Living in Cleveland became even better due to the intrepid work of architects Jim Gibans (1930-2018) and Ted Sande (1933-2018). Their professional life’s work was to design spaces for comfort, aesthetics, function, and preservation of cultural significance in the community. James “Jim” Gibans earned his master’s degree in Architecture from Yale in the 1950s. He was the principal partner of…
Part of the mission of Cleveland Public Library is to cultivate a global perspective for our patrons, and former Special Collections Librarian Francis E. Sommer (1890 – 1978) contributed his astoundingly broad knowledge of foreign languages to help enrich our foreign language catalog. Mr. Sommer was fluent in 14 languages, had a speaking knowledge of 22 more, and had a…
Dr. Motoko Reece was a true gem of Cleveland Public Library. The legacy she built in Special Collections was to honor and enlighten the public of the collections established by John G. White back in 1899. Today, the White Collections of chess, the peoples and histories of Asia and folklore are world-renowned. Dr. Reece worked in the Fine Arts &…
With the 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies returning to Cleveland, it would be an appropriate time to take a look at the zines at the Cleveland Public Library. In case you’re not familiar with what a ZINE is, it’s a short hand term used for a magazine or a fanzine. They are a small-circulated self-published work…
Cleveland Public Library’s Special Collections Department owns the 1954 edition of the novel The Third Generation by Chester B. Himes (1909-1984). This autobiographical story mirrors Himes’s upbringing after his family moved from Missouri to Cleveland in the early 1920s. The novel portrays a Southern black family who constantly had to move as the father searched for teaching jobs. The situation puts a…
Cleveland Public Library houses the largest chess publication library in the world. It includes any type of chess-related document, manuscript, photograph, object, or archive that falls in this category. The Claude F. Bloodgood Collection was donated to the Library in 2003. It contains Bloodgood’s personal papers, including legal documents, medical and other prison records, and chess-related items from the 1970s…