October is Archives Month. Archival Services photograph of the Goodyear Moon House was one of the images selected for the Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA) Archives Month Poster. Each year the SOA decides on a theme for the upcoming poster and Archives from around the state submit photographs or documents. Members of the SOA select their favorite images and the Poster committee selects the top three to five images to use in designing the poster.
The Society of Ohio Archivists Archive Month poster has been released. The theme was “Ohio in the First World War.” Institutions from across the State submitted images from their collections relating how Ohioans dealt with the War to end all Wars. Vic Fleischer, Head of Archival Services submitted two images. 35 images were voted on by members of the Society of Ohio Archivists. Our image of Mary Gladwin and the Red Cross Staff in the Belgrade, Serbia along with two other photographs are featured in the poster. The Top photograph on the poster is from the Mary Gladwin Papers. Mary is the woman in the center of the photograph dressed all in white.
Archival Services, a division of University Libraries, recently partnered with the Summit County Historical Society, the City of Akron, and the Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau to curate an exhibit on Ray C. Bliss and past Republication National Conventions. Bliss, University of Akron alumnus and namesake of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, was Ohio state and national chairman of the Republican Party for many years. He is best known for helping to rebuild the party after the failed Barry Goldwater campaign of 1964 and getting Richard Nixon elected president in 1968.
Ray Bliss at the Republican National Committee Podium
The exhibit, titled “Mr. Chairman: Ray C. Bliss and the RNC,” uses historic photographs, documents, and artifacts to recount the life and legacy of Ray Bliss. It also showcases a variety of interesting memorabilia from past Republican National Conventions selected from the Ray Bliss Papers in Archival Services, including signed documents by Nixon, Eisenhower, and other party leaders. It coincides with the 2016 Republican National Convention, which will be held in Cleveland this summer. The exhibit will be on display now through the election on the fourth floor of the Ohio Building at 175 S. Main St. (now King James Way) in downtown Akron. It is free and open to the public during the building’s normal business hours, which are Monday thru Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The Ray C. Bliss Papers and other resources on local and regional history are available by visiting Archival Services located in Room LL-10 of the Polsky Building. Public hours are Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm.
For more information please visit our website at http://www.uakron.edu/libraries/archives.
As The University of Akron Football Team heads to Boise this week to take part in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, it is only appropriate to take a look back at past UA bowl appearances. The first bowl game the Zips appeared in was the 1968 Grantland Rice Bowl, named after popular early 20th-century American sportswriter Grantland Rice. The game took place on December 13, 1968 in Mufreesboro, Tennessee. The Zips, who went 7-3-1 that year, met the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, who were also making their first bowl appearance. To read more.
Due to positive response the showing of the Goodyear Airship films has been moved to the Taylor Institute room 567 on the 5th floor of the Polsky Building.
Archival Services of University Libraries at The University of Akron will be hosting a public showing of three historic airship films on Friday, October 23, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. in Archival Services, Polsky Building, Room LL10. The original films, which are part of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Records in Archival Services, were transferred from their original nitrate motion picture stock to safety film and digitized thanks to a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. The films, which are now publicly available for the first time, include footage of the construction, christening, and operation of the U.S.S. Akron (ZRS-4), a U.S. Navy rigid airship that was once called “the largest, strongest aerial creature ever fashioned and flown by man.” The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis. For directions and parking see http://www.uakron.edu/libraries/archives/about/directions.dot.
October is Archives Month, a time to increase the general public’s awareness of archival materials and archival repositories. This year, the Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA) selected the theme “Both Local and Global: STEM Activity in Ohio.” Read More
The University of Akron Archival Services, a division of University Libraries, recently commemorated the Civil War Sesquicentennial by digitizing and making available online over 200 rare letters from its collections that document the War Between the States. For details, view the article.
The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) recently awarded The University of Akron Archival Services, a division of University Libraries, a $13,440 grant. The grant will be used to transfer four one-of-a-kind motion picture films of the airship USS Akron from The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Records from nitrate-based film stock onto safety film and to provide access copies for public viewing. For details, view the article.
The University of Akron Archival Services, a division of University Libraries, is pleased to announce that the exhibition on the photography of Opie Evans at the Dr. Shirla R. McClain Gallery of Akron’s Black History and Culture has been extended until early November. For details, view the article.