Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore, 1975 – 1980

Media - 1983.63.998 - SAAM-1983.63.998_1 - 55235

Joan Clark Netherwood, Two views of the "I am an American Day" parade, East Baltimore Street., 1977, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1983.63.998

To celebrate the bicentennial of the country’s founding, in 1976 the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) launched a multi-year program of photography surveys in communities across the United States. These surveys created a new visual record of a changing nation. Survey projects included preserving or working with historical collections; however, most were commissions of new work by an emerging generation of documentarians, many of whom became prominent figures of American photography. Of the more than seventy projects funded by the NEA, the East Baltimore Survey was unique for having been conceived, led, and carried out by women photographers—Elinor Cahn, Joan Clark Netherwood, and Linda Rich. With significant support from the community, it was also one of the most highly acclaimed at a national level.

Description

In her application to the NEA for support, project leader Linda Rich wrote that “Today, while many urban communities seem to be fighting a losing battle against physical, emotional, and spiritual decay, East Baltimore continues to grow and change, preserving its culture, integrity, and humanity.” Rich, Netherwood, and Cahn approached local clergy, and were invited to attend bingo luncheons, exercise classes, first communions, and sauerbraten suppers. In time they were welcomed into the homes and private lives of the neighborhood of East Baltimore. They photographed a cross-section of its residences and businesses, celebrating its traditions while also acknowledging its many challenges. The tension between ethnicity and Americanness was a sustained theme of the Survey, as was its recognition of residents’ fight for their community’s survival, insisting on basic social services and defending against efforts to divide it politically or economically.

In 1983, 1,500 photographs by NEA grant recipients were received by SAAM in a transfer that inaugurated its photography collection. A second transfer of 500 prints took place in 2010. Thirteen of the completed photography surveys, including the East Baltimore Survey, were among the material received by SAAM. Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore, 1975-1980 is the first presentation of those photographs. In addition, while preparing for the exhibition shortly before her death, Joan Netherwood recovered a complete “community exhibition” of the East Baltimore Survey. These were small-scale exhibitions held in churches and community centers, where the photographers showed their progress and their subjects brought pot-luck dinners and stood beside their portraits. They were “trust-raising” events In a community renowned for its suspicion of outsiders. The thirty recovered prints were donated by Netherwood to SAAM, and they are the featured centerpiece of Welcome Home.

The exhibition, SAAM’s first presentation of these photographs, is organized by John Jacob, McEvoy Family Curator for Photography, with Vitoria Bitencourt and Krystle Stricklin, curatorial assistants. Vitoria Bitencourt’s work at the museum was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities; Krystle Stricklin’s work was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Visiting Information

July 16, 2021 January 23, 2022
Open Daily, 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m
Free Admission

Videos

Credit

Welcome Home: A Portrait of East Baltimore, 1975-1980 is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Generous support has been provided by the Gene Davis Memorial Fund, the Margery and Edgar Masinter Exhibitions Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.

The logo of the National Endowment for the Arts
The logo of the National Endowment for the Humanities
The logo of the Smithsonian's Women's History Initiative

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 
 

SAAM Stories

Group of senior citizens celebrating Fourth of July in front of a home.
Exhibitions03/29/2021
Curator John P. Jacob reflects on his recent conversations with the photographer Joan Clark Netherwood, her legacy, and the East Baltimore Documentary Photography Project
Photography of John Jacob by Friedrich Nill.
John Jacob
McEvoy Family Curator for Photography
A black and white photograph of a person leaning out of a window, holding an umbrella.
A close exploration of a resilient community through the lens of three women photographers
Headshot of woman with black hair
Rebekah Mejorado
Public Relations Specialist
A black and white photograph of Edith Massey standing in front of her store.
Exploring the spirit of one American neighborhood in a time of change
Headshot of a woman with brown hair wearing a gray jacket
Krystle Stricklin
NEA Curatorial Fellow
An African American girl wearing a black hijab looks directly at the camera, smiling. In front of her is a fence painted to resenble piano keys. Her fingers rest atop the fence.
One SAAM educator explores creating a meaningful partnership with a community-based organization to achieve something neither could have done alone.
Elizabeth Dale-Deines
An African American girl wearing a rose-colored hijab stands, smiling, in front of a stone and brick rowhome.
Education09/02/2021
SAAM educator Elizabeth Dale-Deines talks with Karim R. Amin about the outcomes of creating a youth-focused photography program
Elizabeth Dale-Deines

Learning Resources

Recording a Changing Nation
Source/Collection
Recording a Changing Nation Overview
From 1976-1981, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) sponsored a program of photographic surveys in 55 communities in 30 states across the United States. These surveys created a new visual record of a changing nation. This resource uses those images (or any photographic survey) as source documents to spark sustained inquiry.
Topics
Civics , History and Social Studies
Language
English
Recording a Changing Nation Quick Visual Analysis
Lesson Plan
Recording a Changing Nation Quick Visual Analysis
This introductory activity builds basic visual literacy skills that may be used with any image.
Topics
Civics , History and Social Studies , Teacher-Tested , Visual Arts
Language
English
An African American girl wearing a rose-colored hijab stands, smiling, in front of a stone and brick rowhome.
Lesson Plan
Recording A Changing Nation Extended Visual Analysis
With its focus on the artistic process, this activity serves to deepen visual analysis and an introduction to the strategies a photographer may deploy when taking a picture or editing it.
Topics
History and Social Studies , Visual Arts , Visual Analysis , Teacher-Tested
Language
English
A gelatin silver print of a street with a car in the foreground, clothes handing in the middle ground and a building in the background.
Lesson Plan
Recording A Changing Nation: Interview With Curator John Jacob
Join John Jacob, McEvoy Family Curator for Photography at SAAM, for a close-up look at photography, a medium marked by both its accessibility and its complexity. What are some of the choices that photographers make? How might we “read” a photograph? What might be the value of having photographs of everyday people in the collection of a national museum like SAAM?
Topics
Visual Arts , History and Social Studies , Teacher-Tested
Language
English
An gelatin silver print of a muddy field with a farming tool.
Lesson Plan
Recording A Changing Nation: Continuity & Change Over Time
This activity uses a Jigsaw structure, requiring that students have access to a set of oral histories from the same time and place documented in the NEA photographic survey of your choosing. If an NEA photographic survey was not conducted in your area, consider using a survey from a neighboring area or one whose influence you feel in your own area.
Topics
Visual Arts , History and Social Studies , Teacher-Tested
Language
English
A gelatin silver print of a woman leaning in her window looking out with a curtain behind her.
Lesson Plan
Recording A Changing Nation: Rhetorical Analysis
With its focus on truth and beauty, this activity initiates a conversation about researcher bias while also building media literacy. Consider whether your students might benefit from a refresher on bias in writing in order to reactivate this content knowledge and prepare them to apply that concept to visual texts like photographs.
Topics
History and Social Studies , Visual Arts
Language
English
An African American girl wearing a black hijab looks directly at the camera, smiling. In front of her is a fence painted to resenble piano keys. Her fingers rest atop the fence.
Lesson Plan
Recording A Changing Nation: Shifting the Lens
Each person sees the world slightly differently because we each have a unique combination of roles, identities, and lived experiences. We might consider each of these individual parts of ourselves to be individual lenses through which we could see images, issues, or events.
Topics
Visual Arts , History and Social Studies , Teacher-Tested
Language
English
A muscular African American man helps a small child ride a large bike. Another child can be seen at the extreme foreground. Work trucks are parked along the street.
Activity/Lab
Recording A Changing Nation: Student Work
Voices of 21217 is a community-based program that chronicles the experiences and imagination of youth in Baltimore City, ages 14-24. Their vision is a world where young people in Baltimore City are empowered to establish their legacy and highlight their experiences through creative expression.
Topics
Visual Arts
Language
English
An African American girl wearing a black hijab looks directly at the camera, smiling. In front of her is a fence painted to resenble piano keys. Her fingers rest atop the fence.
Video
Recording A Changing Nation: Interview with Photographer Shae McCoy
Shae McCoy, a photojournalist and author from West Baltimore, sits down with SAAM educator Elizabeth Dale-Deines for a wide-ranging conversation that touches on everything from what she keeps in mind when she photographs her own community to what stories might be told by juxtaposing historical and contemporary images of Baltimore. Created with K-12 students and teachers in mind, this video amplifies the practice of visual storytelling and the importance of engagement and authenticity when documenting community.
Topics
Visual Arts , History and Social Studies , Teacher-Tested
Language
English

Artists

Elinor Cahn
born Baltimore, MD 1925-died Baltimore, MD 2020
Joan Clark Netherwood
born York, SC 1932-died Joppa, MD 2021
Linda Rich
born Cleveland, OH 1949-died Los Angeles, CA 1998