BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF INDUSTRY

Fire & Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Bethlehem Steel, tells the story of Baltimore’s Sparrows Point steel mill, once the world’s largest producer of the world’s most important product. The mill’s well-paying union jobs supported countless Baltimoreans and nourished close-knit communities.

And then it was gone. When the company went bankrupt in 2002, thousands of retirees saw their pensions cut and their healthcare benefits stripped away. When the mill shut for good in 2012, thousands more lost their jobs.

Today, as economic activity returns to Sparrows Point, the former Bethlehem Steel site stands as a symbol of Baltimore’s industrial past and the possible birth of a new economy.

On view now, Fire & Shadow includes vivid photographs, moving first-person narratives, original artifacts, and an opportunity to explore Bethlehem Steel objects in three dimensions through augmented reality.

Viewing the exhibition is included with general admission. Right now, the BMI is offering timed-tickets for general admission to the museum. Tickets are also available at the door on a first come, first serve basis.

Reserve Tickets

“To be a steelworker meant you were the backbone of the nation.” Ed Gorman, Sparrows Point steelworker

Fire & Shadow is generously supported by:

The Davis Family Foundation
Tradepoint Atlantic

Balti Virtual
Direct Dimensions
Residential Title and Escrow Co.
Titan Steel
Venable, LLP

Shuttered:
Images from the Fall of Bethlehem Steel

…From 1887 to 2012, the Bethlehem Steel mill at Sparrows Point provided steady if dangerous work for tens of thousands of men and women. Steelmaking was more than just a job to these workers—it was a way of life that built stable communities, strong human bonds, and a unique industrial landscape. With the shuttering of the Point’s blast furnaces, the world inhabited by local steel workers took a number of hits, and the effects continue to reverberate today.

The grandson of a steel worker, photographer J.M. Giordano has spent more than 15 years capturing the impact of the mill’s decline and closure on his hometown of Baltimore.

What do you do, Giordano asks, when the only lifestyle you’ve ever known—an industrial one passed down by family, friends, and coworkers for generations—becomes obsolete? This question follows visitors as they explore the exhibition Shuttered: Images from the Fall of Bethlehem Steel at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Featuring original photos by Giordano, the exhibition comprises four areas—the mill, workers, the union, and the community.

BMI curator Joseph Abel concurs, “As a museum that is focused on work, this exhibition is an opportunity to look at what happens when there is an absence of work, and what impact that has on a community. The loss of steel jobs in Baltimore was devastating, and we continue to see the effects today in the form of long-term joblessness, substance abuse, and economic despair.”

When the mill fell into bankruptcy and finally shuttered operations in 2012, it displaced thousands of workers, and many lost the pensions, healthcare, and benefits they had been promised. Much of the labor force never recovered from the loss of the steady and well-paying jobs that the mill once offered, and the photographs of this hopelessness are haunting. “After decades of working in the mills, these people had the carpet pulled out from under them,” says Giordano, who began working on the project in 2004, capturing portraits of retired steelworkers as a reporter for the Dundalk Eagle.

A particularly foggy morning as the smoke from the Sparrows Point mills mingles with the fog.

Two generations of retired steel worker. Eddie Bartee Jr. (left) and Eddie Bartee Sr. worked, combined, almost 70 years at Bethlehem Steel. Eddie Sr. was the first black president of Local 2640 and was integral in integrating the mills.

Sunlight through the windows of an abandoned mill at Sparrows Point in Baltimore.

Mohawk William Sotienton Bordeau, 92: “We joined up with Local #16 (in 1955),” Bordeau said. “The foreman, Lou Wachter, sent us to the Clinton Street [pier], where we built one of the spans for the second Bay Bridge. They called us ‘yard birds’ because we worked in the yard to put the span together before they floated down the river.”

J.M. Giordano is an award-winning photojournalist and co-host of the photojournalism podcast, 10 Frames Per Second. His work has been featured in Playboy, GQ, The Observer New Review Sunday Magazine, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Washington Post, The Baltimore City Paper, i-D Magazine, Discovery Channel Inc., Rolling-Stone, XLR8R. His work, from the Struggle series is in the permanent collections at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and the Reginald Lewis Museum. In 2015 he was short-listed for the National Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Prize. The exhibition was made possible with generous support from Howard Bank and the Delaplaine Foundation.

Bethlehem Steel Legacy Garden

The Bethlehem Steel Legacy Garden serves as a visible reminder of the contributions of the steel mill workers. It is a place for visitors to reflect on the proud history of the Sparrows Point steel mill, and invites conversation about the people who worked there. The Brick Garden is located in a prominent location on the BMI’s campus near the Bethlehem shipyard crane that marks the museum entrance.

Honor the legacies of the men and women who worked at Bethlehem Steel by purchasing an engraved brick to be placed in the Baltimore Museum of Industry’s Bethlehem Steel Legacy Brick Garden.

More News from Timonium

• OWINGS MILLS SWITCHES QUIZINE
• HAMPTON MANSION SEES RISING TOUR DEMAND