CMC Blog

The Queen City is built on a foundation of beer, wine and whiskey. At its peak in the 19th century, there were 36 breweries and more than 300 vineyards within a twenty-mile radius of the city.

Cincinnati Museum Center's Cincinnati History Library and Archives holds the Felix J. Koch Collection (SC 116). This treasure trove of 5,238 negatives document Cincinnati and the surrounding area between 1902 and 1933. The collection, which was donated by Felix's brother, Herbert F. Koch in 1968 and 1969, is arranged by subject.

One of the largest and longest-running citizen science programs in the country is the Christmas Bird Count (CBC).

Chances are, if you step into an old-enough house in Cincinnati, Ohio, it features Rookwood Pottery. Whether it’s a colorful pot passed down, a kitchen backsplash lined with avian tiles or a fireplace’s hearth, Rookwood Pottery has left its mark on Cincinnati’s – and the world’s – cupboards, homes and monuments.

Last week on October 18, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir accomplished the first-ever all-female spacewalk. For nearly eight hours, they worked outside the International Space Station to replace a broken power unit. It was Koch’s fourth spacewalk and Meir’s first.

In late 2016, Urban Artifact brewers collected yeast from Union Terminal grounds. A few months later, at a 21+ Curiocity (now Museum on Tap) event, they premiered a new, fruity brew, Union Terminal Bock, made from the National Historic Landmark's yeast! As a part of the event, we were asked in zoology to determine the yeast's species. This is how we did it.

The corrections on the documents are a very interesting piece to inspect. Some changes were cosmetic while others more substantive.

As an archaeologist, one of the most frequent questions that I am asked is “how do you know how old something is?” There are many different answers to that question, mostly depending on what exactly we are trying to date.

Insects are attracted to materials containing cellulose. Paper-based collections (documents, books, newspapers) contain cellulose and need to be protected from insect attack. Storing collections in cool dry spaces is preferable because there is a link between higher temperature and relative humidity, and increased insect activity.

Introduced to the United States from Europe in the late 1850s, the carte-de-visite or calling card photographic format soon became wildly popular.

The customer and shoe salesman (and a child’s parent) could then look into viewing ports and see the position of the bones of the feet within the outline of the shoe.

The Cincinnati Tablet, approx. 1,200 years old, was discovered during 19th-century construction in downtown Cincinnati.

The challenge facing me and my team is to fit older collections into these new standards and to get them online so researchers can see that we have them.

Accessing information has traditionally been done through contact with curatorial staff or in-person visits to collections, until now.

Lionel Hampton, renowned jazz musician and bandleader, known for his work on the vibraphone, piano, and drums, appeared at Cincinnati’s Regal Theater on Saturday, August 18, 1956.