Description: Dated ca. 1935-1943, this photograph shows men and women working in the assembly room at Crowell Publishing Co. in Springfield, Ohio. Crowell Publishing Company was founded by John S. Crowell, P. P. Mast, and Thomas Kirkpatrick in Springfield, Ohio, in 1878. The company employed over 2,000 people and the city of Springfield was devastated when the plant closed in 1956. 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_B13F05_001_001
Subjects: Crowell Publishing Company; Publishers and publishing; Employees; Business and Labor
Places: Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio)
 

Description: The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company Plant was located on West High Street, between Wittenberg and Lowry Avenues in Springfield, Ohio and was one of the largest publishing houses in the world. John Crowell (1850 – 1921), a printer from Louisville, Kentucky, came to Springfield, Ohio in 1878 to edit Farm and Fireside magazine. He founded the company Mast, Crowell & and Kirkpatrick. By 1902 the company was publishing a number of magazines and was incorporated as The Crowell Publishing Company in 1906. Peter Fenelon Collier (1849-1909) began publishing in 1873, beginning with Roman Catholic books, Bibles, and the magazine ‘Collier’s Once a Week’. In 1895, the name was changed to ‘Collier’s Weekly’, which was purchased by Crowell publishing in 1919. P.F. Collier & Sons was taken over by Robert Collier when his father Peter died in 1909. Though the two companies worked together since 1919, they didn’t become Crowell Collier Publishing Company until 1939, having merged in 1934. They printed four nationally known magazines: Collier’s, Woman’s Home Companion, American Magazine and Country Home. Though having begun 1877 in a tiny one-room establishment with a simple hand press and evolving into a massive factory complex incorporating 7 buildings, including an 8-story plant covering an entire city block, the company began going downhill. The plant began dissolving in 1956 and the Springfield plant was sold in 1957. Crowell-Collier merged with Macmillan of New York in 1960 and in 1965 the name Crowell Collier & MacMillian began being used, though the titled was eventually changed to MacMillian, Inc. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B08F01_010_001
Subjects: Industries--Ohio--Springfield; Publishers and publishing--Ohio--History; Crowell Publishing Company; P.F. Collier & Son Company; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. P.F. Collier & Son Corporation; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. Macmillan Company
Places: Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads: "Clark County, Springfield, Ohio. Oct. 6, 1936. Crowell Publishing Company Plant, West High Street. Dist. 11." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B13F06_021_001
Subjects: Industries--Ohio--Springfield; Publishers and publishing--Ohio--History; Crowell Publishing Company; P.F. Collier & Son Company; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. P.F. Collier & Son Corporation; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. Macmillan Company; Ohio--Histor
Places: Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is a photographic print of Elisha Bates, a leading Ohio Quaker living in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. Bates worked as a printer and was involved in the Beaconite controversy. Bates was born in Virginia, but came to Ohio to escape slavery in 1817 where he was an editor, printer, school teacher, and theologian. He purchased the first anti-slavery newspaper in America, "The Philanthropist" and advocated for an end to slavery and opposed colonialism. In the late 1810s and throughout the 1820s, Bates' focus shifted and he primarily wrote about theological ideas and religious doctrines for the Society of Friends. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07955
Subjects: Quakers; Society of Friends; Publishers and publishing; Authors
Places: Mount Pleasant (Ohio); Jefferson County (Ohio)
 

Description: This color image features two whimsical illustrations from "Isn't It Funny?", a children's book published by Ernest Lister (1842-1909), famous for his firm's high-quality color printing and moveable books. These two images from "Isn't It Funny?" (ca. 1894) are titled "Mewsical Party" and "Dancing Lesson." Attired in fashionable clothing, cats and kittens of various ages and sizes are seen performing vocal music in "Mewsical Party." Under the watchful eyes of two mamas, a male dancemaster is teaching a bevy of female kittens in "Dancing Lesson." The artist is not credited in these illustrations; however, one image in the book, that of a rabbit, is attributed to Beatrix Potter. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06983
Subjects: Nister, Ernest; Children's literature; Books and reading; Illustration; Publishers and publishing
 

Description: Reverse reads: "Press Room, Crowell Publishing Co., Springfield, Ohio." This is a photograph of the Crowell Publishing Company's Press room in Springfield, Ohio. There are workers running the machines and manning the press room. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B13F05_019_001
Subjects: Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project; Industries--Ohio--Springfield; Publishers and publishing--Ohio--History; Crowell Publishing Company; P.F. Collier & Son Company; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. P.F. Collier & Son Corporation; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company; Crowell-C
Places: Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads: "Stock room, Crowell Publishing Co., Springfield, Ohio." This is a photograph of the interior stock room at Crowell Publishing Company in Springfield, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B13F05_020_001
Subjects: Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project; Industries--Ohio--Springfield; Publishers and publishing--Ohio--History; Crowell Publishing Company; P.F. Collier & Son Company; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. P.F. Collier & Son Corporation; Crowell-Collier Publishing Company; Crowell-C
Places: Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio)