Cleveland Memory Donors

CUT collection donors, Gerald Adams and Bob Linsey
We are indebted to donors, like Gerald
Adams (L.) & Robert Linsey (R.), who have
made possible much of what you see here.

The historical materials held in the Special Collections of the Cleveland State University Library is the main source for the images and text used here in Cleveland Memory, much of it supplied by donors.

Special Collections has been very fortunate to have received the generous suppport of many people and firms. At the risk of overlooking anyone, here are some people that we would particularly like to thank:

  • Edwin London - For the Edwin London Collection.
  • The Mather Foundation - For $6,000 to process The Steamer William G. Mather Collection.
  • Edward Miggins - For his Black History exhibits.
  • Jeffrey Morris - For digital rights to Beechwood, The Book.
  • The John P. Murphy Foundation, Herbert Strawbridge, President - For $55,000 to process the Cleveland Union Terminal Collection in 1994 and 1998.
  • Mrs. Bain Murray - For the Bain Murray Collection.
  • The North American Railway Foundation for several grants totalling $96,000 over two years to:
    • Process the Newburgh & South Shore Collection
    • Acquire equipment for exibits, and to acquire and digitize railroad photographs,
    • Mount a new exhibition of Cleveland Union Terminal panoramic photographs
    • Process our Nickel Plate Road collections and the archives of the Nickel Plate Historical & Technical Society Archives, housed here.
  • Ray Osrin - For the Ray Osrin Editorial Cartoon Collection.
  • Klaus G. Roy - For the Klaus Roy Collection.
  • Molly Schaeffer - For digital rights to Cleveland: Confused City on a Seesaw, by her father, Philip W. Porter.
  • Jan Van Der Meulen - For a donation of approximately 15,000 black and white photographic prints of European cathedrals and churches constructed during the medieval period.
  • Michael Tevesz
  • Lewis Turco - For The Lewis Turco Collection:
    Lewis Turco, poet, English instructor, and founder/director of the Poetry Center at Fenn College, has been a kind friend to the Cleveland State University Library and its Special Collections Department. His donation of books containing various works by American poets is made available to scholars and poets alike through the Lewis Turco Archive of American Poetry and continues to grow through his kind support.

    In addition to that, Lewis Turco's donations to Special Collections of the Fenn Poetry Scrapbook, his Bordello portfolio of "poemprints", correspondance and audiotapes provide a vibrant rendering of the early Cleveland poetry scene.
  • Mrs. Naomi E. Walker - For Dr. William O. and Naomi E. Walker Collection
    In September 1985, Mrs. Naomi E. Walker donated to Cleveland State University Libraries the substantial collection of more than four hundred books and rare historical material which comprise the William O. Walker collection of Afro-American literature.

    Dr. William O. Walker became publisher and editor of the Cleveland Call and Post, a black weekly newspaper, in 1932. He built the newspaper into one of the largest black weeklies in the nation. As its publisher he became a power in Cleveland, speaking out for civil rights and exposing discrimination and wrongdoing. Besides being an editorial voice, he was a mighty political force in the Republican Party. He was a councilman in the 1940's and in the 1960's became Ohio's first black Cabinet member, as industrial relations director for Governor James A. Rhodes. At the time of his death, he was under consideration by President Reagan to become chairman of the U. S. Civil Rights Commission.
  • Dr. Sara Ruth Watson - For Watson Bridge Book Collection
    In March of 1983, Dr. Sara Ruth Watson, a former Professor of English and Engineering at Fenn College, donated to the Cleveland State University Library over one hundred and seventy-five rare books, some dating from the eighteenth century, and fifteen albums of photographs on civil engineering and, in particular, on bridges. The collection is considered one of the best of its kind in the country.

    The collection was begun by Dr. Watson's father, Wilbur J. Watson, a distinguished civil engineer and bridge designer who from his student days at Western Reserve University collected books on bridges and continued this interest during a long professional career. He founded the Watson Engineering Company in Cleveland, now the AC Engineering Company on Prospect near Thirtieth Street.
  • Western Reserve Camera Collector's Society (aka the Photographic Historical Society of the Western Reserve)
    • For $2,000 in support of our photographic history collections.
    • For $1,000 in support of the Bruce Young Collection.
  • Bruce Young - For the Bruce Young Collection