BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Catonsville -- Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum

MD -- Catonsville -- Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum:

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[1] BBHP_131015_001_STITCH.JPG

[2] BBHP_131015_004_STITCH.JPG

[3] BBHP_131015_005.JPG	[4] BBHP_131015_010.JPG	[5] BBHP_131015_013.JPG
[6] BBHP_131015_018.JPG	[7] BBHP_131015_022.JPG	[8] BBHP_131015_028.JPG
[9] BBHP_131015_032.JPG	[10] BBHP_131015_034.JPG	[11] BBHP_131015_036.JPG
[12] BBHP_131015_039.JPG	[13] BBHP_131015_043.JPG	[14] BBHP_131015_047.JPG
[15] BBHP_131015_050.JPG	[16] BBHP_131015_051.JPG	[17] BBHP_131015_057.JPG
[18] BBHP_131015_059.JPG	[19] BBHP_131015_062.JPG	[20] BBHP_131015_065.JPG
[21] BBHP_131015_068.JPG	[22] BBHP_131015_072.JPG	[23] BBHP_131015_076.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. BBHP_131015_005.JPG: Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806) The self-educated Negro mathematician and astronomer was born, lived his entire life and died near here. He assisted in surveying the District of Columbia, 1791, and published the first Maryland Almanac, 1792. Thomas Jefferson recognized his achievements.
2. BBHP_131015_018.JPG: Origins of Banneker From the crossroads of continents, cultures and ideas, emerged a Colonial American family that would come to personify the heritage, spirit, ideals of a new nation, years ahead of their time. Their son would exemplify that genius of a people, humanity and will in mankind. Known as "The First African American Man of Science" and "The Man Who Loved the Stars," Benjamin Banneker, from a Colonial frontier farm, emerged as one of the most brilliant minds of his era, and living proof of the intelligence inherent in peoples of all colors. Born free November 9, 1731, in Maryland (the Colony with the largest population of free blacks), Benjamin was the first in the third generation of 'Bannaka' in America. His grandfather, the original 'Bannaka' (a term meaning 'sweet place' or 'sweet water' in its native African language), was a prince of the Wolof Tribe in the region of Senegal. Captured, and shipped to Maryland, he began his life in America as a slave in the early 1690's. Benjamin's maternal grandmother, Molly Welsh, was a milkmaid of Wessex, southern England. In 1683 she was accused of stealing milk, and sent to a Maryland plantation as an indentured servant for her punishment. After completing the indenture, Molly acquired a small farm of her own in the area of Elkridge, and purchased two slaves to help her work the land. A few years later she freed them both, and married one, Bannaka. From their union grew a lineage, a legacy, and a story that endures. From 'Bannaka' to 'Banneker': Molly and Bannaka had four children. One was Mary, who betrothed Robert, a gifted farmer, and former slave who had been captured from Guinea (present day Ghana/Nigeria). Robert adopted Mary's last name when the two married in 1730. Starting out in the vicinity of Elkridge, but finally settling here in Oella, this second generation, the 'Bannakys', bore five children: Benjamin, and his siblings Jemima, Julian, Minta and Molly. As the only able-bodied son, Benjamin was needed at the homestead to help his father with the farm, and thus unable to attend school on a regular basis. He is documented in the area's Quaker school register for only a few days. But his insatiatble quest to know more always kept him studying, learning from any source available. Be it the ancestral knowledge in stargazing from the African farming traditions of his father, the bible readings of his grandmother, whatever books he could acquire from school or neighbors, and even instruments from passersby, Benjamin loved learning, and finding ways to apply what he learned. The farmer was first heralded in the mid-1750's as a respected clockmaker; however it was not until his work as a scientist and abolitionist, from the late-1780's on, that the name of 'Banneker', this Early American renaissance man, would be known throughout the new nation. The location of his land and things would become blurred with time, but his deeds and impact would be indelible. Benjamin Banneker had not married, not had children by his death in 1806. The family line was continued collaterally. Through his oldest sister, Jemima, bearing eight children from her marriage to Samuel Lett in 1757, the Bannaka family line most notable extends to this day.
3. BBHP_131015_022.JPG: Genesis -- Banneker Historical Park Acquisition of Stout: Robert and Mary Bannaky's first farm was Timber Point, a 25 acre lot in the area of Elkridge. Robert's skill in farming made tobacco profitable there. It was the sale of 7,000 pounds of tobacco, that they could purchase the large 100 acre property here, in the land known as 'Stout'. This was to be the permanent homestead of the second generation of Bannakys.
4. BBHP_131015_028.JPG: Bannaky Farm
5. BBHP_131015_032.JPG: The first great locust year that I can remember was 1749. I was then about seventeen years of age when thousands of them came and was creeping up the trees and bushes. I then imagined they came to eat and destroy the fruit of the Earth, and would occasion a famine in the land, I therefore began to kill and destroy them, but soon saw that my labor was in vain, therefore gave over my pretension. Again in the year 1766, which is seventeen years after their first appearance, they made a second, and appeared to me to be full as numerous as the first. I then.....
6. BBHP_131015_036.JPG: Astronomer, A Man of the Stars
7. BBHP_131015_039.JPG: Mathematician: Root of Revolutions
8. BBHP_131015_043.JPG: Writer: The Almanacs 1792-1797
9. BBHP_131015_050.JPG: Abolitionist
10. BBHP_131015_051.JPG: Surveyor: Ellicott's Assistant in the new Federal Territory
11. BBHP_131015_057.JPG: The Man Who Loved the Stars
12. BBHP_131015_059.JPG: The Death of Banneker
Description of Subject Matter: Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum

Encompassing 138 acres and containing extensive nature trails, the primary focus of this park is the museum highlighting the contributions of Benjamin Banneker -- the first African American man of science. This site includes a Visitors Center, featuring a collection of Banneker's works, community gallery, gift shop and patio garden.
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