About this collection
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Garrett A. Morgan (1877-1963) was an entrepreneur and inventor whose inventions included the electric traffic signal and the gas mask. Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1895 and opened his own sewing machine sales and repair shop in 1907. He received a patent on his gas mask in 1912 and formed the National Safety Device Co. to manufacture and market it. He also established the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Co., The Cleveland Call and Post, and the Wakeman Country Club for African Americans. The collection consists of correspondence, legal and business papers, drawings of the traffic signal, a hair straightening device and an automatic cooker, maps, blueprints and floorplans of Morgan's properties, biographical sketches, newspaper clippings, and material relating to Morgan's role in the waterworks crib explosion, the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Co., the National Safety Device Co., and the Wakeman Country Club.
- The Greater Cleveland Growth Association was founded in 1848 as the Board of Trade in Cleveland, Ohio. It was reorganized and renamed the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce in 1893. It merged with the Greater Cleveland Growth Board in 1968 to form the Greater Cleveland Growth Association. Its goals have always been to provide a forum for business leaders to discuss ideas and problems, to stimulate investments in the local economy, and to make Cleveland a better place to live and work. The organization was active in many areas of progressive reform in the early 1900s, including housing codes, bath houses, and the organization of charitable activities. The collection consists of charters of the Board of Trade, minutes and annual reports of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce, files of the Transportation and Industrial Relations departments, records of legislative and other committees, general office files, membership records, newspaper clippings and photographs.
- The Irish Cultural Garden was dedicated in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens in 1939. The Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation was established in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1925 to develop and maintain landscaped gardens and statuary honoring various ethnic groups in Cleveland. The gardens are located in Rockefeller Park along East Boulevard and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The collection consists of one 16mm color film and DVD reproduction of the dedication of the Irish Cultural Garden.
- James Edward Taylor (1839-1901) was an artist with Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper during the American Civil War who was assigned to cover the campaign of General Phillip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley which began in August of 1864. Following the war, Taylor compiled over 500 narrative sketches and drawings based on his unique experience as the only artist assigned to cover General Sheridan. His sketches show heroic encounters, tragic deaths, thrilling victories, defeats, and all manner of military activity. Taylor also drew pictures depicting places, buildings, and scenes of local interest and character. All of these are tied together by a narrative.
- The Wade family was a prominent nineteenth and early twentieth century Cleveland, Ohio, family with business interests in the telegraph and railroad industries, mining, manufacturing, and banking. Jeptha Homer Wade spent his early life as an apprentice to a tanner and as a carpenter. He next turned his interest to the emerging telegraph industry. In 1849, he organized the Cleveland and Cincinnati Telegraph Company. In 1857, Wade moved to Cleveland as the Western Union Telegraph Company's first general agent. His business interests were extensive in Cleveland, including the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company and the Citizens Savings and Loan Association. Randall Palmer Wade worked with his father in the telegraph business, moving with him to Cleveland in 1857. His business interests included the Cuyahoga Mining Company; the Citizens Savings and Loan Association; the Cleveland Banking Company; the American Sheet and Boiler Plate Company, and the Chicago and Atchison Bridge Company. Jeptha Homer Wade II also worked in the telegraph industry; he later joined the banking community in Cleveland. He was an active philanthropist, serving as a trustee of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Western Reserve University, Adelbert College, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He was an incorporator of the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1913, and later established a purchasing fund for the Museum. The collection consists of correspondence, wills, diaries, autobiographical sketches, memoranda, deeds, contracts, drawings, financial records, passport documents, land grants, notes, receipts, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks, relating to Jeptha Homer Wade and his role in the telegraph industry in the Midwest, and to his son, Randall Palmer Wade, and grandson, Jeptha Homer Wade, Jr. Includes letters from or about Ezra Cornell, Amos Kendall, Samuel F.B. Morse, and James A. Garfield. Personal correspondence related to members of the Wade family, including Ellen Howe Garretson Wade and Ellen Howe Garretson, is included, as is travel journals written by various family members. The Wade family interest in spiritualism, particularly that of Jeptha Homer Wade after the death of his son Randall in 1876, is well documented in his personal correspondence. A calendar of correspondence for the collection is available in the appendix to the register.
- The Little Italy Historical Museum, sometimes referred to as the Little Italy Heritage Museum, was operated by members of the Mayfield-Murray Hill District Council in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1983 until 2007. The collection consists of both business records related to the museum and manuscripts and photographs collected by the museum. The collected manuscripts and photographs comprise the majority of the materials. The collection includes agreements, albums, awards, books, certificates, correspondence, 8mm films, flyers, forms, invoices, lists, magazine clippings, magazines, memoirs, memoranda, minutes, negatives, newsletters, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, photographs, posters, proclamations, programs, publications, receipts, reports, resolutions, scrapbooks, sheet music, and VHS tapes.
- Myron T. Herrick (1854-1929) was a humanitarian, financier, industrialist, Governor of Ohio, and United States Ambassador to France. Herrick served as president and chairman of the board of the Society for Savings, Cleveland, Ohio. He also had numerous other local and national business interests. Herrick was involved in Ohio and national Republican party politics, maintaining close ties with Marcus A. Hanna, William McKinley, and other party notables. He won election as Ohio governor in 1903, serving one term. He was appointed United States Ambassador to France in 1912, serving until November 1914. Herrick played a key role in wartime France, both in his participation in diplomatic relations between combatants and in various humanitarian aid pursuits. Herrick was reappointed Ambassador to France by President Harding in 1921, serving until his death in 1929. The collection consists of correspondence, speeches, articles, memoirs, newspaper and magazine clippings, memoranda, notes, receipts, deeds, programs and other memorabilia, passports, reports, appointment books, bound visitors' and engagement books, luncheon and dinner records, diaries, photographs, and scrapbooks. Includes correspondence covering Herrick's terms as United States Ambassador to France, particularly his second stint 1921-1929. Correspondents include Ida and William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Charles E. Hughes, Frank B. Kellogg, Aristide Briand, Georges Clemenceau, Raymonde Poincare, and Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Also included are materials relating to the 1927 transatlantic flight of Lindbergh and his reception in Paris. A diary kept by Carolyn P. Herrick, wife of Myron T. Herrick, describing a 1900 trip to Europe and cruise on the Mediterranean Sea, is contained in the collection.
- Perry B. Jackson (1896-1986) was Ohio's first African American judge. He was active in Cleveland, Ohio civic, religious, and educational organizations. The collection consists of correspondence, reports, minutes, programs, speeches, financial material, personnel lists, bench notes, judicial election material, and other material relating to Judge Jackson and his judicial, church and civic activities.
- The Shakers were a religious communal society founded and originally led by Mother Ann Lee, who came to America from England in 1774. By 1826 communities were established throughout New England and the Midwest, as well as in Georgia and Florida. In 1911 Wallace H. Cathcart, Director of the Western Reserve Historical Society, began collecting Shaker memorabilia. The collection consists of covenants, laws, legal records, land records, financial records, membership records, correspondence, diaries, journals, testimonies, biographies, addresses, sermons, essays, inspired writings and drawings (also known as spirit drawings), other writings, music, poetry, recipes, prescriptions, school books, instructional texts, scrapbooks, photographs, and miscellaneous material relating to 20 Shaker communities located in 10 eastern States.