Baltimore's Secret Order of the Oriole and the Oriole Pageants

Postcard for the first "Oriole Celebration & Pageant, 1882"
(Courtesy: Flickr)

    Civic celebrations commemorating notable historical events of Baltimore were commonplace and from October 11-16, 1880, there had been a spectacular festival celebrating the 150th anniversary of the settlement of Baltimore where, according to the Baltimore Sun reporting, the parade procession was nearly 10 miles long.  

   Some have postulated that the Baltimore Oriole baseball club name may have attained its roots in a little known and mysterious benevolent-based citizenry group from the late 19th Century called the Order of the Oriole whose membership was composed of about 400 members of prominent men of the City.  Organizations of this type were quite common in Baltimore until the 1920s and developed mainly as a way for people with common interests to make fraternal bonds usually for the benefit of society.  The thing that kept the Order of the Orioles apart from other organizations was that these men kept secret the very fact of their membership.

   The City had the desire to further the success of the 1880 commemorative festival and had formed an executive festival committee, chaired by nature of holding the mayoral office, Mayor Ferdinand C. Latrobe (he monumentally held a total of seven terms from 1875-1895, elected only twice), where the planning of a follow-on festival occurred in meeting rooms of the Merchants and Manufacturers' Association.  

   Essentially Baltimore City's first organization that fulfilled the goals and purpose of a modern-day Chamber of Commerce, evidence on the Order's beginnings are sparse but the birth seeds of its  rather short existence were germinated within planning meetings having their earliest documentation found in a Baltimore Sun article of August 5, 1881.  The details of the planning, as directed by Mayor Latrobe, were under absolute secrecy but wealthy businessmen and governmental officials the day earlier resolved to call the event "The Baltimore October Celebration, or Oriole."

   The significance of the oriole to the festival's namesake was owed to the black and gold or orange plumage matching those of George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, paternal coat of arms.  (A historical side note: it is during the 1880 festival that Calvert coat of arms, which is now diagonally represented on the Maryland state flag, began to be flown.)

Baltimore & Ohio Train Ad for the "Baltimore Oriole, 1881"
(Courtesy: The National Republican Newspaper)

  The 1881 "October Oriole" was to be a three day affair, incomparably finer than the previous year, and the National Associated Press determined that it expected to exceed anything ever held New Orleans, possibly in the country.  B&O train service ads announced the expanded service for throngs of visitors from far and wide.  Oddly enough, it began on Monday, October 10th with a parade on the evening of the 11th from the northwest extremes of the city that contained twenty-four floats contracted by Mr. T. C. DeLeon of New Orleans Mardis Gras fame, and was illuminated along parts of the path by the Brush Electric Light Company.  Mr. DeLeon's orchestration was highly dramatic and with an air of mysticism, after all it was billed as the Mystic Pageant which was divided into three major themes consisting of a procession of twenty four tableaux or allegorical scenes in total.  The famous Gilmore band from New York gave a grand open-air concert and at the Mask Ball.  It all concluded on Wednesday evening with the grand ball held in honor of distinguished French visitors who were already in Virginia celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown.

  While reviews of the 1881 event pronounced it of substantial benefit to the city attracting thousands of participants, those prominent and wealthy business members of what would make up the Order of the Oriole felt that it "was crudely designed, hurriedly and imperfectly prepared and unsatisfactorily executed or managed."  This was evidenced by debacles like the resulting lighting along the route did little to illuminate the magnificent moving panoramas.   It was clear more marketing was needed and The Order had the idea that the 1882 event would be the "mother of all festivals in the country," one that would rival all that preceded it.

   They determined that 1882 event would run for three days beginning on September 12th 1882, the 68th anniversary of the successful defense of the city from the attack of the British and the Battle of North Point in 1814.  Evidence of the formation of this secret society for this purpose was found within an elegantly scripted invitation that seems to have been passed to prospective members within Baltimore society in early 1882 which read:

Program Cover from the
1882 Oriole Festival depicting
Lord Baltimore atop a
Baltimore Oriole
(Courtesy: Enoch Pratt Library)

"For some time there has been an earnest desire on the part of our Citizens to have every year during the fall season, and entertainment such as will attract the attention of the entire Country and bring within our borders a larger amount of trade than is now enjoyed.  With the numerous resources at our command our friend very naturally look to us to be entertained in a manner as attractive at least as they are in sister cities.  To meet this need and surpass it, which is possible, the Order of the Oriole has been organized and a charter in accordance with the laws of the State granted.  All that is now required is the hearty co-operation of every man who has the interest of our City at heart.

You are earnestly requested to sign the blank herein at once and forward in accordance with the envelope enclosed.

Robert Garrett, President

Baltimore, Feb 1st 1882"

   The 1882 Official Programme of the Oriole Festival  described the First Day as "Military Day" consisting of a parade of numerous military divisions ending in a drill competition at Druid Hill Park.  The Second Day was "Lord Baltimore Day" consisting of a grand parade of seventy-five tug boats around the entire circuit of the harbor, and then steam down to Fort Carroll, where the steamer bearing a likeness of Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, would be met and convoyed to Brown's Wharf amidst the salvos of artillery, ringing of bells and blowing of whistles.  The Third Day was to be "Mystic Day" consisting of a spectacular night pageant, comprising thirty-six beautiful carriage floats or Tableaux depicting Mystical Societies, headed by "Lord Baltimore" and followed by no less than sixteen of the grandest floats ever presented that depicted the Epic of India, ending with a Grand Reception and Ball at the Academy of Music.  It was a wild success and attended by tens of thousands of  participants from across the country and the world who arrived by railroad and steamer lines.

Programme Cover from the
1883 Oriole Festival depicting
the arrival of Lord Baltimore
(Courtesy: Enoch Pratt Library)

  The Order of the Oriole were successful in making one more annual civic pageant in 1883, this time the Oriole programme occurred exclusively during three evenings, beginning on Tuesday, September 11th.   According to the Baltimore Sun article of August 7, excursions were being planned from states as far away as Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota.  Circulars stated that "Lord Baltimore" would arrive in the harbor again upon one of the finest and largest steamers which will be literally a blaze with ten of the largest electric lights the first evening.  In various colors, upon the steamer, in addition to the enormous focus electric reflectors and other illuminations would abound.  His steamer would be preceded by from forty to sixty tugboats, four abreast, each burning electric lights. The harbor was described as being transformed into a fairy scene with bombs, rockets, roman candles. A thousand soldiers would be armed with

Extract from the 1883 Oriole
Programme depicting
two parade scenes
(Courtesy: Enoch Pratt Library)

electric lights in ten different colors and electric lights would be upon the heads of the horses attached to Lord Baltimore's carriage that would be escorted to City hall having courtiers, attendants, and household.  All of the electricity to create this spectacle was conferred with none other than Thomas Edison himself.

   The last evening was the Oriole Mystic Pageant parade consisted of 42 carriage tableaux/scenes depicting the "The Lost Continent" and "The Lost Kingdom," all conceived by Ignatius Donnely, a interesting writer who published his theory that Atlantis mentioned by Plato was once a mid-ocean continent.   The cost of the entire festival amounted to near $40,000, or $1M in todays value.  It was reported in newspapers across the country as being the 'handsomest pageant ever seen in America."

(Note: Newspaper articles are courtesy of the Baltimore Sun and Harper's Weekly)