October is German-American Heritage Month, and there could not be a better time to explore ARB’s German-Americana collection. The German-Americana Collection is one of the nation’s largest collections pertaining to German-American history, literature and culture, and is located in the Archives and Rare Books Library in Blegen Library. In 1935, the University of Cincinnati acquired the seed collection for what is today’s German-Americana collection with the library of H.H. Fick. Fick, a German immigrant and a former teacher with the Cincinnati Public Schools, spent his final years collecting books and pamphlets on German-American history and culture. The donation also contained Fick’s own writings and autobiography. Continue reading
Category Archives: ARB Library
UC Libraries Present Talk from Renowned Book Conservator William Minter
Join UC Libraries at a talk by renowned book conservator William Minter who will display and discuss the conservation treatment he did to the historic Martyrs Mirror. Scheduled for Friday, October 28th from 1:30-3:00pm in 814 Blegen, the talk is free and open to the public. A Q&A will follow and refreshments will be served.
Ohio Archives Month: Buckeyes in the Civil War
By Kevin Grace
Every year, October is designated as Ohio Archives Month, and for 2011 the theme is “Buckeyes in the Civil War.” The Archives & Rare Books Library joined several other Ohio repositories in contributing an image to this year’s poster. Our image is of Cincinnatian John R. Hunt, who served as an Adjutant in the war. His brother, Samuel T. Hunt, was a Cincinnati jurist who helped form the University of Cincinnati in 1870 and served as one of the early board members.
For more information on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in Ohio and across the nation, please go to ARB’s website and its special Civil War commemorative page: http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/exhibits/civil-war/index.html. On that page, we have linked to our full-text digitized issue of the 1863 Colored Citizen, one of the few issues in existence, as well as links to Civil War books, images, and letters. For further information on the Archives & Rare Books Library and its holdings, please call 513.556.1959, email archives@ucmail.uc.edu, or visit the website at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/index.html.
T. M. Berry Project: Fred Shuttlesworth
By Laura Laugle
For many people familiar with the American Civil Rights Movement, the recent death of Fred Shuttlesworth marks the end of an era. Shuttlesworth was the last surviving member of “The Big Three” a descriptor for the three founding members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.
Though Shuttlesworth is predominately known for his work in Birmingham, Alabama, he actually lived much of his life right here in Cincinnati. He moved here in 1961 to take a position as pastor at Revelation Baptist Church and met the Berry family when he moved into their former home on North Crescent Ave. Although he continued his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement mostly through his work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Alabama, he did have a few special projects going in the which city he called home until his retirement in 2007 which would have been important to Ted Berry, particularly later in their careers. Continue reading
"Banned Books" in the Archives and Rare Books Library
By Janice Schulz
In observance of Banned Books Week, celebrated this year from September 24 through October 1, 2011, the Archives & Rare Books Library has compiled a list of Rare Book titles that have appeared on the American Library Association’s (ALA) most challenged books lists. Each book on our list is presented with an image, challenge incidents, and reasons for challenges.
T. M. Berry Project: The New Horizon
By Laura Laugle
Now that the physical processing of the Berry collection is complete and I’ve begun arranging materials, I’ve come across some items which, when I processed them months and months ago, I was too ignorant of their context to fully appreciate. Chief among those items are three copies of The New Horizon. I had no idea when I pulled out the rusty staples, pried off the bits of rapidly disintegrating paperclips and filed them temporarily (read: labeled with a removable sticky note) as “Misc. Copies of New Horizon” how incredibly important these school papers really are. Continue reading
College of Music Historical Collection in ARB
By Lauren Fink
In the Archives and Rare Books Library, we recently processed a collection containing historical records of the College of Music of Cincinnati. This collection spans 1878-1967 and contains commencement bulletins, programs, student rosters, and minutes of executive, financial, and stockholder’s committee meetings. Illustrating the historical and biographical nature of this collection, the 1926 commencement bulletin entitled “College Comments,” contains articles on the College’s faculty, graduating students, clubs, and ensembles. Further, meeting minutes provide details of all of the College’s major educational and financial concerns and 
decisions, such as how to create more space for radio labs or the necessity of hiring certain faculty for certain departments. The minutes also contain outlines of correspondence between the College and the Conservatory of Music on having a connection with each other. To view the contents of this new collection, see the finding aid online (http://rave.ohiolink.edu/archives/ead/OhCiUAR0287). Continue reading
Records Management Workshops Scheduled
By Janice Schulz
The next Introduction to Records Management workshops will be held October 11 and October 13.
During this workshop we will discuss the benefits you will receive from efficiently managing your records, UC’s records program, your role as a keeper of public records, the definition of a “record,” how to perform records inventories, the development of records retention schedules and proper means of records disposal.
Both sessions will be held in Blegen Library’s Marge Schott Seminar Room from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The workshops are free, but registration is required. You only need to register for one session; the same information will be presented at both.
Register here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XQRF9CR. When you see SurveyMonkey’s “Thank you for taking this survey” page your registration has been sent.
Who should attend?
These workshops are for new records officers who have not been introduced to records management at UC and existing records officers who need a refresher as well as anyone responsible for managing University records.
Would you like these workshops presented in your office? Please contact Janice Schulz to schedule a custom workshop geared to the needs of your staff.
Taft the Party Animal
By Kevin Grace
Is there a Taft fashion cult lurking about campus? This morning saw the William Howard Taft statue outside the College of Law decked out like he was going to a Jimmy Buffet concert. Replete with hula skirt, tee shirt, shades, and beanie, Big Bill definitely looked like he was ready for an end-of-summer blowout.
The Taft statue was erected on the east side of the law school in 1992. Sculpted by William T. Moore III, the statue shows Taft in his judicial robes and clasping a law book in his hand. A graduate of Woodward High School, Yale, and the Cincinnati Law School, William Howard Taft served as dean of his law alma mater from 1896 to 1900. The Cincinnati Law School was the last remnant of the original Cincinnati College founded in 1819. As dean, Taft assisted with the 1897 merger of his school with the Law Department of the University of Cincinnati and served as dean of the combined programs, called the College of Law. Continue reading
T. M. Berry Project: Progress Report
By Laura Laugle
A total of 223 boxes of the Theodore M. Berry Manuscript Collection have now been processed, leaving just six remaining. In the final collection there will be approximately 180 linear feet with around 475,000 total documents and about 1,000 photographs dating from the 1910s though 2000. The inventory in progress includes a detailed list of the titles and contents of folders, along with series and sub-series for the boxes in which each of the folders is stored. This list will be used for a final Encoded Archival Description finding aid that will be available on OhioLINK and the Internet for researchers using the collection. The completion date for the project is set for February 2012. Continue reading