Ohio Archives Month Spotlights: Cleveland Police Historical Society and Museum

The Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee is happy to announce that we will be spotlighting archives around the state again this year to celebrate archives month throughout October 2023. Each of our archives spotlights will feature places that house materials related to the theme of the poster, Land, Water, & Air: Transportation in Ohio.

by Christine Liebson, MLIS, CA

Introduction

1939 Harley Davidson police motorcycle

The Cleveland Police Historical Society and Museum exists to collect and preserve Cleveland police history and to use its collection and programs to educate the public and to foster a mutual understanding and respect between law enforcement and the public. The Cleveland Police Historical Society (CPHS) works in cooperation with, but is independent of, the Cleveland Division of Police. Financial support comes from membership dues, donations, and small grants from various government agencies and private organizations. The CPHS receives no tax funds from the City of Cleveland, State of Ohio, or the Federal Government. The Cleveland Police Museum opened in June 1983 with Florence E. Schwein as its director. The current director, Mazie Adams, graciously accepted our invitation for an interview to share with us about her work and collections at the museum. Continue reading →

Ohio Archives Month Spotlights: The University of Akron Archives and Special Collections

The Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee is happy to announce that we will be spotlighting archives around the state again this year to celebrate archives month throughout October 2023. Each of our archives spotlights will feature places that house materials related to the theme of the poster, Land, Water, & Air: Transportation in Ohio.

By Natalie Fritz, Archivist and Outreach Director, Clark County Historical Society

The Polsky Building, University of Akron

This week we are shining a spotlight on the University of Akron Archives and Special Collections. The University was founded in 1870 as Buchtel College. The Archives and Special Collections are housed in the Polsky Building and they provide access to a wide variety of historical resources including collections on the University’s history, the city of Akron and Summit, the surrounding county, the rubber industry, which was integral to the community’s development, and more.

The ground crew hauls out the Goodyear blimp, The Puritan, from the Wingfoot Lake Hangar, for its first flight, July 3, 1938.

Important transportation related collections in the archives include the Lighter-than-Air Collections. The images from the  Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Records are great for those interested in blimps and airships. (Especially for someone like me who grew up in Akron and was amazed by the sheer size of the Wingfoot Lake Hangar and who got excited whenever we’d spot the Goodyear Blimp around town)!

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Ohio Archives Month Spotlights: University of Dayton’s Hidden Aviation Gems

The Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee is happy to announce that we will be spotlighting archives around the state again this year to celebrate archives month throughout October 2023. Each of our archives spotlights will feature places that house materials related to the theme of the poster, Land, Water, & Air: Transportation in Ohio.

By Jim McKinnon, CA, Associate University Archivist

Albert Emanual Hall, University of Dayton

This week we will be spotlighting the University of Dayton Archives and Special Collections. The University of Dayton’s history is one of perseverance, tenacity, ingenuity and transformation. The school began with an act of faith more than 170 years ago. On July 1, 1850, St. Mary’s School for Boys opened its doors to 14 primary students from Dayton. Known at various times as St. Mary’s School, St. Mary’s Institute and St. Mary’s College, the school assumed its present identity in 1920. Today, the University of Dayton is recognized as a top-tier national research university rooted in the Catholic tradition.

Photograph of Charles F. Kettering’s secretary, Mrs. Olive Kettering, Bernard L. Whelan, and Mrs. Kettering’s friend.

The University Archives and Special Collections documents the history of the University as well as being the home to many special collections of prominent alumni such as Congressman Charles Whalen and the humorist Erma Bombeck. In addition, University Archives is home to approximately 12,000 rare books, some dating to the mid-15^th century. The archives are located on the second floor of Albert Emanuel Hall, which was built in 1927 as the new library.

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Ohio Archives Month Spotlights: Inland Rivers Library, Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Caption: Group waiting to board a steamboat at Evansville, Indiana, 1895. Photograph link

The Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee is happy to announce that we will be spotlighting archives around the state again this year to celebrate archives month throughout October 2023. Each of our archives spotlights will feature places that house materials related to the theme of the poster, Land, Water, & Air: Transportation in Ohio.

About the Inland Rivers Library

By A&O Committee member Erin Wilson, Ohio University Libraries

People aboard Cotton Blossom showboat on the banks of the Ohio River, circa 1908-1917. Photograph link

Have you ever wondered what life was like along the Ohio River when steamboats were the dominant form of transport? Whether you’re interested in river travel, trade, navigation, or the history of local river towns, the Inland Rivers Library is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections documenting use of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and their tributaries. Housed in the Genealogy and Local History Department of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, the Inland Rivers collection includes materials dating back to the 1820s which present some of the earliest images and descriptions of the steamboat era and its Ohio locales.

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Ohio Archives Month Spotlights: Wright State University Special Collections and Archives

by Collette N. McDonough, CA 

Research spaces at Special Collections and Archives in the Wright State University Libraries. Credit: Wright State University.

The Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee is happy to announce that we will be spotlighting archives around the state again this year to celebrate archives month throughout October. Each of our archives spotlights will feature places that house materials related the theme of the poster, Land, Water, & Air: Transportation in Ohio.

The first archives we will be spotlighting in 2023 is Wright State University Special Collections and Archives. Even though Wright State’s submission was not featured on the poster this year, we are happy to have them front and center in our first archives spotlight.

This famous image, taken by John T. Daniels, captures a moment of the twelve-second first flight. Daniels walked up from the U.S. Lifesaving Station at Kill Devil Hills to help the brothers. The Wright Brothers did not know if the image caught their airplane in flight until they developed the negatives at home back in Dayton, Ohio.

Wright State University was founded in the 1960s as a part of a plan to make higher education more convenient for Ohioans and got its start as a joint campus of the Ohio State University and Miami University. By 1967, the campus was granted independent status and named in honor of Dayton’s favorite sons, inventors of the manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft. The Wright State archive got its start with their first collection of Wright Brothers materials. In December 1975, the Wright Family “including Ivonette Wright Miller, Leontine Wright Jameson, Horace A. Wright, Milton Wright, Jr., and Wilkinson Wright,” gave materials to the archives to become the Wright Brothers Collection. Continue reading →

View of Mitchell-Nelson Library, formerly the Pratt and Research Foundation Library, location of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Archives. Cincinnati Children’s.

Archival Spotlights: Post #3

The Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee wanted to celebrate Archives Month in a new way, so we featured three archives in a series of posts we are calling Archival Spotlights. Since the Archives Month poster’s theme was “Ohio’s Healthcare Workers: The True Heart of it All,” we felt it a good idea to feature archives that focus on healthcare or have interesting collections related to healthcare.

About the Cincinnati Children’s Archives and its Collections

By A&O Committee member Erin Wilson, Ohio University Libraries

The Cincinnati Children’s Archives are a unique community resource, preserving the history of local patient care, institutional research, and developments in pediatric medicine. With collections dating back to the hospital’s founding in 1883, the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) Archives document nearly 140 years of healthcare in the Queen City.

Articles of incorporation of the Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, 1883. Cincinnati Children’s.

The Center’s first facility, the “Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church” was a rented home in Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills neighborhood with a capacity of fourteen beds. The hospital was cooperatively governed by a Board of Trustees and a Board of Lady Managers until 1921. The first annual report from 1884 concludes with a historically significant statement by the Board of Lady Managers affirming their commitment to patient admission and care regardless of faith, race, or ethnicity, “all being welcomed and treated alike…” Continue reading →

View of Dittrick Medical History Center Archives. Dittrick Medical History Center, Case Western Reserve University.

Archival Spotlights: Post #2

The Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee (A&O) wanted to celebrate Archives Month in a new way, so we are featuring a handful of archives in a series of posts we are calling Archival Spotlights. Since the Archives Month poster’s theme was “Ohio’s Healthcare Workers: The True Heart of it All,” we felt it a good idea to feature archives that focus on healthcare or have interesting collections related to healthcare.

About the Dittrick Medical History Center and its Collections

By A&O Committee Member Amy Czubak, Ohio History Connection.

Have you ever wanted to read a letter written by Charles Darwin? Examine intricately detailed medical drawings? Maybe see inside of a Civil War era amputation kit? The Dittrick Medical History Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, has all of these things and more! Named after the first curator, Dr. Howard Dittrick (1877–1954), the museum and archives has been collecting medical history for nearly 100 years and has the most comprehensive collection concerning medical instruments and implements in the United States.

Diagrams found in the Dittrick Medical History Center Archives include this one of a disk oxygenator. The disk oxygenator removes carbon and gasses from the blood and adds in oxygen.
Disk oxygenator diagram engineered by Richard Jones, PhD. Dittrick Medical History Center, Case Western Reserve University.

The Cleveland Medical Library Association, established in 1894, developed a historical committee in 1898. At its helm was a prominent Cleveland area surgeon named Dr. Dudley Peter Allen (1852–1915), who was tasked with caring for and preserving donations given to the Cleveland Medical Library Association by Dr. Allen and other members of the Association. A new medical library built on land donated by Western Reserve University, and funded by money donated by Dr. Allen’s widow, was established in 1926 and featured a third floor museum gallery.
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Athens Mental Health Center Administration building, winter 1981. Tom O’Grady. Athens Mental Health Center collection, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries.

Announcing a New Series

The Society of Ohio Archivists Advocacy and Outreach Committee wanted to celebrate Archives Month in a new way, so we will be featuring a handful of archives in a series of posts we are calling Archival Spotlights. Since the Archives Month poster’s theme was “Ohio’s Healthcare Workers: The True Heart of it All,” we felt it a good idea to feature archives that focus on healthcare or have interesting collections related to healthcare. The first archive to be featured is the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, focusing on their Athens Mental Health Center collection.

About the Mahn Center, and the Athens Mental Health Center Collection

By A&O Committee Chair Collette McDonough, Kettering Foundation.

The Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, part of Ohio University Libraries in Athens, Ohio, contains the Ohio University Archives, Rare Books, Manuscript Collections, and the Documentary Photography Archive. The Mahn Center’s mission “is to support the education, research, and creative endeavors of Ohio University, or broad community of researcher, and anyone with an interest in the preservation of cultural heritage.” Ohio University is in the rolling foothills of Southeast Ohio and is a center for arts and culture in the area.

Athens is renowned for what is now known as The Ridges. Originally called the Athens Lunatic Asylum and later named the Athens State Hospital, The Ridges opened in 1874. The Athens Mental Health Center collection documents its evolution.

Plan for buildings and grounds of Athens Lunatic Asylum, 1872. Athens Mental Health Center collection, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries.

This fold-out map from 1872 was pasted into some copies of the first annual report of the Athens Lunatic Asylum. The construction of the campus started in 1868. The grounds were designed by Herman Haerlin, who was also the landscape architect of the Oval at The Ohio University. The architect was Levi T. Scofield. Continue reading →