Description: Dated ca. 1900, this trade card advertises Clark's Mile-End Spool Cotton thread used for sewing clothing. In the center of the card is a short poem in which Robins can agree on nothing other than Clark's Mile-End is "woman's greatest friend." The poem is framed by a robin nest in the lower left corner, with tree branches and foliage reaching around the frame of the poem, and a robin perched at in the upper right corner. The reverse reads "The proprietors of Clark's Mile End Spool Cotton propose to issue a series of twelve aquarelles from design by the celebrated Parisian artist Hector Giacomelli, illustrative of our native song birds. Preserve this card as issued. Families and dressmakers should use Clark's Mile-End Spool Cotton. Best six cord for machine and hand use. Thomas Russell & CO., sole agents." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: VFM5933_06
Subjects: Advertisements; Sewing; Women; Birds
Places: Bellaire (Ohio); Belmont County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated 1936, this is a photograph of a painting by Albert Loose which is one of a series of six panels representing various stages of organic evolutions. This painting shows four birds, the wood thrush, parrot, California cuckoo, and kinglet. Painted in the spring of 1936 by the Works Progress Administration Art Project in Dayton, Ohio, these oil paintings measured 36 inches x 30 inches. The photograph is embossed by the photographer, Sam R. Kremer. 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_B12F09_047_001
Subjects: Federal Art Project; Art, American--Ohio--20th century--Exhibitions; Birds--North America--Pictorial works
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)
 

Description: Two photographs show male cardinals feeding their young. Cardinals live in Ohio year-round and the male is easily identified by its deep red plumage. Since 1933, it has been the official state bird. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID:
Subjects: Birds--Ohio; Cardinals (Birds); State birds--United States--Pictorial works; Ohio state symbols
Places: Ohio
 

Description: A set of photographs of American coots (latin name Fulica americana), which are found in marshy areas throughout Ohio, but especially in the northwestern part of the state. The duck-like birds grow to about fifteen inches. They are grayish-black with white beaks. The Toledo Mudhens baseball team is nicknamed for the coot, which is often referred to as a mud hen or marsh hen. The team took the name in 1896 when it played at Bay View Park. The park was surrounded by a swamp frequented by the birds. The photographs measure 3" x 3" (7.62 x 7.62 cm). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID:
Subjects: Plants and Animals; Birds; Ducks; Photography--Ohio
Places: Ohio
 

Description: The cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis, is often found in marshy areas in Ohio during its breeding season of April to July. A native of Africa, the cattle egret extended its range into South America and eventually the southern United States in the nineteenth century. It feeds off of small insects picked off the backs of cattle or off the ground. The photographs measure 3" x 3" (7.62 x 7.62 cm). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID:
Subjects: Plants and Animals; Birds; Birds--Ohio; Natural resources--Ohio
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Two photographs document the wild turkey, or Meleagris gallopavo. It is found mainly in southeastern and portions of central Ohio. Turkeys were plentiful in Ohio before white settlement. American Indians used the birds for food and their feathers for ceremonial purposes. By the 1850s, few turkeys could be found in Ohio and in 1904 they were officially extirpated (extinct in one area but found in others). In the 1940s and 1950s turkeys moved back into Ohio from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky and gradually began to recover. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID:
Subjects: Plants and Animals; Turkeys; Birds
Places: Ohio
 

Description: This pipe in effigy (a likeness or representation) of a sandhill crane was excavated from Tremper Mound, a Hopewell culture site located five miles north of Portsmouth in Scioto County. The crane stands on platform with head forward and down, bill touching the platform. Its eyes are drilled and inset with copper. Parts of the pipe, which measures approximately 1.66" x 1.33" x 3.75" (4 x 3.5 x 9.7 cm), have been restored. This pipe is part of a large collection of pipes found at Tremper Mound. The pipes were carved of Ohio pipestone, a silica-based material that can be easily carved when freshly quarried from the hills east of the Scioto River. The pipes represent a variety of animals significant to the Hopewell, including owls, wolves, deer and beaver. Skilled Hopewell craftsmen carved the pipes with flint knives and some are embellished with pearls or copper. In Ohio, the Hopewell Indians (100 B.C.-A.D. 500) built burial mounds and large earthen enclosures in geometric shapes (circles, squares, and octagons) to mark the places where the people gathered periodically to participate in many social and ceremonial events. Some of these sites were quite large--the Newark Earthworks complex extends over a 4-square-mile area. The Hopewell people also maintained a large trade network extending as far as the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, the Florida coast and Appalachians, and northern Lake Superior. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID:
Subjects: American Indians in Ohio; Plants and Animals; Arts and Entertainment; Geography and Natural Resources; Hopewell culture; Mounds (Burials); Pipes (Smoking); Cranes (Birds); Birds
Places: Rush Township (Ohio); Scioto County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows a redheaded woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, which is found in open woodlands, orchards and suburban areas throughout Ohio. It bores into dead tree trunks to form nests and often scavenges for food, including grasshoppers, beetles, ants, young birds, and eggs. The photograph measures 3" x 3" (7.62 x 7.62 cm). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3144_3805406_001
Subjects: Plants and Animals; Birds; Woodpeckers
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Produced by Seymour Lindsey between 1876-1927, this paper cut-out depicts two trees, two dogs, a rabbit, and birds in the trees and flying above. The white and gray cut paper is mounted to a blue background and is stored in a frame under glass. A handwritten note on the back of the piece reads "#158 from Harry Hartman 1965 / From Garth Oberlander Collection / Oct. 25, 26, 1968 Lot #495." Lindsay (1848-1927) was a self-taught folk artist who was born and lived near Lexington, Ohio, in Richland County. Along with paper-cutting, he left his mark through work including barn murals, interior painting, woodcarving and painted signs. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: H23123
Subjects: Paper; Folk art; Art, American--Ohio; Dogs; Trees; Birds; Nature
Places: Lexington (Ohio); Richland County (Ohio)
 

Description: Three photographs document the barn owl, Tyto alba, which lives in fields and meadows where rodents are plentiful. In the early twentieth century, the barn owl could be found throughout Ohio, but its territory has been reduced due to the switch to more intense row-crop farming and a general reduction in farms in the state. In 2004, the barn owl is endangered in Ohio, although populations exist in other parts of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Barn owls live three to four years and grow to approximately 15 inches tall. The photographs measure 3" x 3" (7.62 x 7.62 cm). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID:
Subjects: Plants and Animals; Birds; Birds of prey; Owls; Endangered species
Places: Ohio
 

Description: The bobolink, Dolichonyx oryzivorus, is found in Ohio during its spring migration from South America. The first two photographs show a male bobolink feeding its young, while the female bird is shown in the last two photographs. In the nineteenth century the bobolink established itself in Ohio due to the abundance of fields, which provide plenty of seed for the birds to eat. Numbers have been reduced due the increase of forested land in the state. The photographs measure 3" x 3" (7.62 x 7.62 cm). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID:
Subjects: Plants and Animals; Birds; Animal feeding
Places: Ohio
 

Description: This photograph shows a hot-air balloon on exhibit at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, ca. 1963-1983. The balloon bears the image of a cardinal, the state bird of Ohio since 1933. Text on the base of the balloon reads: “State of Ohio” and “Your passport to Ohio.” Visible in the photograph’s bottom is a sign titled “State of Ohio” that lists the name of the governor (James A. Rhodes). Passersby are stopping to look at the balloon. A woman appears to be sitting inside an enclosure surrounding the base of the balloon. The origins of the Ohio State Fair date back to the 1840s. In 1846 the Board of Agriculture was formed. The first state fair was scheduled for 1849, but it was delayed for a year by an outbreak of cholera. After another year-long delay, the fair was held in Cincinnati. Originally the fair was held in a different location every year, due to the difficulty in traveling long distances. In 1874, Columbus was chosen as the state fair’s permanent site because transportation around the state had become much easier. Only rarely has the fair been cancelled (the only examples being a few years during World War II, when the fairgrounds was being used by the U.S. military). After 1945, the state fair resumed its annual schedule. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06669
Subjects: Hot air balloons; Ohio State Fair (Columbus, Ohio); Birds--Ohio; Cardinals (Birds); Tourism; Ohio state symbols
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)