Description: Threshing grain on a farm in Ohio View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B06F02_014_1
Subjects: Agriculture--Ohio--History--20th century.; Threshing
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Photograph of two African American children, from the Allfree Family Collection, ca. 1944. The Allfree Family moved from Alabama to Cincinnati, Ohio, around 1900. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03738
Subjects: Multicultural Ohio--African American Ohioans; Children
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph shows the interior of the Public Library in New Philadelphia Ohio. It is on 121 Fair Avenue NW. The photographer was S H Green on West High Avenue in new Philadelphia, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F03_009_001
Subjects: New Philadelphia (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio); Public libraries
Places: New Philadelphia (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph is a black-and-white image of a colorful mural titled "Drift toward Industrialism,” painted in 1937 by artist Karl Anderson (1874-1956). The mural, also known as “Exodus to the Cities,” is located in the former post office building in Bedford, Ohio. The building now houses the offices of Doty & Miller Architects, 600 Broadway Avenue. As seen in the photograph, the mural surrounds an office door. The mural portrays the widespread migration of workers, families, and young people from small towns and rural areas to large industrial cities during the late 19th century. In the lower left corner, a bearded farmer stands behind a horse-drawn plow and raises his right arm in farewell to the stream of people headed toward a cityscape visible in the background. A young girl clutches her mother’s arm and looks back at the place she is leaving and to which she’ll probably never return. An older mother embraces her daughter while an elderly man dressed in a Civil War uniform sits morosely on the sidelines. Karl Anderson was born Carl James Anderson in Morning Sun, Ohio. His parents, Irwin M. and Emma Anderson, and their family of seven children lived in various communities in the state but eventually settled in Clyde (Sandusky County). Karl’s younger brother Sherwood, the noted American author, based his famous short-story collection "Winesburg, Ohio" on his memories of life in Clyde. Karl Anderson became a noted painter, illustrator, and engraver. The mural was funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Section of Painting and Sculpture, one of the department’s three visual arts programs instituted during the Great Depression. Established in 1934, the Section of Painting and Sculpture commissioned artists to create paintings and sculpture that would decorate new federal buildings. The commissions were awarded competitively. Unlike other cultural programs of the New Deal, the Section’s primary goal was to procure art for public buildings, not to provide work relief. The post office in West Haven, Connecticut, features the second of two murals that Karl Anderson created for the program. Anderson died in 1956 in Westport, Connecticut, where he had lived since 1912. Nicknamed “the Dean of Westport Painters,” he was part of the thriving arts community there. In 1988 photographer Connie Girard took color and black-and-white images of this mural for an article in "Timeline" magazine (June/July 1989). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04496
Subjects: Anderson, Karl, 1874-1956; Mural paintings (visual works); Post office buildings--Ohio; United States. Department of the Treasury. Section of Painting and Sculpture; Great Depression and the New Deal;
Places: Bedford (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads: "The Ohio Masonic home. Springfield." This is a photograph of the Ohio Masonic Home, located in Springfield, Ohio. There is a couple sitting on a bench in front of the building. The Ohio Masonic Home currently serves as an assisted living facility to care for elderly Free Masons. The facility also served as a children’s home from 1897 to 1956 in addition to its retirement home. A total of 740 children lived at the home during this time period. It differed from a traditional orphanage as the children came when a parent passed away or couldn’t support them properly. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B13F06_029_001
Subjects: Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works.; Temples; Societies and clubs; Masonic buildings; Freemasonry; Monuments--Ohio--Springfield; Fraternal lodges; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project.
Places: Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio)
 

Description: This image is a reproduction of a photograph depicting a view of the Ohio and Erie Canal looking north from the the Pugh Locks at Millersport, Ohio, ca. 1906. Visible in the photograph are both banks of the canal and what appears to be the locks' structure. A caption handwritten in white reads: "The old canal from Pugh Locks looking north." The Ohio and Erie Canal was one of Ohio's most important canals during the mid nineteenth century. During the late 1810s, Governor Thomas Worthington and Governor Ethan Allen Brown both supported the development of 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. Farmers and business owners would be able to transport their products much more easily and cheaply with canals rather than turnpikes. Canals would also possibly open up new markets for Ohio goods. In 1822 the Ohio legislature created a new Ohio Canal Commission, which eventually recommended two routes: a route that started at Lake Erie, passing through the Cuyahoga Valley, the Muskingum Valley, the Licking Valley, and then to the Ohio River along the Scioto Valley (Ohio and Erie Canal) and a western route along the Miami and Maumee Valleys (Miami and Erie Canal). In 1825 the Ohio legislature approved both routes, and work began immediately. On July 4, 1825, work began on the Ohio and Erie Canal at Licking Summit just south of Newark. The surrounding swamps were drained to create the Licking Reservoir, today known as Buckeye Lake, in order to supply adequate water for the canal going north to Coshocton and south to Circleville. After the canal route was established, the state engineers discovered that there was a ridge of hills located south of the proposed reservoir through which they would have to cut the canal. Because it was impossible to raise the reservoir’s level, the ridge had to be cut down to the level of the reservoir. This "Deep Cut" marks the deepest part of the canal at 32 feet and runs south from Millersport for nearly two miles. To finance the canals, the Ohio government relied on loans. Ohio received an initial loan of $400,000 from bankers and businessmen living along the East Coast. The canal commissioners estimated that the Ohio and Erie Canal would cost $ 2.3 million, but it actually cost roughly $10,000 per mile to finish. Although the construction of both canals nearly bankrupted the state government, the canals allowed Ohioans to prosper, beginning in the 1830s all the way to the Civil War. In 1830 the Ohio legislature earmarked funds for the Miami and Erie Canal's extension to Defiance and Lake Erie; by 1833 the Ohio and Erie Canal was complete. Once completed, however, the state’s canals still faced numerous difficulties. The effects of flooding and freezing could and often did seriously damage the canals. Usually canals in the northern half of the state were drained dry from November to April. These difficulties paled in comparison to the advantages of having the canals. The cost to ship goods from the East Coast to Ohio and vice versa declined tremendously, from $125 per ton of goods to $25 per ton of goods. Travelers who were willing to trade time for economy could save considerable money by taking a canal boat. Most canals remained in operation in Ohio until the late 1800s. By the 1850s canals were losing business to the railroads, which offered several advantages. Railroads delivered passengers and goods more quickly, and they were not limited by a water source as canals were. Because of these advantages, railroads quickly supplanted the canals. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06110
Subjects: Ohio and Erie Canal (Ohio); Canals; Transportation--Ohio--History; Ohio Economy--Transportation and Development
Places: Millersport (Ohio); Fairfield County (Ohio)
 

Description: William Paul of Brown county, Legally Executed at 12:22A.M., April 29, 1896, for the Murder of his father-in-law at Georgetown, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08050
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Prisoners and prisons; Death row
 

Description: Regimental colors of the 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Text on flag reads: 115th O.V.I. Regiment. Infantry. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02102
Subjects: Flags--Ohio; United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
 

Description: In 1898, a prolific oil pool was discovered. The town of approximately 900 people grew to 12,000 in about two years as about 1,000 oil wells were drilled. The local college attendance dropped from 300 students to 25, as the students rushed to the oil field for jobs. The oil boom lasted for about two years and town decreased to the previous size. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07625
Subjects: Oil fields--Ohio; Oil wells; Oil industry;
Places: Harrison County (Ohio);
 

Description: Caption reads: "Tennis Courts at Goldman park. Highland St. near Grand Ave." Goldman Park is a 23.5 acre park located at Highland and Roosevelt Blvd. This park features playground equipment, picnic shelter, picnic tables, softball diamonds, and double tennis courts. Middletown is located in Butler County, which is in Ohio's southwestern corner and borders Indiana on its western border. Butler County was established by the State of Ohio on March 24, 1803. Originally a part of Hamilton County, Butler County was named in honor of Richard Butler, who was killed in St. Clair’s Defeat in 1791. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F03_013_1
Subjects: Middletown (Ohio)--Social life and customs--Pictorial works; Tennis courts; Butler County (Ohio)--History--Pictorial works.
Places: Middletown (Ohio); Butler County (Oho)
 

Description: Skyline of Cincinnati and the Ohio River View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B04F01_029_01
Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio); Ohio River
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is a photograph of a striking worker holding a copy of the Columbus Dispatch. It was in the month of May, but the date is unreadable. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B15F03_019
Subjects: Ohio Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration;
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)