In 2006, Tribune Co. announced that all smaller affiliated newspapers would close their foreign bureaus by 2008. This included The Baltimore Sun’s Moscow Bureau. As of 2024, the paper has not revived any of its foreign bureaus. Such a reversal of fortunes is notable, given the Moscow Bureau’s prestigious reputation. Perhaps the peak of this was Paul W. Ward’s Life in the Soviet Union. Throughout 1947, Ward published a series of articles detailing his experiences living in Moscow as The Sun’s foreign correspondent. The series won him a Pulitzer and was republished as a pamphlet. A copy of said pamphlet is held in the Needle Collection at UMBC Special Collections.

Throughout these articles, Ward provides a narrative of everyday life in the Soviet Union that conforms to the tropes of early Cold War writings on the nation. He contrasted Soviet poverty and authoritarianism negatively with American liberty and prosperity. There is also a distinctly racist tone to certain articles. He treated Russians as distinctly Asian rather than European, and therefore dismissed them as primitive. Further, Ward appeared not to speak Russian. His anecdotes were drawn from English-speaking residents of Moscow or from interpreters, limiting the sources he uses for his reporting. However, Ward won a Pulitzer for a reason. He was talented at digging into city life and effectively and persuasively communicating his findings on issues ranging from the Soviet militias to the cost of living. Ward’s work reflected both how The Sun’s foreign bureaus provided in-depth, on-the-ground coverage in the mid-20th century and the limits of that coverage, often rooted in reporters’ ideologically motivated assumptions about the people they covered.

Ward’s pamphlet can be viewed on-site in the Special Collections reading room. This post was written by Yoni Isaacs, M.A., history, a former graduate assistant in Special Collections. Thank you, Yoni!

Sources

Nick Madigan, “Tribune Co. is Closing Sun’s Foreign Bureaus,” Baltimore Sun, July 7, 2006.

David Folkenflik, “More crime and conservatism: How new owners are changing ‘The Baltimore Sun,’” NPR, Feb. 26, 2024.

“Paul W. Ward Dead at 71; Won Pulitzer Prize in ’48,” New York Times, Nov. 25, 1976.

Paul W. Ward, Life in the Soviet Union (Baltimore: Baltimore Sun, 1947), 1. Call number Needle HC 335.7 .W37 1947.  

September 19, 2026 marks 60 years since UMBC’s first classes were held, but the history of UMBC’s founding includes many other important firsts. Visit the Library Rotunda to explore key historical documents from the University Archives and learn more about the development, planning, and the important mark left on our campus by the school’s first students.

Founding and Firsts: UMBC at 60 will be on display through November 1. The exhibit was curated by Emma Sigrist, Interlibrary Loan Lending Specialist, and is part of the Library’s Fall semester programming for the Maryland Semiquincentennial. See the full list of programming here.

Join Emma and archivist Lindsey Loeper on Wednesday October 28 during free hour (12-1pm) for a hands-on experience with the University Archives and to pick up a button made just for the event!

This pamphlet was distributed to members of the Free African Civilization Society of Baltimore, a Black benevolent society was a source of monetary, spiritual, and community support for free and formally enslaved Black men in the late 18th through the mid 19th centuries. The Free African Civilization Society of Baltimore had explicit membership requirements and provided monetary support for members at times of illness and to their family if the member died. 

In 2026, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) solicited one item from any archival repository that wished to participate in order to build a digital collection that showed the breadth of American history available in U.S. libraries, archives, and museums. Faculty and staff in the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery nominated items for consideration, and the top four contenders were voted on by students attending the Spring 2026 Relax and Refuel event. This pamphlet received the most votes and became UMBC’s contribution to the SAA digital collection. It has also been added to UMBC’s Digital Collections website. Both platforms are open to the public.

This item was selected because it provides evidence of Baltimore’s early Black residents and the community that they built within the segregated city. This early example of mutual aid demonstrates the importance and power of community support for Black residents of Baltimore in the 1800s. There is also value in the provenance of the item, which is labeled with the name Washington Perkins, a free Black grocer who was born in 1810. 

This item can be viewed on-site in the Special Collections reading room or online at the links above.

This summer, the United States began celebrating its 250th anniversary as an independent nation. Many of us gathered with friends and family, attended cookouts, watched fireworks, and thought about what it means to be an American. The Fourth of July is ripe with tradition that dates back to July 3, 1776. That’s right, the day before the Second Continental Congress adopted the ratified Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote his wife Abigail stating, “It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

And the very next year that is exactly how people celebrated, decorating their towns with colorful streamers and illuminating the night sky with grand firework displays. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would both die on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, prior to its official status as a national holiday.

Fifty years ago, in 1976, the small town of Oella, Maryland celebrated America’s Bicentennial. The Maryland Traditions Archive houses three collections that centers on Oella, including the Mills of Baltimore County collection which features these wonderful photos. Tucked away in the woods along the Patapsco River outside Ellicott City, Oella was built in 1808 as a mill village for the workers of the Union Manufacturing Company. This textile manufacturer would eventually be taken over by W.J. Dickey & Sons, Inc. who produced men’s high-end woolen suits.

Generations of families worked and lived alongside one another within Oella’s secluded hills. And just like in small towns and large cities across the United States, Oella’s residents came together as citizens and neighbors, continuing the long tradition of our country’s Independence Day celebration. Families would pack large picnic lunches and go out to what was known as “Picnic Woods.” There were sack races, potato races and baseball games. In the evening, there was dancing on a large wooden platform that had been erected a day or so earlier by the mill carpenters.

Oella’s Bicentennial festivities featured a parade with Continental soldiers; the Johnnycake Junior high school marching band; Girl Scout troops, and military veterans; as well as a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by an Abraham Lincoln reenactor and a performance by Ola Belle Reed and family. It even had those creepy Belly Button Whistlers I had so happily forgotten about.

We only have the photos from the bicentennial celebration in Oella – no diaries or videos exist in the collection. Looking at this archive is like looking into a family photo album from the past, you can almost smell the honeysuckles and charcoal grills, and hear the conversations and laughter between neighbors. It gives a feeling that the comradery and magic is still here. We just need a reminder once and a while.

Coll349: The Mills of Baltimore County collection is available for research in our Reading Room. This post was written by Mark Breeding, Maryland Traditions Archivist.

Sources:
Adams, John. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776.
UMBC Special Collections, Maryland Traditions Archive. Mills of Baltimore County collection, Series I, Subseries I.C, Box 1, Folder 48.

Join the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery’s Special Collections department throughout the Fall semester as we commemorate 250 years of Maryland history. All semester long we will have exhibitions, events, and online programming highlighting the items in our collections that support scholarly historical research in Maryland. A full description of programming in Special Collections and the Library Gallery is below. 

Lewis Hine in Maryland

The Library Gallery exhibition, Lewis Hine in Maryland, is open to the public through December 18, 2026. In July 1909, documentary photographer Lewis Hine (American, 1874–1940) visited Maryland, photographing child workers at Bottomley berry farms in Anne Arundel County and at the J. S. Farrand Packing Company in Baltimore. Drawn from UMBC’s Photography Collections, this exhibition explores the places and people behind these photographs. A selection of Hine’s most iconic and enduring images situates his Maryland work within the broader context of his documentary project.  

Lewis Hine in Maryland is accompanied by an installation of two works from artist Lisa Oppenheim’s Spine series, in which she appropriates images by Lewis Hine from the Library of Congress. Enlarged to life size, the photographs depict the backs of adolescent textile workers whose bodies were curved and misshapen by their labor. 

Curatorial tour and opening reception, Thursday September 17, 5:00 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Panel Discussion: Food and Labor in Maryland, Thursday October 22, 6:00 p.m. Followed by a reception. Free and open to the public.

Closing reception, Thursday December 4, 6:00 p.m.

UMBC’s 60th anniversary

UMBC opened in 1966 and our students, faculty, staff and larger community of scholars has continued to make history over the past 60 years! A university history exhibit, curated by Library staff member Emma Sigrist, will be on display in the Library Rotunda from September 18 – November 1. Join Emma and archivist Lindsey Loeper on Wednesday October 28 during free hour for a hands-on exploration of university history including the first volumes of The Retriever Weekly and student yearbooks.

Women’s movement in Baltimore

The Library Rotunda exhibit “What is Liberation?”: Women’s Movement in Baltimore will be on display in the Library Rotunda from November 2 – 30. Curated by Morgan Dowty, program management specialist in the American Studies department, the exhibit brings together ephemera collected from a wide range of feminist activities occurring in Baltimore between 1970 and 1990. The exhibit borrows its title from the second issue of Women: A Journal of Liberation and the items on display are drawn from collection 334, the women’s movement in Baltimore collection, and the Alternative Press Center Collection.  

Maryland 250 blog series

All semester, Special Collections faculty and students will be highlighting items in our collections that connect us to Maryland’s history. Weekly posts will be available on the Special Collections blog and on the Library’s myUMBC page.

#PhotobookFriday

Your favorite Instagram series is back this semester with a full list of Maryland photography books. Follow us at @umbcspecialcollections and don’t miss a post!

Research assistance

Are you working on your own Maryland history research project? Be sure to check out our local history research guide or schedule a personal research consultation.