Petersen, Jorgen, Diaries

Range: 1864 - 1880 Size: 0.5 cubic feet Record Group: 99/156

Jorgen Petersen (1822-1904) of Peninsula, Ohio was a canal boat captain on the Ohio & Erie Canal in the mid-1860s and ‘70s. He mostly hauled coal, iron ore, and merchandise for stores along the canal. His diaries consist of 11 personal diaries kept by Peterson during his days hauling freight on the canal and chronicle his life and work on the canal from 1864 until 1880.  View the Petersen Diaries

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Gieck, Jack E., Collection

Range: 1859 - 1980 Size: 1 cubic foot Record Group: $content.recordGroup

Jack E. Gieck (1923-2015) was an engineer, author, past-president of the Canal Society of Ohio, and founder of Cinemark, Inc., a producer of technical and historical films including the award-winning Ohio’s Canal Era. His collection includes negatives, prints, and contact sheets of canal scenes and sketches, engravings, and maps that Gieck collected from museums, historical societies, libraries, archives, and individuals throughout the state of Ohio that were used in A Photo Album of Ohio's Canal Era (Kent State University Press, 1988, 1992)


Findley, Theodore “Ted” Collection

Range: 1836 - 1969 Size: 5.5 Record Group: 99/178

Ted Findley was a founding member of the Canal Society of Ohio. The collection consists of photographs of the canals and locks, and files related to Findley’s work in the Canal Society of Ohio, as well as other local societies. The collection also consists of personal and professional correspondence, and various canal and local history related publications.

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Dettling, Theodore J. “Ted” Collection

Range: 1827 - 1983 Size: 9 Record Group: 99/90

Theodore J. “Ted” Dettling (1904-1992) was a co-owner of Dettling Bros. Floral & Seed Company in Akron, Ohio (later known as Dettling Florists). Ted Dettling was a canal and local history enthusiast, and this collection contains records of the Canal Society of Ohio and Summit County Historical Society as well as published and unpublished materials, maps, and photographic prints and negatives, mainly documenting Ohio canals

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Cascade Locks Park Association

Range: 1990 - 1992 Size: 2 cubic feet Record Group: $content.recordGroup

The Cascade Locks Park Association is a non-profit organization founded in Akron, Ohio in 1989 that preserves, protects, and promotes the industrial, commercial, and cultural heritage of the Cascade Locks Park along locks 10-16 of the Ohio & Erie Canal. The records include Mustill Store National Register Nomination, photographic negatives, and oral history interviews.


Canal Society of Ohio

Range: 1830 - 2012 Size: 23.25 cubic feet Record Group: 99/101

The Canal Society of Ohio has preserved Ohio’s canal history and heritage with guided tours and presentations to its members since 1961.  The Canal Society of Ohio Collection consists primarily of materials relating to the planning, construction, use, operation, and rebuilding of canals in Ohio.

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Blakeman, Alan E., Canal Slides

Range: 1950s - 1950s Size: 0.1 Record Group: $content.recordGroup

Alan E. Blakeman (1934-2016) of Montpelier, Vermont was a high school history and geography teacher in Ohio and Vermont and graduate of the College of Wooster where he wrote his senior independent study thesis on Ohio’s canals, titled “Canal Era in Ohio” (1956). His collection consists of 40 35mm color photographic slides he took of the remnants of the Ohio & Erie Canal during the 1950s. 


Baus, Louis Canal Photograph Collection

Range: 1896 - 1933 Size: 0.5 cubic feet Record Group:

Louis Baus, photographer, shot numerous scenes along the Ohio & Erie, Miami & Erie, and the connecting feeder canals. This collection of over 400 photo negatives portrays a sense of canal life during the late 1800s to early 1900s. Found in this collection are images of canal boats, crew and passengers, as well as various locks, businesses and homes along the canal ways.

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