Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum is Maryland's largest African American cultural institution, housed in a striking modern building on the edge of the Inner Harbor East neighbourhood. The collection covers the full sweep of African American history in Maryland — from the colonial period and slavery through Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, and into the 20th century.

The museum is particularly strong on Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, escaped through Baltimore, and became one of the most important American abolitionists and writers. The gallery on the Underground Railroad and on Maryland's complex position as a border state during the Civil War is one of the best in the country. Free or low-cost admission makes this one of Baltimore's essential stops.

things to do museum
A story
Reginald F. Lewis was a Baltimore-born businessman who in 1987 completed the largest leveraged buyout in American history to that point — the $985 million acquisition of Beatrice Companies' international division. He was at the time the wealthiest African American in the United States, and his foundation donated $5 million to the museum that bears his name, the largest gift from an African American to a cultural institution at the time of his death in 1993.