Description: Dated September 19, 1936, this photograph shows women of the Butler County Emergency School's sewing project sewing at someone's home. Butler County Emergency School was a Works Progress Administration program at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The photograph's caption reads "Butler County, Middletown, Ohio, Seventeenth Street. Sewing and different types of Needlecraft. Mrs. Thenie Latham, Teacher." The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a government office that hired unemployed Americans to work on various government projects from April 8, 1935 to June 30, 1943. In the first six months that the WPA existed, more than 173, 000 Ohioans, including both men and women, found employment through this program. More than 1, 500 unemployed teachers in Ohio found work through the WPA teaching illiterate adults how to read. In twelve separate counties, primarily in southeastern Ohio, more than twenty-five percent of families had at least one member working for the WPA during the late 1930s. By the end of 1938, these various workers had built or improved 12, 300 miles of roads and streets and constructed 636 public buildings, several hundred bridges, hundreds of athletic fields, and five fish hatcheries. WPA employees made improvements to thousands of more buildings, roads, and parks within Ohio. WPA artists also painted a number of murals in Ohio post offices. 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_B02F04_013_1
Subjects: Sewing; Teachers; Education; African Americans; Schools--Ohio; Works Progress Administration
Places: Middletown (Ohio); Butler County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph of Eva Walker, mother of Yvonne Walker-Taylor and wife of Bishop Dougal Ormonde Beaconfield Walker, who was the 66th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He resided over the A.M.E. Fifth Episcopal District and was the 10th president of Wilberforce University. Walker-Taylor who became one of the first female African American college president in the United States when she was named the 16th president of Wilberforce University in 1984. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_P2_B06F05_F
Subjects: Historical Black Colleges and Universities; Wilberforce University; African American men; African American women; African American Educators
 

Description: Dated ca. 1935-1940, this photograph shows a butcher demonstrating cutting steak to a young boy. 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_B15F03_040_01
Subjects: Butchering; Butchers; Ohio Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration; Meat industry; African American Ohioans
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Photograph of Charles Noel "Tonton" Young, the son of Colonel Charles Young, as an infant. Charles Young was the first African American to reach the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army and, at the time of his death in 1922, was the highest-ranking African American officer in the Army. He is known for having been forced into retirement due to health concerns before the start of World War I and later riding from Wilberforce, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. to prove his physical fitness for duty. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_MSS3_B02F06_04
Subjects: African American men; African American children; Young, Charles, 1864-1922.
 

Description: Photograph of Reverend O. Davis Slacum standing beside the Cain Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in Bakersfield California. The church was built in 1880, was rebuilt in 1914 and purchased by the A.M.E. Church in 1954. Bishop Dougal Ormonde Beaconfield Walker was acting Bishop; Reverend R.A. Washington was the Presiding Elder and Reverend O. Davis Slacum was the Pastor. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_P2_B06F02_W
Subjects: Historical Black Colleges and Universities; Wilberforce University; African American men; African American women; African American Educators
 

Description: Photograph of Franks Roberts in his military uniform with an unidentified man. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_P2_B05F06_P
Subjects: African American men; African American soldiers; Military officers
 

Description: Portrait of a man and woman with a moon and stars back drop from the Allfree Family Collection, ca. 1940 - 1949. The Allfree Family moved from Alabama to Cincinnati, Ohio around 1900. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00764
Subjects: Multicultural Ohio--African American Ohioans
 

Description: Photograph of Bishop Dougal Ormonde Beaconfield Walker, Reverend Higman and unidentified individuals at the grave of Reverend Cole, which is located in the cemetery of the Kingstown Methodist Church in the West Indies. Bishop D.O.B. Walker was the 66th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He resided over the A.M.E. Fifth Episcopal District and was the 10th president of Wilberforce University. His daughter, Yvonne Walker-Taylor later became one of the first female African American college president in the United States when she was named the 16th president of Wilberforce University in 1984. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_P2_B05F10_I_2
Subjects: Historical Black Colleges and Universities; Wilberforce University; African American men; African American women; African American Educators
 

Description: This photograph was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed "Ewing Brothers" and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV71_B39_F4611
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Portrait photography--United States--History; Children; African American;
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: Photograph of Herbert Jeffrey, aka Herb Jefferies, the first African American singing cowboy. His first film was "Harlem on the Prairie" which was considered the first black western following the inauguration of the talkies. Herbert Jefferies sang his own songs in "The Bronze Buckaroo" and "Harlem Rides the Range." Following his movie career, Jefferies returned to singing and recorded "The Flamingo" with Duke Ellington. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_P2_B05F04_09_1_7
Subjects: Musicians; Music; Actors; African American men
 

Description: Photograph of unidentified man and woman at the home of Charles Young in Wilberforce, Ohio. Charles Young was the first African American to reach the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army and, at the time of his death in 1922, was the highest-ranking African American officer in the Army. He is known for having been forced into retirement due to health concerns before the start of World War I and later riding from Wilberforce, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. to prove his physical fitness for duty. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_MSS3_B02F71_07
Subjects: African American men; African American soldiers; Military officers; Young, Charles, 1864-1922.
Places: Wilberforce (Ohio); Greene County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reproduction of a portrait of African American inventor Granville T. Woods. Woods was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1856. He and his brother formed the Woods Railway Telegraph Company in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1884. Woods received 35 patents for electrical and mechanical devices between 1884 and 1907. Most of his inventions were for the improvement of the railroad system, including telegraphony, which allowed telegraph stations to send both voice and telegraph messages over a single wire. Woods is often referred to as "the Black Thomas Edison." He died in New York City in 1910. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02705
Subjects: African Americans--Ohio; Multicultural Ohio--African American Ohioans; Woods, Granville, 1856-1910; African American inventors--History; Railroads--Communication systems
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)