Thanks to a generous donation from Anthony Graybosch, The Archives and Rare Books Library now has in its holdings a collection of philosophy books from Van Meter Ames’ private library.  Van Meter Ames was a faculty member in the UC philosophy department, beginning in 1925, and served as its head from 1959 until 1966 when he retired.  Many of the books in this collection have Ames’ annotations, notes, and article clippings in them, as well as correspondence between Ames and fellow philosophers or friends.

Having no personal connection to Ames, Anthony Graybosch came to possess this collection of books in 2002 upon the passing of Kent Tiedeman, his philosophy department colleague at California State University-Chico.  Tiedeman, born in San Fransisco, studied philosophy with Ames at the University of Cincinnati in the early 1960s, receiving both an MA and a PhD.  As evidenced by many of the bookplates found in this new collection, Ames gave Tiedeman a substantial collection of his personal holdings in July of 1968 (2 years after Ames’ retirement from UC).  As Graybosch is now nearing his own retirement at Chico, he sought a proper home for these valuable items and found one in ARB.  With ARB already holding the Van Meter Ames Papers, this new collection is a perfect complement.

Most of the books in this collection were written by or about American philosophers.  Santayana, Hook, Dewey, Mead, and James are all included in this collection and all seem to be of particular importance to and influence on Ames.  To the right is Hook’s, American Philosophers at Work.  The end paper of this book (far right) was inscribed from Hook to Ames in 1958 and speaks about their friendship and the memories they shared in Japan.  A postcard from Hook to Ames that was inserted in this book is pictured below.  It is addressed to Ames in Tokyo.

If a book was not a gift from a friend, such as the one above, Ames often wrote his name, the date, and the city in which he received and/or finished the book.  An example of this is illustrated in Ames’ copy of Mead’s Mind, Self, and Society, pictured below.  Here you can see Ames’ notes on Mead’s writings, in addition to pages Ames seemed to think were of special importance.  Hence, this collection would be of interest to anyone who is curious about the development of Ames’ philosophy.

By studying what ideas Ames made note of on the end papers or in the book margins, what he underlined in the text, or what authors or subject themes continually recur throughout his book collection, one can ascertain a sense of Ames’ philosophical interests.  Additionally, information about his personal life can be garnered via the locations and dates associated with each book, as well as any correspondence contained within it.  For example, also included in Mead’s Mind, Self, and Society, was this envelope addressed to Van Meter Ames in Cincinnati and stamped Nov. 9, 1970.  (Note that the original date associated with the book was Jan. 16, 1935; Texas).  Does this mean that Ames had revisited the book in his later years?  Or had he pulled this book back out because the letter writer mentions Mead?  While we may never know definitive answers to such questions, all materials contained within any given book have been left in that book for the sake of provenance.  Rather than removing materials from a book and organizing them into separate folders, we have kept all materials in the books as they were delivered to us.  This organizational scheme will hopefully be of more use to researchers.

If interested in this collection, one can browse the finding aid available on the OhioLink Finding Aid Repository, which is an alphabetized bibliography of Ames’ books.  If a name, date, or personal message, was inscribed on the endpaper of any book, it has been noted in the bibliography.  Additionally, a note was made if any article clipping, correspondence, etc. was inserted into the book.  To view the contents of this collection, please call or e-mail the Archives and Rare Books Library to schedule an appointment.   To view information about our previously processed Van Meter Ames papers, see the blog entry on that collection.

Further, while the majority of this new collection centers on American philosophy and Van Meter Ames, it is curious to find other connections to the University of Cincinnati.  For instance, in William James’ Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, the book plate and signature of Raymond Walters is present.  Anyone interested in Walters’ past, will be pleased to know that ARB holds a collection of his diaries and his records as president of UC.

A new Records Update is now available on the Records Management Program website. Records Update is released periodically to convey timely information between publications of Records Quarterly. This issue offers “Records in the News” stories found in the media and legislative action taken in March and April.

As reported in the Spring 2013 Records Quarterly article, “Public Records: Your Rights and Responsibilities,” Ohio’s public records laws are dynamic and are continually being tested in Ohio’s courtrooms. Ohio courts decided seven public records cases in March and April and there are currently six open cases in front of the Supreme Court of Ohio. In a case close to home, on April 24 the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled that lease terms and rents between Findlay Market private management company The Corporation for Findlay Market and its tenants are trade secrets and are not open to disclosure under the public records act. In 2010, Kevin P. Luken requested copies of lease agreements from The Corporation for Findlay Market and ultimately from the City of Cincinnati. While he received the agreements, terms and rents were redacted from the released documents and cited as trade secrets. Luken initated a mandamus action against the parties, which resulted in the recent decision.

The Findlay Market decision and more are available through this issue of Records Update.

One of the favorite pastimes of children in the 1920s and 1930s was roller skating, which is evident from the many pictures in this collection of kids with the four-wheeled contraptions strapped to their shoes. Invented in 1760 by Belgian Joseph Merlin, roller skates continued to evolve in style, functionality and popularity for the next 170 years, with the version found in our images among the most popular and affordable of the period.

I had mistakenly considered roller skates as a 1950’s phenomenon, until I came across the article “History of Roller Skating in the United States” on the Planet On Wheels website, where I learned the invention of roller skates dates back to 1760. Much earlier, although not as early as the ice skate which, according to the same article, boasts a 3,000 B.C. date of origin based on artifacts discovered in Switzerland! Similar in style to the ice skate was the inline roller skate, first invented by Monsieur Patibledin of France in 1819, a streamlined design that fell out of favor, but become hugely popular again in the 1990s.

While there were varying styles of roller skate available in the mid-1800s, it was American businessman James Plimpton of Massachusetts who, in 1863, invented the first 4-wheeled roller skate with a wheel base that allowed smooth turning, referred to as a “rocking” skate. The clamp-on skate was introduced at about the same time by another Massachusetts businessman, E.H. Barney. The clamp-on style was popular because it could be attached to any shoe, and adjusted to fit by loosening or tightening a screw on the bottom of the skate. If you have ever heard the term “skate key,” this was the device used to loosen and tighten the adjustable skates.

http://insideflipside.com/images/
0000267a.jpg

http://insideflipside.com/images/
rollerskatewithskatekey3(1).jpg

Other advances in skate design included the addition of a “break” – at first simply a metal screw that was affixed to the heel of the skate. Later, in the 1950s, the toe stop became the popular breaking mechanism for roller skates. Similar to the toe pick of an ice skate, it was a rubber pad attached to the toe of the skate which slowed the skater as it was drug on the ground.

A once avid roller skater, I was surprised to learn of the long and varied history of the roller skate. (Yes, I admit it; I spent the majority of my childhood summers rolling along the sidewalks of Lancaster, Ohio with best friends Cindy and Angi. Some days we headed west down Main Street hill to Beiter & Flege Drug Store, other days it was east down Main Street hill to Risch’s Drug Store – both still had working soda fountains in the back and we had a few odd cents burning holes in our pockets! The brick sidewalks, raised in spots by tree roots and lowered in spots by age, were our ready-made obstacle course and by 6^th grade, we were pros at navigating them.)

The children of Cincinnati, boys and girls alike, also enjoyed roller skating as part of their outdoor play. Whether out in the suburban neighborhoods or downtown, kids could be found roller skating from place to place using the clamp-on style of skate that was the most available at the time. The shoe skate, a boot with roller skate wheels attached to the base, were available at the turn of the century, but were more costly and generally worn by professional skaters. They were often considered unsanitary, but became the skate of choice at roller skating rinks around the country when the fad took off in the early decades of the 20^th century. Patrons could “rent” a pair of shoe skates at the rink if they did not bring their own.

The technology of the roller skate continued to advance as new materials became available for skate construction. Different styles of skating evolved, including roller dancing, skate races and “polo skating” took on popularity and skating rinks were becoming the place to be seen. Indoor and outdoor roller skating rinks continued to open across the country and in the 1930s, the first skating association was formed by a group of skating rink owners, known as the Roller Skating Association (RSA). The 1928-1929 Williams Cincinnati Street Directory lists the Reichrath’s Park Roller Rink at 3722 Spring Grove Avenue. The 1929-1930 directory lists the Palace Gardens Skating Rink on Beechmont Avenue east of Wilmer Avenue, as well as Reichrath’s Park Roller Rink. Other directories from the 1930s list both the Reichrath’s Park Roller Rink and the Palance Gardens Skating Rink.

But it was the introduction of disco in the 1970s that gave roller skating its biggest boost in popularity. According to the Planet On Wheels article, over 4,000 roller discos opened around the country, with numerous movies being made that featured roller skating as either a main or supportive theme, such as the 1980 hit “Xanadu” with Olivia Newton John.

Roller skating is still a popular pastime in Cincinnati, with several roller rinks still in business. Family-owned for 25 years, The Skatin Place is located in northwestern Cincinnati; to the north, there’s Skatetown in West Chester, the Fun Factory in Norwood and Sports Plus Ice and Roller/Inline Skating Rink in Sharonville, and on the west side is Western Rollarama near Covedale. One outdoor roller rink is available during the summer months at Sawyer Point downtown. Ready! Set! All skate!

Sources:

http://www.planetonwheels.com/store/History-of-Roller-Skating.html#.UXqIGfLeiwE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_skating

http://www.usarsarollerskaters.org/

http://www.mooreamy.com/evolution/evolution.htm

http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/story/a-brief-history-of-roller-skating/

This project is funded by a grant for $60,669 through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Ohio.

Cincinnatians who drive along Columbia Parkway from downtown to the eastern suburbs know the parkway for its breathtaking scenic views of the Ohio River below. But these commuters also know the danger of driving along this parkway after a quick, heavy downpour or a prolonged period of rain-drenched days.

The hillside embankment along the parkway, cut at a steep angle when the road was constructed in 1938, is well known for becoming unstable after heavy rainfalls, causing mudslides that leave debris strew across the roadway as it passes over the low retaining wall at its base. One of three major urban projects undertaken by the city during the 1930s, nearly half the cost of the parkway was paid for by a grant from the Works Project Administration. In 1929, the city of Cincinnati passed an ordinance to upgrade and expand the existing road, which at that time was named Columbia Avenue and was a simple dirt and gravel road that meandered above the Ohio River eastward from downtown.

The concept of a parkway boulevard to replace Columbia Avenue was originally conceived as part of the city’s master plan designed by George Kessler in 1907, which included the many parks and boulevards located around Cincinnati. The plan included extending Columbia Avenue further out to the eastern suburbs, connecting residents in the eastern suburbs to downtown by way of a scenic boulevard.

While the views were spectacular, and the new road a much more enjoyable driving experience, the engineers failed to take into account the terrain and the angle at which the hillside was cut. This oversight, as well as a retaining wall that was built too low to hold back the debris which regularly slides down the embankment, resulted in a major hazard for parkway drivers which continues to this day.

Other roadways around Cincinnati have experienced their share of mudslides and other shifts in the terrain, such as the landslides caused by subway construction along McMicken Avenue in the mid-1920s (see the Dec. 10, 2012 blog, Accidents Happen). These areas were stabilized, but slides continue on a regular basis along Columbia Parkway and too-date, the city’s Transportation and Engineering Department has no long-range plans to rectify the Columbia Parkway landslide issue. Mudslides are simply dealt with on a case-by-case basis, usually resulting only in lane closures until the hillside is deemed stable. Clean-up while the ground is still saturated could result in additional sliding, so debris is generally left where it lands until a point when the area is considered safe.

Many editorials and reports have been written on the Columbia Parkway landslide issues. The U.S. Geological Survey is even sited in one article, listing Hamilton County as having the “highest annual per capita landslide damage in the nation” with some $500,000 spent each year for emergency clean up in Cincinnati.

Sources:

http://www.ohiovalleylandslides.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/rdbldg.pdf

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120106/EDIT01/301060028/Editorial-Mudslide-planning-mired-silence

This project is funded by a grant for $60,669 through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Ohio.

UC Libraries will host a special reception to celebrate the installation of one of the most extraordinary urban maps in the Western world in the Archives & Rare Books Library. The reception will take place from 3-5 p.m., Monday, April 22, in the Reading Room of the Archives & Rare Books Library, located on the 8th floor of Blegen Library.

At first glance, you’d know this is not a map that could be folded and stored in your car’s glove compartment. Taking a closer look, it’s not only the size of the map that is stunning, but also the artwork, its history and its journey to its new, permanent home in the Reading Room of the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Books Library. “It is a valuable research tool as well as an outstanding work of the printing arts,” says Kevin Grace, head of the Archives & Rare Books (ARB) Library.

The 6-foot-10-inch by 13-foot linen map of 18th century London – all 84-and-a-half square feet of it – is a gift from Keith Stewart, professor emeritus of English, and his wife, Elizabeth. The couple first discovered the map while browsing in an Oxford, England, bookshop in the late 1950s, when Keith was on sabbatical for a year in England.

The surveyor of the map, John Rocque, began publishing in the 1730s. “From 1751, he styled himself topographer to the Prince of Wales, and from 1760 to the King,” says Stewart.

“A geographer colleague has told me that it suggests a good deal about urban land use – the locations and number of churches, for instance, the identification of spaces with other contemporary activities such as rope making, ship building, bowling, gardening and so on. For someone interested in 18th century literature, it is a Garden of Delights,” Stewart wrote, in an essay about the map.

The Stewarts described the highly detailed map of contemporary 18th century London as handsomely engraved, with a classically designed border around the edges, when they fell in love with it in that Oxford bookshop.

“It was a bit like falling in love in love with an elephant, which with the reassertion of practical realities became rather quickly transformed into an albatross which was to hang about our closets for nearly 40 years,” Stewart shared in the essay about their find.

How were they going to haul it back to London, let alone the United States? They decided to carefully cut it in half in the bookstore. It survived, in good shape, the trip to London, the trip to Cincinnati, a move to two houses in Clifton, where there wasn’t a wall large enough to show their beautiful treasure, and a move in the mid 1990s to a condominium, where they could finally showcase it on a wall.

J. Keith Stewart

But first, the map needed some restoration. Stewart first fueled his interest in preservation when he took a course on book conservation that was offered by the Library Guild (now called the Friends of the University of Cincinnati Libraries) under UC Libraries’ book conservator Virginia Wisniewski (now deceased). The workshop resulted in Stewart working more than 10 years of volunteer service at UC’s Conservation, Binding and Processing Department.

As they planned the restoration of the map, armed with encouragement and advice from that department as well as the paper conservator at the Cincinnati Art Museum, the couple built a team that could mend, restore and repair the map to its former glory, first mounting it on two stretchers that painters would use to mount their canvasses.

After the couple moved out of East Walnut Hills more recently, they decided their beloved “elephant” needed a permanent home and a permanent display area. That’s when the map made one more journey to its permanent home in the reading room of the ARB Library.

Once again, the “elephant” was divided in half to get to the ARB Library and to undergo more repairs that were supervised by the Preservation Lab. Located in Langsam Library, the Preservation Lab is a collaboration between UC Libraries and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The formation of the lab was supported by a one-year, Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant awarded to the Public Library and the State Library of Ohio. The grant supported the purchase of equipment and supplies that have been used in the map’s restoration.

Preservation of the map was overseen by Holly Prochaska, head of the lab and preservation services and head of the UC Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library, and Kathy Lechuga, conservator for the Preservation Lab. Prochaska says that advice and guidance on framing the massive map was also provided by experts at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

The canvas was once again removed from the stretchers, and then surface-cleaned and repaired. To further preserve its condition, a massive piece of Plexiglass now covers the linen. The map is now enclosed in a massive, oak frame. The framed piece is estimated to weigh around 250 pounds. Climate control and lighting in the library will further protect the map so that it can be researched and admired by library visitors.

UC’s 18th century British literature collection is described as one of the finest in the country, and Grace says that Stewart, who passed away on April 4, was instrumental in building the collection before his retirement. “The collection includes everything from poetry and plays to biographies, fiction and homiletics – sermons in 18th century British literature – and he built a great deal of our rare book collection in that area,” says Grace. “We had this wonderful literature collection and now with this map, we can see exactly where it came from.” Stewart made an additional donation of 18th century books about London when he donated the map to the library.

“This is also an incredible urban artifact, which is why it is such a complement to our urban campus,” says Grace. “Now, it can be on display forever.”

UC Archives & Rare Books Library

UC Preservation lab

Proudly Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Libraries

This article was copied from the UC News website.  The original article is available at:  http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=17617