Description: Reproduction of a photograph depicting two blacksmiths working at the Knowles, Taylor, and Knowles pottery in East Liverpool, Ohio, ca. 1901. W. Knowles opened a small pottery in East Liverpool in 1854. In 1870, John Taylor and Homer S. Knowles joined the company. The operation expanded during the next two decades. By the 1880s, Knowles, Taylor and Knowles was producing translucent china. By 1890, the company was the largest manufacturer of white granite plain and decorative ware in the nation. The factory closed in 1931. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03709
Subjects: Blacksmiths; Ohio Economy--Economy--Business; Employees
Places: East Liverpool (Ohio); Columbiana County (Ohio)
 

Description: This 5" x 7" (12.7 by 17.8 cm) photograph depicts two blacksmiths at work at the Knowles, Taylor, and Knowles pottery in East Liverpool, Ohio. W. Knowles opened a small pottery in East Liverpool in 1854. In 1870, John Taylor and Homer S. Knowles joined the company. The operation expanded during the next two decades. By the 1880s, Knowles, Taylor and Knowles was producing translucent china. By 1890, the company was the largest manufacturer of white granite plain and decorative ware in the nation. The factory closed in 1931. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1539_1507411_001
Subjects: Business and Labor; Pottery industry; Ceramic industries; Potteries; Blacksmiths; Knowles, Taylor & Knowles (East Liverpool, Ohio)
Places: East Liverpool (Ohio); Columbiana County (Ohio); Crooksville (Ohio); Perry County (Ohio)
 

Description: Two women at an anvil with hammers, standing beneath a toolshed, at an unidentified farm in Ohio, ca. 1910. The Circle Family Glass Plate Negative Collection came in with the records of John Circle, who served as Franklin County Surveyor between 1981 and 2000. The plates are thought to be part of the family history but have no identification. The images are agricultural and have no known history. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV82_011
Subjects: Agriculture--Ohio; Farm life; Women; Blacksmiths; Farm equipment
Places: Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated to the 1930s or 1940s, this photograph shows a blacksmith hammering hot metal on an anvil. There are several horseshoes on the rack behind him, and a sign on the wall behind him which reads "Sloan's Liniment[,] Sloan's Sure Colic Cure." 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_B08F01_028_001
Subjects: Blacksmiths; Metal-workers--United States; African American Ohioans; Photography--Ohio
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Zoar blacksmith John Beiter shoeing a horse observed by his daughter Helen, ca. 1900. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00878
Subjects: Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio); Blacksmiths; Horses; Daily life
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Taken by photographer Louis Baus, this is a reproduction of an earlier photograph looking north on Main Street in Zoar, Ohio, in 1894. The wagon shop, village blacksmith John Beiter, and Albert Beiter are pictured on the left. Led by Joseph Bimeler (sometimes spelled Bäumeler) in 1817, a group of Lutheran separatists left the area of Germany known as Wurttemberg and eventually established the small community of Zoar in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. The community of Zoar was not originally organized as a commune, but its residents had a difficult time surviving in 1818 and early 1819. As a result, on April 19, 1819, the group formed the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Each person donated his or her property to the community as a whole, and in exchange for their work, the society would provide for them. Additional modifications to the society's organization were made in 1824 and a constitution established in 1833. In the decades following the establishment of the Zoar commune, the Separatists experienced economic prosperity. The community was almost entirely self-sufficient and sold any surpluses to the outside world. In addition to agriculture, Zoar residents also worked in a number of industries, including flour mills, textiles, a tin shop, copper, wagon maker, two iron foundries, and several stores. The society also made money by contracting to build a seven-mile stretch of the Ohio and Erie Canal. The canal crossed over Zoar's property, and the society owned several canal boats. The canal traffic also brought other people into the community, who bought Zoar residents' goods. By the second half of the nineteenth century, the community was quite prosperous. After Bimeler's death in 1853, the unity of the village declined, and by 1898 the Zoarites disbanded the society. The remaining residents divided the property, and the community continued to prosper in Zoar. Louis Baus was a prominent photographer in Cleveland, Ohio, who began his career with studio work, but in 1911 became a staff writer for the "Cleveland Advocate, " a local newspaper that was later purchased by the "Cleveland Plain Dealer." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00897
Subjects: Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio); Society of Separatists of Zoar; Wagons; Blacksmiths; Summer
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)