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Baltimore, Maryland

Rowhouse blocks and harbor views: your Baltimore, in your words

Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, rowhouses and water, with history around almost every corner. Every neighborhood here has a story, and so do you.

Try it free for 7 days. Only you can see your record. Never public or searchable.

Which rowhouse block in Baltimore was yours, and what did you see from those front steps?

The Baltimore you carry around, with its accents, opinions and inside jokes, lives mostly in people's heads. Getting it onto the page does not have to be hard: one question a day, kept private while you live, lets the people you choose discover later what this city sounded like to you, inside jokes included.

Only you can see your answers while you live.

Built with care

  • Your words, unchanged

    What you write is stored as you wrote it, with the date, and never rewritten.

  • A gentle pause

    Your record waits at least 6 months before anyone you named receives it.

  • Nothing to perform

    No camera, no microphone. Type, or speak with your own device's dictation.

  • Yours to change

    Edit an answer, remove one, or change who receives your record at any time.

From first answer to the people you love

It takes a few minutes a day, at any age.

  1. Begin with one answer

    You do not need a plan. Start with today's question and see where it leads.

  2. Watch it become a record

    Over months and years, your answers become a picture of how you think.

  3. Leave it in good hands

    With Archive Membership, the people you name can also ask a guide about your words.

Baltimore, Maryland

Your Baltimore, in your own words

Where the anthem began

During the Battle of Baltimore on September 13 and 14, 1814, the defense of Fort McHenry inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words that became the national anthem. Today the fort is a national park site right in the city. History like that can feel far away, but it was once somebody's ordinary week. Your own days in Baltimore are history in the making too. What have you seen change in this city, and what has stayed true?

Painted screens and front steps

Painted screens once decorated rowhouse windows and screen doors across Baltimore, turning ordinary windows into little works of art. Rowhouse life has its own rhythm: front steps, shared walls, the neighbor who knows everyone's business and the block party every summer. If you have lived that rhythm, tell it. Which block was yours, who lived on it, and what did a good day there look like? What did you see from your own front steps that nobody else would think to mention?

An independent city

Baltimore is an independent city, not part of any county, and it has a strong sense of being its own place. People here often know the city by its neighborhoods, its harbor and its favorite corners far beyond the Inner Harbor. The Baltimore you carry around, with its accents, opinions and inside jokes, lives mostly in people's heads. Put it in your own words, so the people you choose can hear what this city sounded like to you.

Something to come back to

Not a recording. Your own words, ready to read

Your record is text you wrote yourself. The people you choose can read all of it, and with Archive Membership ask a guide to find the parts they are looking for.

  • Find a moment

    Ask about a place, a year or a person, and see what you said.

  • See how you changed

    Dated answers show how your views grew over time.

  • Always honest

    The guide labels every answer and never guesses.

Maryland

If you live in Maryland

How we look after your information
  • Your record is private while you live: nothing in it is public or searchable.
  • You choose the people who will one day receive it, and you can change them at any time.
  • If you wish, a copy can one day go to a library or archive through the Historical Deposit.

Your first question is ready

ToldForward asks one friendly question each day, and you can answer in your own words, typed or spoken with your device's dictation. You choose who will one day receive your record, and with Archive Membership they can ask a guide that finds your exact words, quoted and dated, and never pretends to be you.

More about keeping your story in Maryland · Every state

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