Description: Dated ca. 1940-1949, this photograph shows Mound Cemetery and the Piketon Mounds in Piketon in Pike County, Ohio. Mound cemetery is a modern cemetery built on top of ancient American Indian mounds which were constructed by the Adena and Hopewell cultures. This site is on the National Register of Historic Places. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00397
Subjects: Piketon (Ohio); American Indians in Ohio; National Register of Historic Places; Mounds--Ohio; Cemeteries--Ohio; Adena Culture (800 B.C.–A.D. 100); Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400)
Places: Piketon (Ohio); Pike County (Ohio)
 

Description: Valentine card written to Thelma Armintrout of Piketon, Ohio, from Norma Risner, 1941. The card design shows a female squash with moveable binoculars, with the message "Looking For Someone To SQUASH Me Close." Early American Valentine cards were handmade, and it wasn't until the mid-1800s that cards began to be manufactured on a larger scale. By the 1940s, colorful Valentines like the one seen here were mass produced for the public, often with "mechanical" pieces that moved and humorous messages to the recipient. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: E14_valentine_01
Subjects: Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture; Valentines; Holidays; Correspondence;
Places: Piketon (Ohio); Pike County (Ohio)
 

Description: Valentine card to Thelma Jane Armintrout from Jesse E. Shy, both of Piketon, Ohio, 1938. The card features a boy and girl seated on a moveable raft with the message, "What a raft of fun we'd have if you'd be my Valentine." Early American Valentine cards were handmade, and it wasn't until the mid-1800s that cards began to be manufactured on a larger scale. By the 1940s, colorful Valentines like the one seen here were mass produced for the public, often with "mechanical" pieces that moved and humorous messages to the recipient. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: E14_valentine_05
Subjects: Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture; Valentines; Holidays; Correspondence;
Places: Piketon (Ohio); Pike County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows a canal boat on the Ohio and Erie Canal with its crew members standing on its roof and men in smaller boats in front. During the late 1810s, Governor Thomas Worthington and Governor Ethan Allen Brown both supported internal improvements, especially canals. Both men believed that Ohioans needed quick and easy access to the Ohio River and to Lake Erie if they were to profit financially. In 1822, the Ohio legislature realized the importance of internal improvements and created a new Ohio Canal Commission. The Canal Commission eventually recommended a route starting at Lake Erie, passing through the Cuyahoga Valley, the Muskingum Valley, the Licking Valley, and then to the Ohio River along the Scioto Valley. The Commission also recommended a western route along the Miami and Maumee Valleys. By 1833, the Ohio and Erie Canal was complete, followed twelve years later by the Miami and Erie Canal. Once completed, thirty-three of Ohio's eighty-eight counties either had portions of canals running through them or quarries to mine rock for construction. The canals had many advantages to Ohioans. Most importantly, the cost to ship goods from the East Coast to Ohio and vice versa declined tremendously from 125 dollars per ton of goods to twenty-five dollars per ton of goods. Most canals remained in operation in Ohio until the late 1800s, their demise due in part to competition from the much speedier railroads. 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_B02F07_004_1
Subjects: Canals Ohio; Miami and Erie Canal (Ohio)--History; Geography and Natural Resources; Transportation--Ohio--History.; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Piketon (Ohio); Pike County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image shows the front and side facades of the Pike County Courthouse. During the 1830s a local citizen swayed voters to move the county seat of Pike County from Piketon to Waverly, and subsequently a new courthouse was constructed from 1865 to 1866. The eclectic two-story brick building was placed in the city's business district. A later three-story addition in 1909 significantly increased the front of the building whose main feature is a large Palladian window. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV101_B01F05_395
Subjects: Courthouses--Ohio; arches; arcades (structural assemblies)
Places: Waverly (Ohio); Pike County (Ohio); 100 E. 2nd
 

Description: This image shows the front facade of the Pike County Courthouse. During the 1830s a local citizen swayed voters to move the county seat of Pike County from Piketon to Waverly, and subsequently a new courthouse was constructed from 1865 to 1866. The eclectic two-story brick building was placed in the city's business district. A later three-story addition in 1909 significantly increased the front of the building whose main feature is a large Palladian window. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV101_B01F05_396
Subjects: Courthouses--Ohio; arches; arcades (structural assemblies)
Places: Waverly (Ohio); Pike County (Ohio); 100 E. 2nd