#OnThisDay in 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born to a free Black woman and a former enslaved man in Baltimore County, Maryland. He was a mathematician, astronomer, inventor, author of almanacs, farmer and landowner, and abolitionist. Banneker worked with Major Andrew Ellicott on establishing a survey for the boundaries of the newly formed District of Columbia. His major accomplishment is widely regarded as his almanacs, which he published with the help of abolitionist friends. The H. Furlong Baldwin Library has several of Banneker’s works within its collections. Six of his almanacs reside in the Rare Books Collection, while his Astronomical Journal is held in Special Collections. Image: “Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia almanac, for the year of our Lord 1795,” by Benjamin Banneker, 1794, Maryland Center for History and Culture, H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Rare Books Collection, Rare MAY 42.B21 1795F. #BenjaminBanneker #OTD #MarylandHistory