Student Exhibit: County Archives Collection

Brookpark Bridge Construction, ca. 1933

As they carry out original research throughout the region, students routinely uncover useful and previously hidden historical materials. We have begun to collect some of these materials using the Omeka publishing tool developed by the Center for History and New Media.

Our first collection, derived from the Cuyahoga County Archives, deals primarily with transportation and infrastructure, but also includes some surprises, such as an internal document from the county Sheriff’s Dept. that sheds some light on police involvement in the May 4, 1970 Kent State Shootings.

The collection was assembled by Kristen Dute, Kieth Peppers, and Katie Logan — undergrad interns in the CSU History Department.  Each of the students helped process materials for the County Archives, scanned select items, and published them to the web, implementing Dublin Core metadata for each item.  In the future, Omeka will become a regular component of our teaching approach — not just for interns in the field, but also for students in our local and regional history classes, and teachers in our workshops.

Visit Teaching & Learning Cleveland to view the Cuyahoga County Archives collection.