Toledo's Attic has reached 25 years in 2022! Since 1997, Toledo's Attic has been Toledo's and Northwest Ohio's virtual museum focusing on the region's commercial, industrial, and social history from the late 19th through the late 20th centuries. It began as a co-operative project led by the Department of History at The University of Toledo in 1997 and joined by the Toledo Lucas County Public Library, the Maumee Valley Historical Society, WGTE Public Media, and the Ward M. Canaday Center of the University of Toledo afterwards. Today, it is a public digital history and storytelling project to connect visitors with the history of the city and surrounding communities.
Toledo's Attic has been completely redesigned, reorganized, and migrated to an updated content management system. It features several original exhibits and galleries from the 1990s and now, there are 63 exhibits, over 4,000 images, and dozens of virtual tours using HistoryPin created over the past 25 years by professional historians, UT students, and other history enthusiasts in the Toledo and Northwest Ohio communities. Use the menu above to view the exhibits, discover resources, interact on social media, or find out more about Toledo's Attic.
Toledo’s Attic: The Beginnings - A commemorative essay by Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse (original project lead in 1997) on the 25th anniversary of the Toledo's Attic project.
1902 Walking Tour - an original Toledo's Attic project (from 1998) resurrected for new technology: Tour Downtown Toledo of 1902 using the Sanboanr maps and use the Google Street view links for present views.
...and at least a dozen other original Toledo's Attic exhibits were restored. See Exhibits and Collections
Passport project - in collaboation with the Northwest Ohio Cultural Heritage Group, a new resource has been added to raise interest in regional history and cultural heritage
Postcard Puzzles - an interactive feature engaging visitors with the large postcard collection on Toledo's Attic. Viewing recommendation: use a larger screen (tablet, laptop, or desktop). Viewing experience varies on smartphones...besides put it down while driving!
Recent Exhibits
Not sure where to start?
Try an exhibit below or explore the exhibit themes below.
From politics to architecture to history to art, here are some suggestions for books about Northwest Ohio, written by local authors. Please feel free to email us your favorite sources of local history. Click on the title to access the library record and explore other works on the top by...
Time in a Bottle: A History of Owens-Illinois, Inc.
Bottle Machine with workers
It was called the most significant advance in the production of glass in 2000 years. It has been designated as an international historic engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1913, it received a commendation from...
War In Their Words
Exhibit Gallery
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War In Their Words
War in Their Own Words: Toledo’s Veterans Write Home
By Lauren White, Manuscripts Librarian, Ward M. Canaday Center
The best picture of the realities of war is painted by the words of those who lived it. The Ward M. Canaday Center is honored to hold...
Barney Oldfield
Exhibit Gallery
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Barney Oldfield
Barney Oldfield was born in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Wauseon, Ohio. In 1889, when he was 11 years old, he moved with his family to Toledo. By 1904, Oldfield was America's most famous race car driver, owning the most track wins and virtually all the...
The History of the Toledo and Lake Erie Boating and Fishing Association and The Middle Bass Club
By Marie Demer Rader, July 2021
Original Club (1874-1922)
The Original Club consisted of the Toledo and Lake Erie Boating and Fishing Association (1874-1894) and the renamed Middle Bass Club (1894-1922). The prominent Toledo families...
The entrance to Woodlawn Cemetery
Exhibit Gallery
Photo credits: Josef Schneider (all Woodlawn photogragraphs) and Larry Leach (Doria and Thomas T Tracy).
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Historic Woodlawn Cemetery was recognized as a National Historic site in 1998. The overall landscape design, which follows the principles of the rural cemetery movement, is a significant feature of the...
Moses Fleetwood Walker
Exhibit Gallery
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African-American athletes in Toledo sport history
From Moses Fleetwood and Welday Walker and the 1883 Toledo Blue Stockings, to the African American sparring partners who helped train Jack Dempsey for his crushing defeat of Jess Willard in 1919, to the various twentieth century football players at the University...
Experiencing War
Exhibit Gallery
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Steven Pecsenye's Letters from the Front
Steven Pecsenye was a second-generation Hungarian who was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. He attended Macomber High School and studied at the Toledo Museum of Art as well as in Salzburg, Austria.
Steven Pecsenye
Upon his graduation from high school, he entered the Army...
Valentine Theatre
Exhibit Gallery
Images (in order of appearance): Original stage curtain, original theater interior, original lobby, original stage, original ticket booth, exterior view by Milton Zink (1957), and Loew's sign (all courtesy of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library).
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Valentine Theatre Symbol
By Timothy Messer-Kruse, University of Toledo, 1998
In its pioneer decades, Toledo was, not...
Uhl Brothers Bicycle Emporium
Exhibit Gallery
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From Bicycles to Furniture: A Brief Historical Sketch of the Toledo Metal Furniture Company’s First Decade
Historical sketch by: Arjun Sabharwal, Marty Uhl*
Introduction
Capitalism in America was a robust system for enduring ideas, innovation, perseverance, and (of course) capital; from the 1890s through the 1920s, Toledo represented a...
National Register Plaque
Exhibit Gallery
The slides in this presentation were sorted by year the properties were built. Captions show the name of the property, the year they were built, the name of the architect (if that information has been supplied), the street address, and status as demolished where that is the...
Libbey-Tschudy-Perkins Home
Exhibit Gallery
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Presented by the Women of the Old West EndResearch, Writing, and Photography by Darren LaShelle and Richard Wall
The Old West End neighborhood is one of the largest collections of Victorian, Edwardian, and Arts and Crafts homes in the United States, and serves as a showcase of architectural styles...
Greater Toledo: The City in the World (case views and galleries)
By the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collection
Exhibit Case 1 -- Exhibit Case 2 -- Exhibit Case 3 -- Exhibit Case 4 -- Exhibit Case 5 -- Exhibit Case 6 -- Exhibit Case 7 -- Exhibit Case 8 --...
Col. James M. Schoonmaker Museum Ship
Exhibit Gallery
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By Richard Kruzel
Col. James M. Schoonmaker Museum Ship
Toledo’s history and the history of commerce on the Great Lakes has been intertwined since the city’s inception. Toledo’s position on the Maumee River at the western end of Lake Erie has made it one of...
Aerial view of the new university campus, 1938
Exhibit Gallery
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by Barbara Floyd, 1997
Introduction
As a person grows older and taller in stature, the shadow he casts upon the earth grows longer. His impact on the world becomes more profound as he matures and succeeds. The same can be said of a...
Our Toledo
Exhibit Gallery
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by Timothy Messer-Kruse, 2001
Program (cover) for the Toledo Girls Waltz
Every great city has its songs. Some, like Sinatra’s New York, New York, or Tony Bennett’s I Left My Heart in San Francisco evoke images that capture a city’s spirit. Some, like Woody Payne’s Sweet Home Chicago [*], become...
Remembering Battery B
Sue Stankey, Editor Bill Hinsch, Art Director
In Today’s cover story, Robert G. Morris, a local attorney, writes about Toledo men, including his father, Tom Morris, who went into World War I together as members of Battery B. [Read the complete article in Toledo Magazine, March 27, 1988, p....
Aerial View of the University of Toledo Campus
Exhibit Gallery
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by Barbara Floyd
"...We believe you are going to respond to the challenge of a beautiful environment, that the traditions which have grown up about this noble architecture will stimulate you to greater efforts in learning, and to finer decorum, and to...
By the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections
Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections
Introduction (Summary)
By choosing the name “Toledo,” the founders of the city in 1837 seemed interested in promoting it as a place with an international focus. It is uncertain why “Toledo” was selected as the name for...
Alanson Wood
Exhibit Gallery
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by Timothy Messer-Kruse
Toledo has had more than its share of inventors. Some are well remembered - Michael Owens, inventor of the automated glass-blowing machine, and Allen DeVilbiss, inventor of the spray atomizer, both of have schools named after them. The fame and fortunes of many of the familiar...
Michigan and Ohio borders in 1830 and 1755
Exhibit Gallery
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Introduction
This little known but very important "war" shaped the borders of the states of Michigan and Ohio, with the final outcome granting Toledo, MI and what is now the upper corner of Northwest Ohio to Ohio. Michigan did not leave empty handed,...
Archives
Bowling Green State University, Center for Archival Collections
Ohio History Connection, State Archives
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museum: Research and Collections
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration: Presidential Libraries
The University of Toledo, Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections
Veterans History Project...
Edwin F. Damschroder Sr. - Isaac Horning Detwiler - Henry Dodge - Charles C. Doolittle - John Hardy Doyle - John Felker - Stevens Warren Flower - George R. Ford - Albert V. Foster - John W. Fuller
Edwin F. Damschroder, Sr.
Edwin F. Damschroder Sr., was born in Elmore, Ohio, in...
by Timothy Messer-Kruse
A monument is a curious way to record history. It is the oldest, most ancient form of history writing (what else is a pyramid or a statue but a memorial of some past?) and still remains a popular means of expressing historical ideas. Like the ancients, our society...
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Exhibit Gallery
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By Timothy Messer-Kruse
February 2002
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar was a young man who witnessed firsthand the fruits of struggle. His father escaped slavery in Kentucky and made his way to Canada through Ohio, and then returned to fight with a Massachusetts regiment against the system that had...
Over the past few decades, genealogical research has been revolutionized with the help of electronic databases, DNA analysis, and improved access to historical documents at libraries and archives. The growing number of Web resources and available volunteers have also made a considerable difference to those who could not find information...
The "Wholly Toledo: The Business and Industry that Shaped the City" virtual exhibit conveys in digital format the actual exhibit that was on display in the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections from November 17, 2010 to November 4, 2011. The exhibit looks at the city's commercial and industrial...
Richard Gosser, 1942
Exhibit Gallery
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by Timothy Messer-Kruse, October 1, 2002
Richard Gosser speaking on occasion of Army Navy production award given to Willys-Overland in 1942
In the history of labor in Toledo, no figure stands taller than Richard T. Gosser.
Gosser's life both spanned and reflected the major trends of labor in the Twentieth...
Let's meet up on social media! Toledo's Attic visitors can explore local history information resources, meet local history enthusiast, and engage in discussions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. You can share your photos and videos of historically significant places in the area with others or see what others have...
The Tiedtke Brothers - Sergeant Ernst Torgler - Thomas H. Tracy - Morrison Remmick Waite - The Walbridge Family - William Spooner Walbridge - Herbert Whitney - Alvin Mansfield Woolson - Samuel Young
The Tiedtke Brothers
The Tiedtke brothers were active members of the Toledo community and during their lives experienced financial success...
The shield of Toledo, Spain
Exhibit Gallery
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The shield of Toledo, Spain
History of Toledo, Spain 540-1936
Photo of Toledo, Spain
Toledo, Spain has a much longer history than that of its sister city, Toledo, Ohio. Spanish tradition dates the founding of the city to 540 B.C.E., under the original moniker of Toledoth. The city...
John C. Gipe - Benjamin F. Griffin - John Gunckel - Arthur Hickock - Henry Hinde - Hugh Webb Hubbard - Thomas Hubbard - Samuel Milton Jones - Adrian "Addie" Joss - John Milton Killits
John C. Gipe
Born in Indianapolis on May 12, 1881, John C. Gipe attended Indiana public schools...
William H. Scott - Jay K. Secor - James Secor - Joseph K.Secor - Gen. Isaac R. Sherwood - Spitzer Family - Gen. James B. Steedman - George Butler Storer - Robert A. and Frank D. Stranahan
William H. Scott
William H. Scott, a realtor by profession, helped to establish the second...
Medicine on the Maumee
Introduction
Clara Church, 8 years old, tetanus, January 29, 1859. Chris Fall, 35 years old, laborer, drinking ice water, May 15, 1860. Avery McCarthy, 19 years old, fits, September 20, 1860. John Ayers, 32 years old, bad whiskey, June 3, 1863. Theodore Hansen, 27 years old, soldier, starved...
Inside Hines' Farm Blues Club
Exhibit Gallery
Credits: Prof. Thomas Barden for the donated photographs in this collection.
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Hines' Farm Blues Club
by Thomas E. Barden and Matthew Donahue
The whole thing started in Frank and Sarah Hines' basement. By the time they built the club itself in 1957, Hines' Farm was already in full...
An illustrated historical atlas of Lucas and part of Wood Counties, Ohio (Chicago : Andreas & Baskin, 1875) presents township maps and illustrations of homes and townscapes as they were seen in 1875. Most structures are gone but some of the landscape, water ways, and some roads are recognizable. You...
Erwin P. Raymond - Colonel William H. Raynor - Frazier Reams - Dr. Calvin Hamilton Reed - S.C. Reynolds and W. B. Reynolds - Ramson Richards - William Edgar Richards - George W. Ritter - Jefferson D. Robinson - Horton C. Rorick
Erwin P. Raymond
Erwin P. Raymond was a prominent Toledo attorney,...
Blogs
Catholic Architecture and History of Toledo, Ohio
The Department Store Museum: Lamson’s Lasalle’s Lion Store
History in Your Own Backyard (Ohio)
Holy Toledo History
The Toledo Gazette
Retro Toledo Metro
Toledo History Box
Historical Societies and Museums
East Toledo Historical Society
Great Lakes Historical Society
Henry County Historical Society
Heritage Sylvania
Historic Old West End
Historic Perrysburg
Historic Vistula Foundation
Holland Springfield Spencer Historical...
« Historical Essay
Use the index on the right to view the individual archives. If you have questions about these photographs, can identify any people in the photographs/videos, or have photographs to add, please contact Marie Demer Rader at marie.rader@gmail.com.
Club Grounds
This archive contains photographs of the Middle Bass Club including...
We are reviving an original exhibit from 2012 [archive link] an an effort to tap into local knowledge of people, places, and events to get more information on undescribed photographs. A collection of photographs is also on Pinterest: Exhibits Anonymous
UNDER RE/CONSTRUCTION
By Emily Ruckel, M.A. Public/Applied History
January 6, 2013 marked the 125th anniversary of the Toledo State Hospital (TSH), now known as the Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital. The last 125 years have witnessed many changes including various names, buildings that have come and gone, shifting philosophies of insanity, and a variety...
Clarence Lamb - George W. Lathrop - Gustav A. Lay - The Charles T. Lewis Family - Edward Drummond Libbey - Gilson Don Light - David Ross Locke - Robinson Locke
Clarence Lamb
Clarence Lamb was born on August 1, 1854, in Hornell, New York. As a young man, Lamb came to...
Rotary Club of Toledo
Exhibit Gallery
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Rotary Club of Toledo Emblem
The Toledo Rotary Club was founded in May of 1912 in the Chamber of Commerce of Toledo. During its 90+ years of service, the Rotary Club of Toledo has been instrumental in helping physically and developmentally disabled children as well as...
The list below includes archive websites and digital collections maintained by states and territories (marked by *) in the U.S. Many regional collections are jointly created and maintained by multiple states and these collections tell the stories of communities in those areas.
Arrangements: By State and Territories -- Diverse and Underrepresented...
Ford Model T
Willys Jeep
Exhibit Gallery
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Henry Ford, portrait
1908 was a pivotal year in the history of the American automobile. Events such as the introduction of the Model T Ford, the automobile that revolutionized the manufacture of the automobile and most mass marketed goods
The Model T affected all forms of industry and...
Toledo Civic Hall of Fame Commission
Exhibit Gallery
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This exhibit is available in PDF format also. [PDF link]
Introduction
Toledo Civic Hall of Fame Commission
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner began the Toledo Civic Hall of Fame in 1998. The Mayor appointed a nine-member commission to select four to eight people who had died at least two...
"Our Girls' Club Magazine"
Toledo working women banded together in the early twentieth century for support and camaraderie. Our Club Girls Magazine stood for the "social and commercial education of young wage-earning women." Experience life for young working women through its pages. This exhibit is drawn from four issues of Our...
Paul Laurence Dunbar and Herbert Woodward Martin
Exhibit Gallery
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Dunbar and Martin: Printed with the Same Ink
By Patrick Cook
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872 as the son of former slaves. Showing potential from a tender age, Dunbar was the first African American poet...
by Mickiel Nathaniel Graves and Sean Sabo, Spring 2018 (Class Project for Public History Practicum, HIS 4980)
Introduction
University Hall has been an iconic part of the University of Toledo and the City of Toledo since its conception in 1929. The building utilizes collegiate gothic architecture and stands as an inspiration to students...
James Ashley, Sr. - Roy William Babcock - Marcus Barbour - Rudolph A. Bartley - James Baumgardner - Bentley Family - John Berdan - Charles H. Breyman - Otis Avery Browning
James Ashley, Sr.
James Ashley Sr.
James Ashley, Sr. was born in 1824 in Allegheny County Pennsylvania.Unless otherwise noted all information is...
Women making glass
Exhibit Gallery
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In World War II, Toledo did its part to help the war effort. A silent, but equally important, part of that team was made up of local women who entered the workforce.
Poster of Rosie the Riveter.
Prior to the War
The Great Depression of the 1930s had thrown America...
Downtown Toledo Map
Original exhibit text:
Below is a map of downtown Toledo in 1902. By clicking on any city block you will see a detailed map of the buildings, businesses, and general geography of the area. Or you may browse through a detailed index of businesses, places, and attractions that are...
Alonzo Chesbrough - Albert "Bert" S. Close - Elmer Harry Close - Frank Collins* - John Craig - Frank, Howard and George Crosby/Crosby Brothers - Frances Crosby - William Culver - Judge Joseph W. Cummings - Robert S. Cummings - William Cummings
*The original list from 1995 (not used herein)...
Aerial View of Gendron Wheel Company
Exhibit Gallery
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Aerial View of Gendron Wheel Company
"Toledo, thanks to Peter Gendron, has become prominent throughout the world for its development of the manufacture of metal wheels and for the quantity and quality of its output of that class of products. Mr. Gendron came to the...
Twister Ad
Exhibit Gallery
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Memories of Semi-Pro Basketball in Toledo: Twisters of 1961-62 and Tartans of 1962-63
By: Ken Kander
As the statistician for Toledo’s minor league professional basketball teams in the early 1960s, I was able to meet some future NBA stars, a few college superstars, several former University of Toledo players, and...
Check out the recent Rent. article we were featured in:
Toledo, OH is a city steeped in history, celebrated for its role as a manufacturing hub and its location along the Maumee River. Known as the "Glass City," Toledo also shines with beautiful parks, a thriving arts community, and a rich cultural heritage to explore.