#OnThisDay in 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a free black woman and a man who was formerly enslaved. He was a mathematician and 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 to be his almanacs, which he published with the help of abolitionist friends. The H. Furlong Baldwin Library has within its collections several of Banneker’s works. 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, Rare Books Collection, Rare MAY 42.B21 1795F, H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Maryland Center for History and Culture. #BenjaminBanneker #OTD #MarylandHistory