{"id":18028,"date":"2012-10-05T09:32:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T13:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=18028"},"modified":"2012-10-05T12:43:24","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T16:43:24","slug":"cincinnati-subway-and-street-images-digitization-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2012\/10\/cincinnati-subway-and-street-images-digitization-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Subway and Street Images Digitization Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: \u00a0Kevin Grace<\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s image from the project is certainly an intriguing one: when the Rapid Transit Commission in Cincinnati went ahead with their intent to turn the Miami-Erie Canal route into a subway system, they hired a photographer to document every step of the project.\u00a0 His images detailing the particular day, time, and street location of the subway construction in the 1920s form the bulk of our digitization endeavor.\u00a0 He captured extraordinary exterior views of the canal bed being widened and deepened as tunnels were built, showing the streets and buildings along the route that is now Central Parkway in Cincinnati.\u00a0 However, the construction also led to these buildings being damaged \u2013 cracks in ceilings, walls, and foundations in private homes and businesses, for which the owners were submitting claims for repairs and restitution.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In order to document these claims, the photographer entered the homes and took pictures, complete with arrows pointing to the damage.\u00a0 His images show the furnishings and lifestyle of the residents along McMicken Avenue and other streets.\u00a0 We say \u201che\u201d and \u201chis\u201d because that is about all we know about \u201chim.\u201d\u00a0 Many years ago, when Alice Cornell served as head of the Archives & Rare Books Library, she tried to discover who this man was, eventually to no avail.\u00a0 But, we do know he was a man.\u00a0 In one of his interior shots, he had set up his camera to photograph the damage.\u00a0 And in so doing, he captured himself in a hallway mirror.\u00a0 This shadowy image of our elusive documentary photographer is the only clue we have of his identity.<\/p>\n

Perhaps his work was viewed as a necessary, but mundane task by the city officials who hired him, but to us who have the pleasure of seeing his photographs almost a century later, he is an artist who revealed a key period in Cincinnati urban history.\u00a0 Our very enjoyable task is to make sure these images are preserved and available for another century or two.<\/p>\n

\"Cincinnati<\/a>This project is funded by a grant for $60,669 through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Ohio.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: \u00a0Kevin Grace Today\u2019s image from the project is certainly an intriguing one: when the Rapid Transit Commission in Cincinnati went ahead with their intent to turn the Miami-Erie Canal route into a subway system, they hired a photographer to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,68,13],"tags":[53,7,323,58],"class_list":["post-18028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-digital-collections","category-uclibraries","tag-cincinnati-history","tag-digitalprojects","tag-subway-project","tag-urban-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}