I had the opportunity to visit the Edgar Allan Poe House — now a museum of all things Poe — when I attended Balticon a few years ago.

It’s tiny, very cramped, with a winding staircase to the second floor, so narrow as to be almost claustrophobic. The staircase is nearly ladder-steep, and I found it more comfortable coming down backwards, after viewing the bedroom, than trying to navigate the usual way.

The museum contains very little: some photographs, a city directory turned to the page of Poe’s listing, Poe’s lapdesk (which the curator refers to as his laptop) and a few more odds and ends.

Not much, really. (Still enough to hold this Poe fan’s attention for a couple hours.)

But Poe is so ingrained in the history of Baltimore that it seems a travesty to me to cut funding.

Yet, that’s what Baltimore has decided to do.

Beginning in 2012, the Poe Museum is required to be “self-sustaining” or it will cease to exist.

You can help by signing this petition begging them not to cut funding.

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I posted a photo of Poe’s “laptop” and one of his grave on my Balticon post. See them here. I’ll dig up the photos and post a few additional ones in the next few days.