First In the Manufacture of Straw Hats: The Past and Future of Baltimore Industry

It's there if you know where to look. It's in the old facades presently housing restaurants, office space, or condos. It's in the crumbling shells that have yet to find a modern purpose. You find it in the paths of the old railroad tracks and the layout of our streets. Truth is, it's almost everywhere.

"It" is Baltimore City's rich manufacturing and production heritage. A dormant (if not forgotten) force that shaped the early character of the city and just might have something to tell us about where to go next.

A City Once Known for Making

The January-June, 1909 issue of The Bankers' Magazine, in an article discussing the virtues of "The New Baltimore," declared (among other things) that:

"Baltimore's output of men's clothing amounts to more than 25 million dollars per annum. Baltimore is first in the canning and preserving industry. Baltimore is first in the manufacture of cotton duck." And, interestingly, "Baltimore is first in the manufacture of straw hats."

"Baltimore," the publication declared, "ranks as the imperial city of the South and one of the leaders of the great municipalities of the American continent."

The fact that things -- good things, and a lot of them -- were made here had much to do with the designation. Today, though, it's hard to imagine manufacturing and production coming up as talking points in any broad discussion of the city's merits. It's more a heritage than a way of life.

A heritage which, thankfully, stands well-preserved down on a Key Highway waterfront parcel just around the corner from the storied Inner Harbor. Born from the vision of then-mayor William Donald Schaefer, the Baltimore Museum of Industry offers a rare glimpse into the past. From signage to industrial equipment to vehicles and tools, the museum preserves an industrial legacy that was, for years, all the city knew.

Collections and Archives Manager Catherine Scott traces Baltimore's past as a base of production from a 1600's era tobacco warehouse up through the time when it all began to vanish.

"It seems that once World War II was over," she says, "we just went kerplunk."

"There's no modern industrial history of Baltimore, at all," she continues. "No one's written about it yet. Other than the port no one's really talking about what's going to happen next."

To be clear, it's not as if manufacturing has disappeared entirely. According to Johns Hopkins of Baltimore Heritage, Inc., Baltimore still ranks "as one of the top cities for manufacturing and manufacturing jobs."

"There has been a steep decline, for sure, all over the country and including in Baltimore," he continues, "but we still do have manufacturing jobs." He cites the examples of G. Krug and Sons ironworks on Saratoga street, which has been operational since 1810, and Hayles and Howe, a Baltimore-based, international plasterwork company that in 2003 received the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the UK.

Yet even if the city still retains an important manufacturing base, 2007 US Census Bureau figures showed Baltimore with only 512 "employer establishments" designated as "manufacturing." In 1910 that number was 2,502.

It's not a shift unique to Baltimore. As a region and a country we simply don't make as much as we used to, at least not in terms of scale.

A New Renaissance?

There's little chance for Baltimore, or any other city, to reclaim its manufacturing heritage in full. Outsourced production is a reality of the global economy, for better or worse.

And it's a nuanced issue, to be sure. As Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe points out, the US is still a global manufacturing leader.

Perhaps what's needed, then, is a simple shift in focus. "Manufacturing" need not be synonymous with "factory."

The growth of craft as an economic and cultural force points a way forward. The emergence of Etsy has, for example, provided a realistic way for individuals and small companies to reach a worldwide audience. In December, 2010 alone the site served as the conduit for  $41.1 million in sales, a 65% increase from the previous year.

Megan Auman, a "designer, maker, metalsmith, and entrepreneur" and founder of the Crafting an MBA online community, recently gave an Ignite Baltimore talk on the positive role small-scale production can play in driving a new economy. Her business is built in part on feeling "very strongly about keeping production as local as possible."

There's a logical pattern of growth built into that approach. Individuals who today work out of their kitchens or basements represent the potential to become vibrant small businesses. Companies that today employ only a handful of employees represent the potential to become million dollar enterprises.

In Auman's case, she recently hired her first employee, which she describes as "a huge step, not only in the growth of my business, but in my goal to build a business that provides meaningful employment."

The BMI's Scott is likewise optimistic that a new kind of production might rise to fill the void left by a half century of outsourcing and job loss.

"We're definitely moving towards the cottage industries here in Baltimore, and I think it's happening in more places than we really know," she says. "Lots of craft people...the Etsy Baltimore page is huge, then you have the guys who are still doing steelmaking. It's an odd town right now."

Indeed, transition breeds oddity. Yet history is a window into the future. It's there to teach us whenever we're inclined to learn. For Baltimore and the whole of America there's something to be said for remembering that making is in our DNA. And while things won't ever again be what they were, with the right mindset and the right sense of perspective the potential exists for something even better.


Neal Shaffer is, among other things, the managing editor of Bmore Media.


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Photos of the Baltimore Museum of Industry and the Domino Sugar sign by Arianne Teeple