Author Archives: Suzanne Reller

ARB Adds to Nancy Zimpher Collection

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Written by Janice Schulz

The Archives and Rare Books Library has added nine boxes of speeches covering the years 2003-2009 to its collection of Nancy Zimpher papers.  An inventory for the addition, accessioned as UA-11-01, can be found on the ARB website.  An OhioLINK finding aid is forthcoming.

ARB holds three additional collections of Zimpher’s papers: UA-06-07 includes papers and correspondence for the year 2006; UA-09-24 includes calendars from 2003-2009; and UA-10-01 includes speeches covering 2004-2007 as well as publications. Inventories and OhioLINK finding aids for all three collections can be found on ARB’s University Archives Collection Records page.

T. M. Berry Project: A Few Words for Sarge and Berry's WWII Service

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Letter from Sargent Shriver

Click on image to read text

Written by Laura Laugle, Berry Project Archivist

I’d like to start out this post with a few words for a man with whom Theodore Berry worked closely during his tenure at the Office of Economic Opportunity, R. Sargent Shriver Jr. During the upheaval accompanying the creation of the program and amid controversy over lost memoranda, Shriver stood by his choice of Berry as director of the Community Action Program and continued to be a friend and supporter of Berry’s long after they had both left Washington when President Nixon took office. Shriver was not only the first director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, but was also the first director of the Peace Corps and helped his wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, develop and found the Special Olympics in 1968. Shriver died last Tuesday, January 18, 2011 in a Maryland hospital at the age of 95 and was remembered at his funeral on Friday, January 21 by his five children, his nineteen grandchildren and a horde of celebrities and dignitaries from all over the world as a loving family member and friend and a true statesman. Continue reading →

City of Cincinnati Birth and Death Records

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City of Cincinnati birth and death records from 1865 to 1908 with surnames beginning with the letter “A” through the surname “Bach” are now available online. The remaining records are being loaded as quickly as possible. Please continue to check the Digital Collections and Archives and Rare Books Library websites for further updates.

The University of Cincinnati Libraries was awarded a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the State Library of Ohio to digitize the records. Read more about the project online.

– By Janice Schulz

T. M. Berry Project: The UC Connection

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Newspaper Article - "Negro is Winner of Jones Prize"

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By Laura Laugle

Up to now, I have explained to you some (very little actually, but we’ll get there) of what made Berry an important figure. If you’ve been reading regularly, you’ll know that Ted Berry was an attorney, a civil rights activist, a local politician and a key player in “The War on Poverty.” What you would not know, because I have thoughtlessly neglected to tell you, is why he is so important to the University of Cincinnati in particular. The short answer is that he was an alumnus. The complete answer is that he was an important part of UC’s community and he has become part of the University’s history.

While at UC, Berry received many honors, both local and national. Perhaps the most outstanding of which is the Jones Oratorical Prize which he won in 1928 for his speech entitled “The Significance of the Minority.” In that speech Berry, then a senior undergraduate at UC, challenged America “… to live by the principles of the founders of our democracy, and to practice a new ideal of human understanding and fair dealing.” Continue reading →

50 Minutes-One Book

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The Archives & Rare Books Library announces a new monthly lunch-time series that will focus on one item from the collections to talk about its history and importance.  Relaxed and informal, these presentations are set for one Thursday each month through the academic year, and will be held in the Schott Seminar Room, 814 Blegen Library at 12:00 noon.

The first talk is on Thursday, January 27, and will feature ARB’s anthropodermic binding (that is, human skin!).  Find out how these bindings became curiosities of the book world, particularly in the 18th century; why most major research libraries have at least one example of the morbid things and how UC obtained its copy; and, the process involved in determining its authenticity. Continue reading →

T. M. Berry Project: Remembrances

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Theodore Berry as a child

By Laura Laugle

I have lately been going through a variety of files marked “T. M. Berry Biography.” A few are from the Theodore M. Berry collection and one came here to Archives and Rare Books rather serendipitously when Public Information was cleaning out alumni biography files. As a result, I have learned a great deal about Berry’s life as a whole, what he did before and after his public life, who he was as person and how that influenced his political career. One of my first finds in these files, and possibly my favorite of the entire collection thus far, was an envelope stuffed with old photographs. I can now say, with absolute certainty, two things which would never have occurred to me previously: Ted Berry made an adorable little cowboy and fedoras and spats are definite style “dos.” Continue reading →

T.M. Berry Project: Trouble in Anti-Poverty Paradise

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By Laura Laugle

Thus far in the archival project of Theodore Berry’s papers I have found almost no controversy surrounding him or his career. This surprises me not only because he was a politician, a member of a group of people who seem completely unable to keep themselves out of trouble for any length of time, but also because he was an African-American holding high office in an already controversial federal agency, the Community Action Program, during the mid-late 1960s. That is, I’d found no controversy until I came across this article.

"Shriver Wasn't Told of War On Poverty Memo" Continue reading →

T.M. Berry Project: Mod In The Mountains

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By Laura Laugle

Much of my time lately has been spent buried deep in the remnants of the everyday business of the Office of Economic Opportunity, where official government policies and memoranda abound. Though all of it is informative, to say that I find every item I come across riveting would be untrue. Luckily, a few striking photographs caught my attention and cried out for a closer look.

A young family pictured in their new home in Berea, KY. I’m especially fond of the kitchen. Those robin’s egg blue appliances would probably sell for thousands in an upscale vintage shop. Très mod-chic!

Continue reading →

T.M. Berry Project: HMM. . .

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Unidentified Object from Berry CollectionBy Laura Laugle

My work on the Berry Project for much of this week can be best summed up by one word: “wonder.” Many factors have contributed to this conclusion. Unfortunately one of them is “I wonder what on Earth that is!” (Please feel free to tell me if you have any idea what the metal object pictured could be, because I haven’t the foggiest.) For the most part though, I’m referring to the almost constant sense that I’m reading a great epic novel, except that its chapters are all out of order. For instance, I’ve come across items linking Theodore Berry with arguably three of the most influential public figures of the 1960s: John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry Kissinger. Continue reading →

New German-Americana at ARB: The Robert E. Cazden Collection

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Der Weg zum Glueck Roman aus dem Leben - pamphlet coverCurrently in process at the Archives and Rare Books Library are the papers of Robert E. Cazden, Professor Emeritus of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky.  Cazden was a scholar of printing, publishing, and the German-American book trade, and his papers focus largely on the research he conducted for his books including  German Exile Literature in America 1933-1950: A History of the Free German Press and Book Trade (1970) and Social History of the German Book Trade in America to the Civil War (1984). Continue reading →