LY was a prolific tree carver active in Druid Hill Park active in the early 1970s. The beech trees across the north side of the park bear witness to LY’s knife work. Take a walk along the Jones Falls Trail, step off the path, and chances are you’ll find the faded remnants of the initials “LY” with the month, day, and year among the decades of defaced bark. The volume of tree graffiti to be found in Druid Hill is staggering, and once noticed, I found I couldn’t unsee it.

The fancy term for these things is “arborglyph” and there’s a rich history there. I’ve never defaced a tree with a blade with my name or a message of any kind. I grew up in a family closely entwined with the lumber industry, working in a saw mill during summers and school breaks. I don’t remember being told that vainly taking a knife to a tree to memorize myself or anything else because it’s obviously wrong.

It’s a dick move often done to memorialize a relationship and a moment in time. In other words, it’s an of-the-moment gesture – still a dick move – but a single one. LY filled their days from roughly 1971 through 1974 with dozens of dick moves, many lost to the elements and the disappearance of trees they may not have directly hastened the death of, but certainly didn’t nourish.. 

A few years ago, I started a sporadic project to both document and extend the proclamations of love across Druid Hill as Baltimore Endings, which the full story can be found here. When hunting for candidates for the project, LY is always there as well, demanding attention. The outline of a person took shape, and dates LY carved became internet searches. What was going on in Baltimore on July 3, 1971? What day of the week was that? Did it rain? When did the sun rise and set that day? Were the O’s in town? And speaking of dick moves, what were Richard Nixon and his local criminal turned vice president Spiro Agnew up to? 

And what of LY themselves? What was their story? Surely, they lived nearby and had some amount of free time in the daylight hours (night carving seems fraught). Why did they start and end this spree? 

Slowly, a picture of LY took shape. I decided to bring LY back to the scene of the crimes to elicit her story and explain themselves.