Yesterday I went downtown and spent a few hours at the Public Library of
Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Believe it or not, it is one of the 10
largest public libraries in the US. I went "armed" with a list of books
that I had printed up at home off the the library's ancient computerized
card catalogue, which is availiable on telnet.
I only looked at a few of the books on my list, I look at the rest on a
later trip.
From storage, the library got out 1919 county maps of Ohio, bound together
in a book that was probably 2 feet by 18 inches. I photocopied the Hamilton
and Clermont County pages on 11x17 paper. There was a 1924 state map in the
front, nteable becasue it showed Ohio state routes but no US routes, so SR
numbering was different. I was afraid I'd tear it (more than it already
was) if I tried to lift it up onto the copier.
I also copied ( on 4 11x17 sheets) a 1918 Rand McNally Auto Trails map
showing parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. I never realized there were
so many auto trails...
Sitting on a table was a 1990 Aerial Photo Atlas of Cincinnati that was at
least 3 feet by 2 feet. Think terraserver in a book, with photos the size
of your computer table instead of computer screen.
There was also some cool Ohio River stuff, like a Illustrated Atlas of the
Upper Ohio Valley with color sketches of towns along the river in 1877. It
was another book that was all but impossible to lift onto the photocopier...
I then went to another part of the library and looked at some local
government brochures about Cincinnati transportation. They had "nice color
pictures", but they didn't really say anything...
Next to them, though, was the USDOT/FHWA book that has all of the gov't sign
specifications (MUCO, or something like that). There was als a book that
indexes all of the signs ODOT produces.
I was able to check out "A Guide to the National Road" edited by Karl Raitz
and "Divided Highways - building the interstate highways, transforming
American life" by Tom Lewis. I will bring them to the Ohio roadgeek meeting
if it happens...
Next time I wil have to look at "Expressways of Cincinnati", copyright 1951!
And I never even made it to the rare books room...
-Pete Jenior
