Sepia Saturday - Places in Glass

Saturday, September 17, 2011

For our first Sepia Saturday contribution, we follow the "travel/places" theme with a few shots from the glass plate/lantern slide collection. This box of plates was photographed back in 2007 on the fly when visiting for the homecoming - so I apologize for the poor quality. We used a white piece of paper, taped to a sunny window and held the slides up to photograph with a digital camera. Once I re-locate these slides within the collection, I will reproduce them with greater clarity. The subjects are diverse: mission trip to China, Cincinnati  and the 1937 flood, aerial views of Cincinnati, Union Terminal and the ground laying ceremony for the main temple downtown. Here are a few "places" and "travel" slides for your amusement:
Union Terminal in downtown Cincinnati. Completed in 1933, this Art Deco marvel still serves as the train station for the city. Although, today, it serves a double roll as the History Museum and Historical Society. Seeing all the cars lined up outside, reminds me of the taxi ramps that still exist inside the structure that were designed to facilitate fast travel in an orderly and convenient manner.
This aerial view of the terminal is also from the 1930s and displays not only the multiple railroad lines coming in and out of the city, but if you look up to the far right corner, you can see the skyscrapers of the young Cincinnati skyline. The river is just beyond the city with two bridges in view.
Here is another view of the young skyline, taken from the front of the Terminal. The grounds, including fountain complex are still intact, in their original style - if you've never visited this national treasure, you must put this on your historic to-do list!
As promised, here is a travel photo sent back by Lincoln Park Missionary, Miss Melvina Solman/Sollman. We will feature more of her beautiful photos soon, but this is my favorite. This was a new Baptist Church they built in Swatow China around the turn of the century. For another glimpse into the travels of Miss Solman, I have included a postcard she sent back to the minister's wife in 1911. To enlarge and read the postcard yourself, simply click on the image. It details one of her "vacations" while in China.

Happy Sepia Saturday Everyone!

11 comments:

Christine H. said...

I have never been to Cincinnati or the Union Terminal, but my husband visited and brought me back some Union Terminal socks! :)

Alan Burnett said...

Oh welcome to Sepia Saturday and thank you for such a fascinating opening contribution. I look forward to many future posts - you certainly seem to have access to a fine collection of old photographs.

Bob Scotney said...

A great railway building which deserves to survive. It's interesting to see the aerial shot with the skyscapers in their infancy.

Little Nell said...

Welcome to Sepia Saturday and thanks for sharing these interesting slides. Good luck with your project in the future too.

Dee said...

I'm amazed at the quality of the slide images you got in the way you had to do it.

What a wonderful historic sketch of young Cincinnati.

Brett Payne said...

That's a very impressive railway station, and some gardens. Nice to hear they have both survived intact. Thanks for sharing your photos, and of course welcome to Sepia Saturday.

Postcardy said...

The aerial view of the terminal is interesting. It looks like everything is flowing into it.

Kathy Reed said...

As a native Cincinnatian, I recognized Union Terminal right away. I'm sure I will enjoy following your blog.

Liz Stratton said...

What a fantastic post. I love the old photos of Union Terminal. It all looks so different than it does today! I read the information about your project. Sounds wonderful. Thank you for making these images available to everyone!

Unknown said...

Ha ha! I'm trying to envision Union Terminal socks! But I'm not surprised! I remember years of gift shops in the terminal itself, and Cincy is very proud of it all over town! BTW - anyone coming to the NGS next May should not miss this structure - for the comment about its survival - I can remember how close it was to being destroyed back in the 80s - very scary!

Yes, please - anyone with Cincinnati relatives, check back often - hopefully we'll begin posting the full collection online soon and since this place had over 1000 members in 1897, many local families are bound to be connected to this heritage! Spread the word!

Kathy Reed said...

Cheri,
We added your blog to the Hamilton County Genealogical Society Blog http://hdgsohio.blogspot.com because the posts are wonderful and of interest to people in Hamilton Co. I hope we get to see some more posts in the near future.
Kahty