New Book Releases

Picturesque Ashtabula County harbors a rich and sometimes strange history. Ohio's Western Reserve settlers were astonished by the ancient graveyards they found that yielded bones belonging to a gigantic race. Mr. Buck of Conneaut lived a secluded life married to himself, assuming the character and dress of the fictional Mrs. Buck. A legend persists to this day that the ship of a Spanish princess lies at the bottom of Pymatuning Lake. Author Carl E. Feather delves into the rich history of Ohio's largest county and uncovers its little-known secrets in the most unexpected places.

Toledo's history as a frontier town turned manufacturing powerhouse is well known. However, few know that it was once home to a champion racehorse.

Many are unaware that East Toledo's verdant urban woodlands sprang from the work of just one man or that a local girl's meteoric rise in Golden Age Hollywood saw her play alongside Groucho Marx. Fewer still have heard of Officer Dell Hair, crime fighter and rhyme maker who walked the beat and walked into the history books as a celebrated cop-poet. These tales and more await as award-winning local broadcaster Lou Hebert shines a light into the forgotten corners of Glass City history.

From the Black Brigade's role in protecting the city against Confederate siege to the original 1937 Cincinnati Bengals, author Jeff Suess reveals the triumphs and tribulations of the first major American city founded after the American Revolution.

So many colorful stories are lost to time. The last passenger pigeon on earth, Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Just outside the city, a young Annie Oakley beat her future husband in a shooting contest. The deadliest maritime disaster in American history was the explosion of the steamboat Sultana, built in the Queen City. The nation's first train robbery occurred in the Cincinnati area, and some clever victims hid jewelry in their hair and bodices.

Early pioneers braved countless dangers to start anew in what is now Lorain County. Some of their stories faded from memory along the way, waiting to be rediscovered. Uncover the origins of the Felons' Feast held by abolitionists in 1859. Celebrate the true story of Major League Baseball's first black player, Moses Fleetwood Walker, who played for the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1883. Learn about the great scientific discovery made in Oberlin by Charles Martin Hall in 1886, as well as how one of Elyria's forefathers rose to become chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. Discover how the Easter Seals, officially named in 1967, began with a sixty-year-old streetcar accident. Author Kelly Boyer Sagert shines a light on fascinating lives and the county they shaped.

Join local history preservationist Christopher Busta-Peck and unearth aspects of Cleveland's past that dangle too near extinction from city memory. Too often, we think of history as something that happens elsewhere.

But it's not. Travel down East 100th Street to the home where Jesse Owens lived when he shocked the world at the 1936 Olympics. Ascend the stairs to Langston Hughes's attic apartment on East 86th, where the influential writer lived alone during his formative sophomore and junior years of high school. From the massive Brown Hoist Building and the Hulett ore unloaders to some of the oldest surviving structures in Cleveland, Busta-Peck (of the wildly popular Cleveland Area History blog) has Clevelanders talking about history again. Here's why.