About this collection
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- Judah Rubinstein was an archivist, historian, author and research associate for the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, and a well-known authority on Cleveland Jewish history. He helped to establish the Cleveland Jewish Archives at the Western Reserve Historical Society in 1976. He provided research for a number of books on Cleveland Jewish history and co-authored the book "Merging traditions: Jewish life in Cleveland." The collection consists of 4000 black and white images presented as prints, slides, contact sheets, and negatives, all relating to Cleveland, Ohio, Jewish history. Of note are businesses, public and religious schools, synagogues, theaters, and communal activities in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, particularly in the Woodland, Glenville, and Kinsman neighborhoods. Images of Jewish holiday and life cycle celebrations are also found here. Also of note are portraits of prominent individuals and families, including Moses Alsbacher, Alfred A. Benesch, Aaron and Moses Halle, Maurice Maschke, David N. Myers, Samuel Rocker, Dr. Marcus Rosenwasser, Sigmund Schlesinger, Rose Pastor Stokes, Simson Thorman, Leo Weidenthal, Leon Wiesenthal, and Martha Wolfenstein. Rabbis and cantors represented in this collection include Gustavos Cohen, Jacob Frommer, Benjamin Gittelsohn, Samuel Goldman, Isadore Kalisch, Arthur J. Lelyveld, David Leby, Abba Hillel Silver, Daniel Jeremy Silver, and Samuel Wohl. While some of the photographs here can also be found in PG. 186, Jewish Heritage Exhibit photographs, and in "Merging traditions : Jewish life in Cleveland" (1978 ed.), the contact sheets and negatives contain many images that are new.
- Karamu House was founded in 1915 in Cleveland, Ohio, by Russell W. and Rowena Woodham Jelliffe, in conjunction with the Second Presbyterian Church Men's Club, as the Neighborhood Association (later as the Playhouse Settlement), a settlement house promoting interracial activities and cooperation through the performing arts. The Jelliffes saw a need to provide activities and social services for the city's growing African American population, in order to assist in their transition from rural Southern life to an urban setting. The Playhouse Settlement was renamed Karamu Theater in 1927. By 1941, the entire settlement had taken the name Karamu House. The Dumas Dramatic Club was created to support and encourage interest and activities in the performing arts. In 1922, the theater troupe's name was changed to The Gilpin Players in honor of noted African American actor Charles Gilpin. During the 1920s and 1930s, works by many accomplished playwrights were produced at Karamu, including those of Zora Neale Hurston, Eugene O'Neill, and Langston Hughes, whose career was launched at Karamu. In 1939, the house was destroyed by fire. Rebuilding was not completed until 1949. The Jelliffes' mission of an interracial institution continued until the late 1960s, when, under the leadership of new director Kenneth Snipes, Karamu's mission became one of promoting African-American theater and plays specifically about the African-American experience. During this time a professional troupe of actors was formed. In 1982, Karamu formally returned to its original mission as an interracial organization. The collection consists of individual and group portraits of Karamu House founders Russell and Rowena Jelliffe, administrators and staff, actors and performers, and community figures. Group portraits and views depict activities at Karamu, including classes, art exhibits, meetings, ceremonies, choral groups, clubs, and sports teams. Views of Karamu House facilities, buildings, and grounds, including photographs of the original buildings of the Playhouse Settlement, are included, as are views of plays performed. Notable individuals depicted include Garrett E. Morgan, Charles Gilpin, Al Fann, Dr. Ralph Bunche, Ida B. Wells, Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, Harry E. Davis, James Weldon Johnson, Perry Como, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Ruby Dee, Raymond St. Jacques, Archibald MacLeish, Judge Charles White, Rev. Earl Preston, Charles Sallee, Carl Stokes, Louis Stokes, Jane Addams, Emily Laster, Wilhelmina Roberson, Dakota Staton, Harriet Tubman, and Julian Mayfield. Groups depicted include the Keystone Club, Golden Age Club, Cheerio Circle, the Karamu Dancers, Camp Karamu, and the Karamu Nursery School.
- The Lakewood Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1911 for the advancement of the commercial, industrial, and civic interests of the city of Lakewood, Ohio. Collection consists of minutes, annual reports, financial records, budget reports, membership lists, news releases and other documents of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, and records of the Lakewood Community Center, the Lakewood Merchants Council, the Lakewood Junior Chamber of Commerce, and several neighborhood business associations. The collection consists of mounted and unmounted photographs mainly of various groups in the Lakewood, Ohio area. Included are group photographs of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce board of directors and annual meetings; the Lakewood American Legion mounted unit; Slovak groups, including the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union; various military groups; blue star mothers; boy and girl scouts; recipients of fire prevention award plaques; theatrical, musical, and school groups; a wedding; an antique car show; Christmas scenes; the Hi Toppers; ice skating parties; a Lakewood group at the White House (including Herbert Hoover); various safety patrol units; and camping on the Rocky River near Mastick Road.
- The Leisy Brewing Company was a Cleveland, Ohio, based brewery which began as Isaac Leisy & Co. in 1873. Once Cleveland's largest independent brewery, it had branch agencies in Ohio, western Pa., and Indiana, and gained a reputation for its Premium Lager and Budweiser beers, before that became a brand name. Production in 1890 was over 90,000 barrels, and rose to 355,000 barrels by 1917. When the company closed in 1959, it was the oldest brewery in Cleveland and one of the longest surviving family-operated breweries in America. The collection consists of individual portraits of Otto Leisy and his family; unidentified individual and group portraits of Leisy Brewing Company staff; Leisy staff party portraits; views of the Leisy family residence; and exterior and interior views of the Leisy plant complex at various stages. The majority of photographs depict various aspects of Leisy advertising and include views of billboards, taxi posters, displays, horse-drawn and motorized delivery vehicles, and the Leisy company mascot. A bound album contains reproductions of product labels and advertising.
- Lethia Cousins Fleming (1876-1963) was a teacher from West Virginia who became a social worker for the Division of Child Welfare, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (1931-1951). She and her husband, Cleveland city councilman Thomas W. Fleming, were active in local civic and charitable organizations. The collection consists of photographs relating to the activities of Lethia Fleming and various African American organizations. Includes a group portrait, including the Flemings, with Josephine Baker in Paris, 1927.
- Louis Stokes ‘political legacy encompasses his career as an attorney, a civil rights activist, and pioneer in black politics. As Ohio’s first black congressman, he was elected fifteen times and served for 30 years. This exhibit offers a glimpse into his scrapbooks, which chronicles his career from the very beginning to the end. Within the pages of his 30 volume scrapbook collection you begin to see that his life and legacy is a true testament to the notion ‘It’s not how you start but how you finish. Please enjoy this photographic journey of a man who was a patriot, an icon, and a Clevelander.
- Louis Van Oeyen (1865-1946) was the first photographer hired as staff on a Cleveland, Ohio, newspaper, and a pioneer in many techniques and activities of photojournalism. Van Oeyen was hired as a Cleveland Press photographer in 1901, after his photographs of the water intake explosion disaster in Lake Erie, and the assassination of President William McKinley, were published in the Press. During his career at the Press, he shot portraiture, politics, disaster, crime, scandal, and sports photographs. His greatest love was baseball, and he became official photographer for the American League in 1908, and for the World Series until 1922. Van Oeyen also helped test new photographic equipment, most notably the General Electric flash bulb in 1938. He assisted other photographers at the beginning of their careers, including Margaret Bourke-White and Herman Seid. Van Oeyen died in 1946. The collection consists of photographs and negatives taken by photographer Louis Van Oeyen before and during his career as a Cleveland Press photographer. A large portion of the collection depicts sports, particularly baseball. Other subjects include technological innovation, politics, entertainment, automobiles, aviation, horse racing, and boxing. There are extensive series of images from the Ormond Beach, Florida, auto races; the National Air Races held in Cleveland, Ohio; famous aviators; dirigibles; and ship launchings. Political coverage includes international, national and local figures, among them several presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin Roosevelt, and the coronation of King George VI of Great Britain. Celebrity portraits range from industrialists, including J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, to entertainers, such as Buster Keaton and Yehudi Menuhin. Smaller bodies of subject material include photographs of crime, disaster, legal proceedings, and story art for fictional serial stories published by the newspaper. Crime illustration includes portraits of Cassie Chadwick. Disasters include the Collinwood School and Cleveland Clinic fires; floods; and aviation, automotive, and railroad wrecks. Legal coverage includes an extensive series on the John T. Scopes "Monkey Trial," including candid portraits of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. The collection is strongest in images from the 1900s and the 1920s-1930s.
- Marcus Alonzo Hanna (1837-1904) was prominent businessman, Republican political leader, and United States Senator. Born in New Lisbon, Ohio, his family settled in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1852. Hanna transformed his father-in-law's coal and iron company into the M. A. Hanna Company and owned several railroads and electric streetcar lines. Active in Republican politics, Hanna was instrumental in presidential campaigns of William McKinley. The collection consists of one black album containing 17 photographs of Marcus A. Hanna in various groups. Included in several of the photographs is Theodore Roosevelt.
- The Mather family is a prominent Cleveland, Ohio, family related to the early New England Mather family and descended through Samuel Livingston Mather (1817-1890), who moved to Cleveland from Connecticut in 1843. Family members were prominent in all areas of Cleveland's development, including business and industry, education, philanthropy, the arts, medicine, literature, and politics. Many became nationally and internationally noted in their fields. The Mather family is related by marriage to the Bishop, Stone, Woolson, Benedict and Hay families. The collection consists of individual and group portraits of Samuel Livingston Mather, his family, friends, descendants, and related families, including Amasa Stone, John Hay, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and Dr. Robert H Bishop. Also included are views of Mather residences on Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, and in Bratenahl, Ohio. Views of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company are included.
- Mt. Zion Congregational Church was founded on September 11, 1864, when nineteen men and women formally gathered in Plymouth Church on Prospect Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. The predominantly African American congregation has moved many times throughout its history, including locations downtown, in the Central and Fairfax neighborhoods, and its current location (2014) in University Circle. Mt. Zion's congregation played a significant role in the settlement of freed slaves in Cleveland after the Civil War, the founding of the Cleveland Chapter of the National Association of Colored People (NAACP), and the founding of Eliza Bryant Village. The collection consists of approximately 300 black and white and color photographs depicting church activities.
- The Nickel Plate Railroad was founded in 1881 to connect Buffalo and Chicago via Cleveland, Ohio. It was nicknamed the Nickel Plate Road. After it failed it was taken over by the newly organized New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad in 1887. It merged into the Norfolk and Western Railroad in 1964. The collection consists of two photograph albums and loose photographs pertaining to the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, including pictures of railroad bridges, locomotives, trains, track, depots, towns, wrecks, railroad officials, and work scenes. Also included are photographs of advertisements for railroads.
- Laurence Harper Norton (1888-1960) was a soldier, banker, industrialist, Ohio state legislator and Cleveland civic and cultural leader. He was also private secretary to Ambassador Myron T. Herrick and president of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Collection consists of correspondence, legal documents, financial records, newspaper clippings, photographs, genealogical materials, certificates and other materials relating to various members of the Norton, Castle and Harper families , including Robert, Alexander J., and Rice Harper, and to Jay Cooke, Myron Herrick, Ohio National Guard Troop A, and the 37th Division of the 135th Field Artillery. The collection consists of 4 albums and 9 loose photographs belonging to the Norton family of Cleveland, Ohio. Watterson and Harper family members are also included in the collection. Nine loose photographs of a trip to London, 1894, including two group portraits of John A. Norton, Harry Burnett, and Charlie Burnett are included. Each album contains copies of content inventories.