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Dr. Wilbur Henry Siebert (1866-1961) organized one of the most extensive historical collections on the Underground Railroad in the United States. Siebert served as a professor of history at the Ohio State University, 1893-1935. His collection on the Underground Railroad, housed in the Archives/Library of the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, contains diaries, books, letters, and newspaper accounts of the day, as well as reminiscences from the dwindling population of abolitionists and their families throughout the northern states. It also includes Siebert’s own manuscripts, images, notes, and correspondence relating to his research. Siebert published The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom (1898), an enduring classic on the subject, as well as numerous other books on the Underground Railroad in Ohio and elsewhere. His extensive research earned him recognition as the world’s foremost authority on the Underground Railroad.
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One of the most recognized figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902 and moved to Cleveland by the time he was in high school. An avid traveler, he credited his years at Central High School for the inspiration to write and dream. The consummate Renaissance man, Hughes incorporated his love of theater, music, poetry, and literature in his writings. As an activist, he wrote about the racial politics and culture of his day. He was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP. He published over 40 books, for children and adults. Known as the “Poet Laureate of the Negro People,” Hughes most famous poem is “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” Langston died on May 22, 1967, and his remains were interred beneath the commemoratively designed “I’ve Known Rivers” tile floor in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.
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On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union surprised the world with the launching of Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite. The Cincinnati Astronomical Society’s Moonwatch Team, organized in 1956 as part of its participation in the International Geophysical Year, was immediately activated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (S.A.O.). First observations of satellites were made December 15, 1957. On these grounds, from 1957 to 1964, the Cincinnati Moonwatch Team, principally under the leadership of Tom Van Flandern (1940-2009), spent thousands of man-hours optically observing and recording data to verify the positions of satellites in space. Many times the team compiled the best satellite tracking records in the world. Because of this work The Moonwatch Team and the Cincinnati Astronomical Society were recognized by the S.A.O. as one of its leading teams worldwide.
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James Norris Gamble, entrepreneur, industrialist, philanthropist and civic leader, is best known for inventing Procter & Gamble’s Ivory Soap, the “soap that floats,” in 1878. Applying a scientific approach, Gamble transformed P&G into a nationally recognized corporate leader and creator of consumer products for a rapidly growing America. Beyond P&G, Gamble financed early efforts to educate freed southern slaves as an original sponsor of the Freedmen’s Aid Society. Later, he underwrote civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune’s work to educate poor African American women. In Cincinnati, Gamble’s philanthropy included endowment of Christ Hospital and the founding of its Institute of Medical Research. Gamble funded completion of University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium in 1924 as a tribute to his late grandson.
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On April 29, 1879, using arc carbons from the forerunner of the National Carbon Company, the City of Cleveland was illuminated by the world’s first practical electric street lamp. The National Carbon Company was founded in 1886 and earned recognition for its lifesaving carbon-filtered gas masks for World War I soldiers and reentry parts for the spacecraft that captivated the nation in the 1960s. The company also received an Academy Award for its contributions to motion picture photography in 1956. At this location in 1956, The National Carbon Company opened its Parma Research Laboratory. This facility became global headquarters for GrafTech International in 2006. On the company’s 125th anniversary of pioneering innovation in advanced energy graphite material science, it owned nearly 800 patents and patent-pending applications.
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On April 29, 1879, using arc carbons from the forerunner of The National Carbon Company, the City of Cleveland was illuminated by the world’s first practical electric street lamp. The National Carbon Company was established in Cleveland, Ohio in 1886 by Brush Electric Company executive W.H. Lawrence in association with future Ohio Governor Myron T. Herrick, James Parmelee, and Webb Hayes, son of United States President Rutherford B. Hayes. Well known for its batteries, The National Carbon Company also earned recognition for breakthrough research and products, including lifesaving carbon-filtered gas masks used by soldiers in World War I and reentry parts on the spacecraft that captivated the nation in the 1960s.
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In 1915, Congress formed the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to coordinate aircraft research in the United States. The NACA built three research laboratories: Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (AERL), now the Glenn Research Center. Construction for AERL’s Cleveland, Ohio location began in 1941 in a field next to the Cleveland Municipal Airport used for parking during the National Air Races of the 1930s. The research campus’ roads followed the semi-circular pattern of the air races’ parking roads. Operations began in 1942 with Edward Sharp as the first director. In 1948, AERL was renamed the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in honor of George Lewis, NACA’s Director of Aeronautical Research for over twenty years.
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Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (1940-2015) and her son Sydney moved into this home in 1974. The artist, a visual historian, lived and worked here in the Shepard community until her passing. Raised in Columbus’s Poindexter Village and educated in the local public schools, Robinson also studied at Columbus College of Art and Design and The Ohio State University. Her art reflected stories handed down from her elders, experienced within her community, and the local history she researched while working at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. She received a 2004 MacArthur Award for her celebration of “family, ancestry, and the grandeur of simple objects in drawings, paintings, and large-scale, mixed-media assemblages.” (Continued on the other side)
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