Finding Aid for the Esther Zocher Freese Collection Now Available

Esther V. Zocher

Esther V. Zocher (later Freese) was a 1922 graduate of the Bethesda Hospital School for Nurses in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Esther Zocher Freese archival collection, which provides insight into nursing education during the 1920′s in Cincinnati, is now available for research at the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions.

According to an annual catalog found in the collection, the Bethesda Hospital Training School for Nurses was organized in 1914 and required students to study for 3 years.[1] Esther V. Zocher (later Freese) graduated from the school in 1922. A great group of photographs that document nurses and nursing during Freese’s time at the school are found in this small collection. Continue reading

David Blackburn: A Performer and Teacher is Remembered at UC

By:  Suzanne Maggard

Blackburn in Serenade

Blackburn in Serenade with Alyce Taylor (standing), and Colleen Giesting

On June 15, 2013, David Blackburn passed away and the Cincinnati dance community lost a beloved teacher and friend.  Blackburn served as a professor of dance at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music for over 30 years and played a vital role in the history of the Cincinnati Ballet as a dancer and then as Assistant Artistic Director.

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Oesper Collections Attract International Scholars

(Contributed by Dr. William Jensen, Curator of the Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry)

As the global reputation of the Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry continues to grow, these special collections are attracting the attention of more and more international scholars.

Starting in January 2013, Professor José Chamizo of the University of Mexico spent three months of his sabbatical  working in the collections and  returned once more in  June for another two weeks. While at Cincinnati his research focused on the role of instrumentation in initiating chemical revolutions and on the life and work of the 19th-century Mexican chemist, José Ortigiosa.

Detailed image from the Splendor Solis manuscript

Detailed image from the Splendor Solis manuscript

Detailed image from the Splendor Solis manuscript

Detailed image from the Splendor Solis manuscript

In late June, the Oesper collections were also visited by Dr. Eberhard Slenczka, former Director of Libraries for the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremburg, who came to examine our facsimile of the 16th century alchemical manuscript known as the Splendor Solis in order to make comparisons with the copies found in Nuremburg, Paris, London and Spain.

Please direct questions regarding access and use of the Oesper collections to  Professor William B. Jensen or Ted Baldwin, Director of Science and Engineering Libraries.

Cincinnati Street Names-A Who's Who of Cincinnati History = Adventures in the Subway and Street Improvements Digitization Project

By:  Angela Vanderbilt

The subway and street improvements photograph collection is truly a wealth of historic information about the city of Cincinnati in the first half of the 20th century. As with most cities, many of the streets and avenues are named for the founders and prominent families who helped establish the city, as well as important statesmen such as presidents, governors and military heroes. Cincinnati has her fair share of these, with the city directories reading like a “Who’s Who” of Cincinnati’s political, cultural and economic development, with street names such as Ludlow, Symmes, and Patterson, St. Clair, Gamble and Ault, Anderson, Findlay and Wade, among others.

Gamble Street

Gamble Street, named for industrialist James Gamble, of Proctor & Gamble.

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Research Series

researchseries

The Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library invites you to join them for a new Research Series the week of July 29th – August 2nd.  Sessions will be held from 12:00pm – 1:00pm in the classroom on the G-level of the Health Sciences Library.

Topics include:

  • Show Me the Money
  • NCBI Tools: An Introduction to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Databases
  • Discovering Datasets
  • Research Data Management 101
  • Unique Author Identifiers: Manage Your Research Identify

Feel free to bring your lunch to these interactive learning sessions. The sessions are open to all. Seats are limited. View the complete Research Series schedule and register online at: http://webcentral.uc.edu/hslclass/

 

 

Welcome Newest Bearcats

signThis summer, Langsam Library was a busy place as over 4,000 incoming students participating in UC New Student Orientation visited and learned about all that UC Libraries has to offer. While here, they engaged in activities designed to be entertaining while at the same time informative about the various research resources, assistance, and library services they can take advantage of when they return in the fall.

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President Williams Speeches Are Now Available in the University Archives

By Tyler Morrison, ARB Student Worker

Greg WilliamsGregory H. Williams became the University of Cincinnati’s 27th president when he took office in September 2009.  Among more than 100 applicants for the position, he was selected in part because of his outstanding work in transforming the City College of New York, where he served as president before joining the UC.  Williams received national acclaim for his book, Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black (New York, NY: Dutton, 1995).   Over a decade later, he still received feedback from his readers while serving as the president here at UC. The memoir was his way of telling the world about struggling with poverty and acceptance during his youth and dealing with his biracial identity in Muncie, Indiana at a time when segregation was still highly overt in the United States.   The book also brought to life other family issues such as alcoholism and abandonment.  Throughout his account, he told the story of a normal childhood that spiraled into one of torment, welfare, and segregation, and then how he made the best of it.  Williams became the star quarterback of his high school’s football team, excelled in college to earn four degrees, and worked his way up in higher education system until he became president of College City of New York from 2001-2009 and then president of the University of Cincinnati from 2009 to 2012. Continue reading

How Much Did You Pay For That Education?!?!

By Tyler Morrison, ARB Student Worker

Oh, the things you can find when you go to an auction.  Even the typical items that you find for sale, such as books, sometimes contain a surprise for the unsuspecting buyer.  That’s exactly what happened to Linda Sheets of Jonesboro, Indiana when she bought a box lot of books and discovered a University of Cincinnati tuition receipt dated October 1, 1917.  The strip of paper has yellowed with age, and fortunately Ms. Sheets realized it might have historical value for UC, and was kind enough to share her discovery with the Archives and Rare Books Library.

Jordon Alcott, the student from the 1917-1918 academic year, probably thought that $63.50 in tuition for one semester here at the university was expensive.  That total comes from a $5 library fee, $50 for tuition to the College of Liberal Arts, a $ 1 registration fee, $2.50 fine to use the gymnasium, and a $5 contingency fee.

Receipt for Tuition

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Home Interiors of the 1920s = Adventures in the Subway and Street Improvements Digitization Project

By:  Angela Vanderbilt

Contained within the subway portion of the photograph collection are images of the interiors of homes along McMicken Avenue taken during the construction of the subway. Originally intended to serve as evidence for claims by homeowners of structural damage to the houses caused by blasting for the subway tunnels, the pictures now serve as a historic reference of domestic life during the 1920s.

Interiors of Homes with damaged walls

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Ezzard Charles Drive, the Making of a Parkway

By Angela Vanderbilt

Road construction. It seems like it’s never ending. Some have joked that Ohio has only two seasons – winter and road construction. And the images in the Street Improvement collection would certainly seem to validate that. What is interesting about the images in the collection of street improvements is that many of the streets recorded in the photographs no longer exist. Or, where they do still exist, they are named differently or the surroundings have been altered to the point that the location in the photograph is no longer recognizable.

One major example of a street changing in both name and appearance is Laurel Street – or as we know it today, Ezzard Charles Drive. Originally a narrow street lined with brick row houses and businesses, Laurel Street extended from 1247 Plum Street west to Freeman Avenue, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Hall towering over the eastern end of the street, as if keeping watch over all who passed. In the winter of 1921, subway construction made its way north along the canal bed to the Laurel Street intersection, where a tunnel ventilator was constructed.

Music Hall and Ventilator Construction

(Left) Construction of subway ventilator opposite Laurel Street, January 12, 1921, 2:02 p.m.
(Right) Laurel Street, west of Canal, with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Hall in center background, April 21, 1920, 3:47 p.m.

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