Have you used the Cincinnati Subway and Street Improvements collection yet? See digital.libraries.uc.edu/subway. You’ll find the story of the unfinished Cincinnati subway and a map showing the route the subway would have taken, linked to the photographs themselves.

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The entire collection contains photographic prints and negatives from 1920 to 1956 from an extensive archive of the City Engineer, City of Cincinnati. The collection documents the ill-fated attempt by the city’s Rapid Transit Commission to construct a subway through Cincinnati, provides a glimpse at interior views of homes and businesses damaged during the construction, and follows the growth of the city through various street improvement projects that took place between the 1920s and 1950s.

As part of its mission to make available for study and research documents of local and national significance, the University of Cincinnati Libraries has digitized the collection for online access through a grant-based project through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), a program funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered by the State Library of Ohio.