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Virginia Hamilton was an author who was born in Yellow Springs in 1934, living and writing here for much of her life. She referred to her works as “Liberation Literature.” focusing on the struggles and journeys of African Americans. Hamilton published more than forty books in a variety of genres, including realistic novels, science fiction, picture books, folktales and mysteries. Some of her most beloved titles include The House of Dies Drear, M.C. Higgins the Great, Her Stories and The People Could Fly. Her books have had a profound influence on the study of race throughout American history, the achievements of African Americans, and the ramifications of racism. Hamilton received numerous awards for her writing before passing away in 2002. Her work is enshrined at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield Connecticut in 1811 and moved to Cincinnati in 1832 when her father, prominent Congregational minister Lyman Beecher became the pastor of the city’s Second Presbyterian Church and president of Lane Theological Seminary. Married to Calvin E. Stowe in 1836, she bore six of the couple’s seven children while living here. Life in the city provided Stowe with the firsthand accounts about the evils of slavery. Already a published writer, she drew upon these experiences and the death of her infant son Charley in 1849 to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Published in book form in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin almost single-handedly popularized the cause of anti-slavery, made Stowe famous, and remains an icon of the American anti-slavery movement. A prolific writer, she wrote a book a year for nearly thirty years of her life. After moving from Cincinnati in 1850, the Stowes lived in Brunswick, Maine, Andover, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut, where she died in 1896.
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The Stearns and Foster Company was co-founded by George S. Stearns, one of the founding fathers of the City of Wyoming, and Seth Foster. Family-owned for 139 years, the company saw the nation through three wars and the Great Depression. A few of its contributions to public service include-donating mattresses and drinking water to area residents during the great flood of 1937 and devoting nearly 80% of its resources to the war effort during World War II. In 1911, the company was one of the first to volunteer under what is now known as the Workman’s Compensation Act and offered life insurance to employees free of cost in 1914. The Stearns family contributed greatly to the City of Wyoming, serving on boards and commissions and helping make possible its first church, library, and high school.
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Built in 1832 by Robert and Elizabeth Cary, Cary Cottage was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Two of the Cary children, Alice and Phoebe, became well-known poets. Their works include reminiscences of Ohio. William Procter purchased Cary Cottage and the surrounding land in 1903 to help Florence and Georgia Trader achieve their vision of establishing Clovernook Center for the Blind. Cary Cottage became the first home in Ohio for blind women. Clovernook Center for the Blind offers rehabilitation and employment to individuals who are visually impaired.
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Public markets housing butchers, fish merchants, and produce vendors were once the primary source of perishable foods for residents of America’s cities. Cincinnati operated nine in 1859. Only Findlay Market, built here in 1852, survives. Cincinnati’s lost indoor markets include: Fifth Street Market: 1829 to 1870, Fifth between Vine and Walnut Wade Street Market: 1848 to 1898, corner of Wade and Bauer Avenue Canal Market: 1829 to 1864, Court between Vine and Walnut Court Street Market: 1864 to 1914, replaced Canal Market Jabez Elliott Flower Market: 1890 to 1950, Sixth between Elm and Plum Sixth Street Market: 1895 to 1960, Sixth between Plum and Western Row Pearl Street Market: 1901 to 1934, Market between Sycamore and Broadway
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Ohio’s oldest surviving municipal market house, Findlay Market was designed under the direction of City Civil Engineer Alfred West Gilbert (1816-1900). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The structure was among the first market houses in the United States to use iron frame construction technology. Originally an open pavilion, much of the market was erected in 1852, but disputes with contractors delayed its opening until 1855. The center masonry tower was built in 1902. Soon after, public health concerns prompted enclosure of the market stalls and the addition of plumbing and refrigeration. Until then, vendors found cool storage in deep cellars beneath nearby breweries. The tower bell was brought from Cincinnati’s Pearl Street Market in 1934. Findlay Market was renovated in 1973-74 and again in 2002-03.
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Albert B. Sabin developed the oral, live-virus polio vaccine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Research Foundation, where between 1939 and 1969, he conducted his most significant research. His vaccine has nearly eradicated the dreaded “infantile paralysis” that killed or maimed millions of children. Dr. Sabin, who considered Cincinnati his home, made many other significant medical discoveries here, particularly in the area of tropical diseases. Presidents and royalty worldwide honored him, including President Bill Clinton who said he was “one of the great heroes of American medicine.” His numerous awards include the U.S. National Medal of Medicine (1970), Presidential Medal of Freedom (1986), Medal of Liberty (1986), and Order of Friendship among Peoples awarded by the President of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
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The first African American artist to achieve international acclaim, painter Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872) was born in New York and settled in Cincinnati in 1840. He pursued his artistic career during a time of tremendous racial prejudice and was acknowledged as the “best landscape painter in the West.” Arts patron Nicholas Longworth commissioned murals from Duncanson around 1850 for his home Belmont, now the Taft Museum of Art; these paintings are regarded as one of the finest pre-Civil War domestic decoration schemes in the United States. Sponsored by anti-slavery groups, he traveled widely during the 1860s in Europe. Duncanson rose above oppression to create expressions of African American cultural identity, leading the way for other people of color to pursue careers in the arts.
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