Treasures in Black & White, a new exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC), is a collection of photographs and artifacts from Cincinnati dating back to the 1860s. Scott Gampfer, director of the CMC’s History Library and Archives, was instrumental in putting the exhibit together.
“The exhibit provides a glimpse into a century of the life of Cincinnati,” Gampfer says. “Visitors will see through the images how much the city has changed, and how many things have remained constant. For example, although electric cars are seen as cutting-edge technology today, the exhibit features a photograph of a woman charging up her electric car in 1912.”
“The photographs in the exhibit are augmented by display cases containing historic artifacts and archival materials that relate to specific images in the exhibit. These objects and archival materials help bring the photographs to life,” Gampfer says. “The images depict the city’s changing built environment, sports, entertainment, business, social activities, daily life, lighthearted moments and some difficult moments in the life of the city.”
What’s Gampfer’s favorite photo in the exhibit?
“One of my favorites is the image of the “balloon man” selling a balloon to a young client outside
of Redland Field in 1929 while a police officer watches over the transaction," he says. "It’s whimsical, yet is a compelling atmospheric street shot from the 1920s. The photo doesn’t actually show Redland Field, which is behind the photographer, but the exhibit includes a nearby case with various artifacts and archival materials relating to the ballpark.”
Gampfer says the exhibit concept is based on a book project that CMC did along with Turner Publishing in 2006 titled “Historic Photographs of Cincinnati.” It featured more than 200 black and white images from the CMC collection. Re-released in 2013, the idea of basing the 2014 Treasures Exhibit on the images selected for that book was sparked.
“The exhibit curatorial team selected 65 images from the 200 in the book and tried to maintain the book’s diversity of subject matter and time periods,” Gampfer says. “High-resolution digital scans were made of the original source photos from the collection, and from these scans, high-quality black and white 16-by-20-inch prints were made. The prints were then matted and framed.”
July 28 marks the 100-year anniversary of Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia, which effectively started World War I. With “the war to end all wars” on the world’s mind, it's fascinating to see authentic Cincinnati relics from the homefront at that time.
Treasures in Black & White runs at the Cincinnati Museum Center until October 12.
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