Treasures in Black & White: Historic Photographs of Cincinnati opens April 25
CINCINNATI – A century’s worth of black and white photos from Cincinnati Museum Center’s collections will provide a window into the Queen City between 1860 and 1960. Look through the photographer’s lens and revisit images that document Cincinnati’s neighborhoods, architecture and people over a century of change and progress in Treasures in Black & White: Historic Photographs of Cincinnati.
The exhibit combines over 60 images with historical artifacts, archival materials and other visual media from Museum Center’s collections to bring this period of Cincinnati’s history to life. The exhibit will take you from the Cincinnati Zoo to Coney Island, from the aftermath of the Civil War to the end of World War II and from the Miami-Erie Canal to the city’s flooded streets.
The photographs will bring to mind memories of places, people or events that will resonate with guests as they take a visual history tour of Cincinnati. “We want this exhibit and these photos to resonate with people in a personal way, whether it reminds them of their childhood, a story their grandparents told or just embodies to them what Cincinnati truly is,” says Scott Gampfer, director of the History Library and Archives. “The Museum Center has such a vast collection of historic photos and objects and so many stories to tell. The Treasures series gives us an opportunity to highlight our collections and share some of those stories.”
Some of the objects featured in the exhibit are a charred newel post from the 1884 courthouse riots, a 1890s camera and tripod, Rookwood pottery pieces, commemorative plate and medallion from Charles Lindbergh’s visit to Lunken Field and Ruth Lyons’ scrapbook signed by Liberace.
Treasures in Black & White is part of “Cincinnati Remembers World War I,” a citywide series of community events commemorating the centenary of the First World War and anticipating Cincinnati Opera’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night in July 2014. For more information, please visit www.cincinnatiopera.org/WWI.
The city’s activity in World War I will be documented within the exhibit through several photographs and artifacts, including a soldier’s uniform from the war and the Croix de Guerre awarded to Maria Clinton Herron. The Croix de Guerre, a military decoration awarded by France to its troops or allies for heroic deeds, was bestowed on Herron for her work with the YMCA during World War I. Herron’s citation recognized her refusal to leave the area during an enemy bombardment and for volunteering to serve in a military hospital close to the front lines in June 1918.
Treasures in Black & White is presented in partnership with FotoFocus and is the third installment of Cincinnati Museum Center’s Treasures series. The Treasures series is an opportunity for the Museum Center to display items from its rich and vast collections that include both historic and scientific objects as well as manuscripts and photographs.
The exhibit opens April 25 and runs through October 12, 2014. Admission to the exhibit is free for Members. Admission for non-Members is included with a Cincinnati History Museum ticket or All Museums Pass. For more information and to buy tickets visit www.cincymuseum.org or call (513) 287-7001.