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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- In 1925, the Cleveland Water Department opened the Baldwin Water Treatment Plant in the Fairfax neighborhood on the border of Cleveland Heights. Supplying water to the Baldwin facility was the Kirtland Pump Station located on Lakefront Road at E. 49th Street. Just east of the Kirtland Station was Gordon Park Beach, which was a 122-acre recreational area along the lakefront on the eastern side of E. 72nd Street. Euclid Beach Park was located on the southern shore of Lake Erie at E. 156th St. and Nottingham Rd., about 8 mi. from Public Square. On the west side of Cleveland. Adjacent to the Division Avenue Treatment Plant (now known as the Garrett Morgan facility), Edgewater Park was purchased in 1894 by the city's Second Park Board from Jacob B. Perkins, Cleveland industrialist. The collection consists of 53 black and white photographs illustrating Baldwin Water Treatment facility, the construction of bulkheads along the shoreline at the Kirtland Pump Station, and Edgewater, Euclid Beach, and Gordon Parks.
- Clifford William Henderson (1895-1984) was director of the National Air Races, 1928-1939, as well as other air races and expositions. Henderson managed and promoted sporting and cultural events, expositions, and conventions in the Los Angeles area after resigning from the National Air Races. He served with honor in North Africa during World War II, and founded the community of Palm Desert, California. The collection is a comprehensive body of documentary evidence reflecting the organization and implementation of the races, consisting of press releases, letters, programs, posters, tickets, buttons, clippings, certificates and plaques. The 1928 race was held in Los Angeles, but from 1929 to 1939 most of the races were held in Cleveland. They featured cross country races, short races, army and navy maneuvers, stunt flying, parachute jumping, gliders, dirigibles, balloons and model planes and were considered a working laboratory for the aviation industry where new developments could be tested and refined. The collection is useful to the study of the races as both a popular amusement and as an aviation industry endeavor. In addition, the collection contains excellent examples of graphic design and illustration and biographical materials on various aviators.
- The College Club of Cleveland was founded on January 15, 1898 in Cleveland, Ohio. Louise Pope and Carolyn Shipman, two college graduates, were concerned with promoting the "social, philanthropic, and literary interests" of other college-educated women in the Cleveland area. The club started with 88 members from 17 colleges and universities. Miss Pope was elected the first president of the College Club, while Miss Shipman served as the first secretary. The group met twice a month on Monday afternoons. By the turn of the century, two years later, club membership blossomed to 115, a group too large to meet in homes of members or in college lecture halls. The Club secured a suite of rooms in the Wedge Building on Euclid Avenue near Erie Street (now East 9th Street) that opened every day to provide a gathering place for the members to engage in tea and conversation. Members took turns hosting the afternoon events, and furnishings were provided by alumnae groups from the 25 represented colleges and universities. Over the years, the College Club adapted to changing social conditions to keep the organization contemporary. Membership was extended to men, as well as people with at least two years of college credit, instead of the previous four-year requirement. Associate membership became available to anyone with employment or community service experience. The special interest groups and committees within the club met many interests. Members could enjoy bridge groups, dance classes, dinner expeditions, book discussions, foreign language classes, investment clubs, community service activities, and cooking clubs, among many others. The College Club prided itself on its charitable and philanthropic services to the Cleveland community. Scholarships were awarded annually to promising young women who were destined for college. The Mittleberger Fund, monies left to the Club after the death of member Augusta Mittleberger, supported a scholarship selectively given to exceptionally qualified young women displaying financial need. Other community projects included the donation of money to schools, libraries, shelters, and programs for the blind.
- Convention of the Nashelsker Relief Society, Cleveland, 1937. This group photograph was taken in front of the Kinsman Jewish Center, a local Orthodox congregation. Renee Morgernstern Saltzman donated the photograph, which is part of the unprocessed small collections at Western Reserve Historical Society, SA2015-036. As identified in handwriting on the photograph, the image includes Phil Wasserman (uncle of donor Renee Morgenstern Saltzman), Mildred Wasserman (cousin of donor), and Esther Saltzman Wasserman (aunt of donor). Further on in the front row is Aaron H. Saltzman (father of donor), Robert Saltzman (uncle of donor), Tante Brandel (Brayndl?, aunt of donor), and Max Saltzman (uncle of donor). The Nashelsker Relief Society supported the Jewish community of the town of Nashelsk, also known as Nasielsk, Poland. Aaron H. Saltzman was the half brother of Maurice Saltzman, noted Cleveland businessman, civic leader, and philanthropist. The town of Nasielsk features prominently in the book Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film, by Glenn Kurtz.