Tag Archives: Featured Resource

Action Housing for Greater Cincinnati Records Fully Processed and Available for Research

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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.

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Cazden German-Americana Collection Now Catalogued and Onsite

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cazden_bookplateIn 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 →

Frankenstein!

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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 →

Bearcat Bands in the University Archives

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Image from the 1958 Band Camp welcome flyer

Image from the 1958 Band Camp welcome flyer

The Archives and Rare Books Library recently processed a new collection of records documenting activities of the University of Cincinnati Bearcat Bands from 1954 to 1996. The records are part of the University Archives through the UC Band Alumni Association. Operating as a department within the Division of Student Life, UC Bearcat Bands provides students of all majors with opportunities for performing musically while obtaining fine arts credit. The UC Band Alumni Association provides alumni opportunities to stay connected with UC Bearcat Bands and other alumni after graduation. Alumni members can also participate in the Community/Alumni Band. Continue reading →

First German Baptist Church Records Finding Aid Now Available

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The Constitution of the Synzygus Verein of the First German Baptist Church, which appears to have been adopted prior to 1915.

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 →

ARB Celebrates Ohio Archives Month

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Since 1993 the Society of Ohio Archivists has been promoting awareness of the state’s archives and archival material through a week-long, later to become a month-long, celebration of Ohio’s historic and cultural resources. Archives throughout Ohio are invited to contribute to the promotion of Archives Month by mounting theme-related exhibits, displaying posters, and publicizing the month’s events through local government and organizations. This year’s theme is “Documenting the Path to Freedom: Abolition and Anti-Slavery in Ohio.” Continue reading →

UC Libraries Awarded a LSTA Grant to Digitize Cincinnati Birth and Death Records

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One of the many filing cabinets filled with 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

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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.

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Major Urban Reference Collection Now Available in the Archives & Rare Books Library

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In 2004, after 90 years, the City of Cincinnati’s Municipal Reference Library was about to come to an ignominious end, consigned to the dumpster. With the active involvement of city planner Skip Forwood and UC history professor Judith Spraul-Schmidt, the bulk of this valuable collection of urban resource materials was rescued and given a home in the Archives & Rare Books Library’s Urban Studies Collection. Now, it is catalogued and available once more for research.

Photo: “The Flying Squad, Co. No. 4” from the 1913 Annual Report of the Cincinnati Fire Department, one of the many resources of the Muncipal Reference Library

The Municipal Reference Library was created in 1913 under the Municipal Code of Cincinnati, which detailed the purpose of the library, and the Administrative Code, which stated that it would be maintained by the city’s planning department. Consisting primarily of city records, periodicals, reports, ordinances, news clippings, and studies, the MRL historically had been open to the public, but primarily used by city employees. Continue reading →