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- Abram Garfield (1872-1958) was the son of president James A. Garfield who became a Cleveland, Ohio, architect, co-founder and president of the School of Architecture (later a part of Western Reserve University), and member of the Regional Association of Cleveland. The collection consists of sketchbooks, diaries, and miscellaneous papers, including drawings, paintings, sketches, and writings. Also included are two autograph books of Marshall Van Horn. A major subject of the artwork is views of Europe. Topics of the diaries include architecture and World War II.
- Allen E. Cole (1883-1970) was a Cleveland, Ohio, photographer who produced over 50,000 photographs of people and places in the African American community of Cleveland, Ohio. Cole opened his first studio in 1922 at 9909 Cedar Avenue, supplementing his income with commercial work and commission work for eight white-owned studios, and earned prizes and commendations at state and local exhibitions. His photographs were frequently published in The Call and Post. The collection consists of four black and white, silent 16mm films.
- In 2013, the Asian Indian Heritage Project and the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) launched an oral history project with funding from the Smithsonian Institution's Young Historians Living Histories Program (part of the Youth Access Grants Program). High school and middle school students under the direction of Dr. John Grabowski and Ms. Jane Mason of WRHS conducted interviews with ten Asian Indians who had settled in Greater Cleveland, Ohio, during the 1950s and 1960s. The interviews document the unique immigrant experience of Asian Indians in northeast Ohio and explore issues of professional, family, and religious life. The collection consists of seven oral history recordings, biographies of the interviewees, and release statements signed by the interviewees.
- The Austin Company, a carpentry and contracting business, was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1878 by Samuel Austin. Austin became known for his quality work, and by 1904 incorporated his business as the Samuel Austin & Son Company. Wilbert J. Austin, Samuel's son, devised "The Austin Method," a unique bundling of engineering, construction, and design services intended to streamline the building process, as well as a model for a "controlled conditions" plant, a major improvement over the hot, stifling factory environment of the day. The Austin Company grew rapidly during World War I and was able to stay solvent following the stock market crash of 1929, mostly due to the firm's major contract to build the Gorky Automobile Plant in Gorky, Russia. Business saw another increase during World War II and again during the post-war years as the company branched out beyond industrial construction to build department stores and retail shopping centers, including the Severance Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Overseas operations flourished in western Europe, Australia, and Argentina. Throughout the 1970's and into the 1990's, the Austin Company faced a decline in business. In 1984, the Company was purchased by the National Gypsum Company. Following National Gypsum's bankruptcy, the Austin Company was purchased by the Kajima USA Group. As of 2017, the Austin Company continued to maintain its headquarters in the Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights. The collection consists of acquisition records, Board of Directors minutes, correspondence, stock plans, division reports, business plans and reports, presentations, stock ownership materials, as well as 16mm film, and audio and video tapes documenting various projects, company meetings, and oral history.
- The Austin Company, a carpentry and contracting business, was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1878 by Samuel Austin. Austin became known for his quality work, and by 1904 incorporated his business as the Samuel Austin & Son Company. Wilbert J. Austin, Samuel's son, devised "The Austin Method," a unique bundling of engineering, construction, and design services intended to streamline the building process, as well as a model for a "controlled conditions" plant, a major improvement over the hot, stifling factory environment of the day. The Austin Company grew rapidly during World War I and was able to stay solvent following the stock market crash of 1929, mostly due to the firm's major contract to build the Gorky Automobile Plant in Gorky, Russia. Business saw another increase during World War II and again during the post-war years as the Company branched out beyond industrial construction to build department stores and retail shopping centers, including the Severance Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Overseas operations flourished in western Europe, Australia, and Argentina. Throughout the 1970's and into the 1990's, the Austin Company faced a decline in business. In 1984, the Company was purchased by the National Gypsum Company. Following National Gypsum's bankruptcy, the Austin Company was purchased by the Kajima USA Group. As of 2009, the Austin Company continued to maintain an office in suburban Cleveland. The collection consists of advertisements, agreements, annual reports, blueprints, books, brochures, certificates, charts, contracts, correspondence, film reels, financial statements, indexes, journal articles, leases, ledgers, legal documents, magazine articles, manuals, maps, meeting notices, memoranda, minutes, negatives, newsletters, newspaper clippings, notes, office manuals, photograph captions, photographs, presentations, press releases, proposals, reports, resolutions, sales literature, sales letters, scrapbooks, slides, speech texts, and videotapes.
- Carl Stokes (1927-1996) was the Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, from 1967-1971. Stokes was the first African American mayor of a major American city and the first African American Democrat in the Ohio State Legislature, where he served three terms from 1962-1967. As mayor, Stokes launched a number of programs to alleviate the problems of urban decay. Chief among these was Cleveland: NOW!, a joint public and private program with plans to raise $177 million in its first two years to revitalize Cleveland. The program was discredited due to the Glenville Shootout in July, 1968. Under Stokes, Cleveland City Council passed the Equal Employment Opportunity Ordinance, and HUD resumed funding projects aiding in the construction of over 3,000 new low- and middle-income housing units. Stokes became a newscaster with NBC television in 1972, and returned to his law practice in Cleveland in 1980. In 1983, Stokes was elected a municipal court judge. The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, and newspaper clippings pertaining to the political career of Carl B. Stokes, including his terms in the Ohio State legislature, his mayoral campaigns, and particularly his tenure as mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. The collection details the organization of the mayor's office, and illustrates the problems that Blacks in the vanguard of social and political progress faced, as well as the challenges faced by any urban leader in the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s. Key events in Stokes' administration are illustrated, including the Glenville Shootout, the hiring and resignation of Safety Director Gen. Ben Davis, the activities of the Mayor's Council on Youth Opportunities, and Cleveland: NOW! The work of then City Council President James Stanton is represented, along with material relating to Stokes' brother Louis. Notable correspondents include Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Robert F. Kennedy, Spiro Agnew, Cyrus Eaton, Edward Kennedy, George Forbes, Jesse Jackson, and Howard Metzenbaum.
- Carl Stokes was the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 1967-1971. Stokes was the first African American mayor of a major American city and the first African American Democrat in the Ohio State Legislature, where he served three terms from 1962-1967. As mayor, Stokes launched a number of programs to alleviate the problems of urban decay. Chief among these was Cleveland: NOW!, a joint public and private program with plans to raise $177 million in its first two years to revitalize Cleveland. The program was discredited due to the Glenville Shootout in July, 1968. Under Stokes, Cleveland City Council passed the Equal Employment Opportunity Ordinance, and HUD resumed funding projects aiding in the construction of over 3,000 new low- and middle-income housing units. Stokes became a newscaster with NBC television in 1972, and returned to his law practice in Cleveland in 1980. In 1983, Stokes was elected a municipal court judge. The collection consists of speeches, correspondence, datebooks, budgets, lectures, newspaper clippings, publications, telegrams, reports, resumes, agendas, press releases, programs, flyers, certificates, legal documents, newsletters, transcripts, proposals, lists, minutes, and a yearbook.
- The Centerior Energy Corporation was founded in 1892 in Cleveland, Ohio, as the Cleveland General Electric Company, with a franchise from the General Electric Company of Boston, Massachusetts. In 1893, assets of the Brush Electric Light and Power Company and of the Cleveland Electric Light Company were transferred to the Cleveland General Electric Company, forming the nucleus of a new organization. On July 21, 1894, the name of the company was changed to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (CEI). In 1926, the company purchased the Cleveland, Painesville and Eastern Railroad Company and its subsidiary, The United Light and Power Company. Other power companies in the northeastern Ohio region were purchased during this time. In 1947 control of the company returned to the hands of public investors, and new power plants continued to be added to the system. The company's first nuclear power plant, the Davis-Besse facility, became fully operational in 1978. A second nuclear power facility, the Perry Nuclear Power Plant, was subsequently added. In 1986 Centerior Energy Corporation, an affiliation between CEI and the Toledo Edison Company, was formed to become one of the largest electric systems in the United States. In 1996, Centerior Energy Corporation and the Ohio Edison Company merged into a new holding company, First Energy Corporation. The collection consists of articles of incorporation, annual reports, bylaws, histories, correspondence, legal briefs, financial records, handbooks, speeches, pamphlets, publications, oral history transcriptions, organizational charts, rate schedules, magazine and newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks. Includes the correspondence of various presidents of the corporation.
- Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) was a Cleveland, Ohio, court reporter, novelist and short story writer. He was the first African American novelist and short story writer to win recognition on a nationwide scale. The collection consists of correspondence, copies of speeches and writings, newspaper clippings, invitations, programs, photographs and other papers relating to Chesnutt's activities as a court reporter and writer.
- Clare Benedict was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of George Stone Benedict and Clara Woolson Benedict. She was the niece of author Constance Fenimore Woolson. Benedict was an author in her own right, writing books that dealt with family history, biography of Woolson, and general topics. Constance Fenimore Woolson was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, the daughter of Charles Jarvis Woolson and Hannah Pomeroy. She was a niece of James Fenimore Cooper. Woolson and her family moved to Cleveland in 1840. Woolson attended the Cleveland Female Seminary and was a graduate of Madame Chegaray's finishing school in New York City. She later lived in Florida, and then spent the rest of her life in Europe. Woolson published many works of fiction during her lifetime. The collection consists of books, letters, letter fragments, notes, notebooks, photographs, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, bound magazines, poems, essays, genealogies, invitations, programs, a memorial book, tickets, postcards, lithographs, sketches, watercolors, brochures, press notices, reviews, birth records, receipts, a military commission, signatures, a constitution, and a nail. In many cases, authors of books contained in the collection wrote inscriptions to either Clare Benedict or Constance Fenimore Woolson. Included are two books inscribed by Henry James, along with a letter written by him to Benedict. Excerpts of letters, notes, postcards, photographs, and other manuscript material concerning either the author or the subject of a book were placed into each volume, most likely by Clare Benedict. Some of the books and manuscript materials appear to have originally belonged to Constance Fenimore Woolson, and include letters, notes, letter fragments, poems, a poetry notebook, and other items.
- The Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism was a Cleveland, Ohio, organization founded in 1963, by three NASA scientists, to help Soviet Jews to emigrate and to monitor anti-semitism in the USSR. The movement spread to other cities in North America and led to the formation of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews to coordinate the local groups. The collection consists of administrative files, correspondence, documents, subject and program files and publications of the previous hit Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism, and correspondence, subject and program files and publications of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews.
- The Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation was founded in 1925 by Leo Weidenthal as the Civic Progress League. In 1926 the name was changed to the Cleveland Cultural Garden League, and in 1952 to the Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation. Weidenthal conceived the idea of a series of gardens, each having a central theme concerning the history of a single nationality group in Cleveland, Ohio. The City of Cleveland and the Work Projects Administration did much of the work on the earlier gardens after a 1927 ordinance set aside areas of Rockefeller Park next to the Shakespeare Garden for the development of similar gardens with ethnic themes. The collection consists of articles of incorporation, constitutions, minutes, correspondence, histories, speeches, financial records, proclamations, publications, clippings, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous material including membership lists, resolutions, press releases, certificates, programs, and invitations. The minutes and correspondence contain information on the role of the Work Projects Administration in helping to build the gardens.