Mr. Luke F. McCusker, UB History grad of 2011, is now Managing Director of the Irish Railroad Workers Museum in Baltimore.  The museum is situated within a group of 5 alley houses where the Irish immigrants who worked for the adjoining B&O Railroad lived. Two of the houses, 918 and 920 Lemmon St., are the museum.  A significant Irish presence established itself in Southwest Baltimore during and following the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s.

Under the direction of the museum’s board of directors, McCusker interprets an Irish immigrant home of the 1870s, and develops the family’s story for presentation to visitors.  He says that the history major helped him develop critical thinking and “a heart for research and the ability to communicate my findings” clearly and concisely.  When asked what advice he has for new history graduates, McCusker says that becoming “as comfortable with technology as you can” will give you an edge.  The UB history faculty agrees that public history has become closely linked to digital history.

Emigrants Leave Ireland, engraving by Henry Doyle (1827–1893), from Mary Frances Cusack’s Illustrated History of Ireland, 1868.