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We tend to think of his­tory as exist­ing only in the past. But the peo­ple who par­tic­i­pated in piv­otal his­tor­i­cal moments are still among us — in final repose. Walk­ing through a ceme­tery, you may find that his­tory is still very much alive. Names etched in stone speak to you, telling sto­ries about the per­son interred at your feet and our nar­ra­tive as a people.

Why did Bob Dylan write a song about Hat­tie Carroll’s lone­some death? How did the ashes of lit­er­ary wit Dorothy Parker end up in a memo­r­ial at the NAACP national head­quar­ters in north­west Bal­ti­more? You can admire Ottmar Mergenthaler’s ivy-draped obelisk, then go to the Museum of Indus­try to see his Lino­type machine in action and reflect upon his crit­i­cal role in the evo­lu­tion of mass communication.

Or just have a nice walk. Grave-visiting is a good excuse to explore unfa­mil­iar parts of town.

Click to read more about each per­son and details on locat­ing his or her grave, includ­ing GPS coor­di­nates and optional dri­ving directions.

This project is by no means com­plete. The list will be added to as time and resources per­mit. Com­ing up: Samuel Chase, Divine, Tamara Dob­son, Wal­ter Lord, Philip Berri­gan, Spiro Agnew, and Johnny Uni­tas. If you’d like to con­tribute to Buried in Bal­ti­more, shoot an email this way.

Your com­ments, feed­back and sug­ges­tions are appre­ci­ated: Email.

Ben­jamin Ban­neker (1731 — 1806) Sci­en­tist
John Wilkes Booth (1838 — 1865) Assas­sin
Hat­tie Car­roll (1911–1965) Wait­ress
Allen Dulles (1893 — 1969) CIA Direc­tor
Johnny Eck (1911 — 1991) Freak
Joe Gans (1874 — 1910) Boxer
Johns Hop­kins (1795 — 1873) Phil­an­thropist
H. L. Mencken (1880 — 1956) Writer
Ottmar Mer­gen­thaler (1854 — 1888) Inven­tor
Dorothy Parker (1893 — 1967) Writer
Mary Young Pick­ers­gill (1776 — 1857) Flag maker
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 — 1849) Writer
Howard Rollins (1950 — 1996) Actor