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Benjamin Banneker Museum

This museum honors an African-American renaissance man of the early 18th century.

Catonsville, Maryland

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In 1731, Benjamin Banneker, the descendant of a Wolof prince turned slave who later married his enslaver after manumission, was born free and raised on the family homestead in rural Maryland. Despite little formal education (only a few weeks at a Quaker school), Banneker displayed a voracious appetite for knowledge, particularly mathematics and astronomy, and applied his aptitude for the formal and physical sciences into authoring almanacs and building clocks.

At the age of 60, Banneker achieved his most lasting accomplishment when he became the oldest member of a team headed by Andrew Ellicott to survey and map the new American capital, Washington, D.C.

The Benjamin Banneker Museum and Historical Park is located on the land owned by the Banneker family.  A replica of Benjamin’s log cabin (the original burned down on the day of his funeral), as well as several walking trails can be found behind the museum.

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The museum is open daily, from 9 AM to 5 PM.

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October 7, 2025

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