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Western Reserve Historical Society Digital Collections
Show moreA collection of 46 open reel and one tape recording of WRUW-FM's radio program "Gay Waves". The program covered news and events effecting the gay rights movement.
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Show moreMaterials from the Great Lakes Exposition of 1936 and 1937, including postcards, photographs, objects, video, panoramas, programs, and audio The GREAT LAKES EXPOSITION of 1936 and 1937 provided Clevelanders with relief from the dreariness of the Depression and helped them celebrate the centennial of Cleveland's incorporation as a city. The exposition was the idea of Frank J. Ryan and Lincoln G. Dickey, the city's first public hall commissioner. Mall A was the site of the Sherwin-Williams Plaza at the Great Lakes Exposition of 1937. Dudley S. Blossom became chairman of a civic committee that contributed $1.5 million to transform the idea into reality. Built on land extending along the lakefront from W. 3rd St. to about E. 20th St., the 135-acre exposition also incorporated the Mall area, Public Hall, and Municipal Stadium. Work began in Apr. 1936, and in just 80 days the exposition opened to the public on 27 June 1936 for a 100-day run. Among the attractions which drew 4 million visitors to the lakefront that year were a "Streets of the World" district that featured 200 cafes and bazaars reminiscent of the countries they represented, a midway with rides and sideshows, a Court of the Presidents, a Hall of Progress, an Automotive Bldg., an art gallery, a Marine Theater, and horticultural gardens. The 1937 season opened on 29 May with a new attraction which became its most popular feature: an Aquacade that featured water ballet shows and starred Eleanor Holm and Johnny Weismuller. By the time the second season came to an end on 15 Sept., nearly $70 million had been spent by approximately 7 million exposition visitors over the 2 years. The only vestiges of the festival remaining in 1995 were the Donald Gray Gardens directly north of the stadium. [source: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History]
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Show moreThis collection contains copies of original 16mm films (positive prints) of the National Air Races as well as general aviation-related events taken during the period 1928-1939 which are held by held by the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. A substantial portion of the original footage was produced by Warren S. Weiant II of Newark, Ohio. Weiant operated Weiant Gardens, (a greenhouse vegetable business) and Weiant Aircraft Sales, both located in Newark. Weiant had a passionate interest in aviation which is reflected in the films he shot. In addition to footage shot by Weiant, the collection also includes film of the National Air Races produced by the Standard Oil Company of Ohio and the Ohio National Guard. Warren S. Weiant II’s son, Warren Swift Weiant III (1928 -2012) donated his father’s films to the Historical Society. These copies of his father’s films and other footage of the National Air Races have been prepared in his memory. The digital transfer of the film was done by the staff of the Kelvin Smith Library of Case Western Reserve University as part of a cooperative program with the Western Reserve Historical Society. The National Air Races began in 1920 and by the 1930s had become a major public event comprised of closed-course pylon races, most notably the Thompson Trophy Race, cross-country derbies, and a variety of aviation-related exhibitions, both flight and static. Cleveland first hosted the races in 1929. The city remained the primary locus for the event (with the exception of 1930, 1933, 1936 and the war years, 1940-1945) until 1949. The footage reproduced in this collection records notable figures of aviation during the 1920s and 1930s including Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart, James Doolittle, Roscoe Turner, Louise Thaden, Wiley Post, and Ernst Udet as well as aviation technology of the period including lighter-than-air craft, (US Navy blimps and rigid airships and the German Graf Zeppelin); notable production aircraft such as the Ford Trimotor, and the Lockheed Vega; racing aircraft including the Weddell-Williams, and the Travelair; and a variety of military aircraft including the Curtiss Hawk. The digitization of some of these films was done in memory of Warren Swift Weiant III (1928 -2012) who donated his father's aviation films to the Western Reserve Historical Society
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Show moreManuscripts Relating to the Early History of the Western Reserve, 1795-1869, was the first collection of manuscripts to be assembled by the Western Reserve Historical Society, and its provenance is closely intertwined with the circumstances of the institution's founding. Chiefly responsible for the acquisition of the materials comprising the collection was Charles W. Whittlesey, the Society's first president. According to the Society's second annual report (1869), Whittlesey assembled the collection from a variety of different sources and by several means: he purchased the papers of the Connecticut Land Company under the authority of the Cuyahoga County commissioners, solicited accounts and original manuscripts from early settlers and their descendents, and added documents that he and some earlier enthusiasts had gathered as their own personal collections. Prominent among these latter additions were the materials collected by John Barr and Leonard Case for an earlier, failed historical society.
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Show moreWWII: Up Front & Personal presents the collected oral histories of Clevelanders about their experiences during "the good war" both at home and abroad, and includes personal keepsakes—photographs, documents, letters, and ephemera—to complement their narratives.
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