Alexander McDonald estate photograph   Save
Ohio Guide Photographs
Description: Dated January 8, 1941, this photograph shows the Alexander McDonald estate in Cincinnati, Ohio, in Hamilton County. Alexander and his brother James settled in Cincinnati in the late 1860s and played a prominent role in the petroleum industry by establishing the Consolidated Tank Line Company. In 1890, they exchanged their stock in the Consolidated Tank Line Company for stock in the Standard Oil Company and Alexander McDonald became president of the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky. In the nineteenth century, mansions with set in extensive park land, woodlands, and gardens were built in this area. The McDonald mansion was designed by Samuel Hannaford in the later part of the nineteenth century. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F05_028_001
Subjects: Mansions--Ohio; Estates; Photography--Ohio; Federal Writers' Project; Oil industry
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)