Jack Burkert’s New Book Explores 20th Century Baltimore One Decade at a Time

Jack Burkert’s roots are old Bawlmer. He grew up in blue-collar, 1950s Brooklyn, attended Poly, and graduated with a degree in history and education from the University of Maryland. After teaching in the Baltimore City School system and then at Penn State University, his career in education eventually took him to Washington, D.C. and New York City.

Returning to his hometown, Burkert’s long interest in local history led to a “retirement” reinvention at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. As a BMI educator, Burkert developed a wide range of tours and programs—on everything from oyster-canning to car-making—always informed by his ever-deepening research into the history of Baltimore, its citizens, their work and lives, as well as the many forces that have shaped the city.

His recent book, Twentieth Century Baltimore: A Native Son’s Casual History of the City on the Patapsco, builds upon his 14 years at the BMI. Told a decade at a time, Burkert’s accessible story toggles between a 20,000-foot view of the century’s key people, events, and trends and down-to-earth anecdotes that bring city life to, well, life.

I love the book’s coffee-table feel and the photographs from the Baltimore Museum of Industry’s archives. How did you choose your approach—the broad strokes of history interspersed with the daily happenings in the city?
Have you ever read Scharf’s history of Baltimore from the 1880s? [History of Baltimore City and County by Col. J. Thomas Scharf.] That was the last time somebody wrote a general history of the life and times of Baltimore. The whole 20th century had passed, and I thought, there are a lot of great books on Baltimore, but nobody’s really tied all the loose ends of those 100 years together. There’s the political landscape and national and international forces at play, but I wanted to show how people lived. What were the topics of conversation? Were people asking each other if they were going to the Orioles’ game? If they’re going to win the World Series?

Taking the 20th century history of Baltimore decade by decade, is there an era that you particularly like or find compelling?
Okay, but to understand, you need to be a longtime Baltimorean: the 1970s and the City Fair, in particular. After the 1968 riots, that city was shattered. It was just despair and hopelessness. And the City Fair, starting in 1970, brought together [hundreds of thousands] of people over three days, just enjoying one another, the city, the aspects of city life. So many wonderful things came out of the City Fair and helped put this city on a better track for the next 20 to 25 years. It’s fair to say it’s a forerunner to Artscape, among other festivals.

The midcentury machine politics era is wild. With its ethical challenges, it’s similar in some ways to what the city has been through lately, right?
This may be cynical, but sometimes it seems like city politicians are naïve today. They don’t always know what they can get away with and what they can’t. One of the hardest things I had to write was describing former Mayor Tommy D’Alesandro Jr. [Nancy Pelosi’s father] and his difficulties with alleged corruption. Nothing was ever proven, but it was always just below the surface. William Donald Schaefer was a product of that system, too, and later word got around about his unappointed “shadow government” of advisors.

The 1920s photograph of three local young “flappers” standing and laughing alongside a prop plane—with a young woman pilot in the cockpit—is amazing.
They all look so carefree and ready for an adventure. That picture says to me, there’s excitement in the air, it’s brand new, and we’re going to participate as women no matter how much you say we can’t. Can you imagine a Victorian or Edwardian woman standing out there on that field next to a female pilot? None of that would have ever happened 10 years before. Symbolic of the ’20s in every way, including the airplane being discovered by everybody.

What is your favorite photo?
The interior of the Little Tavern hamburger shop from the 1950s with the woman holding a tray of hamburgers. I went to Poly when it was back on North Avenue, and I had lunch at the Little Tavern shop every day. Perfect teenage spot. Knocked back four hamburgers every day.