Baltimore
In “All Souls’” Mrs. Clayburn’s family doctor, Dr. Selgrove, is replaced, at the end of the story by the new doctor. Dr. Selgrove, however, was not able to come to Whitegates again because he “[…] had been called away that morning to the bedside of an old patient in Baltimore […].”[1]
Baltimore is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland,[2] with an estimated population of 621,121 (2014).[3] Therefore, the city is an industrial and commercial center.[4] Originally a port, it was founded in 1729. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Baltimore functioned as transportation hub for the Mid-Atlantic States. Since the 20th century, the city has been competing economically with Philadelphia and New York. The decline of the city started, after Wharton’s death, in the 1950s and 1960s as heavy industry began to move away from industrial areas. In the 1970s and 1980s the drug trade flourished in Baltimore. The city declined in wealth at this time and began to merge with its surrounding areas and suburbs. In the 1990s the economy of the city boomed again. Nevertheless, Baltimore was among the U.S. cities with the largest fall in population in the 1990s. Today Baltimore’s neighborhoods are characterized by struggles in the city’s social networks.[5]
Map of the U.S. highlighting the Baltimore Metropolitan Area
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_USA_highlighting_the_Baltimore_Metropolitan_Area.gif (accessed March 26, 2015).
[1] Edith Wharton, “All Souls’,” in: The Demanding Dead – More Stories of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. Peter Haining (London: Peter Owen Publishers, 2007), 199.
[2] The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., "Baltimore," encyclopedia.com. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-BaltimorCit.html (accessed March 26, 2015).
[3] U.S. Census Bureau, Baltimore city, Maryland 2014, http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml (accessed March 26, 2015).
[4] The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., "Baltimore," encyclopedia.com. (accessed March 26, 2015).
[5] Dictionary of American History, "Baltimore," encyclopedia.com. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401800357.html (accessed March 26, 2015).