Description: National colors of the 15th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Text on flag reads: Shilo[h] Sto[n]e R[i]ve[r?] 15th Reg Me[?] Chickam[auga] View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL01886
Subjects: United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Ohio History--Military Ohio
 

Description: A photograph of Marietta College's campus in Washington County. Marietta College is one of Ohio's oldest continually operating institutions of higher education. In 1830, the Reverend Luther Bingham established the Institute for Education. Bingham was a pastor in the Congregationalist Church and sought to educate others in his church's beliefs. Unfortunately for Bingham, his school failed financially in 1832. Local citizens in Marietta then created the Marietta Collegiate Institute and Western Teachers' Seminary, a non-denominational institution. In 1835, this college became known simply as Marietta College. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06540
Subjects: Marietta (Ohio); Universities and colleges Ohio; Education, Higher
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows sailboats cruising along the shores of Lake Erie, ca. 1960s or 1970s. The sailboat in the foreground has two occupants. Its main sail displays the image of a star and the number 1605. Lake Erie, one of North America’s Great Lakes, forms most of Ohio's northern boundary. During the 1700s and 1800s, Lake Erie provided a quick means of transportation for fur traders as well as settlers hoping to improve their fortunes in the Ohio Country. Its importance grew during the 1810s and the 1820s as Americans began to build canals. The completion of the Erie Canal, which connected the Hudson River in New York with Lake Erie, provided the first navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Upper Midwest. The Erie Canal system gave Ohio farmers a relatively quick and inexpensive route to transport their products to market. Thanks to its location on Lake Erie, Cleveland quickly grew to become one of the state’s leading industrial centers. During the War of 1812, both the English and the American armies and navies hoped to gain exclusive control over the lake. The side that controlled Lake Erie would have an easier time sending troops and supplies in an invasion of the enemy's territory. On September 10, 1813, at the Battle of Lake Erie, an American fleet under the command of Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a British fleet, securing control of the lake for the United States. The victory eliminated England's threat to the American Northwest. Lake Erie also served as parts of boundaries in treaties between the United States and the Indians during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. Among the most important of these agreements was the Treaty of Greeneville (1795). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06655
Subjects: Great Lakes (North America); Boats and boating; Lake Erie Islands (Ohio); Sailboats; Sailing
Places: Marblehead (Ohio); Ottawa County (Ohio); Lake Erie
 

Description: This image is a photograph of an engraved illustration of the Miami River Canal, which was a section of the larger Miami and Erie Canal system completed in 1830. The image is of the Dayton aqueduct crossing, ca. 1842. Aqueducts were constructed to transport waters of the Miami and Erie Canal over rivers and streams. New York's Erie Canal, completed in 1825, dramatically altered life in Ohio. Thousands of settlers utilized the canal to move to Ohio. Cities in northern Ohio, especially Cleveland and Toledo, grew quickly and became important ports. Farmers and industrialists in northern Ohio now had a relatively cheap and quick means of transporting their products to market. The success of the Erie Canal also prompted the Ohio government to invest in canals within Ohio, most notably the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal, both of which connected Lake Erie with the Ohio River. Constructed in stages between 1825 and 1845, the Miami and Erie Canal linked Lake Erie (at Toledo) to the Ohio River (at Cincinnati). At Junction, Ohio, the Miami and Erie Canal intersected with the Wabash and Erie Canal, which provided a link to Evansville, Indiana. The canal system greatly reduced the cost of transporting products and people. The cost of shipping goods from the East Coast to Ohio and vice versa dripped from $125 per ton of goods to $25 per ton. It took eighty hours to travel from Cleveland to Portsmouth along the Ohio and Erie Canal. Although travel on horseback was much faster, it also cost a great deal more. Passage on the canal boat was $1.70 per person. Most canals remained in operation in Ohio until the late 1800s. By the 1850s, however, canals were losing business to the railroads, which offered several advantages over the canals. Although railroads cost more to ship people and goods, they could deliver people and items much more quickly than the canals. Railroads also were not limited by a water source, as were canals. Because of these advantages, railroads quickly supplanted the canals. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06117
Subjects: Canals; Miami Canal (Ohio); Miami and Erie Canal (Ohio)--History; Miami Canal (Ohio); Ohio Economy--Transportation and Development
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)
 

Description: "Keep the Home Front Pledge," a 1944 poster promoting conservation of resources during World War II and cooperation with government rationing. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04789
Subjects: World War II; World War, 1939-1945--War work; Ohio History--Military Ohio; War posters--Ohio; Rationing
 

Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of 41-year-old Cecil Yankey of Greenfield. His formal attire suggests that the photograph was taken during his trial or sentencing. Yankey was the 280th individual to be executed via the electric chair in Ohio. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 280 -- Cecil H. Yankey of Highland County, Legally Electrocuted September 12, 1950, for the Murder of LeRoy Woodland.” In 1885 the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, became the location for all executions, which previously took place in the various county seats. In 1896 the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. The Ohio Penitentiary regularly offered tours as well as souvenir photographs and postcards of the building and prisoners on death row. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08332
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Capital punishment; Death row; Electrocution; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Prisons--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Greenfield (Ohio); Highland County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads: "Class - Industry; Location - Cincinnati; Credit - Courtesy of Homer Jensen" Caption on a similar photograph reads: "Unloading coal barges, Cincinnati river front. From "They Built a City." Copyright released for this foto by the Cincinnati Post." The book referred to here is entitled "They Built a City: 150 Years of Industrial Cincinnati", written by the Cincinnati Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration in Ohio and published by the Cincinnati Post in 1938. From this work, "The use of towboats for handling river coal began in the Cincinnati area in January, 1907 when the Sprague took 60 coal boats and barges, carrying a load of 70 thousand tons, from Louisville to New Orleans. From this experiment came a vast river trade in coal. At Cincinnati this coal commerce has gone steadily upward; on several occasions the annual receipts have exceeded three million tons. In 1937 the city received 2, 606, 044 tons." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F10_015_1
Subjects: Coal--Transportation--Ohio; Barges; Ohio River
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Children look on with disapproval as a wheelchair is stored in the back of a van. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS934_B03_F03_008
Subjects: Pageants--Ohio; Pageants--United States; Women with disabilities--Attitudes
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Bruno Kirves, of Montgomery County, was Electrocuted August 17, 1899, for the Murder of his daughter, Emma. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08058
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Portrait photography; Prisoners
 

Description: Photograph of a home that was located at the southwest corner of Broadway and Warren, in Lebanon, Ohio. It was demolished in the 1960s and replaced by a filling station. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F06_042_001
Subjects: Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works., Domestic--United States
Places: Lebanon (Ohio); Warren County (Ohio)
 

Description: The Ohio Mechanics Institute in Cincinnati, from a letterhead engraving. Organized in 1828, this non-profit institute organized lectures and provided other types of practical training for mechanics. Later evolving into a college-level educational program, it was incorporated into the University of Cincinnati in 1969. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04019
Subjects: Education; Industries--Ohio--Cincinnati
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing a residence and electric pole lines located near an unpaved street. The description located on the back of the photograph reads: "Old National Highway, 11.9 miles west of city limits of Zanesville before paving. Road muddy and poorly drained. Nov. 27, 1913. National Road." Beginning construction in 1806, the National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first federally-funded interstate highway. Crossing six states from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois, over 220 miles of the 600-mile road pass through Ohio. During the nineteenth century it was an important commercial artery for Midwestern merchants and farmers, and in the twentieth century, it continued to be a major east/west route for automobile travel. The National Road has been named both an "All-American Road" and a "National Scenic Byway" by the U.S. Department of Transportation. General road scenes also included in this collection illustrate driving conditions before and after the National Road was paved. Prior to paving, photographs show that the National Road could be very rutted and muddy. There are also photographs of road construction, mile markers, photographic reproductions of maps, a sign that lists rates of toll, a tollbooth on the National Road, and a worker on the National Road. Other states represented in the collection include West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV119_B01_F10_01
Subjects: Roads; Ohio Economy--Transportation and Development; Travel; Streets--Ohio; National Road;
Places: Zanesville (Ohio); Muskingum County (Ohio)