Portrait of Peter Baltimore
Samuel and Phebe Baltimore came to Troy in the early years of the 19th century, probably from somewhere in New England. Samuel, who ran a restaurant, died in 1832, leaving his widow to raise a large family. The youngest child was Peter F. Baltimore (1829-1913). As a child, Peter attended school and participated in a number of public events, traveling to New York City with the Reverend Henry Highland Garnet, pastor of Troy’s Liberty Street Presbyterian Church and an important anti-slavery advocate.
This watercolor, pen-and-ink portrait of Peter Baltimore was done in the late 1840s. He is very nattily dressed, holding a pen and piece of paper. Faint writing on the paper may say “POEM/DEATH/OF/ARTHUR” or “Le Morte d’Arthur,” referring to the poem by Sir Thomas Malory (c. 1414-1471). This rare portrait of a free Black man, in its original frame, was purchased by the combined efforts of over 160 donors to the Hart Cluett Museum in 2018, and is a wonderful addition to the collection.
Peter Baltimore became a barber in Troy. His shop on First Street was a documented part of the local underground railway system. Baltimore played an important role behind the scenes in the rescue of fugitive slave Charles Nalle in 1860, working with others to raise the money to buy Nalle’s freedom in the days after his escape from those trying to take him back South. Peter and his wife Caroline Newcomb Baltimore (d. 1891) had four children. They lived on 8th Street where their first home was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1862. They rebuilt and descendants owned the property until the mid-20th century.
The Baltimore’s younger son, Garnet Douglass Baltimore (1859-1946) was the first black graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and had a long career locally as a civil engineer and landscape architect. Baltimore designed Troy’s Prospect Park, and landscapes at Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, Forest Park Cemetery in Brunswick, and others. He was very active on the Troy Civic Arts Committee of the Troy Chamber of Commerce. A street on the RPI campus is named for him.
