Thursday, March 30, 2006

Cozad-Bates House, in University Circle

I was pleased to note that a citizens group, Restore Cleveland Hope, has stepped forward to champion the preservation of the historic Cozad-Bates House, on Mayfield Road, just off Euclid, in University Circle. The house has been empty for years and looking more and more vulnerable to being torn down for some future University Hospital expansion. In a Plain Dealer article on Sunday, March 26th (see also this earlier article), Councilman Kevin Conwell is quoted as saying that the Landmarks Commission will hold a hearing about the building on Friday, April 7th, at Cleveland City Hall. It is the only pre-Civil War house standing in the University Circle area and is thought to have served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

But that aside, the preservation of the Cozad-Bates House would provide an important link back to the early days of the city's important Doan's Corners settlement. Before the universities, the hospitals, the art museum, the symphony and even before the Lake View Cemetery and Little Italy, pioneer families like the Cozads, Fords, Dutys and others made this the economic hub and transportation gateway from Cleveland's east side and some monument to that era should be preserved.

I note that the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission blog posted some informtation about this too, on March 30th. Also addressing this story is an article on the WCPN website.

Jeanette Tuve, CSU History Professor Emeritus

Jeanette Eckman Tuve, former History professor at the Cleveland State University, died Sunday, March 26th, at the Judson Retirement Community, age 91. While I never got to meet her, I have come to feel a certain affection for her from listening to her interview ladies for her Ethnic Women of Cleveland oral history project in the 1980s, which we are digitizing for the Cleveland Memory Project. It was also interesting to me that she was CSU History Professor Bob Wheeler's mother-in-law. The Plain Dealer obituary said that services were held yesterday and that donations may be made to the Jeanette Tuve Scholarship Fund, through the CSU Development Office.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Next meeting of the Greater Cleveland History Digital Library Consortium

The next meeting of the Greater Cleveland History Digital Library Consortium will be held at 1:00 on Thursday, April 27th, at the Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University.

Nick Fischio, a member of the Library's Technology Team, will give a brief demo of their newly implemented Fedora digital file management and archiving system. This is where the library's digital books now reside. There will also be a tour of the Freedman Center, where items in any format are digitized, including microfilm, LP records, 8 tracks, slides, photos and video. The tour will demonstrate a large format planetary scanner and visit their Preservation Department.

The meeting will also include a brief presentation by Paul McKey, of Aptigent software's "itemright" metadata program, which several consortium members are signed up to use or are at least considering.

The consortium is made up of representatives from dozens of local libraries, historical societies and others interested in networking local history materials on the web. Their mission statement is reproduced in an earlier blog posting here (below). If you are interested in attending or wish to know more about the consortium, please write to me at w.barrow@csuohio.edu.

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Cleveland Archival Roundtable (CAR) meeting report

The members of the Cleveland Archival Roundtable visited the Cuyahoga County Archives tonight and were given a tour of the facility, which is housed in a historic mansion on Franklin Avenue, by its director, Judy Cetina. Representatives of many local corporate and historical archival organizations attended, including folks from the City of Cleveland, the Cleveland Clinic, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Aurora Historical Society, the Cleveland Public Library, the Shaker Hts. Public Library, the United Church of Christ and Cleveland State University, as well as a number of students and part-time archivists for smaller groups. CAR holds meetings every two or three months, to which anyone is welcome who is interested in archiving company documents, or historical materials or just in learning more about the subject.

From more information, write to me at w.barrow@csuohio.edu.

First Ohio & Erie Canalway Symposium: April 5th

This is a press release from the Ohio & Erie Canalway folks.

What are you doing on April 5th?

We're looking for 40 good people - that's the number of available slots still available for the first ever Canalway Symposium.

The Ohio & Erie Canalway is hosting its first Conference to update and introduce a number of new features for this evolving National Heritage Area. The conference runs from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm and costs ONLY $20 - and that includes breakfast and lunch. It is being held in Akron's Main Library.

There will be a host of interesting presentations on topics as far ranging as Signage and Business Planning for non-profits; we will introduce a new and interactive web site tailored for visitors, and speaking of visitors, the first dedicated Visitor Guide for the Canalway.

Keynote speaker Brian O'Neil from San Fransisco's Golden Gate National Park will tell of the successes they've had and the business model they've developed.

Please visit www.ohioanderiecanalway.com. If you have any problems registering - call our office and ask for Jennifer (216) 520-1825.

Tim Donovan, Director
Ohio Canal Corridor
PO Box 609420
Cleveland, OH 44109
216-520-1825 ph
216-520-1832 fax
www.ohiocanal.org