedom through the Underground Railroad originally knew the cemetery as “City of the Dead for Colored People.” The cemetery eventually became the home to prominent blacks of Maryland, regardless of faith or wealth. It has been estimated that some 43,000 African Americans have been buried there. In 2001, the cemetery was given the official title of a Historic Site on the National Register of Historic Places.
There are unique cultural treatments within the Cemetery that show the diversity of burial forms within African-decent traditions and the blending of those traditions with European-style burials. Overtime, the site has become severely overgrown with a vast variety of vegetation and the most historic structure, the vault, has collapsed.
Two graduate students from the Institute of Architecture & Planning (Morgan State University) did a site analysis and evaluation of the 33-acre cemetery site to produced a digitized understanding of the site through survey and analysis using GIS-based programs and recordkeeping. Beyond paper records covering those who are buried at Mt. Auburn, little is documented about the site to assist in its maintenance, protection, restoration, and required improvements.
Ms. Ann Ford (CREP) – focused on the design of the Management Information System (MILS) of burial and funerary records for use in the site mapping and coordinating such mapping to be done by Museum Studies students and church/cemetery employees. Ms. Deborah Nunn (LAA) – focused on uploading the field data to the database systems and then to GIS system and maps. This resulted in determining the constraints and opportunities for restoration, rehabilitation and added design features, and basic information for a strategic plan used to create public awareness and solicit resources for required maintenance and improvements.
