Description: The is an aerial view of the Ohio State Penitentiary. The Penitentiary was built in 1834 and was in use until 1963. The site was used for the capital punishment in Ohio, first by hanging and from 1897 to 1963 by electrocution. In 1955 a total of 5,235 prisoners were held there. The site was sold to the City of Columbus in 1995. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07605
Subjects: Ohio History; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Prisons--Ohio; Aerial photographs
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption reads: "A Saw, Sap, and Logs Equal Sugar at the Bush (Near Chardon, Ohio). District 4, Cleveland, Ohio. Photograph E. P. Moody. March 1941." The bucket on the tree appears to reads "W. Peeling - Dura Zinc Alloy" Maple syrup season begin in January, ending around April in Ohio and while trees are tapped all over the state, Geauga County has some of the state's best, and hosts the state's Maple Syrup Festival every spring. There was a time in Geauga County's history when nearly 80% of the landowners had their own sugarbush. A sugar bush is a group of maples trees, together with a sugar house. Traditionally, maple syrup was harvested by tapping a maple tree through the bark and into the wood, then letting the sap run into a bucket, which required daily collecting; less labour-intensive methods such as the use of continuous plastic pipelines have since superseded this, in all but cottage-scale production. It takes approximately 10 gallons of sap to be boiled down to 1 quart of syrup. A mature sugar maple produces about 40 litres of sap during the 4 to 6 week sugaring season under gravity, but can produce 20 or more gallons under vacuum. Trees are not tapped until they have a diameter of 10 inches at chest-height and the tree is at least 40 years old. If the tree is more than 18 inches it can be tapped twice on opposite sides. Once the sap is collected, it is taken to the sugar house and put into an evaporator to boil the sap to syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to get about 1 gallon of syrup. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B08F17_002_1
Subjects: Maple Syrup Industry; Maple syrup--Pictorial works
Places: Chardon (Ohio); Geauga County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is a postcard of the McKinley Home Church located at 120 Cleveland Ave. in Canton, Ohio. The church is now home to the First Methodist Episcopal Church. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B13F07_011_001
Subjects: Postcards--Ohio--Canton; Canton (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; McKinley, William, 1843-1901; Churches--Ohio; Canton (Ohio)--History; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project.
Places: Canton (Ohio); Stark County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated 1937, this photograph shows the stoplight at Center and 4th Streets in Ironton, Ohio, during the 1937 Ohio River flood. A note on the photograph reads “'F.W. Woolworth's Co. 5 and 10 cent store' 'Florsheim Shoes' 'Arch Preserver Shoe' 'Klein's Lunch, Soda' Along the right: 'Edelson Clothing'." In January and February of 1937, weeks of heavy rainfall caused the Ohio River to flood parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, causing $500 million in property damages, and displacing and killing hundreds. By the end of January, the Ohio River measured 80 feet deep in Cincinnati, one of the areas most affected. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dispatched thousands of relief workers from the Works Progress Administration to rescue flood victims and restore affected cities. 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_B15F04_003_012_018
Subjects: Floods; Natural Disasters; Ohio River; Storefronts
Places: Ironton (Ohio); Lawrence County (Ohio)
 

Description: This journal lists fines collected from violators of the Crabbe Act, a liquor control law. Each entry includes the name of the collector of the fine, office held by the collector, date, receipt number, name of person fined, amount of fine paid, and total amount collected. The volume is 265 pages long and measures 8" x 14" (20.32 x 35.56 cm). The first five pages are included here. The Prohibition Movement, an effort to ban alcohol consumption, began in Ohio in the late nineteenth century with the Woman's Christian Temperance Movement and the formation of the Anti-Saloon League in 1893. Although the issue was on the ballot several times, voters did not approve prohibition until 1918. In 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution passed, making prohibition the law of the United States. It was repealed in 1933 with the passage of the Twenty-First Amendment. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om2970_3619597_001
Subjects: Ohio Government; Civil liberties; Prohibition; Temperance
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Caption reads: "Five Avenues of Transportation South of Dayton – The Steam Train, the Electric Traction Cars, Canal Boat, Macadamized Turnpike, and Miami River. October 22, 1911." At the start of the nineteenth century, Ohio was isolated geographically. The Appalachian Mountains on the east, Lake Erie to the north, and the Ohio River to the south, isolated the state from its neighbors. During the nineteenth century, new transportation systems formed, granting Ohioans easier access to all parts of the United States of America. In the first decades of the 1800s, turnpikes originated. Water travel became easier with the advent of steamboats. Beginning in the 1820s, canals provided Ohioans with a cheaper and faster form of travel. In the 1840s and 1850s, railroads emerged, allowing Ohio residents to ship their products to market much more easily and quickly. With the start of the twentieth century, several new transportation systems, including automobiles, trucks, and airplanes, emerged. From Zane's Trace, to the Ohio and Erie Canal, to the Wright brothers, Ohioans were at the forefront of all of these transportation innovations. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F07_018_1
Subjects: Canals--Ohio; Miami and Erie Canal (Ohio)--History; Dayton (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.--Pictorial works; Railroads; Roads; Geography and Natural Resources; Transportation--Ohio--History.; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1930-1943, this photograph shows an interior view of the home of Benjamin Pitman, an English author and proponent of Pitman shorthand, developed by his brother Isaac Pitman. Benn, along with his wife and children, arrived in the United States in 1853 and first settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later Canton, Ohio, and then Cincinnati. After his brother made changes to his system, Pittman refused to endorse it, and the original shorthand system was adopted in the United States. Pittman served in the Union Army during the Civil War and became the official stenographer for the trials of Abraham Lincoln's assassin and other cases. He became active in the arts in the 1870s and introdiced the Pitman School of Woodcarving. The Benn Pitman house is located at 1852 Columbia Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio. The home was built between 1800 and 1804 and the exterior incorporates many styles including Italian Chateau, Romanesque, and Rococo. Among his many accomplishments, Pitman taught woodcarving at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. He himself made much of the woodwork inside the home, including doors, panels, and wainscoting. Much of the more delicate work depicting flowers and leaves was done by Pitman's wife and her twin sister, who taught at the local art school. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. 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_b03f03_033_001
Subjects: Houses; Architectural interiors; Cincinnati (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.--Pictorial works; National Register of Historic Places
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: The first hearses were horse-drawn wagons. The one seen in this image collected by the Ohio Federal Writers' Project is made with plate-glass sides designed to display the coffin, full Clarence (circular glass front and end), and four urns atop the carriage. A popular Ohio hearse maker of the time was Merts & Riddle Coach & Hearse Company located in Ravenna, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F10_005_1
Subjects: Chillicothe (Ross County, Ohio)--History; Funeral customs and rites; Ravenna (Ohio)--History--Pictorial works
Places: Ross County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph depicts a girl in a long formal white dress, floral headpiece, veil, and cross pendant. The dress could possibly be for a First Communion. It was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed "Ewing Brothers" and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV71_b11_f615
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Portrait photography--United States--History; Children; Clothing and dress;
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: Reverse reads: "Mansfield Public Library" The Mansfield Public Library is now the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library. It sits at 43 W 3rd St in Mansfield. It has expanded to the lots behind and to both sides of the original building. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B11F05_11_001
Subjects: Mansfield (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Libraries
Places: Mansfield (Ohio); Richland County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph of the English Yeomen of the Guard in St. Vincent in the West Indies, the birthplace of Bishop Dougal Ormonde Beaconfield Walker. Walker was the 66th Bishop appointed to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the 10th president of Wilberforce University in the 1940s. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_P2_B05F10_C_1
Subjects: Historical Black Colleges and Universities; Wilberforce University; African American men; African American women; African American Educators
Places: West Indies
 

Description: Original description reads: "Montgomery County, Taylorsville, O. Feb. 4, 1938. Johnson Tavern." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F08_014_1
Subjects: Taverns (Inns)--Ohio; Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works.
Places: Taylorsville (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)