Description: Advertising broadside for embalmers' instruments and supplies made by the Champion Chemical Company of Springfield, Ohio. The ad boasts "the Best All Around Fluid Ever Compounded" and "the most complete and superior line in America... Embracing everything needed by the up-to-date embalmer." Founded in Springfield in 1878 as the Hill Fluid Company, Champion was incorporated 10 years later as the Champion Chemical Company by Dr. A. A. Baker. The company was responsible for many innovations in the funeral industry, and is still active today. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: OVS4262_1
Subjects: Medicine--History; Funeral industry; Embalming; Undertakers and undertaking;
Places: Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1930-1939, this photograph shows the Athens State Hospital from Reservoir Hill in Athens, Ohio. In 1868, construction began on the Athens Asylum. Levi T. Scofield, a Cleveland architect designed the building and it formally opened on January 9, 1874. Within two years of opening, administrators renamed the Athens Asylum the Athens Hospital for the Insane. Over its history, the hospital underwent several name changes, including the Athens State Hospital, the Southeastern Ohio Mental Health Center, the Athens Mental Health Center, the Athens Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center, and the Athens Mental Health and Developmental Center. The Athens Asylum was one of several hospitals for the mentally ill operated by the State of Ohio. The asylum closed as a mental hospital in 1993. Ohio University eventually purchased the grounds and renamed the site The Ridges. The hospital is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally, the hospital's grounds consisted of a park-like setting, with ponds, gardens, and fountains. Doctors hoped that the beautiful surroundings would assist patients in recovering their mental health. Patients worked in the gardens, the greenhouse, the orchards, or the dairy, helped to tend livestock, or found employment in the asylum's carriage shop. The asylum also boasted a physical plant that heated the various buildings with steam heat. Many of the patients were never released from the hospital and were buried in the asylum's cemetery. 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_B01F14_003_001
Subjects: Mental health; State Hospitals--History--Ohio; Science and Technology; Medicine; Athens Hospital for the Insane (Athens, Ohio)
Places: Athens (Ohio); Athens County (Ohio)
 

Description: Portrait of Dr. John G. F. Holston. Holston was born in 1809 in Hamburg, Germany. After travelling the world as a cabin boy, he landed in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he attended Washington College and graduated with honors. He attended Cleveland College where he studied medicine. He was later called to be chair of surgery in the National Medical College at Washington. He served in the Civil War for the Union, and was eventually promoted to serve as medical director in General Ulysses S. Grant’s staff. After the war, he opened a medical practice in Zanesville, Ohio, but soon moved back to Washington D.C., where he was appointed a professor of anatomy at Georgetown Medical School and served as physician to President Grant’s family. Holston married Mary Ann Campbell, with whom he had eight children. He died on May 1, 1874 at the age of sixty-five. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07669
Subjects: Medicine--History; Zanesville (Ohio); Veterans; Immigrants--Ohio
 

Description: Group photograph from the Columbus Free Press Collection showing the Columbus AIDS Task Force staff and board members. Front row, left to right: H. L. Wright III, board vice president; Gloria J. T. Smith, executive director; Elliot Fishman, board president; and Janet Ferguson, associate director. Second row, left to right: Jill Hairston, Pat Bentz, Karen Kentosh, Kathy Sellers, Smokey Shumate, Abby Retterer, Fran Bednar, Marc McIntosh, Mary Orin and Annetta Carter. Not pictured: Brad Lutz and Brandon LaRue. The Columbus AIDS Task Force was a non-profit organization with the mission of fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, combating stigma and discrimination, educating the community, and supporting individuals and families affected by the disease through services and testing. It has now been absorbed into Equitas Health, a comprehensive LGBTQ+ community-based healthcare system. The Columbus Free Press began as a bi-weekly publication in Columbus, Ohio, in 1970. An underground newspaper, it replaced the Ohio State University publication The People, Yes. The earliest known issue of the newspaper appeared on January 4, 1971. The newspaper underwent a series of name changes over the decades, with titles including the Columbus Free Press & Cowtown Times (1972-1976), the Columbus Freepress (1976-1992) and The Free Press (1992-1995). The paper, which covered many liberal and progressive causes, was an alternative to mainstream news sources in central Ohio with the slogan “The Other Side of the News.” In 1995, the paper ceased publication briefly before reemerging as a website in early 1996, and returning as a print publication under the Free Press title in the form of a quarterly journal in 1998. Published under various frequencies during the first part of the 21st century, the Free Press again became a nonprofit monthly publication in 2017 with both a print and web presence, published by the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism and operated by a volunteer staff and board. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS1301AV_B02F09_11
Subjects: LGBTQ Community; Medical care; Medicine -- History; Health and hygiene; Social services--Ohio;
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: caption reads: "Nurses home at Middletown Hospital" Middletown Hospital, now Atrium Medical Center, is located in Butler County, Ohio. The hospital was established to assist the Middletown community in times of medical need. The hospital was officially opened on March 5, 1917 with 28 beds. By 1923, the need for a larger hospital was recognized and the hospital expanded to 100 beds. Middletown Hospital established one of the country's first coronary care units in a community hospital, became second in the entire Cincinnati/Dayton area to begin a cardiac rehabilitation program, the first to perform FDA-approved total hip replacement and the first to use the Yag laser. Middletown has received numerous awards including top honors from the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the first Ohio hospital to be ISO 9001:2000 certified. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B05F09_049_1
Subjects: Hospitals--History--Ohio; Nurses; Science and Technology; Medicine
Places: Middletown (Ohio); Butler County (Ohio)