Celebrating Martin Luther King's Birthday at the Walter's Art Museum

African Venus at the Walter's Art Museum in Baltimore, MD

History was made today with the Inauguration of the second term of our first African American president, Barrack Obama. Over a million people traveled to Washington D.C. to participate, an event even more meaningful as it took place on the day of the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

Mycala and I celebrated in a different way, traveling into the heart of Baltimore to visit the Walter's Art Museum. It was the last day of the Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe. The exhibit featured paintings, sketches, sculpture, and printed books depicting Africans and their descendants. "Artists, aristocrats, saints, slaves and diplomats" encouraged the viewer to consider a variety of roles as well as possible implications related to their varied roles. It was enlightening to see such a variety of scenarios. Snippets of information were included, enough to raise more questions than answer, but even knowing enough to ask questions that hadn't previously occurred to me made the exhibit worthwhile. 


We viewed the Greek, Roman and Etruscan Art section as well as the Egyptian Art. We only saw a fraction of the displays. There are more than 35,000 one of a kind objects covering 55 centuries of art. The collection is even more remarkable when you consider that it was the vision and interest of only two men, William Thompson Walters and his son Henry Walters. There is no cost to tour the museum but there is an opportunity to make a donation in the lobby, and there are membership and donation opportunities. 

Examples of Egyptian Art from the New Kingdom are below.

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Faience Bowl 1550 - 1450 B.C. (New Kingdom)

Woman kneeling with knife 1450 BC New Kingdon

Funerary Stele of Tembu 1500 - 1470 B.C. (New Kingdom)