The Baltimore Chronicle: Baltimore’s Community Newspaper
In the late 1960s—late 1970s, a number of alternative and underground newspapers sprang up in Baltimore. These papers intended to fill a news void with coverage of subject matter—the counterculture, radical politics, local artists and musicians, avant-garde theatre, community news—largely ignored by mainstream publications, notably the Baltimore Sun and the Baltimore News-American. The publications ranged from cultural and literary magazines like Performance and the Chesapeake Weekly Review to the psychedelic Harry, founded by Michael Carliner and Tom D’Antoni. Journalist P.J. O’Rourke was an editor and contributor to Harry when he was a student at Johns Hopkins. D’Antoni described the underground newspaper as “like being with the original cast of the ‘Marat/Sade’ inside the revolving drum of a cement mixer careening wildly out of control the wrong way down Charles Street in a rush hour.”(1) With a very specific focus, a narrow audience, and little funding, most of these publications were short lived, folding within a few years or even months.
Two publications that emerged from this era have managed to survive until the present. The City Squeeze, begun by Johns Hopkins undergraduates Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch in 1977, focused on music, arts, and youth culture. After graduating from Hopkins, the pair re-branded the publication as the City Paper in 1978, featuring coverage of a wider array of subject matter and more importantly, financial backing.(2)
In 1973, Laurence “Larry” Krause (1945-2010), a frustrated social studies teacher in Baltimore County, decided to start his own newspaper in Baltimore devoted to local and community news. According to his wife and future business partner Alice Cherbonnier, Krause “chafed at the bureaucracy of the public education system and, when the opportunity arose to buy an old-time printing business on West Madison Street, he changed his career course… After he leased one of the first phototypesetting machines, he offered to stake a group of aspiring writers—primarily socially concerned teachers and social workers—to typesetting services for several months to help get a community newspaper started.”(3)
After some early tumult–two separate staffs walked out over editorial differences–the first issue of the City Dweller was published in April of 1973. Articles included: “Story of an Abortion;” a review of a Traffic concert at the Civic Center; a scathing critique of Center Stage; a gallery of local artists’ works; instructions on how to inspect and buy a used car; and articles on the women’s liberation movement and the draft. In 1977 the paper changed its name to the Baltimore Chronicle, continuing as a forum for alternative views on local and community activities, the arts scene, national politics and foreign policy.
Krause published a number of other small alternative papers including Aura of the Arts featuring stories on art and local artists; Downtown Monumental Times, a small newspaper covering events in downtown Baltimore; and Festival News, an annual newspaper that ran with the tagline “Baltimore Artists celebrating Peace.” He was also a contributing writer to the Rambler, a bi-monthly literary publication.
In 2003 the Chronicle ceased print publication and transitioned to a entirely online format. The last printed edition in Winter 2002, featured articles on the war in Iraq, the state of unemployment in Baltimore, an interview with the director of the Center for Legal Assistance for Indigenous Peoples, and a piece criticizing the Baltimore Sun for suppressing news stories. The online edition continues to provide an alternative voice on local and national news as “an independent newspaper providing context and clarity on suppressed and distorted news and social trends.”
Special Collections staff, along with volunteer Lorelei Bidwell, recently finishing processing the collection of Baltimore Chronicle newspapers and photographs donated to the Maryland Historical Society by Larry Krause in 2003. The collection contains the entire print run of the Baltimore Chronicle—minus a few issues—from 1973 to 2002. It also includes over 7600 photographs from the archives of the newspaper, ranging from local politics, protests and demonstrations, neighborhood parades and festivals, local merchants, sports, local artists, theatrical and musical performances, and architecture. Below is a small sampling of some of the photographs from the collection. (Damon Talbot)
Sources and further reading:
(1) Leonora Heilig Nast, Laurence Krause and R.C. Monk, eds., Baltimore: A Living Renaissance (Baltimore: Historic Baltimore Society, Inc., 1982), 131; Journalist P.J. O’Rourke was an editor and contributor to the Harry when he was a student at Hopkins.
(2) Russ Smith currently runs website Splice Today.
(3) Jacques Kelly, “Laurence Neil Krause, publisher, dies,” Baltimore Sun, June 4, 2010.
Kelly, Jacques, “Laurence Neil Krause, publisher, dies.” Baltimore Sun, June 4, 2010.
Kriegsman, Alan M. “Eiko &” Washington Post. October 24, 1981.
Nast, Leonora Heilig, Laurence Krause and R.C. Monk, eds. Baltimore: A Living Renaissance. Baltimore: Historic Baltimore Society, Inc., 1982..
StartingStrongman.com. “Dimitri Savatinov sets new circus dumbbell world record.” Accessed March 1, 2017. http://startingstrongman.com/2016/07/18/dimitar-savatinov-sets-new-circus-dumbbell-world-record/
ThemeParkUniversity. “Six Flags Power Plant3: Why it closed.” Accessed March 1, 2017. http://themeparkuniversity.com/extinct-attractions/six-flags-power-plant-3-closed/
University of Baltimore Libraries. “A. Robert Kaufman Papers.” Accessed March 1, 2017. https://archivesspace.ubalt.edu/repositories/2/resources/128
Wikipedia. “Sri Chinmoy.” Accessed March 1, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Chinmoy
Wikipedia. “Baltimore Theatre Project.” Accessed March 1, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Theatre_Project