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Archival records, manuscript collections, and rare books featured in this exhibition

Topics: Business & Industry <> Disability History <> Government & Law <> UT History <> Multicultural Collections <> History of Medicine <> Gender & Sexuality <> Creative Expression <> Sports & Recreation

Business and Industry Collections

Libbey-Owens-Ford Company Records, MSS-066

• Minute Book, Toledo Glass Company, 1895

The first minute book of the company created by Edward Drummond Libbey and Michael Owens to exploit the technological innovations of Owens, particularly the automated process for producing bottles.  The October 16, 1903, minutes document the transfer of all patents and licenses involving the bottle machine to the new Owens Bottle Machine Company.

• Photographs, Colburn Experimental Glass Machine, 1876-1908

Irving Colburn began to experiment with a new way of creating flat glass in 1876 that pulled molten glass between a series of rollers to make glass of consistent size and even thickness.  Colburn was unable to perfect the process in a way that was commercially viable, and in 1912 the patents for the process were purchased at a bankruptcy auction at Michael Owens’s request by the Toledo Glass Company.  The process was finally improved by Owens and Toledo Glass engineers, and it was used to create a new company, the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company, in 1916.

• Record Book, Edward Ford Plate Glass Company, 1899-1909

               The founding documents for the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company founded in Rossford, Ohio, in 1899 by Edward Ford.  In 1929, the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company merged with the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company to create Libbey-Owens-Ford.

Owens-Illinois Glass Company Records, MSS-200

• Articles of Incorporation and Certificate of Subscription, Owens Bottle Machine Company, 1907

               The articles of incorporation for the company founded by Edward Drummond Libbey and Michael Owens to produce the bottle machine invented by Owens.  Also included is the notification of the public sale of stock in the company.  Both documents bear the signature of Libbey and Owens, as well as other early company officers.

Owens Corning Records, MSS-222

• Owens-Corning Fiberglas Souvenirs from the New York World’s Fair, 1939

               Owens-Corning Fiberglas was founded in 1938 to exploit the commercial development of products made with glass fibers.  The method to produce glass fibers was discovered by accident by Owens-Illinois company engineers during the years when prohibition greatly depressed the market for bottles and the company was trying to find a way to utilize excess production capacity.  The wonders of cloth woven out of glass were showcased at the 1939 New York World’s Fair Glass Center exhibit that included demonstrations of the process of producing the fibers.  This was the first promotion of the product on an international level.

Toledo Scale Collection, MSS-153

• Photographs of Early Trade Shows, 1905

               The Toledo Scale Company had its beginnings in 1900 when Henry Theobald purchased the DeVilbiss Computing Scale Company.  Allen DeVilbiss, Jr. had invented a scale that used gravity instead of tension springs, resulting in more accurate weight readings.  The Toledo Scale Company was founded in 1901, and its scales, bearing the slogan “No Springs, Honest Weight,” became famous throughout the world. 

• Printed materials, n.d.

The Toledo Scale Company later merged with Mettler Instrumente AG and the name changed to Mettler Toledo, Inc. before changing again to become Mettler Toledo International, Inc. Toledo Scale’s diverse product line and global reach can be seen in these advertisements and parts catalog.

• Georges LaChance Paintings of Toledo Scale Workers, 1928-1929

Hubert D. Bennett commissioned a series of 14 paintings depicting Toledo Scale workers involved in various aspects of production.  The paintings were intended to honor “… the craftsmanship of its builders, who with skilled hands and years of experience mould these features into the finest and most desirable weighing equipment….”

Dana Corporation Records, MSS-242

• Patent Illustration for Casing for Universal Joints, 1903

Clarence W. Spicer patented this unique design in 1903, demonstrating his innovation through a bowl-shaped housing around the joint of early automobile gears that retained lubricant and shielded against dirt and dust from unpaved roads.  Spicer’s invention helped to fuel the rapid growth of the infant automobile industry.

• Photograph, Spicer Employees at Toledo Bennett Road Location, 1936

In 1929, the Spicer Manufacturing Company moved from South Plainfield, New Jersey, to Toledo to be closer to Detroit, the center of car production.  This photograph that appeared in one of the Spicer publications, the Drive Line, shows employees whose ideas were implemented by the company.

• Advertisements, 1966, 1968

Many automobile manufacturers adopted Spicer parts, and the company grew substantially over the decades to include many subsidiaries and affiliates, primarily thanks to Charles A. Dana, in whose honor the company changed its name in 1946.

• Three-speed Bicycle Transmission, 1973

In 1973, Dana released a bicycle transmission that converted single speed coaster brake bikes into three-speed models, under their subsidiary, Dana Cycle Systems. The transmission claimed to take a one-speed bike up to 3 speeds, a 3 speed up to 9 speeds, and a 5 speed up to 15 speeds. The Dana three-speed transmission was offered as an add-on at Schwinn retailers.  Unfortunately for the company, the invention never took off, and it was quickly shelved.

Rathbun-Jones Engineering Company Records, MSS-268

• Photographs of Workers and a Jones Engine, ca. 1909

               The Rathbun-Jones Engineering Company was founded by Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones as the Acme Sucker Rod Company in 1892. In addition to producing the sucker rods used to extract oil, the company also produced the Acme gas engine, which was powered by natural gas.   Shown here are some of the workers at the company, who were accorded employment benefits and wages beyond what was typical of the time due to Jones’s belief in the dignity of labor.  Also shown is an early engine of the company.

• Product Catalog, n.d.

The engine side of the company was eventually spun off as the Rathbun-Jones Engineering Company, which later partnered with the Ingersoll-Rand Company to help sell its products. Shown here is an example of an Ingersoll-Rand catalog selling “Rathbun-type” engines.

The Andersons Inc. Records, MSS-194

• Andersons Family Photograph, 1950

The Andersons Inc. of Maumee, Ohio, that was established in 1947 by Harold and Margaret Anderson and their six children began as a truck terminal and grain elevator. In the decades since, it has grown to be the largest industrial partnership in the United States with a diverse portfolio of products and services including railway and truck shipping, corn milling, grain export, and fertilizer production. This early photograph shows all of the members of the Anderson family at the truck terminal on Illinois Avenue.

•  “Sightseeing at the Andersons: A Family Partnership”

Because The Andersons was founded as a family partnership, the history of the family and the company are closely tied. This 1958 publication describes the company through the lens of the principles of its family partnership. In the introduction, Harold Anderson writes, “First meet the active partners, a family of whom I am naturally proud. I think you will agree after seeing what has been done that it could not have been done alone.”

Ward M. Canaday Collection, MSS-072

• Scrapbook of the Visit to Toledo by the King and Queen of Greece, 1953

In November 1953, King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece visited Toledo as a part of their tour of the United States to thank the country for its help during World War II. Ward M. Canaday (whose company, Willys-Overland, developed the Jeep that helped to win the war) and his wife, Mariam (who donated money to restore ancient ruins in Greece) accompanied the monarchs as they visited local manufacturing plants and the art museum. These photographs show the King and Queen looking into a glass furnace at the Libbey-Owens-Ford plant in Rossford.

Rare Book Collection

• Report of the Board of Canal Commissioners to the General Assembly of Ohio with Accompanying Documents.  Columbus, OH:  P. H. Olmsted, 1824

               Planning for Ohio’s system of canals that would lead to commercial development began in 1824.  While construction would wait for more than ten years, the Miami and Erie Canal provided the impetus to found the city of Toledo in 1837.

• Ventilation and Warming of Buildings Upon the Principles as Designed and Patented by Isaac D. Smead.  Toledo, OH:  Isaac D. Smead and Co., 1889

               This catalog included products of the Toledo-based Smead Company that were designed not only to warm buildings, but to do so with adequate ventilation.  Because of concerns in the nineteenth century about the relationship between fresh air and good health, Smead showed how to install furnaces that provided good ventilation.  Some of the applications of the “Smead System” shown in the book are from Toledo, including South Street School.

• Catalog of B. A. Stevens, Manufacturer and Dealer of Butchers’ Supplies and Machinery.  Toledo, OH:  1900

               Typical of the small businesses that fueled Toledo’s growth in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, B. A. Stevens, located at the corner of Erie, Lafayette, and Lucas streets, advertised all the latest needed to operate a butchery.  Included is an early advertisement for a Toledo Scale. 

• Jones, Samuel M.  Letters of Love and Labor:  A Series of Weekly Letters Addressed and Delivered to the Working-Men of the Acme Sucker Rod Company, Toledo, Ohio, During the Summer and Fall of 1900.  Toledo, OH:  The Franklin Printing & Engraving Company

               Jones was elected mayor of Toledo in 1897 largely based on the reputation he had developed as owner of the Acme Sucker Rod Company, where he had only one rule, the “Golden Rule.”  A leader of Progressive-era reforms, he established a park for his workers, bought musical instruments for a company band, and sponsored lectures and cultural programs.  Employees of his company worked an eight-hour workday, and were provided paid vacations.  This book reproduces some of the lectures he gave to his workers on topics such as equality, self-governance, and education.  This copy is signed by Jones.

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Disability History Collections

Toledo Rotary Club Records, MSS-145

• Photographs of Alva Bunker, ca. 1917-1921 

               The Rotary Club of Toledo was founded in 1912 as the forty-fourth club chartered by Rotary International. In 1916, the Rotary began providing financial assistance to children with disabilities, and in the first year helped 315 of them, including 35 with infantile paralysis. 
Alva Bunker was born without hands and feet in 1901 in North Toledo. Given the prevailing attitudes of the time about people with disabilities, he was believed mentally deficient and had never been taught to read or write as a child. In 1917, the Toledo Rotary championed his cause and sent him to Detroit to be fitted with artificial limbs.  While there, he attended school and graduated from the eighth grade in just eight months.  These photographs of Bunker, taken before and after his operation, show his improved mobility.  Bunker’s success showed the Rotary that children with disabilities could become self-sufficient, and inspired the Toledo club to found what became known as the “Crippled Children’s Movement.” 

• Correspondence with Alva Bunker, 1919-1924

Bunker remained in touch with his Toledo benefactors, sending them letters after he had learned to write. In this January 1919 letter, Bunker described his prosthetic arms and his progress in walking. Five years later, in a January 1924 letter, Rotarian Edward Kelsey invited Bunker to speak at a meeting of the International Society for Crippled Children (now known as the National Easter Seal Society.)  Kelsey described how Bunker’s story inspired “scores of Rotary Clubs to work for crippled children.”

• Photograph of Helen Keller Visiting Feilbach School, 1925

Assisting children with disabilities became a passion of Toledo Rotary’s President Charles Feilbach, and he helped to found the Crippled Children’s School in Toledo in 1918. The school would later be renamed the Charles Feilbach School after his death in 1924.  This photograph shows a visit by Helen Keller to the Feilbach School, part of a national tour to raise money for the American Foundation for the Blind. Today, the Toledo Rotary is the eleventh largest club in the world, and both the local club and Rotary International continue their philanthropic mission to assist children with disabilities.

• Photographs of students at the Charles Feilbach School for Crippled Children, 1921-1945

These photographs document classes and activities in which the children at the Charles Feilbach School for Crippled Children engaged, including music and dental health classes, and Christmas celebrations.

Feilbach School for Crippled Children Collection, MSS-307

• Photographs, 1920s

The Feilbach School for Crippled Children operated as a Toledo Public special school for children with disabilities until 1975 when federal law required that all such children have equal access at any public school.  These photos document the interior of the school when it was located in the old Central High School building in downtown Toledo. 

Toledo Hearing and Speech Center Records, MSS-292

• Minutes of the Toledo League for the Hard of Hearing, 1920-1935

The Toledo Hearing and Speech Center was incorporated in 1920 as the Toledo League for the Hard of Hearing.  Until its closure in 2014, the organization provided various services such as lip-reading classes, speech therapy, vocational training, and a summer camp for hearing impaired children.  The first minute book of the League includes its articles of incorporation, which stated the mission of the group to promote “the interests and general welfare of the hard of hearing in Toledo and vicinity; including the promotion, support, and furtherance of the teaching and study of lip reading….”

• Photographs, n.d.

These photographs depict some of the services provided by the Toledo Hearing and Speech Center during its existence, including hearing evaluations, speech therapy, and sign language classes.

The Ability Center of Toledo Records, MSS-190

• Photographs, 1930s to 1990s

The Ability Center of Toledo began as the Toledo Society for Crippled Children in 1920. Members of the Toledo Rotary Club—Charles Feilbach, Charles Hartmann and Wilber Owen—established the organization to care for children with physical disabilities. By 1944, 151 out of 220 cases were related to polio, and those afflicted were offered rehabilitation services and the chance to attend school at the Society’s Opportunity Home.  After the polio vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, the Society faced budget declines until its rebranding as the Toledo Society for the Handicapped in 1976, when it expanded services to adults, including recreational programming and transportation.
The organization’s name change to the Ability Center in 1990 reflected changing attitudes toward disability and the Center’s evolving mission. In the 1990s, the Ability Center transitioned to a National Center for Independent Living, offering advocacy, programming, and independent living skills training.  The photographs featured here cover 60 years of the Ability Center’s history, ranging from classrooms of children with polio in the 1930s and 1940s to civil rights protests in the 1990s.

Bittersweet Farms, MSS-195

• First Director’s Annual Report, 1984

Toledo educator Bettye Ruth Kay founded the Autistic Community of Northwest Ohio—now Bittersweet Farms—in 1977 as a non-profit organization for the purpose of providing residential treatment for adults with autism. This first annual report written by Kay documents the organization’s early growth and achievements. Bittersweet offered gardening, animal husbandry, grounds management, and other farm activities for its 12 original residents. Bettye Ruth Kay died in 1996, but the farm continues to offer a unique opportunity for autistic adults.

Ann Grady Center Records, MSS-306

• Newsletters, 1980s-1990s

The Anne Grady Center was founded in 1976 to create a healthy living environment for those with developmental disabilities. Completed in 1982, the center’s services have expanded since that time and include vocational training, daily living skill development, and recreational and therapeutic activities for residents and outpatient clients. Newsletters in this exhibit tell the story of the Center’s independent living programs and the construction of a new group home in the early 1990s.

Hugh Gallagher Papers, MSS-185

• Hugh Gregory Gallagher Diary, 1953

Disability rights activist Hugh Gregory Gallagher contracted polio in 1952 at the age of 19 and was paralyzed from the chest down. After extensive therapy, he completed his studies at Claremont McKenna College and Oxford University and pursued a career in politics. One of his most significant achievements was his work to draft the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, landmark legislation that paved the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. 
In this diary, recorded the year after Gallagher contracted polio, he expresses his thoughts both highly personal and universal.  He speaks on the pain of losing his independence, and how people now look at him with pity.  “I write this with a rubber band holding my finger [and] thumb in place. I hope that this writing will act as a sort of therapy,” he notes in the journal’s first entry, January 13, 1953. In an entry from April 15, he writes, “In short the reason I dislike going out into public is not because of what other people will do or think. It is the depression it throws me into.”

• Gallagher, Hugh Gregory. FDR's Splendid Deception: The Moving Story of Roosevelt's Massive Disability and the Intense Efforts to Conceal It from the Public. Arlington, Va.: Vandamere Press, 1999.

In this award-winning biography of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gallagher examines FDR’s life through the lens of disability studies—a perspective that had not yet been considered when the book was originally published in 1985. Gallagher recognized the impact of polio on the president due to his own personal experience.  This updated edition from 1999 was donated by Gallagher himself.

• Remarks by President Bill Clinton at the Dedication of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, May 2, 1997

The idea for a statue honoring President Franklin Roosevelt was first proposed in 1974, but Congress did not appropriate funding for the project until 20 years later.  The Roosevelt Memorial was formally dedicated in May 1997, with remarks provided by then-President Bill Clinton.  After giving his speech, President Clinton signed his copy and presented it to Hugh Gallagher.  Gallagher successfully fought to have an additional statue added to the memorial that showed Roosevelt in a wheelchair. 

Tom Olin Collection, MSS-294

• “Capitol Crawl” Photograph, March 12, 1990

Photojournalist Tom Olin began documenting the disability rights movement in 1985. His work has captured the activism of ADAPT, Not Dead Yet, and the National Council on Independent Living as well as pivotal moments in disability history. One of his most famous photographs is this image from a rally protesting the delay in passing the Americans with Disabilities Act. Known as the “Capitol Crawl,” it captured the moment when over 60 activists with disabilities abandoned their wheelchairs and mobility devices to crawl the 83 stone steps to the U.S. Capitol Building. The ADA was signed into law on July 26, 1990, a few months after this protest.

•  “Olmstead Rally” Photograph, May 12, 1999

This photograph depicts an ADAPT rally in Washington, D.C., as activists gathered for a landmark Supreme Court case, Olmstead vs. LC. The Supreme Court announced its decision a month later: people with disabilities have a right to receive support and services within their communities rather than being institutionalized.

•  “FDR Memorial Statue” Photograph, January 2001

When the memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. opened in 1997, the statue disguised all hints of the former president’s disability. Activists raised private funds to add a second statue to the memorial, one that actually depicted FDR in a wheelchair. The new statue was unveiled in a January 2001 ceremony photographed by Olin.

Office of Student Services and Handicapped Affairs Coalition, University of Toledo Archives, UR 90/01

• Publications, 1970s-1980

               In the 1970s, the Office of Handicapped Student Services at the University of Toledo was established to advocate for the needs of and provide services for students with disabilities. Featured here are publications of the office, including a handbook, the first issue of the newsletter Campus Access, and flyers for UT’s first celebration of Handicapped Awareness Week in 1980.

Assistance Dogs of America, Inc., MSS-175

• Photographs, newsletters, and other printed material, 1988, 1993, 2001, 2007

Founded in 1984 as Guide Dogs for the Handicapped, Inc. by Joe and Pamela “Sam” Maxwell in Columbus, Ohio, the non-profit organization has helped match disabled people with specially trained dogs to assist them to obtain more independent lives all over the world.  These items document dogs in training, fundraising events, and the impact of the program on those with limited mobility or multiple disabilities.

Rare Book Collection

• Barnard, Henry.  Tribute to Gallaudet:  A Discourse in Commemoration of the Life, Character, and Services of the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, LL.D.  Hartford, CT:  Brockett & Hutchinson, 1852

               This book, published at the death of Thomas Gallaudet, early advocate for the deaf, includes tributes to him by others as well as reprints of sermons delivered by him. 

• Annual Reports, Toledo Asylum for the Insane and Toledo State Hospital, 1884-1894

               These are some of the earliest annual reports from the Toledo Asylum for the Insane and Toledo State Hospital.  They document the beginning of the construction for the state hospital, which was located at Detroit and Arlington in South Toledo, where The University of Toledo Health Science Campus is now located.  Later reports detail improvements made, patient activities, incidents that occurred at the hospital, and statistical and financial information. 

• Nearing, Scott. The Super Race: An American Problem. New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1912

Scott Nearing was an economist, educator, and political activist who served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Toledo from 1915-1917, when he was fired due to his opposition to America’s military buildup during World War I. He was also a supporter of eugenics, a belief that humans could be improved by encouraging individuals with ideal genes to reproduce while also preventing those considered “defective” from doing so. People with disabilities were one group considered to be “undesirable,” and Nearing’s book claims that “the perpetuation of hereditary defect is infinitely worse than murder.”

• Keller, Helen.  The World I Live In.  New York:  The Century Co., 1914

These essays by Keller, who was both blind and deaf, were originally published in Century Magazine.  The Canaday Center’s copy includes an autograph by Keller written in her distinctive block letters. 

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Government and the Law Collections

Rare Book Collection

• Magna Charta.  London:  Tottell, 1576

               The Magna C[h]arta resulted from the peace between King John of England and 60 of his rebelling barons in 1215.  Thus began the long legal process of limiting the King’s authority and granting explicit rights to the ruled.  The Magna Charta became a symbol of freedom, and it influenced western democracy and concepts of liberty.  Only two other copies of this edition are known to exist.  It is heavily annotated by a late 16th or early 17th century French legal scholar.  It was donated to the Canaday Center by the late industrialist Edward Lamb in 1976.

• Benjamin Franklin’s signed copy of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  Philadelphia: W. and T. Bradford, 1776

Thomas Paine was born in England but later immigrated to the colonies. His famous pamphlet Common Sense advocated for American independence and was a best-seller (Paine donated the royalties from its sale to the Continental Army, preferring to help the Colonists’ cause rather than make a profit.) This copy of Common Sense—published the year the American Revolution began—was signed by Benjamin Franklin, who helped Paine leave England.

• Laws of the Territory of the United States North-West of the Ohio.  Cincinnati, OH:  Maxwell, 1796

               William Maxwell of New York moved to Cincinnati and became the first Ohio printer.  Maxwell was contracted by the legislature to print 200 copies of the laws of the territory, one of which is preserved by the Canaday Center.  The book originally belonged to Toledo lawyer Noah Swayne, who, among other accomplishments, brought baseball to Toledo. 

• Jefferson, Thomas.  A Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States. Washington, D.C.: William Cooper and Joseph Milligan, 1812

This second edition of the first American book on parliamentary procedure was written by Thomas Jefferson while he served as Vice President of the United States.  It is based on notes Jefferson took on parliamentary procedure while studying at the College of William and Mary.  First published in 1801, he added material to this 1812 edition.  The Manual was arranged in into 53 categories from “The Importance of Rules” to “Impeachment.”

• Appeal by the Convention of Michigan to the People of the United States; With Other Documents, in Relation to the Boundary Question Between Michigan and Ohio. Detroit, MI: Sheldon McKnight, 1835.

This document written by the constitutional convention for the soon-to-be state of Michigan was an appeal to the people of the United States to establish the southern border of the state to include Toledo.  Michigan’s southern border was the subject of a major dispute with Ohio that resulted in the Toledo War in 1835. The relatively bloodless dispute was settled in 1836 by giving Toledo to Ohio and the Upper Peninsula to Michigan as a compromise.  The settlement allowed for Toledo to be founded in 1837.

Toledo City Council Records, MSS-297
Toledo City Government Early Administrative Files, MSS-328

• Poll Book, Township of Port Lawrence, 1836

               On June 15, 1836, Congress established the southern border of Michigan, ending a dispute between Ohio and its northern neighbor that had nearly led to an armed conflict.  With the issue of which state they were located in settled, the rival towns of Port Lawrence and Vistula agreed to merge to form Toledo.  Prior to the official approval of the city charter by the State of Ohio, residents established who would be eligible to vote in the city’s first election.  This poll book lists all 226 eligible voters from Port Lawrence Township.  It is assumed these were the individuals who voted for Toledo’s mayor.  Listed is the book is that man, John Berdan, who was elected on March 6, 1837.

• Charter and Bylaws of the City of Toledo, 1837
• Articles of Incorporation of the City of Toledo, 1837

These documents represent the foundation upon which the government of Toledo was established. The Charter and Bylaws were approved by the State of Ohio and officially established the city.  Shown here are two versions:  the original that was approved by the Ohio House of Representatives, and a printed version published in Toledo in 1837.   The published version includes numerous amendments made to the charter as well as notes about the occupants of early city offices. 
The Incorporation of the City of Toledo was prepared by the Common Council, and became part of the first minute book of the Council.  It established the boundaries of the city as well as the organizational structure of the government, which consisted of a mayor, aldermen (three of which from each ward would be elected to the council), treasurer, and marshal.  The duties and responsibilities of these officials are outlined. 

• Memorial of the Trustees of the Toledo University of Arts and Trades, 1874

               Jesup W. Scott founded the Toledo University of Arts and Trades in 1872.  After his death two years later, the trustees of the university reached out to the city to suggest that the assets of the struggling institution be turned over to the city.  While the city agreed to accept the gift, it apparently was never executed, and in 1878 the university closed for lack of funds.  In 1884, what remained of the Scott trust was finally given to the city, establishing what would become The University of Toledo as a municipal institution.  It would remain as such until 1967.

• Clerk of City Council Minutes, 1913-1915, 1923-1935     

This volume consists of meeting minutes of the Committee on Finance, Ways and Means, recorded by the Clerk of Council.  Ordinances, legislation, and bonds were the primary topics of the committee.  This set of minutes opens with discussion of the proposed new site for Toledo University in 1929. 

• Toledo (Municipal) Code of 1919

This early volume of the Toledo Municipal Code was prepared by the Commission of Publicity and Efficiency, which was appointed the agency responsible for codifying the general ordinances of Toledo in 1917 after a decade had passed since the previous compilation of ordinances.  City Council authorized the publication of 1,000 copies.

Toledo Department Annual Reports, MSS-322

• City of Toledo annual reports, 1875, 1890, 1955, 1957, 1967-1968

The Common Council of the City of Toledo published the Official Record of the City of Toledo each year. It included reports of the various boards and departments that governed the city, including the auditor, fire and police departments, board of health, city solicitor, city engineer, and the public library. Water purity, mortality rates, and legal cases were a few of the topics covered in the consolidated annual reports. Later, as the city evolved and grew, the annual reports were published separately by each department and division, such as these examples from the Plan Commission, Division of Recreation, and Division of Water.

• City of Toledo Department Reports

As part of their daily activities, the various departments of the City of Toledo prepared reports to document projects or to set forth master plans. For example, the Traffic Safety Commission consulted with engineers in Michigan to conduct a survey of Toledo’s traffic conditions and requirements. The other reports in this sample include urban redevelopment, and open-space initiatives in the Old West End.
Daniel French Collection, MSS-304

• Memos and Letters, Toledo Chief of Police Harry Jennings, 1920s.

This incoming and outgoing correspondence of Toledo Chief of Police Harry Jennings reveals the colorful world of crime and law enforcement in the 1920s. Memos and public complaints log the ongoing problems with gambling, prostitution, and illegal alcohol the police faced during the decade.  In 1927, Toledo Mayor Fred Mery commands Jennings to “rid Toledo of the criminals that are being harbored here” and laments the city’s criminal reputation.

James Van Orden Collection, MSS-290

• The Toledo Citizens’ Waterworks Dedication Committee, The Toledo Lake Erie Water Supply System: A Municipal Accomplishment. Toledo, OH: The Toledo Citizens’ Waterworks Dedication Committee, 1941

To commemorate the completion of the Toledo Lake Erie Water Supply System in 1941, the Toledo Citizens’ Waterworks Dedication Committee published this booklet. Its intent was “to inform the people of Toledo on the new system…[and] to advertise to the nation the accomplishment of our city in this, the greatest single public improvement in the history of Toledo.”

James Ashley Papers, MSS-002

• Memoirs of James M. Ashley, ca. 1870s

James M. Ashley was a Radical Republican and railroad executive who represented Toledo in Congress from 1858 to 1868.  In 1863, he introduced the first proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to outlaw slavery.  His language was largely adopted as the 13th Amendment. After his defeat in 1868, Ashley began work on his memoir, which he never completed.  On display are pages that explain how he came to understand slavery as immoral.

Cyrus Hussey Diaries, MSS-017

• Civil War Diaries, 1862-1863

Cyrus Hussey was a member of the 48th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry from July 11, 1862 to December 3, 1864. This regiment, stationed in Tennessee and Mississippi, saw action in the siege of Vicksburg, which lasted from May 18 to July 4, 1863. These pages from one of Hussey’s diaries describe the beginning of the siege.

Brand Whitlock Letters, MSS-023

• Letters from Belgian schoolchildren, 1915

Brand Whitlock served four terms as mayor of Toledo from 1906-1914.  After serving his final term, he was appointed ambassador to Belgium, where he helped organize the task of providing food and clothing for the citizens of Belgium when the country was invaded and occupied by Germany during World War I.  As thanks for the desperately needed aid, thousands of schoolchildren from the city of Ghent sent letters of gratitude addressed to Whitlock to thank the American people.  On display are two of the approximately 7,000 letters received that are preserved in the Canaday Center.

Herbert M. White Papers, MSS-096

• World War I Diary, 1918

In 1917, Herbert White joined the Army to fight in World War I, where he was assigned to Company B Ammunition Train. In his role as an ammunition truck driver, he saw action during the final years of the war. These diary pages described the battle of the Argonne Forest in France.

John P. Kelly Papers, MSS-055

• Photographs and Memorabilia of the Presidential Campaign of John F. Kennedy, 1959-1961

               John P. Kelly held various elected and appointed government positions in Toledo, including Lucas County Commissioner and member of Toledo City Council.  From 1945-1966, he was chair of the Lucas County Democratic Party, and helped organize the 1960 John F. Kennedy campaign in Toledo.  These photographs show Kennedy in Toledo during the campaign, and include one with Kelly and Kennedy’s brother, Ted.  Because of the role Kelly played in the campaign, the collection also includes an invitation to the inauguration in 1961, and tickets to be part of the platform party on the east front of the Capitol. 

Ella P. Stewart Papers, MSS-052

• Shirt of John F. Kennedy, 1958

               Ella P. Stewart was active in many social causes.  In 1958, she acquired this shirt that once belonged to Kennedy, which she later donated to the Canaday Center.

Foy D. Kohler Papers, MSS-036

• Photograph, John F. Kennedy and Foy D. Kohler, 1963

This photograph depicts President John F. Kennedy and Foy D. Kohler, American ambassador to the U.S.S.R. from 1962-1966, during a discussion at the White House in September 1963, possibly regarding U.S.-U.S.S.R. space cooperation.

• Guest book for the Kennedy Memorial at the American Embassy in Moscow, 1963

On display is the guest book from the memorial service held in the American embassy in Moscow after the assassination of President Kennedy, which features signatures from the Soviet Union’s top officials who attended the service. Of particular significance are the signatures of Premier Khrushchev and his wife.

Justice Judith Lanzinger Papers, MSS-316

• Certificate of licensure for the Supreme Court of the United States, 1985

Judith Lanzinger of Toledo is the only person to serve on all four levels of Ohio’s courts: the Toledo Municipal Court, the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, the 6th District Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of Ohio. She received her law degree from The University of Toledo in 1977, graduating as Valedictorian. Her papers contain photographs, awards, and a rich collection of her notes from trials.  On display is Lanzinger’s certificate of licensure for the Supreme Court of the United States. It is an honor to be licensed to practice law before the nation’s highest court and one Lanzinger achieved early in her legal career.

 

Historical Government Documents Collection

• U.S. Department of the Interior.  U.S. Bureau of Education.  Art and Industry:  Education in the Industrial and Fine Arts in the United States.  Part II:  Industrial and Manual Training Schools in Public Schools, 1892

               In 2016, approximately 1000 federal and state government documents of historical value were transferred from the library’s Government Documents Department to the Ward M. Canaday Center.  The publications provide rich detail of many aspects of American life.
In this report, author Isaac Edwards Clarke discusses manual training schools, an education reform idea of the turn of the century that emphasized that students should receive both academic and vocational education to create well-rounded citizens.  Included in this volume is extensive documentation of the Toledo Manual Training School, predecessor to The University of Toledo. 

• First United States Army, Report of Operations, 20 October 1943 to 1 August 1944

               This report, which was classified when it was initially published (and remained so until the war ended), includes detailed reports and photographs of the D-Day landing in Normandy.  These photos show troops rushing across Omaha Beach, and a landing craft full of Toledo-made Jeeps ready to disembark.

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University of Toledo History Collections

University of Toledo Archives Collections

• Articles of Incorporation, The Toledo University of Arts and Trades, October 12, 1872

               This document stated five principles upon which the new university was established using resources from the trust of Jesup W. Scott.  Article four stated:  “The object of the trust is to establish an institution for the promotion of knowledge in the arts and trades and their related sciences, by means of lectures and schools…and whatever else will serve to furnish artists and artizans [sic] with the best facilities for a high culture in their professions….”  The document was signed by the seven trustees:  Jesup W. Scott, Frank J. Scott, William H. Raymond, A. E. Macomber, Charles W. Hill, William H. Scott, and Sarah R. L. Williams.

• G. B. Stebbins, “Scientific and Industrial Education, Its Importance to Our Country:  Lecture in Behalf of the Toledo University of Arts and Trades, December 10, 1872”

               This lecture, presented three months after the founding of the Toledo University of Arts and Trades, detailed the progress being made in Europe to provide technical training to young people. Stebbins hoped it would inspire Toledoans to embrace their new university—and more importantly, for wealthy businessmen to commit financial support.  “These testimonies from across the ocean come to us full of instruction and timely warning.  They prove it is impossible without scientific, artistic, and practical education, for any nation to hold honorable and permanent places in the progress of our modern civilization; they fully verify the wise beneficence of those among you who have helped to found your University of Arts and Trades; and their lesson to each and all others is, ‘Go thou and do likewise.’”

• First Annual Report, Toledo Manual Training School, 1885

               After Scott’s trust failed to produce sufficient funds to support the university, it closed in 1878.  In 1884, Scott’s sons gave the remaining assets to the city of Toledo if it agreed to reopen the institution as a manual training school.  Manual training was an educational reform idea where students spent half their day in academic classes, and half in vocational workshops.  The goal was to produce a well-rounded student.  This early report outlined the curriculum of the school.             

• Toledo Universi-Teaser, March 5, 1919

In 1919, students Leo Steinem (father of future feminist Gloria Steinem) and Samuel Steinbeck started a student newspaper.  The name has changed several times throughout its history, but since 2000 it has been called the Independent Collegian, and it is still published by UT students. 

• Photographs Depicting Early Campus Development, 1929-1953

In 1928, a $2.8 million bond allowed UT to finally build a permanent home on farmland on Bancroft Street.  University Hall and the Physical Education Building (later the Field House) were the first two buildings to be erected, both completed in 1931.  Other early construction includes Scott, Libbey, and Tucker Halls, the first residential buildings on campus (1935); the Glass Bowl (1937); and the first library building, later named Gillham Hall in honor of long-time university librarian, Mary Gillham (1953).

• List of the Contents of the University Hall Cornerstone, 1930

The cornerstone laying ceremony for University Hall, the first building on the Bancroft Street campus, took place on June 12, 1930. Classes were dismissed to allow students to attend. According to this list, written in President Henry Doermann’s hand, the copper box contained a history of the University and descriptions of the University bond issue campaign that funded the construction of both University Hall and the Field House. In addition, there were copies of university catalogs, Blockhouse, Campus College, Toledo City Journal, and other items. Doermann wrote, “We thus pass on to posterity in this sealed box the…documents intended to portray the history of this university from the date of its founding down to the present hour.”

• First and Last Editions of The Blockhouse, 1922 and 1985

The university yearbook was begun by the staff of the student newspaper. It was named The Blockhouse after the symbol of the city of Toledo.  The first edition was printed in 1922 and the last in 1985, with only a few published in the 1970s and early 1980s. According to the first staff, “[t]he serious and frivolous have been put side by side that this might be a true record of the most momentous year in the annals of the University.”

• Montage of Video Images of UT Historical Events, 1929 to ca. 2001

               This montage of video image clips of significant events in UT’s history includes documentation of the construction of the Bancroft Street campus in 1929-1931.  Also included are excerpts of videos of numerous more recent events recorded by the late Don Reiber, director of UT’s Broadcast Services.  These include scenes of UT traditions such as Songfest and Homecoming, and also footage of visits to campus by celebrities, including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Vice President Al Gore, and social activist Jesse Jackson.

• University of Toledo-Medical University of Ohio Merger Documents, 2006

After 42 years of existence as separate institutions, with the passage of House Bill 478, UT and the former Medical College/Medical University of Ohio merged, creating Ohio’s third-largest university. The bill was signed into law by Governor Bob Taft on March 31, 2006.  UT’s campus became the Main Campus, and MCO’s campus became the Health Science Campus.  Included here is a resolution signed by Toledo City Council in support of the merger.

Pi Kappa Alpha Records, UM 74
Panhellenic Council Records, UR 86/25
Inter-Fraternity Council Records, UR 84/20

• Early Fraternity and Sorority Documents, 1915-1951

The Cresset Society, founded in 1915, was the first fraternity on campus.  Shown here is the original minute book of the organization, which is known today as Pi Kappa Alpha.  The Inter-Sorority Council was created in 1927 to provide coordination between sororities, and its name was changed to the Panhellenic Council in 1944.  That year, Dean of Women Katherine Easley told the group that “nothing is to be allowed during rough initiation or hell-week that will reflect upon the good character of Toledo University women as a whole.”  Also included here is the constitution of the Inter-Fraternity Council, and the program from the 1947 Annual Fraternity Men’s Songfest.  Songfest began in 1937, and is a tradition that continues today as UT’s second longest-running tradition. The competition began in 1937 with a group of six fraternities singing college songs on the lawn behind University Hall. In 1940, women formed their own singing competition.  The men’s and women’s competitions continued annually until 1965, when the events were merged.

Henry Doermann Papers, UM 18

• Diary Documenting University Hall Construction, 1930

During the 1930-1931 construction of the first two buildings erected on the Bancroft Street campus, an unidentified employee of Speiker Construction recorded daily progress on the buildings. He noted the weather conditions as well discussions held with architects, university administrators, and contractors. UT President Henry Doermann visited nearly every day, and months before University Hall was completed, he set up a temporary office on the third floor. This diary entry from December 19, 1930, refers to the installation of the gargoyles on the tower, which went smoothly and the author thought looked good.

Office of the President, William S. Carlson Papers, UR PA 55

• Documents Regarding Transition to State Status, 1966-1967

After 95 years as a municipally-supported university, Governor James Rhodes signed a bill on August 12, 1965, that established UT as part of the state system of higher education.  That action, which was official on July 1, 1967, provided an influx of money that helped to fuel a rapid expansion of the institution.  Included here is the first copy of the transcript of the proceedings on the conversion, the agreement that was reached to convert the institution, as well as photographs of the event.

Medical College of Ohio Archives

• Articles of Incorporation of Toledo Area Medical College and Education Foundation, 1961

The Toledo Area Medical College and Education Foundation was created to promote medical education and a medical school in Toledo. Some of the more prominent signers of this document include UT President William S. Carlson; Toledo mayor Michael Damas; and chairman of the Willys-Overland Corporation, Ward M. Canaday.

• House Bill No. 7 to Establish a State College of Medicine at Toledo, 1964

After several years of delay, what would become the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo was established with the unanimous passage of this bill in both the Ohio House and Senate. Governor James Rhodes signed the bill on December 18, 1964, which became the official birthday of the former Medical College of Ohio. 

• Site Review for Toledo State College of Medicine, 1965

This report by architect Dan A. Carmichael evaluated two possible sites for the new Toledo State College of Medicine (later renamed the Medical College of Ohio):  the campus of The University of Toledo, and property at Detroit and Arlington in south Toledo that had been the location of the Toledo State Hospital. 

• Minutes and photograph of the Medical College of Ohio’s First Board of Trustees, 1965

The first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Toledo State College of Medicine was held on January 7, 1965. Officers were elected, with Paul Block, Jr., serving as the Board’s first chairman. The photograph depicts Paul Block, Jr., at the head of the conference table with the other trustees, including Dr. Byron Grant Shaffer, John A. Skipton, Sister Mary Lawrence, Dr. Frank F.A. Rawling, J. Preston Levis, James Slater Gibson, William W. Knight, Jr., and Bernard R. Baker II.  The minutes record the first actions of the Board.

• The Medical College of Ohio Mace, 1972

As commencement for the first graduating class of the Medical College of Ohio neared in 1972, Dr. Robert Page contacted internationally-acclaimed glass artist Dominick Labino to design and create the mace that would be used in academic ceremonies.  Ronald Watterson, MCO librarian, served as marshal and carried the mace during the commencement of the charter class.  This is the original mace; a replica was used in commencements.

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Multicultural Collections

Rare Book Collection

• Wheatley, Phyllis. Memoirs and Poems of Phyllis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave. Boston, MA: Geo. W. Light, 1834

The Canaday Center houses some of the earliest published works by African-American women writers such as Phyllis Wheatley, Harriet Wilson, and Frances E.W. Harper. These early published works are considered the foundation for the literary traditions of African-American women writers.  Wheatley was one of the first African-American writers to achieve an international reputation. The fact that an African-born slave woman was writing poetry in English was a surprise to the whites of the time. Her first published works appeared in London in 1773. This particular volume is a collection of prose and poetry about events that happened during her lifetime.

• Brown, William Wells. Sketches of Places and People Abroad. Boston: Jewett, 1855

One of the earliest works by African-American authors owned by the Canaday Center is this book by William Wells Brown, a self-educated fugitive slave active in the Underground Railroad and other abolitionist activities. After the Civil War, he became a physician. Brown was the first black American to publish a novel, a play, and a travel book. Sketches is considered a key work in the history of African-American literature.

• Penn, I. Garland.  The Afro-American Press and Its Editors.  Springfield, MA:  Willey & Co., Publishers, 1891

               This significant and rare work is on the history of African-American journalism and those who dedicated their lives to champion the social, political, and educational rights of black Americans through the press.  Extensive in scope and well researched, the book begins with the first black U.S. newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, and includes chapters on eminent African-American men and women journalists. 

• Dunbar, Paul Laurence. Oak and Ivy, Dayton, OH: Press of United Brethren Publishing House, 1893

Considered the first major African-American poet, Dunbar was born in Dayton and worked as a messenger and elevator operator while writing poetry in his spare time.  Oak and Ivy is his first book of poems which, soon after its publication, caught the attention of two Toledoans, attorney Charles Thatcher and physician W.C. Chapman, who promoted Dunbar’s work.  This copy includes an inscription to Thatcher by Dunbar.

• Dunbar, Paul Lawrence.  Majors and Minors.  Toledo:  Hadley and Hadley, 1895

After the publication of Oak and Ivy, Charles Thatcher and W. C.  Chapman sponsored readings by Dunbar in Toledo, and they helped to get his second book, Majors and Minors, published.

• Cunard, Nancy (ed.) Negro Anthology, 1931-1933. London: Wishart & Co., 1934

This work is an important encyclopedic compilation of African and African-American history and culture. Cunard divided the work into sections that cover topics such as black history, religion, literature, and music. While 1000 copies were printed, a considerable number were destroyed in a warehouse fire and few have survived. It includes extensive illustrations.

• Terrell, Mary Church.  A Colored Woman in a White World. Washington, D.C.: Ransfell Inc., 1940

This landmark autobiography describes the life of a privileged black woman trying to deal with the realities of discrimination, and details her life, struggles, and achievements. Terrell also wrote fiction and poetry, and was active in the struggle for civil rights and women’s rights. This book is autographed by the author to Toledoan Ella P. Stewart.

• Brooks, Gwendolyn.  A Street in Bronzeville. New York: Harper, 1945

Gwendolyn Brooks published her first poem at age thirteen and three years later had compiled a portfolio of 75 published poems ranging in style from sonnets to free verse. At the age of 17, she began submitting her poems to the African-American newspaper Chicago Defender.  A Street in Bronzeville was her first published book of poetry and was critically acclaimed. This first edition copy was signed by Brooks for The University of Toledo.

• Hughes, Langston.  Famous Negro Music Makers. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1955

Often associated with the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes wrote poetry, novels, short stories, plays, and children’s books. Along with several of his contemporaries, Hughes’s works depicted the lives of black people at the lower end of the economic spectrum. His book Famous Negro Music Makers was part of the Famous Biographies for Young People series of books. This copy was signed by Hughes and dedicated to Lucille E. Goodloe.

• Knight, Etheridge.  Poems From Prison.  Detroit, MI:  Broadside Press, 1968

               Etheridge Knight began writing poetry while serving time at the Indiana State Prison.  A major theme running throughout his work is that of prisons—those that are imposed on us and those that we impose on ourselves.  Gwendolyn Brooks visited him while he was in prison, and encouraged his writing.  This was his first book, followed by Black Voices from Prison (1970), Belly Song and Other Poems (1973), Born of a Woman (1980), and The Essential Etheridge Knight (1986).

• Knight, Etheridge.  Belly Songs and Other Poems.  Detroit, MI:  Broadside Press, 1973

Knight’s book Belly Songs and Other Poems (1973) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and this copy is a first edition signed by Knight.
The Canaday Center also preserves the personal papers of Etheridge Knight (MSS-016.)  Included in the collection is this poem written on a paper plate ca. 1975; and correspondence with Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Herbert Woodward Martin. 

• Morrison, Toni.  The Bluest Eye. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970

This first published novel written by the Nobel Prize in Literature winner Toni Morrison tells the tragic story of a young African-American girl growing up in Ohio after the Great Depression. The novel deals with issues of incest, prostitution, domestic violence, child molestation, and racism.  This is a signed first edition.

• Martin, Herbert W.  New York the Nine Million and Other Poems. Grand Rapids, MI: The Abra Cadabra Press, 1969

Herbert Woodward Martin is a UT graduate and a nationally known poet, as well as professor emeritus of English at the University of Dayton, where he spent over thirty years there as poet-in-residence.  His extensive research and portrayals of Paul Laurence Dunbar have inspired many to rediscover Dunbar’s writings. Martin’s works include poetry, drama, opera libretti, and literary criticism. He has received many awards for his poetry and in 1990 was selected as a Fulbright Scholar.  This work includes the introduction of Martin’s Antigone poems along with other poems previously published elsewhere, and is his first published book.  It is signed by the author.
The Canaday Center also preserves the personal papers of Herbert Martin (MSS-015, MSS-095), including letters from Dudley Randall, Nikki Giovanni, and Alice Walker, which are displayed here. 

• Publications of the Paryski Publishing Company, 1909

The Paryski Publishing Company was founded in 1889 by Antoni A. Paryski (1865-1935), who was born in Bocheń, a village in Central Poland, and emigrated to the United States in 1883 to avoid political persecution.  He lived and worked in Detroit, Chicago, and Winona, Minnesota, before settling in Toledo, where he expanded his publishing business.  By the time of his death in 1935, he had published over 2,000 publications including 40 magazines in Polish for Polish communities.  Ewangelie Jezusa Chrystusa (The Gospels of Jesus of Christ,) and Historya o Milosci Kamaralzamana (The Kamaralzamana Love Story, 1909) represent just two of the works published by the Paryski Press.  As with any ethnic literature in America, it aimed to preserve culture, language, and identity in the growing Polish diaspora.  The Canaday Center preserves many of the publications of this important Toledo ethnic press.
Gustavus Ohlinger Papers, MSS-013

• Journal and Photographs of Visit to South Africa, 1902

               Gustavus Ohlinger was born in Chefoo, China, where his parents were missionaries.  After graduating from the University of Michigan College of Law, he returned to China where he represented the Russian government in the negotiations that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.  In late 1902, Ohlinger traveled to South Africa, where he took these photographs that documented the country at the end of the Boer War.  The photos depict a visit to Johannesburg by Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial Secretary and mastermind of the war.  Ohlinger also discussed his encounter with Chamberlain in his journal.  In addition to Chamberlain’s visit, the photographs and journal also recount Ohlinger’s visit to a refugee camp with Boer General Christian de Wet, and his encounter with the family of Boer General Koos de la Rey.  Ohlinger established a successful law practice in Toledo in 1906, and was active in many organizations in the city.

Association of Two Toledos Collection, MSS-071

• Scrapbook Documenting Visit of Toledo, Ohio, Delegation to Spain, 1934; and Publicity Materials, 1962 and 1981

The Committee on Relations with Toledo, Spain, was established in 1931 through the efforts of University of Toledo President Henry Doermann, Russell G.C. Brown (a Spanish teacher at Waite and DeVilbiss high schools), and various individuals from Toledo, Spain. The first official delegation from Toledo, Ohio, visited their Spanish counterpart in 1934. The organization was inactive after this initial visit due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, but was revived in 1958.  In 1962, a delegation from Toledo, Spain, was finally able to visit Ohio. In 1981, a Spanish delegation came to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the relationship between the cities. On display are items from 1934, 1962, and 1981.

• Dagger, Miniature Sword, and Plate from Toledo, Spain, n.d.

These brass items are examples of artifacts that have been collected in Spain by the Association. The dagger and plate are decorated in 24 karat gold.

Toledo Sister Cities International Records, MSS-203

• Agreement Between the City of Toledo and Toledo Sister Cities International, 1995

This agreement formally recognized Toledo’s membership in the Sister Cities International organization, which began in 1956 as one of President Eisenhower’s visions for an interconnected world.  The sister city relationship between the Toledos of Spain and Ohio is believed to be the oldest such relationship in the world, dating back to 1931, with earlier symbolic and diplomatic exchanges beginning in 1876.

Betty Mauk Papers, MSS-135
Alliance Française of Toledo Records, MSS-143

• Photographs and Artifacts, 1972

Betty Mauk was a tireless advocate for Toledo’s riverfront and for French culture, having traveled to France over 50 times beginning in 1954.  In 1964, Mauk began what would be her first of many efforts to bring France to Toledo by founding L’Alliance Française, which accentuated the teaching and appreciation of French language and culture. In 1972, she left a permanent mark on Toledo’s landscape by helping to found Promenade Park.  These items exemplify Mauk’s dedication to bringing about a beautiful and revitalized downtown Toledo and waterfront, and the celebration of her achievements in doing so.  In March of 1972, the director of the Federation of Alliance Françaises presented Mauk with an engraved medal for making the best contribution by an American to the promotion of French culture. 

Steven Pecsenye Papers, MSS-084

• Sketches of Hungarian Dancers, ca. 1960s-1970s

Steven Pecsenye was a second-generation Hungarian immigrant born in Toledo. He attended Macomber High School and studied at the Toledo Museum of Art before enlisting in the Army during World War II. He sent often humorous cartoons depicting his life as a soldier back to his family, and after the war, he continued to draw. For over 60 years, Pecsenye captured Hungarian life as it was related to him by his parents. He also illustrated a coloring book to preserve and pass on Hungarian traditions.

Ella P. Stewart Papers, MSS-052

• Scrapbook, “Around the World with Ella P. Stewart,” 1951-1986

               Ella P. Stewart was a pharmacist and community leader in Toledo.  From 1948 to 1952, she was president of the National Association of Colored Women, lobbying for civil rights.  In 1952, she served as a delegate to the International Conference of Women of the World, promoting peace and understanding with women of Asia.  Later in her life, the United Nations recognized her as a commissioner for the U.N. Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and she traveled the world speaking out for peace and against discrimination.  This unique scrapbook documents some of her world travels. 

Sripati Chandrasekhar Papers, MSS-189

• Letters to Chandrasekhar from Indira Gandhi, 1968-1969

               Dr. Sripati Chandrasekhar was an internationally known demographer and leader in the field of population control in his native India.  As Indian Minister of Health and Family Planning from 1967-1970, he led an effort to reduce the rate of population growth in the country, promoting birth control, abortion, and voluntary sterilization.  Later in his life, he taught demography at various universities in the United States.  These three letters from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi point to the sensitivity of Chandrasekhar’s efforts, as Gandhi scolded him for some of his blunt talk and actions.

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History of Medicine Collections

Rare Medical Book Collection

• Heister, Laurence.  A General System of Surgery in Three Parts.  London:  W. Innys, 1743

               Heister is considered the founder of modern scientific surgery.  This book, heavily illustrated, includes depictions of some ghastly surgical operations, including these amputations of arms and legs.  Such operations would have been carried out without anesthesia, hence the need for three people to hold the person down while the operation took place. 

• Rush, Benjamin.  Sixteen Introductory Lectures.  Philadelphia, PA:  Bradford and Innskeep, 1811

               Rush was one of the most influential physicians of his time.  He was a proponent of the Enlightenment’s concept of “natural law.”  In this view, the body was a machine, and all disease was one disease—an overstimulation of nerves and blood.  To cure, physicians prescribed “heroic” treatments such as bleeding, blistering, and purging to restore the body’s balance.  This book prints some of Rush’s lectures delivered at the University of Pennsylvania. 

• William Beaumont, Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion.  Plattsburgh, NY:  F.P. Allen, 1833

The first edition of a classic medical text, this book contains Beaumont’s study of the digestive tract that he was able to observe in a most unusual way.  As an Army doctor at Fort Mackinac, he encountered a patient with a severe stomach wound that would not heal.  Beaumont used this opening in the unfortunate victim as a window into the gastrointestinal tract.  From this study, he was able to explain the chemical process of digestion.

• Drake, Daniel.  A Systematic Treatise, Historical, Etiological, and Practical, on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America.  Cincinnati, OH:  Winthrop B Smith & Co., 1850

               Drake was one of the first physicians to settle in Ohio.  In this two-volume exhaustive survey, he cataloged the geography and diseases that were prevalent on the then-frontier.  He described the area of Toledo as such:  “Between the Maumee and Sandusky Rivers, south of the western extremity of Lake Erie, lies the great forest, which has received the ominous name of the Black Swamp…”  He recounts two major epidemics of “autumnal fever” that swept the area in 1838 and 1839.  The swampy conditions and accompanying epidemics earned Toledo the name “Graveyard of the Midwest.”

• Drake, Daniel.  Discourses Delivered by Appointment, Before the Cincinnati Medical Library Association, January 9th and 10th.  Cincinnati, OH:  Moore & Anderson, 1852

Drake also founded one of the first medical colleges west of the Appalachian Mountains, the Medical College of Ohio in Cincinnati in 1819.  This volume provides a history of the early days of medical practice in Cincinnati.  The volume was presented as a gift to Toledo’s Medical College of Ohio at the dedication of the Raymon H. Mulford Library by the Medical Center Libraries of the University of Cincinnati on May 15, 1975.

• Quain, Jones and W.J.E. Wilson.  A Series of Anatomical Plates:  With References and Physiological Comments, Illustrating the Structure of Different Parts of the Human Body.  Philadelphia:  Carey and Hart, 1845

               Quain was born in Ireland in 1796, and became an instructor of anatomy at University College in London.  This book, originally published in London, was widely used, as indicated by this third edition which was printed in Philadelphia.  It contains detailed illustrations of all aspects of the human body.

• Virchow, Rudolf.  Die Cellularpathologie.  Berlin:  Verlag von August Hirschwald, 1858

               This is a first edition of the classic text by Virchow that established him as the father of modern pathology. 

• Nightingale, Florence.  Notes on Nursing:  What It Is, What It Is Not.  New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1860.  First American Edition

               Nightingale was responsible for the professionalization of nursing.  After serving as a nurse in the Crimean War, she returned to London and recorded her thoughts on how to improve patient care in this influential book.  She also established a school of nursing along the principles outlined in her book.  This book was influential in the United States, as it was published on the eve of the Civil War and impacted nursing care for the war’s sick and wounded.

• The Toledo Medical Association, The Toledo Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 1.  Toledo, OH:  Medical Press Association, 1877

The Toledo Medical Association (now known as the Academy of Medicine of Toledo and Lucas County) was founded in 1851.  Members met regularly and heard presentations from colleagues about cases that they had treated. Through the exchange of information, the doctors learned from one another at a time when medical knowledge was still primitive.  In 1877, the organization began publishing this journal.  The first article concerned the causes and prevention of repeated miscarriages, by Dr. Thomas Waddle.   

• Meylert, Asa P.  Notes on the Opium Habit.  New York:  G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1884

               The late 19th century saw a surge in the use of opium.  Opium was considered a miracle drug, and was prescribed to help many ailments.  This book discussed cases that began with a physician prescribing the drug for particular issues, but which quickly evolved into addiction.  The author called for humane methods for treating such addictions. 

• La Roche, R., Yellow Fever Considered in its Historical, Pathological, Etiological, and Therapeutical Relations.  Philadelphia, PA:  Blanchard and Lea, 1855

Rene La Roche was born in Philadelphia, a city hit with frequent deadly outbreaks of yellow fever.  He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and his two-volume work on the disease became a classic medical text. 

• Howard, John M., editor.  Battle Casualties in Korea:  Studies of the Surgical Team, in Four Volumes.  Washington, D.C.:  Army Medical Service Graduate School, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1955-1956

               Howard directed a research team that prepared this important work on medical advances made during the Korean War.  Howard was sent to Korea just one year out of residency.  But over the next 18 months, the team he directed made major discoveries in treating battlefield trauma.  The four-volume work the team published when they returned was instrumental in improving survival rates for those serving in later wars.  Howard later joined the faculty of the Medical College of Ohio, where he helped to establish the emergency medical system for Lucas County.  He retired in 1993, and died in 2011 at the age of 91.  He donated these volumes to Mulford Library in 2000. 

Toledo Medical College Collection, UM 64

• Minutes of the Directors of the Toledo Medical College, 1882-1918

This volume documents the creation and demise of the Toledo Medical College.  The college was founded in 1882, and classes were offered at a building at the corner of Cherry and Page in downtown Toledo.  The college struggled with financial difficulties and questions about the quality of its graduates.  In 1904, with new requirements for licensing physicians, the struggling college merged with Toledo University in the hopes of survival.  The school hung on until Abraham Flexner’s 1910 report on medical education in the United States gave it the lowest rating.  The following year, a fire swept through the college building, and in 1913, the American Medical Association issued its own critical report.  The school closed in 1918, and Toledo would not have another medical college until 1964.

Max Schnitker Papers, MSS-142

• Diary of Max Schnitker, 1945-1946

Dr. Max Schnitker, a Toledo neurosurgeon, enlisted in the Army in 1942 and served at Bushnell Hospital in Utah until early 1945, when he was transferred to the China-Burma-India theater.  He spent much of that time in Calcutta, India, serving as chief of surgical service at the 142nd general hospital.  One of his more interesting cases was that of soldier Robert Brown, who was struck in the forehead by a propeller blade that cut through his frontal lobe.  Pictured here are post-op photos of Brown’s successful surgery.

Toledo State Hospital, Lucas County Infirmary, and Maumee Valley Hospital Architectural and Survey Drawings, MSS-221

• Architectural renderings of the Maumee Valley Hospital, 1929

The Maumee Valley Hospital opened in 1931 at Detroit and Arlington as the Lucas County Hospital, and was located adjacent to the Toledo State Hospital. It replaced the Lucas County General Hospital, built in 1898, which had replaced the Lucas County Infirmary, established in 1869.  All were public facilities built primarily to serve the county’s poor and indigent. In 1944, Lucas County Hospital was renamed Maumee Valley Hospital.  In 1969, Lucas County signed an agreement with the new Medical College of Ohio designating Maumee Valley as the college’s primary teaching hospital.  These drawings date back to 1929 and show front, back, and side elevations.

Maumee Valley and William Roche Memorial Hospitals Records, MSS-249; and HSC 14/05, Medical College of Ohio Archives History Files, HSC 14/04

• Scrapbooks, Maumee Valley Hospital, 1940s-1960s

These scrapbooks document the now-defunct Maumee Valley Hospital. The first records many aspects of the hospital’s operations. The second documents the activities of the Maumee Valley Hospital Physicians Alumni Association.

Louise Mizer Karchner Collection, HSC 15/03

• Cape, Maumee Valley Hospital School of Nursing

This cape belonged to Louise Mizer Karchner, a nursing student who graduated in 1948 from the Maumee Valley Hospital School of Nursing (which existed from 1905-1972.)  Each diploma nursing school in the area had its own unique insignia on its uniforms, caps, and pins.

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Gender and Sexuality Collections

Rare Book Collection

• Child, Lydia Marie.  The American Frugal Housewife.  Boston:  Carter, Hendee & Co., 1833

               Mrs. Child published her first novel when she was nineteen.  In 1828, she married a charming but irresponsible dreamer named David Child, and he quickly squandered all royalties she had made writing.  Mrs. Child, while supporting her family through her writing, lived most of her life in debt.  She knew firsthand how to be frugal.

• Beecher, Catherine E.  A Treatise on Domestic Economy.  New York:  Harper, 1845

               Catherine was the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote one of the most influential books of the nineteenth century.  Most of Catherine Beecher’s life was dedicated to women’s education, although she was opposed to women’s suffrage.  This book is one of the earliest of thousands of such books that were published in the Victorian era that provided women guidance on how to become better wives and mothers.  This book sought to remedy the “poor health, poor domestics, and a defective domestic education” of women of the time.

• Curtis, George William, Equal Rights for Women: A Speech. Boston: C.K. Whipple, 1870

This speech was published as Woman’s Suffrage Tract No. 2, a pamphlet printed as one of a series dealing with issues of women’s rights between 1850 and 1914. Curtis, a writer, public speaker, and a leader of the Republican Party, delivered the speech at the Constitutional Convention of New York on July 19, 1867. 

• Jacobi, Mary Putnam, M.D., The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation:  The Boylston Prize Essay of Harvard University for 1876.  New York:  Putnam,  ca. 1877

Victorian-era medical texts warned that too much activity would harm a woman’s reproductive organs and result in birth defects in children. It was also believed that women’s anatomy made them susceptible to hysteria, insanity, and criminal impulses. Women, therefore, often turned to medical guide books—many written by female physicians—instead of male physicians. This area of medicine was considered the domain of female doctors simply because they were not thought capable of handling more serious medical problems. Dr. Jacobi argued against the traditional recommendation that women be confined during menstruation and advised that they continue to go about their daily lives.

• The Ballot Box.  Toledo, OH:  Vol. 1, No. 10, January 1877

               Sarah R. L. Williams was a member of the Toledo Woman’s Suffrage Association and was also on the board of directors of the Toledo University of Arts and Trades.  She edited this nationally distributed paper that sought to bring attention to the fact that “women are taxed without representation; governed without their consent; treated as perpetual minors and their most sacred rights ignored.”

• Pancoast, S. (Seth), M.D.  The Ladies' New Medical Guide:  An Instructor, Counsellor and Friend in all the Delicate and Wonderful Matters Peculiar to Women, Fully Explaining the Nature and Mystery of the Reproductive Organs in Both Sexes—Love, Courtship, Marriage, Pregnancy, Labor and Childbirth.  Philadelphia:  J.E. Potter & Co., 1880 

One of the early guides for women that dealt with all aspects of marriage and sex.  Dr. Pancoast stressed the importance of good health and physical exercise for women so that they would be able to fulfill their roles as wives and mothers. The book included a frank discussion of medical concerns affecting women.  It also included detailed anatomical drawings printed in color.

• Adams, W.H. Davenport, Woman’s Work and Worth in Girlhood, Maidenhood and Wifehood.  Chicago:  Rand, McNally & Co., 1884

The cult of true womanhood that defined the ideal American woman in the nineteenth century was built on four characteristics:  piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.  This new concept of womanhood arose with a new middle class built on an industrial economy.  While men ventured out to earn money, women stayed at home in the private sphere where they took charge of running the home and raising the children.  Davenport’s work perpetuated these ideas by encouraging women to be dutiful wives and mothers, and it included stories of women such as Florence Nightingale as exemplars of self-sacrificing ideals. 

• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins.  “The Yellow Wallpaper.”  New England Magazine, January 1892

               In this late-nineteenth century story, based on her own experiences with Dr. S. Weir Mitchell’s “rest cure,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote about a new mother suffering from depression.  Instructed to abandon her intellectual life and avoid stimulating company, she sinks into a still deeper depression invisible to her husband.  Alone in the wallpapered nursery of a rented house, she descends into madness.  This original periodical appearance is extremely rare.

• Sangster, Margaret E.  Winsome Womanhood:  Familiar Talks on Life and Conduct.

New York:  Fleming H. Revell Co., 1900                
Margaret Sangster was a poet, editor, journalist, and a novelist.  She served as a war correspondent and columnist for the Christian Herald magazine.  From 1889 to 1899, she was also editor of Harper’s Bazaar.  Despite her active life, she was opposed to the women’s rights movement and firmly believed in the cult of true womanhood until her death in 1912. Winsome Womanhood provides guidance for women of all age groups and, like most women’s manuals of the time period, extolled the virtues of the “the ideal Christian woman” who is “serene, tender, and full of charm.”

• Equal Rights:  Official Weekly of the National Woman’s Party.  Vol. 1, No. 23, July 21, 1923

               After women received the right to vote, the National Woman’s Party continued its advocacy in many areas, but especially supported the passage of an equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  This issue of their newspaper summarized their legislative successes of the previous two years.  The Canaday Center preserves a nearly complete run of Equal Rights, from 1923 to 1954.

Sunset House Records, MSS-125

• First Annual Report, 1873

A home for elderly and retired women in Toledo, the Sunset House began as the Home for Friendless Women in 1872.  Its founding mission was to improve “the moral, spiritual, mental, social, and physical welfare of the homeless or friendless women in our midst,” defined in its first Annual Report in 1873 as widowed women, “deserted wives,” and the “sick and broken down.” Sunset House became a retirement home in 1889. 

Toledo Woman’s Suffrage Association Records, MSS-091

• Minute Book, 1903-1927

The Toledo Woman's Suffrage Association was founded in 1869, one of the earliest chapters of the national organization. Sarah Bissell, one of its founders, was an associate of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  The organization was active until 1915, when it merged with the Political Equality League. The last meeting of the group occurred in the home of Pauline Steinem, grandmother of feminist Gloria Steinem. 

Cummings-Zucker Center Records, MSS-130

• Minutes of the Trustees of the Luella Cummings Home for Girls, 1914-1922

               Originally founded as the Girls Protection Agency in 1913, the organization changed its name in 1914 to the Luella Cummings Home for Girls following the death of Luella Cummings, one of its chief advocates.  The home provided academic schooling, vocational training, and socialization instruction to troubled girls between the ages of 14 and 18.  Girls were referred to the home either by the Juvenile Court or by other social service agencies.  The emphasis was to provide the security and skills needed for the girls to become self-sufficient and successful.  In 1981, the organization merged with the Ralph L. Zucker Center, a comprehensive service for children with emotional and behavioral problems.  This first minute book outlines the mission of the Cummings home. 

Small Manuscripts Collection, MSS-23s

• Commercialized Prostitution Survey, 1934

In 1934, the Toledo Sanitation Commission and the mayor’s office hired an anonymous man to investigate the problem of prostitution in Toledo. The survey describes 81 encounters with prostitutes, pimps, and madams in bars, burlesques, and “social” clubs.  Significantly, it provides rare documentation of this subject.  Because the survey was conducted during the Depression, it also exposed the difficulties that some women faced in their efforts to support themselves during a period of economic hardship.

Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women, Administrative Files, UR 87/70

• Publications, 1970s-1990s

The Eberly Center began in 1977 as the Women’s Advisory Committee, which had concerns about the status and treatment of women in the UT and Toledo communities. It was renamed in 1980 as the Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women after one of its first advisory board members and a member of the UT Board of Trustees, who was tragically killed in a car accident. The center offers services and programs including counseling, refresher courses, and scholarships, as demonstrated in these examples from the collection.

Betty Morais Papers, MSS-183

• Brochures and Awards, Planned Parenthood of Northwest Ohio, 1989-1993

Passionate about women’s and family health, Betty Morais became Executive Director for Planned Parenthood of Northwest Ohio in 1976. During her tenure, the agency began offering clinical care to outlying areas and expanded services to include diagnosis and treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases, HIV-AIDS testing and counseling, and prenatal and post-partum care. Morais retired in 1993 but continued working as an activist. She won numerous awards for her service, including recognitions from the ACLU and YWCA.

Jan Waggoner Suter Papers, MSS-059

• Publications of Toledo LGBT Organizations, 1975-1986

Jan Waggoner Suter taught mathematics at UT’s Community and Technical College for 17 years. From 1975 until his death in 1986, Suter was active in the Toledo gay community, and collected information pertaining to gay organizations in the city and surrounding areas.  Much of it was from the major gay organization in Toledo at the time, the Personal Rights Organization. Other Toledo-focused LGBT material included in the Suter Papers relates to Dignity Toledo, a Catholic organization; Toledo Gay Community Center; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition; and the UT Gay Student Association, in which Suter played an instrumental role. Some examples, in the form of brochures and newsletters, are included here.

Kurt Erichsen Papers, MSS-293

• Murphy’s Manor Cartoon Strip, 1982-1992

Originally from Coos Bay, Oregon, Kurt Erichsen moved to Toledo in 1979.  Although employed as an engineer, he is also a freelance cartoonist, writer, and artist for multiple comic strips and other art. Most of Erichsen’s professional cartooning has been for the gay press, including stories and illustrations for Gay Comix, Meatmen, Instinct Magazine, and Fairy Flicks. His most memorable and lengthy work is the Murphy’s Manor series in which he developed numerous characters from the city of Black Swamp, Ohio. The stories about Murphy date back to 1982 and are noted for their gay themes and protagonists. 

David’s House Compassion Records, MSS-188

• Signed photograph of Jeanne and Ryan White

Ryan White became the face of HIV/AIDS discrimination in the mid-1980s due to his expulsion from middle school following his diagnosis and a lengthy legal battle that ensued over the action. He became a national spokesperson for AIDS research and education, and shortly after his death in 1990, Congress passed the Ryan White Care Act, a federally-funded program for individuals living with HIV/AIDS. David’s House Compassion, founded in 1989, was the only residential treatment facility for persons living with HIV/AIDS in Northwest Ohio.  It also provided education and counseling services until its closure in 2004. 

Toledo-Lucas County Health Department Collection, MSS-323

• World AIDS Day and HIV Informational Posters, 1997, n.d.

Examples of materials produced at the local and state level that promoted HIV/AIDS awareness.

Caesar’s Showbar Collection, MSS-317

• Photographs of Entertainers, ca. 1980s-2010

               Caesar’s Showbar operated at various locations in downtown Toledo for over three decades.  The club featured drag queen performers, and was popular with a diverse clientele. 

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Creative Expression Collections

Rare Book Collection

• Quintilian.  Institutiones Oratoriae.  Venice:  Jenson, 1471

               This incunable was produced by Nicolaus Jenson, the French-born Venetian printer.  Jensen used his graceful Roman type modeled on classical letter forms for the first time in 1470, only a year before this appeared.  An incunable is a book printed before 1501.

• Thoreau, Henry David.  A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.  Boston:  Ticknor and Fields, 1862

               This copy is the second issue of the first edition and first printing of this important Thoreau work.  The rare volume was made from unbound copies of the 1849 edition purchased from Thoreau by Ticknor and Fields.  The publishers supplied a new title page with their imprint dated 1862.  The volume is part of a collection of Thoreau works donated to the Canaday Center in 1995 by the family of Samuel T. Wellman II. 

• Twain, Mark.  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  New York:  Charles L. Webster and Co., 1885

               This is the first American edition of Twain’s most important work that includes 174 illustrations by E.W. Kemble.  Copies of this edition are scarce and valued by collectors.

• Lull, Ramon.  The Order of Chivalry.  Translated from the French by William Caxton.  Hammersmith: The Kelmscott Press, 1893

               William Morris was the father of the Arts and Crafts movement.  At a time when cheap machine production dominated, Morris wanted to show people the beauty of handcrafted items.  In 1891, he began a revival of fine printing at his Kelmscott Press.  Kelmscott books were often bound in vellum, and illustrated with woodcuts.  They also reflected a medieval look.

• Des Imagistes.  An Anthology.  London: The Poetry Bookshop; New York:  Albert and Charles Boni, 1914

               Ezra Pound created the Imagist poetry movement, which would have a profound impact on modern poetry.  He edited this anthology of his fellow Imagist poets, including H.D., William Carlos Williams, James Joyce, Amy Lowell, and others.  This is a first edition of this important work in the history of modern poetry.  The Canaday Center preserves an impressive collection of works by Imagists. 

• Eliot, T.S.  The Waste Land.  Richmond, Surrey, England:  Hogarth Press, 1923

               Perhaps Eliot’s most famous work, The Waste Land established him as the voice of a disillusioned generation.  Complex, the poem is known for its radical departure from traditional poetic forms.  This is the first English edition of the poem hand printed by Virginia Woolf and her husband at their Hogarth Press in Richmond, Surrey. 

• Faulkner, William.  The Marble Faun.  Boston:  The Four Seasons, 1924

               The Marble Faun is a collection of imitations of English pastoral verse.  Less than 70 copies of this edition are thought to exist because most were destroyed in a fire.  The Canaday Center’s extensive Faulkner collection was assembled by Ward L. Miner of Youngstown and purchased by UT Libraries in 1976.

• Welty, Eudora.  A Curtain of Green.  Garden City, NY:  Doubleday, Doran, and Company, 1941

               An anthology of short stories, this is the first book published by Welty.  It was turned down by four other publishers.  This edition was set from Welty’s own typescript, and subsequent editions changed significant portions of the text.  The Canaday Center’s extensive Welty collection was donated by the late William U. McDonald, UT professor of English and one of the foremost scholars of Welty.  This particular volume is signed by Welty. 

Flora Ward Hineline Papers, MSS-007

• Signed photographs of H.G. Wells, Orson Wells, and Katherine Hepburn, ca. 1940s

               Flora Ward Hineline started her career as a teacher before becoming a society page writer at the Toledo Blade.  With an interest in elevating the cultural life of Toledo, in 1930 she started the Town Hall Series, a lecture and performance series that brought in national and internationally known intellectuals and entertainers.  Events were held first at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Toledo, and later at the Town Hall Theatre that was constructed specifically for Ms. Hineline’s series.  The series brought many important individuals to the city, including Winston Churchill, Gertrude Stein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the three whose autographed photos are displayed here:  H.G. Wells, Orson Wells, and Katherine Hepburn. 

Ward M. Canaday Collection, MSS-072

• James M. Sessions, “Jeep at War” Advertising Campaign Watercolor, ca. 1945

This original watercolor painting is one of a series of works done by James M. Sessions for a post-World War II advertising campaign for the Jeep automobile.  The dramatic paintings emphasized the role of the Jeep in liberating Europe and the Far East.  The company used such images of how the Jeep helped to win the war to market the vehicle to the post-war civilian consumer.

Peter “Pete” Hoffman Collection, MSS-291

• Jeff Cobb Cartoon Strip, 1954, 1964, 1971, 1991

While a student at the University of Toledo, Pete Hoffman often lent his talents to the Campus Collegian, illustrating campus life and world politics with daily cartoons.  After graduation in 1941, he went on to contribute to syndicated newspaper strip cartoons like Steve Roper before securing his own strip.  Jeff Cobb appeared in newspapers in 1954 and entertained audiences with the adventures of an intrepid investigative journalist until 1978.  These items exemplify Hoffman’s talent and include not only his work on Jeff Cobb but on an educational feature, Why We Say, which explains the origins of words and phrases, and a series of cartoons he prepared for his fiftieth class reunion at UT in 1991. 

Department of Theatre and Film, Play Files, UR 86/79

• Production Art, UT Department of Theatre and Film, 1970s

The University of Toledo’s Department of Theatre and Film stages several productions each year using students both on-stage and behind the scenes.  These posters used to publicize productions were designed and hand painted by Ray Pentzell, professor of theatre.   Pentzell also produced set and costumes designs during his tenure at UT, including for The Scheming Lieutenant in fall 1978and Celebration in winter 1970. 

Adam Grant Papers, MSS-106

• Artwork of Adam Grant, 1977-2005

After surviving Auschwitz, Polish-born artist Adam Grant moved to the United States. He got a job working for the Craft Master Corporation, a Toledo-based paint-by-numbers company, and created their most popular kit, a version of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Grant continued to create his own art as well, and exhibited his works internationally until his death in 1992. Featured here are flyers for exhibits of Grant’s art as well as his 1977 painting Greatest Show.

Marie Bollinger Vogt Papers, MSS-149

• Choreography, Photographs, and Programs, Marie Vogt and the Toledo Ballet, ca. 1960s-1990s

Dancer and choreographer Marie Vogt founded the Toledo Ballet School in 1963. She served as the artistic director of the school for 55 years and brought ballets such as Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet to Toledo audiences. Her love of dance began in childhood, and Vogt produced, choreographed, and starred in the first performance of The Nutcracker in Toledo when she was a freshman in high school in 1939. The Toledo Ballet has become famous for its annual Nutcracker performance and has featured international dance stars such as John Kriza as guest performers. Although Madame Vogt stepped down as director of the Ballet in 1995, she established a tradition of dance instruction and performance in Toledo.  Featured in this exhibit are a handwritten page of choreography, photographs of Vogt, and programs from performances of The Nutcracker.

Jamie Farr Scripts, MSS-024

• Scripts for “M*A*S*H”, October 25, 1978; August 8, 1980

              

Toledo native Jamie Farr won international fame with his recurring role as Corporal Klinger on the hit television show M*A*S*H.  Farr depicted the cross-dressing enlisted man who tried to convince his superiors he was mentally ill so that he could receive a discharge from the Army.  In the show, Farr often made mention of his beloved hometown, Toledo.  In the 1978 script, he speaks fondly of his favorite hotdogs from Tony Packo's.  In the 1980 script, he wears a Toledo Mud Hens shirt.  In 1983, Farr donated his M*A*S*H scripts to the Canaday Center. 

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Sports and Recreation Collections

Rare Book Collection

• Beecher, Catharine E.  Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families.  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856

               Catharine Beecher promoted physical fitness for women.  She campaigned for a school curriculum that included calisthenics, and this volume included drawings of appropriate exercises for men and women.

• Porter, Luther H.  Cycling for Health and Pleasure:  An Indispensable Guide to the Successful Use of the Wheel.  New York:  Dodd, Mead and Company, 1896

               Bicycling became a craze in the United States in the late nineteenth century.  This book taught the basics, including suggesting “cycling costumes” of bloomers for women to provide for safe peddling.

• Frymir, Alice W.  Basket Ball for Women:  How to Coach and Play the Game.  New York:  A. S. Barnes & Company, 1928

               Basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1892.  That year, it was played under modified rules by the women at Smith College.  This book, one in a series of books written to instruct women on how to play particular sports, includes the fundamentals of the game and photographs showing young women on the court.  This volume is signed by the author.

Harold Anderson Collection, UM 9

• National Invitational Tournament Scrapbook, 1941-1942

               Harold “Andy” Anderson was appointed part-time basketball coach at The University of Toledo in 1934.  During his amazing career, he developed many exceptional players, including Bill Jones, Charles “Chuck” Chuckovits, Al Alvarez, and Bob Gerber.  In eight seasons, his win/loss record was 142-41.  In December 1941, the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association invited UT to play in the National Invitational Tournament in Madison Square Garden.  UT won in the quarter finals over Rhode Island, but lost in the semi-finals, and the consolation game.  Still, the tournament brought the university’s team national attention, including a photo spread in Life magazine.  Unfortunately, even after the tournament, UT would not give Anderson a full-time contract, so he left to coach at Bowling Green State University.  He was so successful and popular there that BGSU named its basketball arena Anderson Arena.  This scrapbook documents the exciting few days when the national spotlight was on the Rockets playing in the NIT. 

University of Toledo Archives

• University of Toledo Athletics Memorabilia, 1923, 1950, 1952, 1967, 1993, 1995

The University of Toledo has had an intercollegiate athletics program since the students petitioned for one in 1915. The first football team was formed in 1917, with the basketball team close behind. The program progressed quickly and today the Rockets, so named in 1923 by a writer for a local newspaper who thought the name reflected the team’s style on the playing field, comprise fifteen sports competing at the NCAA Division 1 level and even more club sports.  The University of Toledo Archives documents its athletic history through photographs, programs, media guides, and artifacts, as demonstrated by these items, which include photographs of early football games and men’s and women’s basketball, as well as football and basketball programs and media guides from the 1960s and 1990s. 

• Football signed by “Red” Grange, October 5, 1928

Grange was appearing at the Rivoli Theatre downtown while injured and unable to play for the Chicago Bears during the 1928 season when he signed this football for the university. 

Rocky the Rocket Costume, UR 14/10, ca. 1970s
Rocky emerged as The University of Toledo’s mascot as a personified depiction of a real rocket during the 1966-1967 season, making his first physical appearance in the fall of 1968. The costume has seen many changes since this wastepaper basket with a pointed rocket top made of papier-mâché. This costume is actually pieces of multiple Rocky renditions. The helmet is older than the spats and shields. 

Ron Spilis Collection, ARF-208

• UT Football Uniform, 1948

This football helmet and cleats were donated along with several other pieces of football gear by the family of Ronald Spilis, University of Toledo Class of 1953.  Spilis played back and fullback during his time as a Rocket. The leather helmet was phased out in the late 1940s and early 1950s to make way for the safety helmets used today. 

James Van Orden Collection, MSS-290

• Toledo High School Football Programs, 1925, 1947

One of the most popular traditions in the United States, high school football enjoys as much success and support in Toledo as anywhere else. These programs display iconic images of competition among Toledo’s local high schools. 

• Mud Hens Memorabilia, 1979, 2004, n.d.

The Toledo Mud Hens baseball team was founded in 1896.  The team left Toledo in 1955, but in 1965 a new team was formed with the same name.  By the 1970s, the Mud Hens had gained national attention, thanks mainly to Toledo native and actor Jamie Farr, who was a Mud Hens fan and mentioned the team often on the popular television show M*A*S*H.  Today the Mud Hens are a farm team for the Detroit Tigers, play their home games at downtown Toledo’s Fifth Third Field, and are a major attraction for Toledo natives and visitors alike. These artifacts represent decades of Toledo Mud Hens spirit. 

Toledo Turners Records, MSS-103

• Turnfest Program, 1937

The Toledo Turners, a local chapter of the national German culture organization, encouraged fitness through club programming focused on sports, especially gymnastics.  A prominent event sponsored by the Toledo Turners was the Turnfest.  Sometimes referred to as a “Physical Culture Revue,” the Turnfest was a gymnastics festival that demonstrated how the Turners valued physical fitness. 

Dana Corporation Inc. Records, MSS-242

• Photographs, Hayes-Dana sports teams, 1930s

These photographs depict employee baseball and hockey teams at Hayes-Dana plants in Ontario, Canada. Hayes Wheel manufactured wheels for horse-drawn carriages from 1908 until 1929 when Charles Dana rescued Hayes from financial trouble and the company started making Spicer U-joints.

Joseph Scalzo Papers, MSS-083

• Correspondence, Program, and Photographs, 1962 Amateur Wrestling World’s Championships, 1961-1962

               In 1962, Toledo wrestling coach Joseph Scalzo brought the world to Toledo with the Amateur World’s Wrestling Championships, which were held in the Field House at The University of Toledo.  Wrestlers from 28 countries—including from the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc—participated in the championship, one of the first sports tournaments in the Cold War era to include these athletes.  The tournament included both freestyle and Greco-Roman style wrestling.  In a letter to Scalzo, Dr. Albert de Ferrari expressed his excitement about the event.  A telegram dated just a few days before the event indicated that East German wrestlers would not be allowed out of their country to participate. 

Ability Center of Toledo, MSS-190

• “Recreation—Something for Everyone” Article, 1999

This newsletter article from 1999 proudly proclaims that recreation is “something for everyone,” regardless of ability. The Ability Center, with its focus on teaching independent living skills to persons with disabilities, offers programs in adaptive recreational activities for persons with physical disabilities.

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