Searching the Plain Dealer, 1845 to 1969
I just learned* that the
Plain Dealer has mounted a search engine on its Cleveland.com site that permits keyword searching of all its issues between 1845 and 1969!
Here it is. We'd already had the power to search from 1914 to 1922 through an expensive commercial database that libraries subscribe to, but this
PD database is only $20 a month, putting it within the range of serious researchers, genealogists and the like.
By the way, in a similar vein, the
Call & Post is available for free on the Cleveland Public Library web site,
here. You just need a CPL library card to use it. It covers the period 1934 to 1991.
* (Thanks, Kieth!)
Labels: Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, newspapers, Plain Dealer
Christopher Busta-Peck
A colleague pointed out (thanks, M.H.) that
the Cleveland Public Library home page acknowledged that one of its own librarians,
Christopher Busta-Peck, has been doing some good work researching and promoting the preservation of Langston Hughes' home.
Christopher has a blog,
Cleveland Area History, which he co-authors with local writer
Christine Borne, which is well worth subscribing to. I hope his identification of
a home that Jessie Owens lived in might receive equally profitable results.
Labels: Christine Borne, Christopher Busta-Peck, Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Jessie Owens, Langston Hughes, preservation
A Historic Identity for Northeast Ohio
The article
below, about Ohio Historical Society's further reduction in hours, mentions a big collection redevelopment project taking place. The morning
Plain Dealer today has a big article that continues the call for more regionalism. The question that comes to my mind, prompted by a stimulating discussion last night on this subject, is what does it mean to be a resident of Ohio and/or Northeast Ohio? What is our identity, as opposed to someone from Indiana or Florida?
When several NE Ohio libraries formed our
Ohio's Heritage Northeast site several years ago, it was partially to support the greater call for regionalism with some collaborations around the history of Northeast Ohio. But what is "northeast Ohio" geographically and what historical character, what unique identity do we who live here have? Ultimately we decided that the boundaries would be those of the Western Reserve and the next original land survey tract below us, the U.S. Congress Lands N.E., the boundaries of which would be East Liverpool west to a point SW of Mansfield, then north to the west side of Sandusky. This corresponds reasonably well with most definitions of NE Ohio by economic development and environmental sustainability folks and it has the historical virtue of including the Point of Beginning for all the federal surveys under the Land Ordinance of 1785 and has as part of its southern boundary the Greenville Treaty Line.
But that does little to say what it means, historically, to be a resident of NE Ohio. Do we have any defining character or identity? And for that matter, what does it mean, historically, to be an Ohioan? What is the sound-bite, bumper-sticker message we want to send out to the world to tell them something about ourselves? Once upon a time we tried "The Best Location in the Nation," and "Cleveland Is A Plum," and now we're hawking "Cleveland Plus," but these slogans are artificial and don't mean anything that's unique about our area. Plums? Maybe there is nothing unique about our story and living here has no particular thing to say to the world, but I wonder. Any ideas?
Labels: Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, identity, Northeast Ohio, Ohio's Heritage NE, regionalism
Article noted:Ohio Historical Society to reduce the hours of its museum to only 9am-5pm on Saturdays and for the library to only 9am-9pm on Thursdays while a big collection redevelopment project takes place.
State's Attic's Overhaul: Ohio Historical Center to trim hours - Ohio Historical Society's MySpace Blog |Labels: Ohio Historical Society
Broadway/Rockefeller Bridge to be Demolished
Today's
Plain Dealer announced that the
Rockefeller Bridge, closed since 2003, is slated by RTA to be demolished. This bridge was constructed in 1929 as part of the Cleveland Union Terminal (Terminal Tower) construction project in the '20s and '30s as the
Broadway Bridge. The recently-replaced Adelbert Bridge beside CWRU was another old C.U.T. concrete bridge that time has overtaken.
Labels: Broadway Bridge, Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Cleveland Union Terminal, Rockefeller Bridge, RTA
Horace Wade, Boy Author
Cleveland's own Horace A. Wade was a published author at age 11, with his book
In the Shadow of Great Peril, and went on to write numerous other works, especially about horse racing.
The buttons are mostly about Herbert Hoover. This
Cleveland Press photo was taken in 1920 and I just got a kick out of it.
Labels: author, Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Horace A. Wade
Timken Tank at Cunningham Sanitarium
I was recently asked about the "Timken Tank." Never having heard of it before, I imagined some sort of Army tank manufactured by the
Timken Roller Bearing Company of Canton. But in examining it further, I discovered that it was this giant live-in medical treatment facility on the NW corner of Lake Shore Boulevard and East 185th Street. Looking like some Buck Rogers era space ship had landed, it was installed at the
Cunningham Sanitarium (more shots) as an experimental device to deliver healthful properties through living in a high-pressure environment, the Timken Tank was a landmark until being scrapped in 1942. The metal thus recycled might have fittingly gone into actual Army tanks, who knows.
Labels: Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Cunningham Sanitarium, Timken Roller Bearing Company, Timken Tank
First United Methodist is merging with Epworth-Euclid Methodist
I missed this when
it was announced in the Plain Dealer last week.
First United (left) is a major building on Euclid, at East 30th, and I'm sorry to see the congregation leave, even to shore up the equally-grand
Epworth-Euclid (below).
With all the Catholic churches closing (and some depressing photos of the gutted
St. Joseph Byzantine Church on Kinsman someone just showed me today), it seems like the city's sacred landmarks are taking a tremendous hit in our time.
Labels: Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, Epworth-Euclid Methodist, First Methodist, sacred landmarks, St. Joseph Byzantine
A Season of Memories
With the holidays upon us, this is the time of year when everyone starts remembering celebrations in years past. For those who grew up in Cleveland a half-century or so ago, that's the
lavish Christmas shopping displays downtown. There are a lot of photos of those times in the Cleveland Memory Project and we are starting to get the usual and frequent requests for the words to the Mr. Jingeling song and the recipie for Higbee's frosties.
Some more links about that are here
Labels: Christmas, Cleveland history, Cleveland OH, downtown, Mr Jingeling, shopping
