![]() | Crater Baltimore: A Moon Work Installation view from "Humor as a Subversive Act: An Exhibition Propagandizing Baltimore Art" Artscape 92, Baltimore, MD, USA, 1992 Curator: Peter Walsh Photo: Peter Walsh |
In 1981, Richard Ellsberry originated the idea of locating a crater on the surface of the moon that lay at the same longitude and latitude on the moon as the city of Baltimore does on the earth and then declaring that crater to be Crater Baltimore. At that point, approximately 76 degrees 40 minutes West by 39 degrees 20 minutes North, lay a tiny crater in the periphery of the Lavoisier system, a system of craters that borders on the western edge of Oceanus Procellarum.
The official naming of the crater took place at the Empire Salon on March 9, 1982 as part of the Krononautsí Reception for Visitors from the Future. Posters were made from photos received from NASA and then-Baltimore Mayor William Schaefer himself was on hand to sign posters for party-goers.
The crater was then designated a wildlife refuge in order to prevent exploitation by shopping mall developers and to insure it as a safe haven for endangered wildlife species.
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