Online Exhibits at Cleveland Memory: PEOPLE, LIFE & CULTURE
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Annals of Cleveland: A Depression-Era Project of the WPA
Annals of Cleveland staff summarized and indexed material in order to preserve and make readily accessible the detailed record of a city's life and culture as contained in its newspapers. The project provided jobs for unemployed white-collar workers during the Depression of the 1930s and created an important record of early life and thought in the city of Cleveland from 1818-1935.

Cleveland's First Infrastructure: The Ohio & Erie Canal
When the first section of the Ohio & Erie Canal opened on the Fourth of July 1827, a reliable passage became a reality for persons and products traveling between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. This event eased the uncertainty with which Ohio settlers lived, and redirected the course of cities and towns along its route. At the time, the Canal was hailed as a "vast and magnificent undertaking" by John Kilbourn writing in 1828, during a time when the field of civil engineering was "becoming of great importance to mankind, both in a pecuniary and political point of view..."

Fenn College On-Line
On September 1, 1965 Fenn College became Cleveland State University. This site, our vision of what an early Fenn College Web site might have looked like had the Internet been around in the 1960's, is in recognition of the many contributions of Fenn College and its graduates to the Greater Cleveland community.

Mystery Photo Album from the 1890s
This is a small photo album that we recently acquired from a dealer. We know nothing about it, except what it discloses about itself: namely that it covers territory south of Cleveland, Ohio -- in the Kent/Akron area along the Cuyhoga River, Ohio & Erie Canal and nearby towns -- and that the photos were shot around 1897. If you know this area well, you might be able to help pinpoint the locations of the photos better and perhaps even solve the mystery of who the family is, shown in these photos. Any documented information will be added to the site.

Postcards of Cleveland
Dr. Walter C. Leedy, Jr. began his comprehensive collection of Cleveland postcards, now numbering nearly 8,000 in earnest in 1989. Leedy realized the unique value picture postcards could have to him as an architectural historian, permitting him to observe the changing urban environment, or to visually recreate what a neighborhood looked like. As Leedy puts it, "I don't really collect postcards-I collect images of life, moments in time. Nostalgia glues people to postcards. There is something intimate and direct about them. As an art historian, I think of postcards as a vehicle to introduce art to the millions-people aren't intimidated by postcards the way they might be by paintings or other "fine" art."

Yesterday's Lakewood
Lakewood, Ohio occupies 5.6 square miles along the southern shore of Lake Erie. Named for its natural setting along the lake, its development was closely tied with that of Cleveland. This illustrated history begins with photographs taken in 1930 along the Nickle Plate railroad tracks, and shows streetscapes north and south of the tracks through Lakewood.