Preface

The Cleveland Heritage Program was born out of the conviction that the city of Cleveland possesses unique qualities worth capturing in pictures and words. In designing the program, Professor Thomas Campbell of Cleveland State University and I were prompted less by a desire to evoke nostalgia than to retrieve fugitive material for the benefit of scholars whose work will help us to understand how and why our city is what it is. If the uses of history are to serve the present generation, then the Cleveland Heritage Program has done its work well.

Funded primarily by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the program was carried on over a two-year period from 1981 to 1983. Important supplementary grants were made by the Cleveland Foundation, the George Gund Foundation and Nathan L. Dauby Fund. Also, the Cleveland Heritage Program greatly benefited from the cooperation of the following institutions: the Cleveland Public Schools, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cuyahoga Community College, WVIZ TV and the College of Urban Affairs of Cleveland State University.

Under Professor Campbell and his many able assistants, diligent research recovered valuable artifacts, photographs and oral histories relating to several of Cleveland’s neighborhoods. The fruits of that scholarship are preserved in publications of the Cleveland Heritage Program. Dr. Edward M. Miggins has prepared and edited The Birth of Modern Cleveland, 1865-1929: The People and Neighborhoods of Cleveland, 1865-1980; and A Guide To Studying Neighborhoods and Resources on Cleveland. Matthew Browarek, a librarian on the staff of the Cleveland Public Library, has developed a bibliography of the Library’s books and materials that pertain to Cleveland.

Because the Cleveland Public Library is integral to the history of the city, the Library’s sponsorship of these printed materials partially redeems our obligation to be faithful to our heritage and to insure that those who follow us do not forget those who preceded us.

Dr. Ervin J. Gaines

Director of the Cleveland Public Library