Probate Judge James Cissell announced on December 29, 2009 that probate records dating back to 1791 have been digitized and are now available for public use on the Probate Court website. The five-year project to digitize the records was intended to both preserve the original, sometimes fragile, records and provide increased public access to them. Included in the digitized records are indexes and docket books for estates, wills, trusts, marriages, guardianships, births, deaths, and physician certificates as well as minister’s license indexes and probate entries. A list of all available records and the search pages are available at http://www.probatect.org/courtrecordsarchive/bukcats.aspx. Access to these records is important to historians and genealogists who are looking to document the life changing events of family and historic figures. Continue reading
Category Archives: ARB Library
ARB and the Irish
The Archives & Rare Books Library has received additional volumes restored through UC Libraries’ Preservation Services and national book conservators. The most recent volumes that have returned represent the Irish history holdings. ARB has an excellent collection of Irish history, literature, and drama that garners frequent use from students and researchers in a variety of fields, particularly English, history, European studies, and ethnology. Continue reading
Ever Wonder Where UC's President Lives?
When the University of Cincinnati was created in 1870, it was as a municipal university, and, it was always considered to be a “university of the city.” This philosophy – that the university would draw from the city’s rich, vibrant resources of culture and business, and in turn render service to the city through its students and educational programs – meant that the university’s leaders would be “of the city” as well. Continue reading
Foxe's Martyrs Saved From the Stake
The three volume 1641 edition
In the continuing project to restore key volumes in the Archives & Rare Books Library, UC Libraries’ Preservation Services has completed work on John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments of Matters Most Special and Memorable, Happening in the Church – more popularly known as “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.” This fundamental work of Christian hagiography, first published in Latin in 1559 at Basel, had its first English printing in 1563. There were many subsequent editions over the next three hundred years. The Archives & Rare Books Library holds both a 1596 edition, and this restored one, the three-volume 1641 printing. Both these editions are widely used by students and faculty in history, art history, English, and religious studies. Continue reading
Action Housing for Greater Cincinnati Records Fully Processed and Available for Research
A building on the corner of 13th and Race Streets, which was rehabbed.
The late 1960s saw a myriad of social reforms as part of the War on Poverty. Cincinnati was not immune to this movement, and among the many efforts to improve the plight of the poor in the city, was an attempt to increase the availability of safe and adequate housing for low-income individuals.
For this purpose, Action Housing for Greater Cincinnati was formed in September of 1968 by the Cincinnati City Council and local business interests. Although the organization only lasted until the early 1970s, Action Housing was responsible for building or rehabilitating approximately 1,700 living units for low income families in Cincinnati.
Cincinnati Birth and Death Record Availability
One of the many filing cabinets filled with birth and death records.
Digitization has begun on the City of Cincinnati’s birth and death records prior to 1909. For the next several months, portions of the records will be unavailable for research while they are being digitized. If you wish to view any of the birth and death records, please contact the Archives and Rare Books Library by phone at 513-556-1959 or by email at archives@ucmail.uc.edu to ensure that the records are available. Also, please be aware that replies to research requests may be delayed while certain records are inaccessible. Further information on these records and guidelines for submitting a research request can be found on the Archives and Rare Books Library website. Full web access to the digitized records should be available by Summer 2010.
Reference Service Disruption in Archives and Rare Books Library, 12/1/09 through 12/11/09
Due to renovations in Blegen Library, reference service in the Archives and Rare Books Library may be disrupted from Tuesday December 1 through Friday December 11. Please call 513-556-1959 or email archives@ucmail.uc.edu prior to your visit to make an appointment.
Cazden German-Americana Collection Now Catalogued and Onsite
In 2002, the University of Cincinnati Libraries was bequeathed an outstanding collection of books from the personal library of Robert E. Cazden, professor emeritus of library science at the University of Kentucky and a noted scholar on German-American history and literature. The portion of these materials that pertain to German-American studies – more than 1400 volumes – has now been fully catalogued and added to the German-Americana Collection in the Archives & Rare Books Library at the University of Cincinnati. This acquisition maintains the position of the German-Americana Collection as one of the premier libraries on this subject in the world. Continue reading
UC Libraries Make Cooperative Engineer Available Online
The University of Cincinnati Libraries have digitized Cooperative Engineer, a quarterly publication produced by students and alumni of UC’s College of Engineering from 1921 to 1975.
Accessible via http://digitalprojects.libraries.uc.edu/cooperative_engineer/, each scanned issue of Cooperative Engineer can be viewed in its entirety. The issues are also searchable by keyword and by phrase. In addition, viewers of the collection can browse by issue cover.
Frankenstein!
Artwork by Barry Moser from the Pennyroyal Edition of Frankstein
What better time of year to celebrate one of the greatest horror stories in world literature than now? Since its publication in 1818, the tale of the man-made monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus has captivated readers and caused no small stir of debate on the creation of life and the egotism of mankind. In fact, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster has been re-created time and again in film and literature, sometimes as an awful and terrible creature and occasionally as a poor wretch who desperately tries to break free of man’s cruelty. The Archives and Rare Book Library hold some electrifying editions of Mary Shelley’s famous work. Continue reading