Day Eleven, 900-1600, Total Time = 69 Hours 25 Minutes

I think that I am finally done compiling the data that I need to complete this project. Today I went through the lists that I have created of subjects and their results from the collections at CSU. Bill had asked me yesterday, “What is the scope of Akron that you want to cover?” At the time I did not have an answer to his question. Today I was going to take some time to determine what the scope was going to be, but this took a lot longer than I had anticipated. As I was going through my findings I found that the only direction that I had for the project was Akron. I had yet to put everything into a cohesive order. By sitting down and looking at all of my findings I was able to bring everything into an order and categorize everything into subject groups:

-The Rubber Years

-Transportation

-The City

-Places

-Events

These five subjects will aid me in picking the best pictures for the gallery. To insure that I have looked for everything Akron I went through some of the books that I borrowed from Akron Public Library last week. I did find that there was one major place that I missed up to this point; Polsky’s Department Store. This store is now a part of the University of Akron, much like most things in downtown, but it is still an important part of Akron’s history. As it turns out there is one picture of the building in the Cleveland Press Collection. To look for more search terms for Akron I looked through the Summit Memory website, but I did not find any more information. I have yet to receive any surveys back yet but I am sure that I will be receiving more soon.

Day Ten, 900-1600, Total Time = 62 Hours 25 Minutes

Today I worked on trying to finish compiling the data for my project. On last week’s post Bill had suggested to search in Cleveland Memory using the search terms that I had developed. This took up the better portion of the day. I did find some information on the rubber industry and some photos on the Goodyear Blimp, just to name a few items. These will be good photos to have to add to the Akron collection. I talked with Bill about the progression of the project and that I should begin to gather the collection to start the digitization process. He asked me today about the scope of the project and I had honestly not thought of it up to this point. I will be laying out for myself the scope of the project. This will include major aspects and minor aspects of Akron. I do not want to focus on just rubber and blimps I want to include things like Quaker Oats and Cascade Plaza. That is what led me to create a survey. I created this survey to help me make sure that I have not left anything out of my project. The search terms that I developed were on my perspective of Akron. The survey will help me to see others views of the city.

I also had the pleasure of talking with some members of the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society. They have most of their items on deposit here at CSU and they were up looking them over. I talked with them about other avenues of Akron that I could search to make my project complete. Scott suggested looking at old chamber of commerce records for a list of industries found within Akron. Previously he worked at the University of Akron and knows that the university holds many of the records from the camber. The members also suggested looking for a “Directory of Industries open to reciprocal switch”. This is a list that would be open to ship and receive goods from the railroad.

Day Nine, 900-1045 and 1200-400, Total Time = 55 Hours 25 Minutes

Today I started the day by stopping at the Akron Summit County Public Library Main Branch. I stopped there for two reasons; first was to pick up books about Akron and second was to talk to someone about the Akron Memory Project. I talked with Joanne O’Dell about my project here at CSU. I stopped out to make sure that I had searched everything that I could. We also talked about the metadata because I want to make sure that people searching for Akron they will be able to find all the available information, i.e. the Akron collection in Akron Memory and Cleveland Memory. Joanne suggested linking the Akron Memory website in the metadata. From our discussion it seems that I am moving in the right direction and she was more than happy to field any of my questions about Akron that I may have in the future.

After arriving at CSU I worked on two major things. The first thing that I did was to work on a timeline for the history of Akron. This will help me to put everything in order and have the project make sense to others when it is finally on the internet. Second was to search the other terms that Joanne had suggested. I looked for “marbles and polymers” to name a few. I also looked for articles by Helen Waterhouse but I did not find anything on any of the subjects. Though I did not find any new information I was happy to finish the timeline of Akron.

Day Eight, 900-1600, Total Time = 49 Hours, 40 Minutes

I had finished going through the collections yesterday and I talked with Bill today on what the next step will be. We talked about what I have found and how I went about researching the information. Bill suggested that I put together a short history of Akron, late 19^th through the 20^th centuries, not only for the project but to collect my thoughts also. I do not want to have all these items digitized and placed out of order or in a mixed up fashion. I had been using the internet to get information about Akron and Bill suggested finding a modern book on the history of Akron. He also suggested going to the Akron Public Library to talk with the people out there about the Summit/Akron Memory Project and ask if I was missing anything in my search. Even though this project is using the information found in Cleveland I do not want to leave anything out and the people working in Akron will be able to help. He also suggested talking with the librarians at Cleveland Public Library to see if they possibly wanted to add anything to the project. In regards to the Akron Memory Bill also suggested adding a link to the Summit County page so that it will be all inclusive. The project will aim for 150 photos. This is not a steadfast number but one to shoot for. There is the possibility to use some shots of Summit County if the usable photos fall short. Bill had given some suggestions as what kind of photos to conceder adding. They are looking for photos that tell a story, but also balancing with important photos that could be considered boring. I also went through the Cleveland Press articles for information about Akron, i.e. important events or buildings. I found a bit of information here but as of right now I am unsure what I will be using from here.

Day Seven, 900-1600, Total Time = 44 Hours 40 Minutes

Today I think that I have finished compiling the list of items that is held here at the special collections at Cleveland State University. Before I left last week I was talking with Bill and he informed me that there was a collection dedicated to Wilbur Watson. I found a finding aid for the Watson collection and there was quite a lot about the Akron Air Dock and the industry surrounding it. Today I also searched the American Memory Project and Ohio Heritage North East for information about Akron. A.M.P had more information than O.H.N.E. but most of it was about production during World War II in Akron. A.M.P. also had some photos of houses and the Air Dock. O.H.N.E. has information about Akron but it is very little and most of the pictures are held in Syracuse N.Y. Tomorrow I will talk with Bill about what the next step in the project will be. I am assuming that I maybe working on digitizing the information that I found, but I will find out tomorrow. There has been a lot of information found on Akron in this collection and I think that a possible focus on one or two major subjects that deal with Akron will help to narrow down the possibilities.

Day Six, 900-1600, Total Time = 37 Hours 40 Minutes

Today I continued to go through the Bruce Young collection, searching for anything that has to do with Akron. I started with railroads that ran through Akron, i.e. the B&O and Penn Lines. I found a couple of images of each but not a whole lot. I also found a few images that dealt with the old AB&O line. I searched in other categories to find information but these searches netted no results. The other topics I searched were; neighborhoods and suburbs.

Another search that I preformed was looking into streetcars in Akron. I saw that the Bruce Young collection had a large amount of pictures of streetcars so I first looked into what the streetcar company operated in Akron. The company went through many different names but finally in 1930 settled on Akron Transportation Company. I went to the file that was labeled “Streetcars A-CSS&CB”. The first file in the box was labeled Akron and it had many pictures of streetcars. Though streetcars had a relative short lifespan in Akron there were some good pictures showing O’Neil’s and the Mayflower Hotel. To me these pictures are more important in the story of Akron than the pictures of the streetcars.

Finally I went through a box labeled “Auto/Trucks, Airplanes, Blimps, Locomotives, Boats/Ships, and Misc. Streetcars”. The file that attracted me the most was the one labeled “Blimps”. This file had many different photos depicting the Goodyear Blimp, the Akron Air Dock, USS Macon, and the Graf Zeppelin. I did not expect to see this in the collection but it was a nice surprise. Between the Cleveland Press Collection and the Bruce Young Collection there are a lot of photos dealing with the aeronautics industry in Akron.

I realized that I have yet to provide the links to the docs that I have on Google Docs yet. They are as follows:

Search Terms:

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1PtKJth3Is5jbF4I-wjA5s5dSRbhgP_yqdIYiVP2EQLw&hl=en

Search Term Findings, Cleveland Press Only:

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1KpYNXrK7PjnCNPiNXKdiZM2vezmYxMW7kBuiSggX0fI&hl=en

Media List (Non Photos):

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1ZsfstFTyfK4miFfj4xVNKCvDuFAICGjShECzhutHyDo&hl=en

Bruce Young Collection 1:

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1WSKSLgW89O7pxJr-PMMa8Ju8lGpuTu7kz3aWuXlRoaA&hl=en

Bruce Young Collection 2:

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1pPjI0F3_XBwcKhrFh0LBmH5ISoyniLO5MRXIs1AaxpM&hl=en

Day Five, 900-1600, Total Time = 30 Hours 40 Minutes

Today I picked up from where I left off on Friday. I finished going through the catalog for the Special Collections dealing with print material, i.e. non-photos. I used the CSU online catalog and searched using the subjects; Akron, Summit County, and University of Akron. From the list I only wrote down the items that could be found within the Special Collections. I found not only books but maps, videos, and serials. I put everything that I found into a list that is now up on Google Documents.

Bill had the idea to look for railroads that did not just originate within Akron but ones that could have passed through Akron. So I looked for stops or lines from B&O Railroads, C&O Railroads, and Pennsylvania Railroads. While searching for information on these I also found that there is an Akron Barberton Cluster Railway that is a little more modern. In regards to the B&O line they had two parts that dealt with Akron; The Akron Sub-Division and The Akron Chicago Line. The C&O did not go far enough East to reach Akron so they had no lines and Pennsylvania Railroad had one line in Akron; The Akron Branch which ran from Hudson to Columbus. I did not see if there is any information about these at the library yet. I will probably get to it tomorrow.

As stated on Friday I was going to call the Pro Football Hall of Fame about the crowd picture. After three calls I was finally able to get in contact with someone there. I explained my situation to Jon Kendle and he asked to have the picture e-mailed to him. He said that he was going to look for a score book or program from the game and get back to me about it via e-mail. I have yet to hear from him.

Finally I started to go through the Bruce Young Collection. This is a well cataloged collection with a lot of pictures, negatives, and glass slides. I was able to get through a box that was labeled with Akron City and it had quite a few pictures from Akron taken in the 30's and 40's. I have not yet looked at all the railroad pictures that are in the collection, but I plan on doing that tomorrow. A valuable lesson that I have learned up to this point is deductive reasoning. What I mean is that some of the photos are not labeled, Bruce Young and Cleveland Press, and from my knowledge of Akron I had to figure out what the picture was showing and where in Akron it is located. Granted with some of the older photos I have not been able to figure out what they are showing but due to my seeing the sites of Akron I am able to figure out most.Today I picked up from where I left off on Friday. I finished going through the catalog for the Special Collections dealing with print material, i.e. non-photos. I used the CSU online catalog and searched using the subjects; Akron, Summit County, and University of Akron. From the list I only wrote down the items that could be found within the Special Collections. I found not only books but maps, videos, and serials. I put everything that I found into a list that is now up on Google Documents.