Rabbi David Einhorn and Sanding a Caboose

 

Thomas Pate

Rabbi David Einhorn

            My addition to President Street station that stands in the lobby is a banner depicting the life of Rabbi David Einhorn. Einhorn was an immigrant to Baltimore from Germany, and he was the writer of the abolitionist newspaper Sinai. His anti slavery views, backed up by holy text, inflamed hatred towards him from not only pro slavery Baltimoreans but from members of the Jewish community. Some Rabbis, such as Rabbi Raphall, disagreed on the interpretation of the Torah, stating that enslaving African Americans was not sinful. After the Pratt Street Riots, Einhorn’s newspaper building was burned to the ground, and he received death threats for himself and his family, forcing him to flee Baltimore to Philadelphia.

Researching this banner required a visit to the UMBC library, and I also inquired from local Rabbis about Einhorn’s history. When writing the banner, I had to restart during the internship since I was not satisfied with the work I completed. Eventually, I finished writing the banner and Robert Reyes was able to transfer it to an editor, who finished the banner. There were not really too many interesting things to say about this, as it was a cut and dry research project, but there is another project I did at the internship which went without as much notice as the banner.

As I mentioned in the first blog post, I sanded down a caboose and this had numerous challenges. First, I applied Bondo to the holes on the sides of the caboose, and waited for the putty to dry. Then, I belt sanded the exposed portions to be flush with the rest of the surface. This kicked up many fine particles that wafted all over my clothes and the sidewalk. Eventually, I stopped any more work since particulates were starting to enter the adjacent James Joyce restaurant. I finished the job well enough, and that was another contribution I made to the museum. These two contributions to President Street Station were small, but they were quite memorable since I learned new skills such as networking and belt sanding.

 

Internship at the Baltimore Civil War Museum

Internship at the Baltimore Civil War Museum

Thomas Pate

My internship at President Street Station, the Baltimore Civil War Museum,

was unlike the expectations that I had before I started work at the museum.

When I first visited this two story building in Harbor East, I was surprised at

how much stuff was inside the building. The site was full of paintings, flags,

artifacts, memorabilia, displays, and information. The museum manager,

Robert Reyes, gave me a tour of the site, explaining every bit of history

that he had carefully arranged into the small building. I was surprised by the

number of artifacts that had little to do with the American Civil War, such as

large German beer steins, documents from the American Revolutionary War, and

a poster of the movie Gangs of New York.Robert related this film with the gangs of Baltimore, which I found interesting. 

I explained several important facts to tourists about topics such as the orientation

of the museum along President Street, which is not the one listed as President Street.

Old President Street is the one with the Marriott hotel on it, not the one connected

to interstate 83. I also explained the role of horse drawn carriages in the riot, the

groups of soldiers who passed through the station on April 19th 1861, the Pratt Street

Riot, and usage of the station after the war. I also focused on famous African Americans

who passed through the station, or escaped through the station. One of these includes

Henry “Box” Brown and Alexander Augusta. 

I was given a description of the various tasks to complete such as operating a

cash register, selling books and merchandise from the museum store, asking for

donations, and arming the security system when closing up the museum.

A few extraneous tasks that I also completed was writing a banner on David Einhorn, an

abolitionist rabbi, which stands at the museum today. I will go into greater detail on Einhorn

in the subsequent paper. I also conducted restoration operations on the caboose out in

front of the museum. This involved sanding down applied putty after it had dried.

I literally and figuratively left a mark on the museum by completing this internship. 

 

Teaching a guest about Baltimore on the eve of the Civil War.