Client: Lexington Market Incorporated ○ The Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City

Overview

Stainless Steel, Granite Plaques, Lighting

Description: Robert and Rosetta commemorates two African Americans from the 19th century. The structure is made from forged panels, textured flat bar, 4” and 8” steel pipe, laser cut filigree and canopy steel plates beneath two light-posts. Two granite pavers with newspaper inscriptions detail the narratives to the lives of Robert and Rosetta on opposing sides of the panels. In recognizing Rosetta, and her counterpart Robert, we want to cue onlookers, in a very approachable way, with two granite ground flagstones etched with newspaper articles from the Baltimore Sun (1838) and the American Commercial & Daily Advertiser (1833). In both instances, these people are presented as forged metal panels to reveal to what one would advertise as ‘value’ in the 19th century. In 1838, The Baltimore Sun ran an article, which may perhaps be the only known recorded instance, of a woman named Rosetta being sold by the City Bailiff in this Baltimore market. In 1831 The Daily Advertiser put out a notice of a runaway slave named Robert, who purportedly escaped Governor Howard’s farm and had been seen in Lexington Market.

Goals

‘Robert & Rosetta’ reveals the stories of two modest, yet notable individuals who seismically shift the idea behind ‘exchanging goods’ in Lexington Market. In both instances, these people are presented as forged metal panels to reveal to what one would advertise as ‘value’ in the 19th century.

In recognizing Rosetta, and her counterpart Robert, we want to cue onlookers, in a very approachable way, with two granite ground flagstones etched with newspaper articles from the Baltimore Sun (1838) and the American Commercial & Daily Advertiser (1833).

The oversized pavers mimic granite stand-markers that still line the curbs in the area today to challenge how public space had been used throughout the United States, and unassumingly, has been indicated in the narrative of Lexington Market. Even though the site was never truly considered a primary location for slave merchants, the conditionality to Rosetta’s advertisement and the surveillance placed upon Robert would hold as residual stamps of American imperial economics.

Process

The sculpture was designed by a mother-son team, artist Oletha DeVane, and her son, Christopher Kojzar.

The sculpture, crafted of steel and stainless steel by blacksmith Nicholas Ireys at his shop about a mile from Lexington Market, captures the history of slavery at the market while reflecting the ornamental ironwork dotted around Baltimore. It is installed in the plaza of the newly reopened Lexington Market, located in the BROMO Arts District.

DeVane, who lived in Baltimore until she was 13 and now lives in Ellicott City, said she was interested in the stories of Robert and Rosetta because she likes to look at "where the African American presence is and was, and especially during that time." The origins of Lexington Market can be traced back to 1782.

Dean Krimmel, a public historian and Baltimore-based museum consultant, worked with the redevelopment project and provided DeVane and Kojzar with documentation about Robert and Rosetta.

Additional Information

Quoted from CBS news story: "Sculpture at Lexington Market aims to capture the history of slavery" Katie Marshall with Lexington Market developer Seawall led the public art component of the market's redevelopment. She said merchants, customers and community members asked about connections between the market and slavery. "I think (their) piece is a beautiful tribute to those two individuals, and also an acknowledgment of all the various ways that enslaved persons interacted with the market and in Baltimore City as a whole," Marshall said.