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- Case Western Reserve University Special Collections
- Kelvin Smith Library
Kelvin Smith Library
Show moreCorrespondence, laboratory notes, patent information, litigation records, financial material, newspaper clippings, company records, scientific articles, biographical information, photographs, audio recordings, and artifacts pertaining to the life and work of Charles F. Brush Sr.
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Show moreDigitized volumes of the Cleveland Bystander, a monthly publication which covered social and cultural news from Cleveland's high-society residents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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Show moreThis collection consists mainly of photographs, publications, correspondence and memorabilia related to the life, career and travels of African American Jazz musician Frank O. Etheridge (1897-1967). Etheridge was instrumental in the globalization of American jazz and pop music during the 1920s, performing internationally with legendary artists such as Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, and Cab Calloway. He documented his experiences in the unpublished manuscript "A Study in Black and White" (1943) and authored "What Became of Race Prejudice?"(1942, four editions), as well as numerous poems, songs, essays, and articles.
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Show moreThe Fred H. Colvin Collection consists primarily of correspondence, clippings, typescripts and photographs documenting the history and development of the machine tool industry and to his career as an editor, author and co-author in the fields of technical writing, poetry and history.
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Show more"The collection consists of manuscript letters of Hart Crane, his published works, reviews and critiques of his poetry, biographies of his life including the literary manuscript of ""Voyager:A Life of Hart Crane"", by John Unterecker and the notebooks and paintings of Cranes’ friend, Cleveland artist, William Sommer. American poet Hart Crane was born in Garrettsville, Ohio, on July 21, 1899, the only child of Clarence and Grace Hart Crane. He moved with his family to Cleveland in 1908 and attended Cleveland public schools through the eleventh grade. In 1916, at the age of 17, Crane left school in Cleveland and moved to New York to strike out on his own as a poet and writer. From this point on, until his death in 1932, Crane lived in a number of different places including Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles, Isle of Pines, France and Mexico. He supported himself with a variety of writing jobs and publication of his poems, gifts from patrons, allowance from his family and a Guggenheim fellowship. His major work, The Bridge, is a mystical synthesis of America which connects the country’s past, present and future. For this poem Crane received the Helen Haire Levinson Prize in 1931. While returning from a Guggenheim fellowship in Mexico in April, 1932, Crane lept to his death from the deck of the S.S. Orziba."
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Show moreDr. Howard Garber, who donated the materials in the Howard J. Garber Letter Collection, is a former Clevelander and alumnus of Case Western Reserve University. Between 1979 and 1993, Dr. Garber donated over 2,000 autograph letters, documents and books to the Kelvin Smith Library Special Collections. Dr. Garber's interest in history, particularly British royalty led to his affinity for collecting manuscripts.
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Show moreThe Karamu House Archive consists of digitized records that document the history and administration of the institution. The collection includes office files, photographs, printed material, audio and video recordings, programming brochures, scripts and performance production files.
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Show moreA recipient of the 1974 Cleveland Arts Prize, Kathryn Karipides was not only responsible for the creation of vibrant and powerful dance productions, but along with choreographer Henry Kurth, Karipides’ founded, in 1969, the Dance Theatre of Kathryn Karipides and Henry Kurth, a dance company that became “the most important modern dance company in Cleveland.” Karipides was a well-respected teacher at Case Western Reserve University for 42 years, retiring in 1998, as Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Professor Emerita of Humanities; and staying on as an influential administrator, becoming Associate Provost in 2006 before her retirement. Photographs, programs and video recordings, 1970-1976; 1978-1996; 1974-1998
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Show moreThe Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland Archive is the institutional record of the organization and the contemporary artists whose work has been curated for exhibit in their galleries. The archive consists primarily of administrative office files, artist files, exhibition files, reports, exhibit catalogs, publications, clippings, audio visual materials and marketing materials.
The Museum of Contemporary Art(moCa) - Cleveland was founded in 1968 by Marjorie Talalay, Nina Sundell and Agnes Gund as The New Gallery to showcase contemporary art and introduce it to Clevelanders with the works of cutting edge artists such as Christo, Jasper Johns, and Laurie Anderson. In 1974, the New Gallery became a non-profit, and in 1984, changed its name to Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art. In 2002, the organization’s name was changed to Museum of Contemporary Art (moCa) Cleveland.
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Show moreThe Performance Art Festival (PAF) was held annually from 1988-1999 in Cleveland, OH. The largest event of its kind, PAF attracted artists from around the world. Interested artists applied to be in the festival, sending materials which included a videotape that in some way related to their proposed work. Jurors evaluated the work based on artistic merits, cost, and feasibility. Created and collected by festival founder Thomas Mulready, the PAF Archive was donated to Case Western Reserve University in 2015.
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Show moreThe KSL Special Collections Roman Coin Collection consists of 325 bronze and silver Roman coins mainly from the 2nd through 4th centuries CE, with additional specimens from the Greek, Hellenistic, and Modern worlds. The coins range from Roman Imperial issues to local provincial issues mainly from Antioch, Syria (modern Antakya, Türkiye), with other geographies also represented. The collection is currently being digitized, with an expected launch in June 2025.
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Show moreThe SPACES Archive is the institutional record of the organization and of the artists whose work has been curated for exhibit in their galleries. The archive consists primarily of administrative office files, artist files, exhibition files, reports, exhibit catalogs, publications, clippings, audio visual materials and marketing materials.
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Show moreThis collection consists primarily of manuscript material, print items, photographs and artifacts related to the history of telegraphy. Of note are a large sample of individual telegraphs, photographs of telegraphers and their equipment, catalogs and instruction pamphlets and artifacts such as telegraphers identification buttons and pins, transmitters, commemorative and promotional mementos and toys.
Cleveland-based entrenpreneur, inventor, collector and philanthropist, Thomas F. Peterson, Jr. was executive vice president of Preformed Line Products Company as well as founder of Motion Picture Sound, Incorporated, which provided audio services for the film industry. Peterson filed for his first patent for a perpetual calendar at 13 and continued to patent inventions and publish in peer-reviewed journals for decades
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