Your Gateway to Toledo and Northwest Ohio History

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Toledo’s Attic is a joint project between the University of Toledo, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library, the Lucas County-Maumee Valley Historical Society, and WGTE-TV Public Broadcasting. It features virtual exhibits on various aspects of Toledo’s rich history, with a special emphasis on the history of the twentieth century. Although all of Toledo's Attics exhibits are based upon extensive research by experts in the field, the audience targeted includes all of Toledo and anyone who would like to study the history of Toledo. The Attic welcomes feedback from visitors about the site and its exhibits.

Our mission, as stated in our annual report of 2000, “continues to be to identify and publicly display artifacts and other evidence that help to reconstruct, interpret, and commemorate the story of twentieth century Toledo and its surrounding communities; to develop inter-generational interest, appreciation and respect for our unique heritage; facilitate the on-going identification, acquisition, preservation, and exhibition of archives, artifacts, oral histories, and sites." In 2002 Toledo's Attic was awarded the Ohio Historic Preservation Office Award from the State of Ohio.

In 2007, Toledo's Attic was once again producing new exhibits, and in 2009, when new technologies became available, it was migrated to WGTE's New Media System as part of a beta testing program. The current plan to migrate Toledo's Attic yet again to a more robust platform reflects the new opportunities afforded by open-source software, social networking, and the opportunities to engage with the digital history crowd. In fact, Toledo's Attic has been a digital history project since the outset, and access to various technologies (including mobile devices) means that visitors will be able to access reliable historical information in real time.

Project History (1997-2022)