The subway and street improvements photograph collection is truly a wealth of historic information about the city of Cincinnati in the first half of the 20^th century. As with most cities, many of the streets and avenues are named for the founders and prominent families who helped establish the city, as well as important statesmen such as presidents, governors and military heroes. Cincinnati has her fair share of these, with the city directories reading like a “Who’s Who” of Cincinnati’s political, cultural and economic development, with street names such as Ludlow, Symmes, and Patterson, St. Clair, Gamble and Ault, Anderson, Findlay and Wade, among others.

Gamble Street, named for industrialist James Gamble, of Proctor & Gamble.

Ludlow Avenue, named for Isaac Ludlow who surveyed the original plat for the town of Losantiville (Cincinnati) in 1788.

St. Clair Street, named for Arthur St. Clair, first Governor of the Northwest Territory.

One street even bears the original name of the city, “Losantiville,” as it was called when first founded in 1788 by Israel Ludlow, Matthias Denman, and Robert Patterson. The name was changed in 1790 to “Cincinnati” by Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory. A general in the Revolutionary Army, St. Clair was a member of the Society of Cincinnati, an association of Revolutionary War officers.

Losantiville Avenue, original name of Cincinnati when first founded in 1788; the name was derived by Mr. John Filson as a combination of the letter ‘L’ for ‘Licking’, the Latin word ‘os’ meaning ‘mouth’, the Greek word ‘anti’ meaning ‘opposite’, and the French word ‘ville’ meaning ‘city’, ‘L-os-anti-ville’, referring to the location opposite the mouth of the Licking River.

The original plat of the town, as surveyed by Israel Ludlow in 1788, was established on a grid extending in a north-westerly direction from the Ohio River, across from the mouth of the Licking River. Streets that extended to the north from the riverfront were given names such as Walnut, Vine, Sycamore, Elm, or Plum. Streets that extended east-to-west, parallel with the river, began with Water Street, then Front Street, then were given a numerical numbering beginning with Second, Third, Fourth, and increasing numerically as they extended north from the river.

(Source: http://www.worldmapsonline.com/historicalmaps/1W-OH-CI-1838.htm)

As the city expanded outward, other names were derived from a variety of sources, including the names of other cities, such as Marietta, Trenton, Dorchester, Salem, Oberlin, Philadelphia, Lucerne, and Lancaster, to name just a few. In the downtown area, street names often reflected the types of business being conducted, including Commerce, Canal, and Court Streets, Hatter’s Alley and Cathedral Alley.

A variety of names were used throughout the city with some reflecting the terrain, such as Rapid Run, Duck Creek, Overlook, Straight, Red Bank, Hillcrest or Spring, while others were more abstract, such as Arrow, Eastern, Grand, Sunset, Three Mile, or Winter. As mentioned in a previous blog, some streets have either changed names since they were first established or no longer exist, such as Laurel Street, Columbia Avenue, Carthage Pike, Front Street, and Lockport Avenue.

Rapid Run Road, Mar. 27, 1929 (left) Burr Oak Street from N. Edgewood (right)

Turkey Bottom Road, Aug. 21, 1940 (left). Warsaw Street, Oct. 19, 1938 (right)

Hatter’s Alley, west from Walnut Street, May 22, 1934 (left), Hatter’s Alley, looking east from Race Street, May 22, 1934 (right)

Glancing through the old Farnsworth and Williams’ Cincinnati Directories, which have been scanned and are available online through the Virtual Library site of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, one can quickly see how the streets and avenues of Cincinnati have been aptly named to recognize and promote the distinguished history of the city. The earliest available of these directories was published in October, 1819 by Oliver Farnsworth and provided readers with historical sketches of the city and surrounding areas, “the most ample history of the original settlement, rise, progress and present importance of Cincinnati and its neighborhood, that has yet appeared.”  The directory also contained “the names, profession and occupation of the inhabitants of the town, alphabetically arranged; with the number of the building occupied by each. Also, an account of its officers, population, institutions and societies, public buildings, manufactures, &c. with an interesting sketch of its Local Situation and Improvements.” Both the Farnsworth and Williams’ Street Directories have proven to be an invaluable resource for identifying dates and locations of unidentified photographs based on visual clues contained within the images.

Sources:

http://www.worldmapsonline.com/historicalmaps/1W-OH-CI-1838.htm

http://virtuallibrary.cincinnatilibrary.org/virtuallibrary/vl_citydir.aspx

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cincinnati,_Ohio

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

The students participated in fun and interactive activities such as writing on the information chalkboard, watching a video about the Student Technology Resources Center (STRC), located library resources in the catalog, and taking a walking tour of the 5th floor of the library where they found a book in the stacks and learned about UCit@Langsam, the 24-hour computer and study area.

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Gregory H. Williams became the University of Cincinnati’s 27th president when he took office in September 2009.  Among more than 100 applicants for the position, he was selected in part because of his outstanding work in transforming the City College of New York, where he served as president before joining the UC.  Williams received national acclaim for his book, Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black (New York, NY: Dutton, 1995).   Over a decade later, he still received feedback from his readers while serving as the president here at UC. The memoir was his way of telling the world about struggling with poverty and acceptance during his youth and dealing with his biracial identity in Muncie, Indiana at a time when segregation was still highly overt in the United States.   The book also brought to life other family issues such as alcoholism and abandonment.  Throughout his account, he told the story of a normal childhood that spiraled into one of torment, welfare, and segregation, and then how he made the best of it.  Williams became the star quarterback of his high school’s football team, excelled in college to earn four degrees, and worked his way up in higher education system until he became president of College City of New York from 2001-2009 and then president of the University of Cincinnati from 2009 to 2012.

The Archives and Rare Books Library recently added all of Gregory William’s speeches from his UC presidential tenure (Accession Number UA-13-10).  This collection, dating from September 2009 to August 2012, includes quite a variety of speeches.  As is the case with many leaders of high-profile universities, Williams rarely had a day when he did not give one or more speeches (he also rarely had to eat alone, as there are over a hundred events he hosted or partook in that were held over brunch and dinners!).

The speeches include faculty senate meetings, award ceremonies for different faculty and departments here at the University of Cincinnati, interviews with the Cincinnati Enquirer, visits to high schools in Cincinnati, community and business groups, educational organizations, and even occasional luncheons with the students.  For example, included is the first page of his keynote speech at a fundraising event called the “Night on the Serengeti” that helps support Village Life, a program supported by UC faculty and students that assists Tanzania in developing its healthcare, education, and housing systems:

This Williams collection complements the holdings found in the Archives & Rare Books Library that documents the tenures of all UC presidents.  A finding aid for the collection is available on the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository.  To learn more about the University Archives, please visit ARB in 808 Carl Blegen Library, email us at archives@ucmail.uc.edu, telephone us at 513.556.1959, or visit us on the web at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/index.html.

Updated monthly, the Sanford Guide provides health care professionals with comprehensive, evidence-based, point of care treatment recommendations for bacterial, fungal, mycobacterial, parasitic, viral and retroviral infections.

Navigate the entire Sanford Guide collection with just one click using the menu structure.

Access the Sanford Guide directly or find it under Core Resources on the home pages of the Pharmacy Resource Guide and the Biomedical Resource Guide .

Oh, the things you can find when you go to an auction.  Even the typical items that you find for sale, such as books, sometimes contain a surprise for the unsuspecting buyer.  That’s exactly what happened to Linda Sheets of Jonesboro, Indiana when she bought a box lot of books and discovered a University of Cincinnati tuition receipt dated October 1, 1917.  The strip of paper has yellowed with age, and fortunately Ms. Sheets realized it might have historical value for UC, and was kind enough to share her discovery with the Archives and Rare Books Library.

Jordon Alcott, the student from the 1917-1918 academic year, probably thought that $63.50 in tuition for one semester here at the university was expensive.  That total comes from a $5 library fee, $50 for tuition to the College of Liberal Arts, a $ 1 registration fee, $2.50 fine to use the gymnasium, and a $5 contingency fee.

To put that into perspective, let’s look at tuition from the 2012-2013 school year.  One term at UC’s uptown campus was $5,392, and that is not including resident hall costs, program fees, or mandatory health insurance if you don’t carry your own.

What a difference 96 years make in the cost of attending college.  Then again, the majority of working- class America in 1917 only made between $1,000 and $2,000 each year, so $63.50 every term would not be very cheap to the students of that time.  That amount would be about 19% of their annual income  and that is only if they were working full time during autumn and spring semesters of school.

In 2012, the working individual in Ohio made an average of $40,471 for the year.  With modern day school costs, about 27% of a full-time, average wage earner’s income would be going towards tuition.  Even taking inflation into consideration, school fees have still increased.

Another very interesting part of this receipt is the statement at the top: “Do not lose this receipt.  It must be shown to Instructor when requested.”    No lecture freeloaders allowed here!  For a broader view of what UC campus life was like during that year, have a look at the 1918 Cincinnatian, one of the digitized University of Cincinnati yearbooks available from the Libraries.

Next time you go to an auction and buy a book that catches your eye, make sure to take a look inside to see if you find a surprise, too!

Sources:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/17soirepar.pdf

http://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20111101/bci_data/median_income_table.htm