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Lucy Oxley MD: ‘A pioneer and servant leader’
By Richard Puff, Assistant Vice President Public Relations & Communications, Academic Health Center Sixty-nine medical students marched across the Music Hall stage on Friday evening, June 5, 1936, during part of the University of Cincinnati’s 58th commencement exercises. Alfred Friedlander, MD, dean of the UC College of Medicine, handed each student a diploma recognizing their Doctor of Medicine degree. Each had performed the required four years of coursework and then completed a hospital internship during the 1935-36 academic year. Each was a white male. Except for one. Lucy Orintha Oxley was the lone woman in the graduating class. She also was the only African-American clutching a fresh diploma, the first person…
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A Note from the Dean: Celebrating the Bicentennial
The University of Cincinnati has kicked off its bicentennial year and all of us at UC Libraries are excited to celebrate along with the rest of the university community. During my participation at the first Bicentennial kickoff event, which was held in front of the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library and attracted a huge crowd, I felt tremendous Bearcat pride reflecting on the great journey our university has traveled. I was also proud hearing President Pinto mention the distinguished Bicentennial books published by the University of Cincinnati Press, a new division of UC Libraries. In the last issue of Source, I talked about a recent important milestone for the…
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UC in Print: Books Documenting 200 Years of the University of Cincinnati
In 2019, the University of Cincinnati celebrates its bicentennial anniversary with a year of events and programs. UC Libraries is marking the occasion with an exhibit “UC in Print: Books Documenting 200 Years of the University of Cincinnati.” Available for viewing on the fourth floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library, the exhibit includes books from throughout the libraries and covers the history, notables, sports and culture of the university. Songs of the university, the architecture, football and basketball, even a children’s book starring the UC Bearcat can be found in the exhibit alongside writings from former UC presidents Raymond Walters, Walter Langsam and Joseph Steger. Histories and commemorations…
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A Note from the Dean: Reflecting on UC’s History and Staff Impact
This fall, the University of Cincinnati will kick off its Bicentennial during the annual Homecoming, paving the way for a year’s worth of events and celebrations in 2019. The University of Cincinnati Press will play a key role in the festivities as publisher of a suite of books related to the Bicentennial that explore the history of UC and its role in the city of Cincinnati. With 200 years of history to meditate on, a hopeful present and the promise of an even brighter future, this is an exciting time at the University of Cincinnati. Like the university, UC Libraries has a long history as we celebrated our 125th anniversary…
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The University of Cincinnati Libraries Have Joined HathiTrust
The University of Cincinnati Libraries have joined HathiTrust, a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future by collaboratively collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating and sharing the record of human knowledge. UC Libraries joins more than 130 international research libraries in HathiTrust, and is the third Ohio library to join along with The Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University. “Membership in HathiTrust will enable the University of Cincinnati Libraries to partner with national and international collaborators with similar missions to preserve, protect and make accessible the scholarly record,” said Xuemao Wang, dean and university librarian.…
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Managing University Archives in a Digital World
By Eira Tansey, Digital Archivist/Records Manager, Archives and Rare Books Library “What College-Conservatory of Music musicals were staged in 1986?” “When did the university begin offering a dental insurance plan?” “What dorms have served as polling places?” These are just a handful of the university-history related questions I’ve encountered since starting work at the Archives and Rare Books (ARB) Library nearly five years ago. The questions we receive concern events at all times in campus history – from the earliest days of UC’s predecessor colleges to events that took place just a couple years ago. ARB is the official home for University Archives, making us the obvious place to go…
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Streamlined Searching and Management of Archival Collections Implemented at UC Libraries
By Suzanne Reller, Reference/Collections Librarian in the Archives and Rare Books Library. What do the polio vaccine, animated film music, folklore, the Heimlich maneuver and labor unions have in common? They are all subjects of archival collections in the Archives and Rare Books Library and at the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions. Archival collections are papers or records of a person, family or organization and includes things like correspondence, photographs, meeting minutes and reports. Archives can be digital or hard copy, and they can encompass just few folders to hundreds of boxes or a few megabytes to terabytes of data. Since these collections are…
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Preserving Taft
The mission of the Preservation Lab is to preserve and conserve the collections of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and the University of Cincinnati Libraries – a collaboration begun in January 2012 to provide conservation and preservation treatments in an equally managed, staffed and equipped preservation lab on the University of Cincinnati’s campus. A recent collaboration with the Archives and Rare Books Library on a collection of letters and artifacts pertaining to William Howard Taft demonstrates the valuable role the Lab takes in both preserving a collection for posterity while also making it available for study today. The work of the Preservation Lab varies depending on the…
