The Eclectic Medical Institute was an American institution in origin, concept, and practice. For nearly a century, EMI was known as the “mecca of eclectic thinking” and the “Mother Institute” of reformed medicine. A Profile of Alternative Medicine recounts the history of eclectic medicine which, along with hydropathy, homeopathy, physiomedicalism, chiropractic, and osteopathy, competed with regular medicine (allopathy) in the nineteenth century.

Rich with regional history, this biography of an influential Clevelander will be important reading for students of women’s studies and the history of philanthropy as well as those interested in Ohio’s Western Reserve and its people.

For a century, Americans have been purchasing picture postcards. Ohio in Historic Postcards presents 208 examples of postcards from early twentieth-century Ohio and places them in their historical context. At the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, the first picture postcards portrayed a range of the fair’s attractions. From that beginning postcards took the nation by storm. The efficiency of the Railway Mail Service together with the sparsity of telephones made the cards a cheap, reliable, and convenient form of communication.

Moods of the Ohio Moons is the product of this subjective method of observation, balanced with scientific knowledge and intended to encourage readers to explore their own individual appreciation and understanding of nature. Twelve essays, one for each month, relate incidents and events—weather, diagnostic events, vegetation and wildlife, agriculture, trends of land use, and the wild harvest—that contribute to the mood of the time. As Gilfillan demonstrates, each month has its mood established primarily by nature and only secondarily by humans.

This book s a profusely illustrated interpretation of life along Ohio’s nineteenth-century canal system: the Miami & Erie Canal in the western part of the state, and the Ohio & Erie Canal with its multiple feeders in central and eastern Ohio. An introduction by George W. Knepper, professor of history at The University of Akron and president of The Ohio Historical Society, places the state’s canal system in national historic perspective and addresses such issues as the importance of the Ohio canal system in the state’s economy and industrial development; the interrelationship between the Industrial Revolution in Ohio and the changing uses of canals; and the impact of the canal system on contemporary social and ethnic issues.

Richly illustrated with the work of well-known Cleveland-area artists and architects, past and present, Creative Essence explores the region’s tradition, beginning with the “Cleveland School” of artists that was active and influential during the first half of the twentieth century. It moves on to examine the changes that occurred in the last half of the century and the development of the visual arts in northeast Ohio. Creative Essence is an important resource for understanding the significant role the visual arts play in our cities and societies and how they contribute to the region’s quality of life. For those interested in regional history and for students of art history and the visual arts, this will be especially valuable.

There is an unusually rich photographic record of the community and its people as well as many descriptions and comments by writers who wished to share their impressions of the Old World town. Today a restored village with a ten-museum complex operated by the Ohio Historical Society, Zoar has consciously maintained its German roots. Zoar continues to attract the curious individual, the traveler, the day-tripper, and the magazine and newspaper writers of the day.

The Finnish American Heritage Association of Ashtabula County was organized in 1995, and one of its first projects was the interviewing and taping of elderly Finnish Americans to obtain historical accounts of early immigrants. These first-person accounts were written as the narrator told them. Many of the first- and second-generation Finns were in their eighties or nineties at the time of their interviews, yet their recollections of times gone by were told with frankness and clarity. Photographs representative of these early years are also included in this volume.

Drawing upon heretofore unavailable archival materials and oral histories, Rosie the Rubber Worker offers readers a personal as well as scholarly account of the era and highlights the important role many women played in wartime production and how their work affected their lives during the war and after.

Cleveland’s Harbor chronicles the challenges, struggles, and politics of establishing and maintaining this major port—from General Cleaveland to Mayor Michael White. Among those whose dedication and ingenuity fostered the port were Lorenzo Carter, who cultivated the first settlement; Levi Johnson and the Turhooven brothers, builders of The Enterprise—Cleveland’s first commercial vessel; Alfred Kelley, Governor Ethan Allen Brown, and Micajah Williams, who were instrumental in getting the canal built connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River; John Malvin, a freedman, who became the first black vessel owner, a captain, and minister for the First Baptist Congregation; Eli Peck, designer of the forerunner of the classic ore boat; Alexander McDougall, who fashioned the innovative shaleback hull; and George Hulett, who, with the support of Andrew Carnegie and Charles Schwab, revolutionized harbor operations with his invention of the unloader.