Patricia Schultheis

Part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of Anerica series, Baltimore’s Lexington Market traces the continuous history of a vast public market on the westside of Baltimore. From its founding immediately after the Revolution, Lexington Market has been intimately linked to Baltimore’s identity, and this pictorial history captures both the essence of the market and the growth and struggles of a great American city. Built on land donated by John Eager Howard, one of the Revolution’s heroes, the market was intended to provide the city’s burgeoning population with fresh food grown by farmers in Maryland’s fertile western reaches. Using photocopies of historic documents as well as reproductions of earliest photographic techniques Baltimore’s Lexington Market details the market’s growth through the eras of horse drawn buggies to trolley cars, and, finally, automobiles. Central to the market’s success, is its unique and vast variety of foods: oysters, muskrats, hand-dipped chocolates, jelly beans, specialty cakes, steaks, lamb chops, roasted peanuts, strawberries, and Silver Queen corn ⎯ the variety is endless. This well-designed little volumn captures the essence of the enterprising Epicureans, those the hard-working vendors and sharp-eyed shoppers, who make the market memorable.