Cleveland History Blog

Announcing winners of OHRAB Achievement Award

We all greatly appreciate this important recognition from the Ohio Historic Records Advisory Board, in awarding us one of their two awards in kicking off their new achievement awards programs.

However formally awarded, this is an honor shared by all the community. The nomination stressed the multi-level community collaboration of CSU departments, KSU library practicum students, various partnering public libraries, historical societies and government agencies sharing resources and the partners in the Ohio's Heritage NE, all collaborating to make information on the region's history available to its citizens. We felt the process by which Cleveland Memory (and OHNE) were built is as important as the digital content it provides.

Thank you all for your participation and I hope we can forge even closer relations in the coming months and years, especially as the economy challenges us all to find new sustainable models to achieve our goals.

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OHRAB Achievement Award Announced.

Winners of the 2010 Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board's Achievement Awards are Cleveland State University's Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections Department and Montgomery County Records Center and Archives.

Cleveland State's Special Collections Department has led the Cleveland Memory Project since its beginning in 2002. Institutions as diverse as the Cuyahoga County Engineer's Office, Berea Children's Home, Rocky River Public Library, Hathaway Brown School, and Lakewood Historical Society have contributed materials from their collections to Cleveland Memory. Project partners have made more than 42,000 images and other historic items available online. Practicum and internship opportunities provide real world experience to students while bringing fresh from the classroom perspectives to practitioners. Cleveland Memory is a model of multi-institutional collaboration melding local collection knowledge, shared infrastructure, and professional development opportunities. OHRAB congratulates Cleveland State University and its partners for expanding access to Ohio's historic resources.

Cleveland Memory - http://www.clevelandmemory.org/

In 2006 the Montgomery County Records Center and Archives faced every archivist's nightmare. Active mold, cracked spines on bound volumes, and inadequate storage threatened the existence of the county's historic records. Through a systematic program of compliance with neglected records disposal schedules, environmental improvements and monitoring, and conservation treatment, Montgomery County Records Center and Archives staff have demonstrated that even monumental problems can be mitigated if approached with determination and creativity. The results of their efforts include reduced storage costs, improved access, and the confidence that the early records of Montgomery County will survive. OHRAB recognizes the Montgomery County Records Center and Archives for preserving Ohio's public history records.
Montgomery County Records Center and Archives - http://www.mcohio.org/services/recordarchives/about.html

Nominees for the Achievement Award represented small towns and large cities; public and private institutions; universities, historical societies, and records centers; and a full range of historic records - maps, photographs, marriage, birth, death, and estate records, and more. Common to all their successes were collaboration, determination, creativity, and a passionate commitment to the preservation and expanded use of Ohio's historic records. Clearly, Ohio's historic records community is achieving admirable results.

For more information please contact awards committee chair Jill Tatum at 216-368-4106 or jill.tatem@case.edu.

The Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board is the central body for historical records planning in the Ohio. Board members represent Ohio's public and private archives, records offices, and research institutions. http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/ohrab/

Labels: Cleveland Memory Project, Ohio Historic Records Advisory Board, Ohio's Heritage NE

posted by Bill Barrow @ 2:37:00 PM 0 comments

The Beet Lady is Grandma Rose!

One of the iconic shots from the Cleveland Press Collection, one that we have used often in displays and our Cleveland Memory Project, is “The Beet Lady,” shown here. There’s something really charismatic about her and people always respond to this picture. But for the past decade since we came across it, we’ve known nothing more than what you see. Today, however, she has a name: Grandma Rose Thomas! There’s great joy around the library as a result of this discovery.

The news came as a result of the photo being run in Cleveland Magazine. Grandma Rose is now deceased, but a close family friend called to give them a report, which was passed on to us today.

Grandma Rose was a young widow from Lebanon who came to America in her 20s, about a century ago. Here she met her husband, Al, peddling sundries in Pennsylvania. They were poor and slept in barns at one point before moving to Cleveland. Here they were running a couple of produce stands at the West Side Market when this photo of Rose was taken in 1947. Her husband died young and Rose and their daughter Elizabeth lived in Parma, where Elizabeth worked as a secretary and Rose tended her garden and cooked. Rose died in 1975, at the age of 89.

The family friend saw this photo of Rose in Cleveland Memory some years ago and again when it appeared in a book about Cleveland. Then she showed it to Elizabeth, before she died. When it turned up again in Cleveland Magazine, she decided to tell them who the woman was. We are all very happy to put a name next to this remarkable face.

Labels: Cleveland history, Cleveland Memory Project, Cleveland OH, West Side Market

posted by Bill Barrow @ 4:40:00 PM 5 comments