City directories, the precursor to the telephone book, are an invaluable resource for understanding the history of a city's businesses, organizations, and residents.
Digitized city directories of Baltimore are available from the Baltimore City Archives. Those listed as "Electronic copy" can be viewed online as text or downloaded as searchable PDFs.
We also have a microfilm collection of directories. First consult an index of the microfilm directories, City directories of the United States, 1860-1901: guide to the microfilm collection, available in the Van Pelt Reference Stacks at Z5771.2 .C58 1983. Directories are listed alphabetically by city.
Each listing will tell you where to locate that directory in the microfilm, which is located in the Van Pelt Microtext Center. 1st Floor, Van Pelt Library.
This example, through Google Books, is searchable.
See guides below:
