Description: Reverse of photograph reads: "District 5, Summit Co." and "Dist. 6 files" This photograph could be of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Plant, located at 1144 East Market Street, or possibly the B.F. Goodrich Company Plant at 500 South Main Street, both in Akron. The building appears to be 6 stories tall and situated possibly on a river. A clock tower is visible on the left, behind the buildings, and a boat of some kind is blurred by movement on the right. High voltage power lines stretch across the water. More information needed to properly identify this building. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F09_024_1
Subjects: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio; Akron (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company--Buildings--Ohio--Akron--1920-1930; B.F. Goodrich Company, Akron, Ohio
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: Two women in Balloon Room at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio, ca. 1930. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00019
Subjects: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Rubber industry; United States. Work Projects Administration (Ohio); Multicultural Ohio--Ohio Women
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: This aerial view of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio was taken in the 1940s. Frank Seiberling (1859-1955) founded Goodyear in 1898. Located on the banks of the Little Cuyahoga River in Akron, the company operated in a converted strawboard factory with thirteen employees. Although its main product was tires, the company also made rubber poker chips, fire hoses, and horseshoe pads. By 1926 it had become the largest rubber company in the world. The photograph measures 8" x 10" (20.32 x 25.4 cm). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3084_3675632_002
Subjects: Business and Labor; Factories; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Rubber industry
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: Poster advertisement for Goodyear Pneumatic Cord Tires for trucks. The poster features black-and-white photographs of trucks using the pneumatic cord tires while making an 8-day round trip between Akron, Ohio, and Boston, Massachusetts, in 1918. Pneumatic tires rely on a network of cords to provide their shape and enough tensile strength to maintain sufficient inflation. Frank Seiberling (1859-1955) founded the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in 1898. Located on the banks of the Little Cuyahoga River in Akron, the company operated in a converted strawboard factory with thirteen employees. Although its main product was tires, the company also made rubber poker chips, fire hoses, and horseshoe pads. By 1926 it had become the largest rubber company in the world. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: OVS7660
Subjects: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Tire industry; Rubber industry; Automotive technology; Transportation--Ohio;
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows a man making tires at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company factory in Akron, Ohio. Frank Seiberling (1859-1955) founded Goodyear in 1898. Located on the banks of the Little Cuyahoga River in Akron, the company operated in a converted strawboard factory with thirteen employees. Although its main product was tires, the company also made rubber poker chips, fire hoses, and horseshoe pads. By 1926 it had become the largest rubber company in the world. The photograph measures 8" x 10" (20.32 x 25.4 cm). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3084_3675638_001
Subjects: Transportation; Business and Labor; Tires; Tire industry; Rubber industry; Employees; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows police clashing with strikers at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber strike in Akron, Ohio, in late May 1938. Two police officers are holding raised batons as they and other police advance toward a group of workers. The activity is taking place along a brick and iron fence. A car with a driver at the wheel is visible to the right of the workers and police. One hundred people were injured during this strike. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, factory workers faced poor working conditions, low wages, and almost no benefits. This was true for the workers employed by rubber manufacturers in Akron, Ohio, such the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, B.F. Goodrich, and Firestone. In an attempt to alleviate their conditions, workers went on strike and left the factory to join picket lines. Company owners often hired “scab” laborers to cross the picket lines and continue production. This practice made it difficult for striking workers to obtain their demands. In 1935, rubber workers in Akron, Ohio, tried a new approach to strikes, the sit-down strike, in which workers stopped working but still occupied their places within the factory. This process meant that the factory owners could not send in additional workers to continue the job. In addition, factory management was more reluctant to use private security forces or other strike breakers to intimidate the striking workers, as that approach threatened destruction to plant property. In 1935, the rubber workers organized a union, the United Rubber Workers (URW). In its first year the URW created thirty-nine local chapters. This union’s goals were to improve wages and working conditions for its members, and it soon had its first opportunity. The URW organized its first strike against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company the following year. This sit-down strike began as a protest against a plan created by Goodyear to reduce wages and increase the pace of production. In addition to the sit-down strike, the rubber workers also organized long picket lines in protest. Akron’s mayor, Lee D. Schroy, attempted to send in the police to put down the strike, but the police officers refused to do so when they faced the thousands of organized workers. After the violent strike in May 1938, three more years of cooperation between the new URW and Goodyear elapsed before the first formal contract was signed in 1941. In the long term, Goodyear was forced to recognize URW and negotiate better contracts with workers. Legislation passed during the New Deal required industries to recognize unions and legitimized collective bargaining, increasing the URW's popularity and success even further. By the end of World War II, membership had grown to almost 200,000. After World War II, the URW continued to work to improve laborers conditions. The union began negotiating industry-wide agreements rather than focusing on one factory. The union also became more inclusive, working to reduce gender and racial discrimination both within the union itself and in the workplace. The URW also negotiated pension plans and insurance plans with employers. In the 1990s, the URW merged with the United Steelworkers to form an even stronger union. This union still strives to improve its members' working conditions, wages, and benefits. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06154
Subjects: Strikes; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; United Rubber Workers of America; Labor unions--Ohio; Labor movement--United States--History--20th century; Strikes and lockouts--Rubber industry; Business and Labor; Akron (Ohio)
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: This aerial photograph shows the Akron, Ohio, industrial district, including views of East Akron, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company plants 1, 2, and 3, and the Zeppelin Hangar (later known as the Goodyear Airdock) in the background. To the left of the Airdock in the upper left corner is Akron Municipal Airport. Akron Municipal Airport began operating in 1929 on property belonging to Bain Ecarius "Shorty" Fulton, and the airport terminal opened its doors for commercial travel on June 15, 1931. Fulton worked for the airport as manager for 34 before retiring in 1962; it was later renamed Akron Fulton International Airport in his honor. The B.F. Goodrich Rubber Company Plant, located at 500 South Main Street, was Akron’s oldest rubber factory and one of the world’s largest, producing more than 30,000 kinds of rubber articles besides automobile tires. Occupying 275 acres, the plant had 116 buildings with 165 acres of floor space. In addition, the Goodrich Company operated the Miller rubbery factory on South High Street and several regional plants. The Goodrich plant had its own utilities, waterworks, service departments, hospital, electric transportation system, and a subway. 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_B08F02_028_001
Subjects: Akron (Ohio); Rubber industry and trade--Ohio--Akron; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Airports; Aerial photography
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: The zeppelin under construction in the photograph is most likely the USS Akron or its sister ship, the USS Macon, built in the early 1930s. The center of zeppelin production in the United States was Akron, Ohio. In 1916, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company purchased land near Akron to build a plant that could produce zeppelin aircraft. The plant was called the Goodyear Airdock. In 1917, the main Goodyear Company created a subsidiary known as the Goodyear Zeppelin Company to manufacture the zeppelins. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B07F07_003_1
Subjects: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation; Airships; Hangars
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: The center of zeppelin production in the United States was Akron, Ohio. In 1916, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company purchased land near Akron, Ohio to build a plant that could produce zeppelin aircraft. The plant was called the Goodyear Airdock. In 1917, the main Goodyear Company created a subsidiary known as the Goodyear Zeppelin Company to manufacture the zeppelins. The zeppelin under construction in the photograph is most likely the USS Akron or its sister ship, the USS Macon built in the early 1930s. These airships were designed to be used by the US Navy for reconnaissance, but were in service for only a short time. Each ship met disaster due to weather conditions, including the Akron going down off the coast of New Jersey and the Macon in Monterey Bay, California. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F01_005
Subjects: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation; Airships; Hangars
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption reads; "Girls working in Balloon Room of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F02_006_001
Subjects: Business and Labor; Transportation--Ohio--History.; Rubber industry; Employees; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Ohio Women
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image depicts the Goodyear Zeppelin Airdock in Akron, Ohio in 1937. It is 1200 feet in length and the largest building in the world without interior supports (1937). U.S. #224 in the background. Akron Municipal Airport. The dock is long enough to form a huge covered bridge over Niagara Falls with 75 feet to spare. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06204
Subjects: Akron (Ohio); Airships; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Rubber industry
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image shows an aerial image of the Goodyear plants and Akron Airdock, where the Goodyear Blimps were kept in Akron, Ohio. The building, designed by Karl Arnstein of Wilbur Watson Engineering Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, was constructed in 1929 to house airships. At the time it was built, it was the largest building without interior supports. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06434
Subjects: Airships; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Akron (Ohio)
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)