TWO Special Exhibits Festival Weekend

POE CEMETERY TOUR

Living history performers via mobile app will guide you on a tour of the famed Burying Ground at Westminster Hall, the final resting place of Edgar Allan Poe. Visit the grave and monument where Poe was buried no fewer than three times. Pay tribute to David and Elizabeth Cairnes Poe, and other members of the Poe family, who repose alongside other great Revolutionary War and War of 1812 heroes. See the graves of General Samuel Smith, Brigadier General John Smith, Rev. Patrick Allison, and other great figures in the rich tapestry of Baltimore's past. Engage with new interpretive signage and virtual resources, deepening your understanding of the Poe family's Revolutionary War patriotism and legacy.  Join us as we prepare for America 250 celebrations and journey through the past, present, and future of Baltimore's revolutionary spirit. 

"WRITTEN IN STONE: 150 Years of the Poe Monument" EXHIBIT

Edgar Allan Poe died under mysterious circumstances and was buried in 1849 in a hasty, unmarked grave in the back corner of Westminster Burying Ground in Baltimore—an ignominious ending for a storyteller whose life and writing shocked the world. In true Poe fashion, the story doesn’t end with the body in the ground. Nearly 30 years later, his grave forgotten and untended, a Baltimore schoolteacher and her students took it upon themselves to rewrite Poe’s story. With pennies, persistence, and the power of public sentiment, they raised the funds to build a proper monument—though not without controversy, complications, and no shortage of gothic drama. Even famed poets Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Walt Whitman weighed in, drawn into the literary storm surrounding Poe’s legacy. Over time, the once-overlooked grave became a pilgrimage site for fans, scholars, and the mysterious figure known only as the Poe Toaster, who for decades left cryptic tributes in the dead of night.

Poe Baltimore, The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, and Enoch Pratt Free Library present an exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of Poe’s monument, the extraordinary events that brought it to fruition, and the eerie tales that followed. Explore rarely seen artifacts from Poe’s second funeral (and third burial!), including the original 1875 ceremony program, accounts of mislaid bones, and unsettling claims that the wrong man lies beneath the stone. Learn about the many cenotaphs that were proposed and abandoned, and the strange posthumous journey of Poe’s wife, Virginia—her remains shut in a box and kept under a bed for years before she was finally reburied beside her darling “Eddie,” a tale as haunting as any he ever wrote.

Written In Stone unearths 150 years of strange stories, shifting memory, and the enduring question: how do we honor a man whose life—and death—remain forever shrouded in mystery?

Exhibits presented by Poe Baltimore and The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, in cooperation with Enoch Pratt Free Library. Special thanks to additional partners, including the Society of Sons of the Revolution in the State of Maryland, Westminster Preservation Trust, Maryland Women's Heritage Center, J. Scott Watkins, Michael Davis, Jason Strutz Illustration, First & Franklin Presbyterian Church, and The Baltimore Camera Club. Updated cemetery signage made possible via grants by the Maryland Heritage Trust & Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, the Society of Sons of the Revolution in the State of Maryland, and the Daughters of the American Revolution, Col. John Streett Chapter. 

Tour admission: $20pp or included with purchase of Red Masque Festival Pass (plus additional programming festival weekend.)

Panels and other Westminster Hall events, including hourly reading of "The Raven" festival weekend, are included with ticket to the exhibit inside Westminster Hall. Schedule TBA and posted below, September 1!