KELVIN SMITH LIBRARY

Philanthropists and visionaries populate the history of Case Western Reserve University. From the beginning their gifts were offered in the form of the land and for the structures built upon that land.

The intent of this site is to pay tribute to and provide information about the generations of Cleveland families whose generosity allowed the campus of CWRU to exist and continue to grow, evolve and develop with the changing times. Photographs of the buildings they funded and biographies of family members are featured. It also provides a photographic time-capsule of the campus, offering a glimpse of buildings that no longer exist or have been remodeled or expanded.

Prospectus of Work for Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority

Dr. Karal Ann Marling, Assistant Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University, wished that her papers join those of Ernest J. Bohn, who had assisted her research and whose papers contain records of his participation, as director of the Metropolitan Housing Authority, in the original federal New Deal art programs. Consequently, Dr. Marling donated the papers to Case Western Reserve University Library in 1977.

Cookery books have held a fascination for readers that goes beyond the elemental recipe and extends to the development and history of food in our cultures. National pride, local food resources, and acquired skills play a large part in the evolution of the literature of cookbooks. The Department of Special Collections has a collection of books in Domestic Science with an emphasis on cookbooks.The authors include familiar names such as Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Brillat Savarin as well as James Beard's favorite Miss Leslie.

Three artists - Elmer W. Brown, Hughie Lee-Smith and Charles Sallee - were chosen because they are represented in the WPA Print Collection in the Department of Special Collections. These artists had many things in common - they received their education at the Cleveland Institute of Art, were deeply involved in activities at Karamu House, and were employed by the Cleveland WPA in printmaking. The WPA (Works Project Administration) was run by the Federal Arts Project to employ workers during and after the Depression. Karamu House was a center for cultural activities, founded in 1915 by social workers Rowena and Russell Jeliffe to promote interracial theater and the arts.

During the 1930s, there was catastrophic unemployment in the country. A federal project was put in place in 1935, called "Work Projects Administration" which would utilize the skills of out-of-work employees helping them to earn a small wage to survive. Previous efforts had begun in 1933, to assist unemployed artists under the Public Works of Art Project established by the Treasury Department. The country was divided into sixteen regions, one of which was the Cleveland region. Two people were instrumental in the success of the Cleveland effort William M. Milliken, Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art and Linda A. Eastman, Director of the Cleveland Public Library. The significant benefit of their collaboration and leadership was a regional approach to art that exemplified and identified the "Cleveland Scene." In 1935, the Works Progress Administration, took over the support of artists on relief and hired hundreds of workers for the Federal Art Project in music, theater, writing and art, the Federal Art Project alone employed 350 Cleveland artists.

Women played a significant role in the creation and composition of the art that was produced. In an exhibit catalog entitled Federal Art in Cleveland 1933-1943, for the Cleveland Public Library exhibit in 1974, 21 women were listed as active artists in the program. In the Department of Special Collections, resentative works of seven women are included in the WPA Print Collection: Joln Gross-Bettelheim, Gladys Carambella, Alice Haber, Florence Korda, Antonina Mancuso, Marguerite Root, and Dorothy Rutka. Three of these artists have works that are highlighted in this exhibit: Joln Gross-Bettelheim, Gladys Carambella, and Dorothy Rutka.

The thirteen leaves in this exhibit were selected to represent the beautiful prayer books used by the laity.  These men and women, not of the clergy, wanted to demonstrate their religious devotion by having their own books of prayer for their private readings.

This collection is compiled from the Otto Ege's research into the History of the Book. Coming Soon.