2023 Ohio Archives Month Poster “Top 10” Voting Results

This year for the annual Society of Ohio Archivists’ October Archives Month poster we asked for archival images having to do with the theme of Transportation in Ohio.

The Advocacy and Outreach Committee is happy to announce the top ten photographs selected by you (SOA membership)!  These ten photos are in the running to be included in the final poster. Stay tuned for this year’s poster as we get closer to October and Archives Month. Posters will be mailed to members by the end of September.

Thank you to all that submitted! We could not do this without people / institutions who submit such interesting photographs.

Congrats to the University of Akron Archives and Special Collections and to Dayton History for their images being in the top 3.

The top ten images as selected by you were:

  1. Members of the Akron Chapter of the NAACP pose in front of a bus used to transport Akronites on a freedom ride to Anniston, Alabama. In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) undertook Freedom Rides by racially integrated groups through the South to test the enforcement of a newly enacted court order prohibiting segregation in interstate bus terminals. The riders met fierce resistance and hostility in several states with the worst violence occurring in Alabama where the riders were attacked and badly beaten after their bus was bombed and set on fire. While CORE called off the ride, other civil rights activists—including this contingent from Akron—rushed to Anniston and other parts of the Deep South to support the Freedom Riders and helped continue their cause.

    Historic black and white photograph. Group of people sitting and standing by an NAACP freedom bus.

    NAACP Freedom Bus, 1961. Photograph from the Opie Evans Papers, The University of Akron Archives & Special Collections.

  2. The Goodyear blimps Reliance, Puritan, and Enterprise fly over downtown Cleveland including Terminal Tower during the Great Lakes Exposition. The Exposition, which occurred in 1936-1937, coincided with the centennial of Cleveland’s incorporation. It attracted 7 million visitors to downtown Cleveland and helped draw the city out of the Great Depression.

    Three Goodyear Blimps flying over Cleveland, Ohio skyline. Black and white photograph.

    Blimps Over Cleveland, 1936. Photograph from the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Records, The University of Akron Archives & Special Collections.

  3. Group of men racing their horse-drawn sleighs down West First Street in Dayton, Ohio, after a heavy snow in 1910.

    Black and white photograph. Three sleighs pulled by horses on a snowy road.

    Sleigh racing in Dayton. Courtesy of Dayton History.

  4. The bicycle has a long history of being an important mode of transportation on the Oberlin College campus. This rider appears to have mastered the “wheelie” trick, although we do not have any photos of the aftermath!

    Black and white photograph of a man operating a high wheeler bicycle.

    High Wheeler Bicycle, Oberlin College Campus, 1937. Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives.

  5. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower waving from a Baltimore and Ohio railroad’s special train’s caboose as he leaves Defiance after a visit to Defiance College to lay the cornerstone for the College’s new library on October 15, 1953. The Baltimore and Ohio was one of the oldest U.S. railroads, reaching the Ohio River from the Atlantic coast in 1852. It merged into CSX in the 1980s.

    Black and white photograph of a man standing on a train platform and waving his hat.

    U.S .President Dwight D. Eisenhower waving from train in Defiance, OH. Courtesy of Defiance College.

  6. Head Librarian at Dayton Public Library, Electra C. Doren, established one of the first book mobiles in the United States. Staff members are from left to right: Janet L. Hannaford, Mildred Adams Linskey, Grace Althoff, Electra C. Doren, Reba Boomershine, Emma Davis, Helen M. Tattershall and Mayer Griswold who was also the driver of the wagon.

    Black and white photograph of seven women gathered around a mobile library.

    Dayton Public Library Book Wagon, c. 1924. Courtesy of Dayton Metro Library.

  7. The first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903, by Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio.

    Black and white photograph of an airplane on a beach. A man stands on the right facing the airplane.

    First flight, 1903. Courtesy of Wright State University Libraries.

  8. Defiance College owned a hot air balloon in the late 1960s and 1970s, and used it to teach Ohio’s first college course on ballooning. CBS News filmed a story on it which aired on national television in 1970.

    A red and white hot air balloon inflated with the basket on the ground. A group of people standing by the balloon's basket.

    Defiance College hot air balloon. Courtesy of Defiance College

  9. The canals lining the streets of Cincinnati created transportation hubs, odd jobs, and a reputed “rough crowd” during the whole of the 19th century. Although the usage of the canals was mainly discontinued due to the continual flooding of the early 20th century, and the advanced changes in the city’s transportation developments; the canals continue to hold a special place in the hearts of Cincinnatians to this very day.

    Black and white photograph of five men standing on a canal boat. Building line the canal in the background.

    9. Cincinnati Canal Boat and Crew, c. late 1880/early1890s. Courtesy of Cincinnati Museum Center.

  10. Defiance College’s men’s glee club on tour of New England in 1926, in an early form of bus. Defiance College holds other photographs from the same trip of the men having to push this vehicle out of the mud. The sign inside the spare tire says “Defiance College Men’s Glee Club.”

    Black and white photograph of two men standing in front of a long car with men inside the car.

    Defiance Men’s Glee Club bus, 1926. Courtesy of Defiance College.

Thank you,

Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee

Questions? Contact the committee at [email protected].

Last Updated on June 22, 2023 by Emily Gainer