Description: Dated 1937, this photograph shows the Abbe Observatory, located on Lafayette Circle in Clifton Heights in Cincinnati, Ohio. Abbe Conservatory was the only commemoratively-named weather station in the United States. The Observatory is named after Cleveland Abbe, a Cincinnati meteorologist known as "Old Probability," first director of the National Weather Service. Abbe came to Cincinnati at the request of the Cincinnati Astronomical Society in 1868, restored its neglected observatory, and began daily forecasts in 1869. In 1870, Abbe no longer had financial support for his research and he left Cincinnati for New York where he was appointed director of the National Weather Service in 1871. 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_B03F12_010_1
Subjects: Meteorology; Cincinnati (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Science and Technology
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)