CBS News

This collection contains local television news footage and special programs from the WMAR-TV station in Baltimore, Maryland which were created and aired between 1948 and 1993. The collection includes approximately 4,000 reels of 16mm film, 300 reels of 1- and 2-inch videotape, 139 linear feet of 2,185 videocassettes (including VHS, U-matic, U-matic S, VHS, and Betacam SP), and 101 DVDs. The content of this collection includes news and television programs that illustrate the social, cultural, political, and economic trends of everyday life and events around Baltimore city and the state of Maryland during the mid to late 20th century. Some significant topics represented by the television news, programs, and documentary style stories in this collection include local events, arts and culture, local and national politics and policies, the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 1968 riots in Baltimore, the Civil Rights Movement, African American history, and local community stories.

Within the collection, the raw WMAR news footage is housed in the Chronological News Footage series (1948-1981), the NewsChannel2 Broadcasts series (1984-1993), and the News Storage series (1979-1987). The remaining series in the collection describe the various television programs from WMAR over the years. Several television programs of note in the collection include the "Sun's Orbit" from the Baltimore Sun's foreign correspondents and "The Port that Built a City" hosted by Helen Delich Bentley, among others.