The Cleveland Press Collection

Comprised of hundreds of thousands of clippings and photographs, The Cleveland Press Collection is the former editorial library, or "morgue," of The Cleveland Press and is now part of Cleveland State University Library's Special Collections. The last of Cleveland's daily afternoon newspapers, The Cleveland Press was published from 1878 until 1982.

The bulk of the collection was donated to the CSU Library in 1984 by the newspaper's owner, Joseph E. Cole, who was then a CSU Trustee. Several hundred additional photos with Shaker Heights content were donated to the Shaker Heights Public Library by Cleveland Press science writer David Dietz, who was a Shaker Library trustee. Though little survives from the first half-century, the collection's coverage of local and national history becomes progressively stronger after 1920.

Presently only a very small percentage of the approximately half million 8x10 black and white photographs and one million news clippings have been digitized and are available for you to search or browse. We are continuing to increase this number as time and volunteer help permits.


Essential Reading About The Cleveland Press...

  • The Cleveland Press Story (1955)
    This 28-page promotional brochure covers every aspect of the production and delivery of what was at the time Cleveland's largest daily newspaper. Remarkably detailed and well worth a read to get a sense of what print newspapers meant to cities before the digital age.
  • The Story of Your Newspaper from the Inside (1938)
    Given to visitors of the newspaper plant, this 31-page brochure discusses the functions of the newspaper departments including the news room, city desk, copy desk, library, composing room, engraving room, stereotype room and mailing room.

    • The Inside Story: Autobiographical Accounts of Press Workers

  • Five Decades at The Press (1998) by Ray DeCrane
    Memories of a 44 year veteran of The Press, written specifically for Cleveland Memory. Ray De Crane was a reporter and editor at The Cleveland Press from 1932 to 1977, and for 22 of those years, was at the center of action as an editor on the City Desk.
  • From Across the Pond: A Love Letter to Cleveland: The Memoirs of a Brit Journalist with the Cleveland Press 1970-82 (2022) by Peter Almond
    An engaging and insightful first-hand account of a young British journalist who immigrated to Cleveland in January, 1970, working at the Press until its demise in June, 1982. Peter Almond, having witnessed at first hand the cataclysmic events of a dozen turbulent years in Cleveland, now recalls the personalities, politics and passions of Northeast Ohio from a completely unique perspective. Available exclusively from Clevland Memory and Engaged Scholarship.
  • "The News is Everyone's": Fourteen Days at the Cleveland Press May 9 - June 3, 1977 (2021) by Edward C. Wolf
    Edward Wolf, a high school intern at the newspaper in 1977, offers a lively account of shoe-leather reporting, earnest community outreach, and editorial conferences in the newsroom led by editor-in-chief Tom Boardman.
  • The Years Were Good (1956) by Louis B. Seltzer
    An autobiography by the legendary editor of The Press from 1928-1966. "This life and those years are shared with you in the pages of this book by a man who would be remarkable at any time in history and is doubly remarkable in today's...world. Reading what he has to say of himself, of his career, of his work, of his philosophy, is to find yourself thinking of the quiet sages of another era."

    • First-Hand Accounts of the Demise of the Press

  • Epilogue, From Across the Pond: A Love Letter to Cleveland: The Memoirs of a Brit Journalist with the Cleveland Press 1970-82 by Peter Almond
  • Press Halts Publication (1982) - The front-page story that ran in the final issue of The Press on June 17, 1982 announcing the newspaper's closing.
  • Stop the Presses (for the very last time) (1982)- by Dick Feagler
  • WEWS coverage from the closing of the Press - Video containing final run of the presses, some shots of the newsroom, an Alan DePetro story of the closing and a Paul Orlousky story on the history of the Press.

More from Cleveland Memory

  • Journalism in Cleveland - Cleveland Memory's pathfinder to web resources highlighting the photojournalists, journalists, columnists, and editorial cartoonists who contributed to Cleveland's rich tradition of news reporting. Not exclusive to the Press, but not to be missed!