For thirteen months between February 1885 and February 1886, a tabloid publication in Cincinnati published a wide range of articles, cartoons, editorials, and stories that lampooned American life. No topic or person escaped the sharp wit of Sam the Scaramouch, and for the short time this weekly newspaper was in existence, its editors took on national tariffs, elections from Cincinnati to Washington, the temperance issue, urban sophisticates and country bumpkins, race and ethnicity, and, a growing national obsession with sports. Grover Cleveland was president. European colonization of Africa was in full force. The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York, and Ulysses S. Grant died. And, in many ways, Sam was like other newspapers around the country in covering these events, carrying local advertisements and notices, and publishing occasional doggerel and short fiction, and reflecting the “new” journalistic Realism. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Cincinnati History
Hamilton County Morgue Records Offer Unique Perspective on Social History
As part of the Ohio Network of American History Research Centers, the Archives and Rare Books Library holds Hamilton County Morgue records spanning the years 1887-1930. Despite the rather gloomy first impression that these 21 volumes may give, they offer valuable information for use in social research.
The office of Coroner is one of the oldest in the State of Ohio, dating back to a 1788 ordinance of the Northwest Territory, which provided that the Governor appoint a coroner for each county to serve a term of two years. The purpose of the Coroner in the early days was to preside over inquests held over bodies believed to have been victims of criminal violence. Continue reading
The Eugene Ruehlmann Papers Show the Dramatic Changes in Cincinnati in the 1960s
The 1960s were a tumultuous time in American history, and the city of Cincinnati was not immune to the changes during this decade. Riots displayed the city’s difficult race relations, the Bengals brought professional football to the city, Riverfront Stadium was built and changed the layout of the riverfront, and the city of Cincinnati grappled with urban renewal. Each of these events is documented in the papers of Eugene Ruehlmann, which are housed in the Archives and Rare Books Library’s Urban Studies Collection. Continue reading
St. John's Unitarian Church Records: Searching the History of one of Cincinnati's Oldest Churches
The Confirmation class of 1903 with Rev. H.G. Eisenlohr
The Archives and Rare Books Library holds the records of a few local churches, including St. John’s Unitarian Church, one of Cincinnati’s oldest houses of worship. This church’s rich history began in 1814 when Joseph Zaeslin (also spelled Zaeslein), a Moravian minister, organized a church for German immigrants in Cincinnati under the name The German Evangelical and Reformed Church. The history of this church is important to both Cincinnati’s religious history and to the history of Cincinnati’s German-American community. Continue reading
Hamilton County Probate Court Makes Over 1.1 Million Historic Records Available Online
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
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.
First German Baptist Church Records Finding Aid Now Available
The Constitution of the Synzygus Verein of the First German Baptist Church, which appears to have been adopted prior to 1915.
The records of the First German Baptist Church or Deutsche Baptisten-Kirche of Cincinnati have been fully processed and a finding aid is now available on the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository. The collection holds various records for the church between 1880 and 1991 including church meeting minutes, financial records, and Sunday school attendance sheets. The material in the collection prior to the 1930s is primarily in German.
The records of the First German Baptist Church illustrate a small, but significant religious movement among Cincinnati Germans in the late nineteenth century. The First German Baptist Church was founded in Cincinnati in 1857, with the assistance of the Ninth Street Baptist Church, whose congregation saw the need for a Baptist missionary movement among German immigrants. Continue reading
UC Libraries Awarded a LSTA Grant to Digitize Cincinnati Birth and Death Records
One of the many filing cabinets filled with birth and death records.
Genealogists, social historians, epidemiologists, and public health historians will soon have a new extensive, online resource to assist them in learning about birth and deaths in the City of Cincinnati. The University of Cincinnati Libraries have been awarded a $140,437 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the State Library of Ohio to digitize 340,000 birth and death records of the City of Cincinnati prior 1908. The records will be available on OhioLINK’s Digital Resource Commons beginning in August of 2010. Continue reading
A Glimpse at a German-American Family: The Helmecke Family Collections at the Archives and Rare Books Library
Carl Helmecke with his wife Mildred and daughter Roberta in Philadelphia in 1919.
The German-Americana Collection at the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Books Library holds a wealth of materials on German immigration to the United States and the experiences of these immigrants once they were here. Two collections that document the experiences of one of these families are of the Helmecke family. These collections span from the father’s immigration to Cincinnati in 1902 to the beginning of his son’s academic career in Colorado in the 1930s.
In 1902, Stephen Helmecke of Braunschweig, Germany came to the United States to work for the Globe Wernicke Company, a library furniture company located in Cincinnati. Stephen’s wife, Marie (Engel), and his two children, Carl Albert and Marie Gertrud, followed him to the United States in 1903. The family lived in Cincinnati for five years before moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan where both Carl and Gertrud attended the University of Michigan. Carl eventually received his Ph.D in German and taught at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado. Gertrud became an osteopathic physician, and was the first woman elected president of the Ohio Osteopathic Association.