Black and white group photograph of African American Civil War veterans posing in front of Lawnfield. Group is not identified. "Copyright and published by J. F. Ryder, Cleveland, Ohio.", Without frame border, approximately 9.5 x 14 in., Featured in the "Cleveland Starts Here" Exhibit
Black and white photograph of a "scene from 'I gotta home', a comedy by Shirley Graham as produced by the Gilpin Players of the Karamu Theatre. World premiere".
Digital photograph of printed linen dress.
Lua Carey Cooper wore this dress in Xenia, Ohio when she was about four or five years old, just after the Civil War. Her father, Hugh Carey, worked as a real estate agent and notary public on bustling Detroit Street, where Lua and her family could have shopped for millinery and dress goods. As a young woman, she helped organize her local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1894, and thereafter served as secretary.
Digital photograph of dress made of roller-printed cotton.
This garment, printed with James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, is extremely rare and was likely made specifically for the 1880 presidential election. Oral history ties the dress to a family in South Milford, Indiana, and the wearer could have traveled to Ohio to see the candidates. The 1880 presidential campaign was referred to as the “front porch campaign.” Instead of traveling across the country, Garfield remained at his home in Mentor, Ohio and the Republican Party arranged for trains to bring thousands of people to hear him speak.
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.
James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) was the twentieth president of the United States. He grew up in Orange, Ohio, graduated from Williams College in 1856, became president of Hiram College in Portage County, Ohio, and was a lay minister of the Disciples of Christ Church. He was elected to the Ohio Senate, and in 1858, married Lucretia Rudolph. Garfield served in the Civil War, as a lieutenant-colonel of the 42nd Ohio regiment. He was a major general when he resigned in 1863 to take a seat in the United States House of Representatives, where he served for 17 years. Nominated in 1880 as a compromise Republican presidential candidate, his campaign was conducted from Lawnfield, his Mentor, Ohio, home. Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, and died September 19. He was survived by his widow, Lucretia Garfield, and by his children; Mary, who married his former secretary, Joseph Stanley-Brown, Irvin McDowell, Harry Augustus, who became president of Williams College, James Rudolph, a Cleveland attorney, Republican politician and member of Theodore Roosevelt's cabinet, and Abram, a Cleveland architect. The collection consists of individual and group portraits of James A. Garfield; his wife, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield; his children and grandchildren; other Garfield and Rudolph family members; and portraits of nineteenth century statesmen that hung at Lawnfield and include Otto von Bismarck, Leon Michel Gambetta, William T. Sherman, and Edwin Stanton. Other portraits include James Smithson, Louis Agassiz, Benjamin Peirce, Edward Everett Hale and Carlisle P. Patterson. Views include Lawnfield, in particular a gathering of an unidentified group of African American Civil War veterans at Lawnfield; a lock on the Ohio and Erie Canal; voter turnout at the Mentor, Ohio Township Hall; the Civil War battle of Chickamauga; the James A. Garfield Monument in Lake View Cemetery; the James A. Garfield Memorial Window in The Williams College Chapel; and the James A. Garfield Memorial Statue in Washington, D. C. Also included are images of Lucretia Rudolph Garfield's inaugural ball gown displayed at the Smithsonian and the gown she wore at a White House reception. A presentation album from the Melbourne International Exhibition is also part of the collection.