Description: Harpersfield Bridge over the Grand River, Harpersfield, Ashtabula County, Ohio. Geneva was settled in 1805 by settlers from Charlotte, New York. The bridge is one of the few in Ohio that is still drive able. The northern portion was washed away by the flood in 1936 and was replaced by a steel structure. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 3, 1975. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05996
Subjects: Covered bridges--Ohio; Ashtabula County (Ohio); National Register of Historic Places
Places: Geneva (Ohio); Ashtabula (Ohio)
 

Description: This is the entrance to the Harpersfield Covered Bridge near Geneva. Geneva was settled in 1805 by settlers from Charlotte, New York. The bridge is one of the few in Ohio that is still drive able. The northern portion was washed away by the flood in 1936 and was replaced by a steel structure. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 3, 1975. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06556
Subjects: Covered bridges--Ohio; Ashtabula County (Ohio); National Register of Historic Places
Places: Geneva (Ohio); Ashtabula (Ohio)
 

Description: Portrait of Platt Roger Spencer who created a new style of penmanship known as the semi-angular or Spencerian system.Platt Rogers Spencer was an educator and developer of a popular style of penmanship. Spencer was born on September 7, 1801, in New York. His family moved to Ashtabula County, Ohio in 1810. Spencer's mother placed a strong emphasis on education. She faced great difficulties in providing her children with schooling on the frontier. Legend has it that Spencer loved to write as a young child, but his family could either not find or could not afford paper for him until he was seven years of age. He did not enroll in school until he was twelve when a school opened in nearby Conneaut, Ohio. On one occasion, Spencer purportedly walked twenty miles barefoot to borrow a mathematics book. To help support his family, Spencer took several jobs, primarily as a clerk in local stores and businesses. In these positions, he actively practiced his penmanship. He created a new style of penmanship known as the "semi-angular" or "Spencerian" system. By the early 1860's, schools across the United States were teaching their pupils the Spencerian style. It became the preferred style for clerks working for the United States government. Spencer personally opened schools to teach his system at Geneva and Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He also was a strong supporter of the temperance and abolitionist movements. After he died on May 16, 1864 his sons continued to teach their father's method in various schools across the country for a number of years. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07144
Subjects: Ashtabula County (Ohio); Education--Ohio; American frontier
Places: Ashtabula County (Ohio)
 

Description: Platt Rogers Spencer was an educator best known for creating a popular style of penmanship known as the "semi-angular" or "Spencerian" system. Spencer developed his swirling handwriting technique in the 1850s while working as a clerk in local stores and businesses. By the latter part of the 19th century, schools throughout the United States had adopted the Spencerian system of penmanship, and it became the preferred style for clerks working for the United States government. In addition to opening schools in Geneva and Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he also was a strong supporter of the temperance and abolitionist movements. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04179
Subjects: Educators; Education--Ohio; Penmanship; Schools--Ohio; Abolitionists; Temperance
Places: Ashtabula County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is an image of a rectangular fluting iron made of iron. It has a Geneva hand and curved flute. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: H73892
Subjects: Society of Separatists of Zoar--History; Irons (tools)
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image is a photographic reproduction of an engraved portrait of Manasseh Cutler (1742-1823). The artist portrays Cutler in his mature years: a clean-shaven man with slightly wavy hair and a serene expression. He wears a clergyman's collar with Geneva bands. The engraving includes Cutler's signature and a notation by the engraver: "Eng'd by J. C. [John Chester] Buttre, N.Y." Cutler was a major figure in the settling of Ohio in the years following the American Revolution. Born in Connecticut, he was descended from a long line of clergymen but entered Yale to become an attorney, thus breaking with family tradition. He graduated in 1765 but worked as a schoolteacher and store clerk before becoming an attorney. However, disenchanted by his current life, Cutler eventually pursued the clergy as his career choice. He became the minister of the Congregational Church in Ispwich, Massachusetts, in 1771 and held that post until his death. Although Cutler finally had settled on a career, he still pursued many outside interests. During the American Revolution, he was a committed patriot and served as a chaplain for several military units. The war caused serious economic problems in Massachusetts, and Cutler's parishioners faced great difficulty in paying their minister's salary. To supplement his income, Cutler studied medicine. When a smallpox epidemic struck Massachusetts in 1779, Cutler cared for as many as forty patients at a time. He also studied astronomy and was especially fond of determining the distance between the Earth and certain stars with a telescope and sextant. In a different field of study, he provided the first detailed account of plant life in New England, identifying roughly 350 different species. Because of these scientific endeavors, he was selected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He continued with his scientific interests until his death. In 1786, Cutler joined several other Revolutionary War veterans, including Rufus Putnam and Winthrop Sargent, in forming the Ohio Company of Associates. They hoped to secure from the Confederation Congress the right to develop land in the Ohio Country. After company representative Samuel Parsons failed to secure the land grant, Cutler entered negotiations with the Congress on behalf of the Ohio Company. Present while the Congress debated the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Cutler played a vital role in that document's eventual adoption. Some scholars claim that Cutler was responsible for this document's anti-slavery provisions. He also secured from the Congress the Ohio Company's right to purchase up to 1.5 million acres of land in Ohio for roughly eight cents an acre. In December 1787, Putnam led the first group of settlers to Ohio. In April 1788, where the Muskingum River flows into the Ohio River, the Ohio Company established Marietta. Cutler visited the settlement later that year and actively investigated the area. His primary interest was in earth mounds that he believed had been created centuries earlier by a Native American civilization. He returned to Massachusetts in 1789 and played an active role in Massachusetts's government for the next two decades. In 1795, President George Washington offered him a position as judge in the Northwest Territory, but Cutler refused. He did not return to Ohio after his trip in 1788. He died in Hamilton, Massachusetts, on July 28, 1823. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07015
Subjects: Cutler, Manasseh, 1742-1823; Clergy; Ohio Company (1786-1795); Portraits; United States. Ordinance of 1787; Northwest Territory--History
 

Description: This photograph shows a two-story apparatus housed at Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio, ca. 1930-1939. The device was used for studying problems pertaining to organic synthesis. A bespectacled man wearing a lab coats and writing on a clipboard is standing next to a rounded tank. On the floor above him, a man wearing work clothes is standing next to an assortment of pipes and valves. A brick wall is in the background. Battelle Memorial Institute was founded in 1923 with an endowment from the estate of Gordon Battelle. Located in Columbus, Ohio, the institute's mission is to develop practical applications for scientific research. Battelle was officially incorporated in 1925 and began its laboratory operations for the first time in 1929. The first laboratory was located next to the campus of The Ohio State University. Scientists at Battelle were involved in a number of different research projects in the 1930s, with many of their efforts focusing on the iron and steel industries. The institute's contributions increased dramatically during World War II. Battelle became best known for its nuclear research because of its role in the Manhattan Project during the war, the program to build the first atomic bomb. The institute also provided the U.S. military with improved armor for tanks and other military vehicles. Battelle scientists were also involved in research on xerography, used by the Xerox Corporation and other companies in the development of copy machines. This technology became especially prominent during the 1950s and 1960s. Battelle expanded tremendously in the decades following World War II. The institute established its first overseas laboratories in the 1950s, including laboratories and offices in Frankfurt, Germany, and Geneva, Switzerland. In 1970 it took over operation of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory from the Atomic Energy Commission. Battelle scientists developed fuel for the U.S. Navy's first nuclear-powered submarine, the "Nautilus," in 1949. A Battelle scientist designed the process for recording data on compact discs in the 1970s, while other research projects led to the redesign of coins for the United States Treasury. Retail stores and grocery stores across the United States use the bar code system, known as the Universal Product Code or UPC symbol, which Battelle developed in 1965. Battelle also introduced cruise control in cars in 1970. Institute scientists have also made numerous medical discoveries, including a new means of treating and preventing blood clots in 1972. The institute also has numerous research projects studying energy production and alternative sources of energy, as well as ways to make businesses and products more environmentally friendly. Today, Battelle Memorial Institute has an important role in many types of research, from commercial to military applications. The laboratory's headquarters are still located in Columbus, but there are major laboratories in Richland, Washington, and Geneva, Switzerland, and numerous smaller facilities in approximately one hundred other locations. In addition, Battelle has partnered with the State University of New York at Stony Brook to operate Brookhaven National Laboratory; with Midwest Research Institute and Bechtel to manage the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and with the University of Tennessee to run Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Approximately sixteen thousand people are at work on Battelle's research projects. Among its most recent projects are security research for the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies, research on teen smoking and how to stop it, and ways to clean up oil spills. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04364
Subjects: Ohio Economy--Science and Technology
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Theodore Burton (1851-1929) was born in Jefferson, Ohio, on December 20, 1851, and graduated from Oberlin College in 1872. He began his political career in 1889 after being elected as a Representative and years later as a Senator from Ohio. Throughout his life he had interrupted spells in the US House of Representative and Senate. In 1916, he was a candidate for Republican nomination for president. In 1922, President Warren G. Harding appointed Burton to represent the United States at the World War Debt Funding Commission, and Burton served as the head of the American delegation at the Geneva Conference in 1925. He died in Washington, DC, on October 28, 1929. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04089
Subjects: Presidents--Election; Other--Federal Government; Cleveland (Ohio); Oberlin College; Politicians
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)