Rails to Freedom: New Research and Interpretation on the B&O Railroad’s Role in the Underground Railroad

FAIN: ZPP-284297-22

B & O Railroad Museum, Inc. (Baltimore, MD 21223-2644)
Kris A Hoellen (Project Director: May 2021 to January 2026)

The implementation of the African American Railroad Oral Archives project at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, retaining eight jobs and creating three part-time positions.

The B&O Railroad Museum has definitively documented that freedom seekers used the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as part of the Underground Railroad. The purpose of the requested funding is to finish our project, started in January 2020, on this newly documented history with public interpretation and exhibition in the historic Passenger Depot at Mt. Clare Station, a National Historic Landmark in Baltimore. The funding will additionally assure the Museum is not forced to furlough staff as a result of the continued financial impact of the COVID pandemic on the Museum’s revenue and attendance. This project will contribute to the Museum’s financial recovery from COVID and future sustainability.