Evan Woodard lights up when he talks about antiques like slate pencils, porcelain dentures and chamber pots, portable toilets used prior to luxuries like indoor plumbing.
“With those, you can tell who was born into money and who was a commoner,” said Woodard. “When you see really nice ones that have white and blue on them, you know that that person had money.”
The self-taught historian loves to share little-known facts. (Ask him why people used to throw “poison” tomatoes and how those were typically stored.) And he doesn’t like to sit for long. The Patterson Park resident is happiest exploring: digging privies, magnet fishing and collecting local artifacts.
“I love finding stuff. I like being out there with my friends just digging holes, having a good time, and then going home to wash everything up,” he said.
Since last year, Woodard has been working to turn that hobby into the Salvage Arc Museum, a collection of glassware, ceramics, old jewelry and other discarded belongings. Expected to open in Fells Point (stay tuned for an update from Woodard on that soon), the museum will combine his restless craving for adventure with his undisputed knack for storytelling.
The museum is planned as an extension of Woodard’s Salvage Arc Foundation, which he launched last year to offer seminars and workshops, privy-digging demonstrations, and historic exhibitions — all designed to make the history of Baltimore more tactile and engaging. In addition to showcasing the treasures he’s discovered and restored over the years, the museum and community gathering space will support hands-on learning.
“We want to share the history of Baltimore and what happened here in a way where people can actually get involved with it: touch things, see things up close, and hear personal stories,” Woodard said.
“We want to share the history of Baltimore and what happened here in a way where people can actually get involved with it: touch things, see things up close, and hear personal stories.”
Evan Woodard, founder of THe Salvage Arc FOundation
Until late last year, the museum had what seemed like a permanent physical home: an old factory building in Fells Point, on Aliceanna Street.
“The building is historic — not historically important, but it’s old. I like that,” Woodard said in November 2024. He liked that it came with its own parking lot and a coveted view of the neighborhood’s waterfront — where he’s found many of the museum’s treasures.
At the time, the museum — fully stocked with Woodard’s artifact collection — was receiving some finishing touches, with potential decorative choices that included a textured wall, cloth-covered ceilings and antique flooring. Woodard hoped that the museum would be a physically accessible multipurpose space, with room for school field trips, guest lecturers and comedy performances. He planned to dedicate a portion of the floor plan to a cafe, with provisions such as sandwiches and muffins.
The building was on track to open this spring, until a handful of financial partners backed out of the project, leaving Woodard to foot museum costs on his own. He made the difficult decision to place everything in storage, where it sits for the time being.
Although the sudden change of plans was disappointing, Woodard is determined to keep pushing forward with his vision.
“It’s definitely a bummer that it’s not happening [right now], but I think people really understand that sometimes, things just don’t work out with timing,” he said.
In the meantime, he has plans to build a stronger Salvage Arc team, sharing that one of his main goals is “finding board members that want to be involved and who understand our mission.”
The Salvage Arc concept began to take form five years ago. Formerly an IT security manager for the Baltimore Ravens, Woodard became fascinated with old items and their origins during the pandemic. In 2020, looking for a way to stave off boredom, he and his friends began to dig through privies: 19th-century outhouse vaults where glass items and household wares were commonly discarded.
They eventually took up magnet fishing, using strong magnets and ropes to fish metal and trash out of the Inner Harbor. Two years ago, Woodard started the Maryland Magnet Fishing Club, which meets on Thursday evenings at locations like the Bond Street Wharf. Depending on the weather, he said anywhere from 10 to 30 people will participate.
According to Woodard, they typically pull at least 300 pounds of trash out of the water. But every now and then, they score a treasure and find things like a Victorian bench — which looks brand new now, thanks to Woodard. It’s a favorite among Salvage Arc’s fans, who will have a chance to see the beauty up close when the museum opens.
A Black-owned museum set to take its place in a city of mostly white counterparts, the Salvage Arc Museum has a distinctive goal. It not only attempts to preserve local history, but to share a more diverse story of Baltimore’s beginnings. One of Woodard’s hopes is that the museum will challenge historic narratives that overlook minorities and how they’ve shaped the city.
A Black-owned museum set to take its place in a city of mostly white counterparts, the Salvage Arc Museum has a distinctive goal. It not only attempts to preserve local history, but to share a more diverse story of Baltimore’s beginnings.
“I want to show people that Baltimore’s story goes beyond what people see in ‘The Wire.’ There’s a lot more to the city and how great it is,” he says.
Woodard looks forward to sharing that story with locals in person. Last winter, Baltimore Beat had a chance to experience Salvage Arc’s vision up close at the museum’s original location on Aliceanna Street. Woodard carefully showed off his favorite pieces one breezy fall afternoon.
“Baltimore is known for its beer and its drinking,” Woodard told us, pointing to a set of early beer and soda bottles called torpedoes, meant for storing carbonated drinks.
“Before you had Crown Cork & Seal and other types of bottle closures that would keep [liquids intact], if a drink was carbonated and its cork dried up, it would shoot out. These were designed to lay on their side so that the cork would always stay wet.”
A few feet away, Woodard’s favorite display case held personal items such as a wedding ring made out of pinchbeck: an affordable alternative to gold once used by clockmakers and coach builders.
Behind a glass perfume bottle half full of amber liquid sat an overflowing bowl of teeth.
“Before we had supermarkets and stuff, people would just buy whole animals and then slaughter them at home. You had to throw your trash and spare parts somewhere,” Woodard said.
Walking with Woodard — taking stock of everything from household wares to offbeat trinkets to old teeth — was almost dreamlike.
From buttons to teapots to vases to dice, every artifact comes with its own complex history. Figuring out what that is can be full of surprises, but Woodard is used to the challenge. When his new museum opens, he hopes that visitors experience the same feeling of wonder he gets when he discovers a new artifact.
“You see an item when it’s dirty, and you think it’s one thing, and then you’re like, ‘This is a totally different thing,’” he said.
“That reveal happens thousands of times in one day with all the pieces you have. And when you find pieces that go together, you’re like, ‘Okay. Now I have something else to work with.’ That process takes forever, but it’s worth it.”
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