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Photo: Dylan k, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
An excellent museum donated to the city by father-and-son railroad tycoons William and Henry Walter, fervent collectors who purchased much of its massive and diverse collection as well as the buildings that host it. It is best known for its collection of 19th century European masterpieces (top floor), however, the ancient and medieval collections are excellent as well. Be sure to enter or exit from its Charles Street entrance, where you'll pass through a magnificent indoor courtyard modeled after the Palazzo Baldi in Genoa.
The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially by major American art and sculpture collectors, including William Thompson Walters and his son Henry Walters. William Walters began collecting when he moved to Paris as a nominal Confederate loyalist at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, and Henry Walters refined the collection and made arrangements for the construction what ultimately was Walters Art Museum.
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An elegant late-classical-era home built in 1850, it was donated to the city of Baltimore by its last owners, Willard and Lillian Hackerman, in 1984. The city renamed the house in their honor and took advantage of its location to expand the adjacent Walters Art Museum. It now hosts the Walters' collection of Asian Art, but is open only on the weekend, and can only be accessed from within the museum. From the front rooms on the third floors you can sneak a bird's-eye view of the monument plaza.
At the turn of the 19th century, Baltimorians lobbied for a monument dedicated to the United States' first president, and in 1829 Washington's first monument finished construction. It was designed by architect Robert Mills who later designed that other Washington Monument in D.C. It is now the focal point of the Mt. Vernon neighborhood. Visitors can climb to the top (more than 160 feet high) with admission to see a panoramic view of the city.
Where you can see the manuscript of "The Star-Spangled Banner" among other things related to Maryland history.