A Honking Good Time in the Western Reserve

The University Circle area east of Cleveland (map, wiki) is a mecca for culture, featuring numerous museums, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Severance Hall (home to the world renown Cleveland Orchestra) and Case Western Reserve University. Picking the right date on the calendar can land you access to most of the Wade Oval museums for free or special community concert events as part of a community outreach event. The museums on the oval include the Botanical Gardens, Natural History Museum, the Western Reserve Historical Society and the (always free) Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) also houses the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum (see right, click to enlarge) as well as a significant genealogical library. Housed in part of the old Hanna Mansion, the museum is an unusual mix of the old and not-so-old and always features unique temporary exhibits. A personal favorite is the permanent display of the 2-story, neon Chief Wahoo sign from the old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland (see left, click to enlarge). Standing high atop Gate D, it was the entrance point for many children into the world of professional sports downtown during the 1930s through the 1980s (see web picture).

2008 through June 2009 saw an exhibit on women’s and children’s clothing in history (see right, click to enlarge). From colonial times in the Western Reserve (roughly and geographically speaking the Northeast quadrant of Ohio) through the mid-20th Century, this gallery is tucked into a corner of the Bingham-Hanna Mansion section of the museum.

There was also recently a temporary exhibit dedicated to Carl and Louis Stokes. The Stokes brothers were significant early Africa-American pioneers in politics on the large urban level and on the national scene (see left, click to enlarge). Carl was one of the first African-American mayors of a major metropolitan city (Cleveland) and his brother Louis a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The exhibit showed many unique reproductions of photos and news stories, as well as artifacts significant to African-Americans in Ohio during the tumultuous Civil Rights era.

Wandering through the permanent displays en-route to the temporary galleries in the back portion of the museum winds the visitor through an eclectic mix of history. Archibald Willard’s famous painting from the Revolutionary War, The Spirit of ’76, Colonial picture-letters used to teach reading (creatively forming “WRHS”), a Depression-era carousel horse and other varied historical records from the region (from local African-American newspapers to land grant maps of Bath Township in Summit County) and more grace the wings connecting the main lobby and the temporary exhibits (see right pictures, click to enlarge).

There are more than static displays, as a hands-on “Victory Garden” from World War II beckons younger children and students and invites them to participate with their own gardening at home (see left, click to enlarge).

But the kid in every adult is brought out in the basement, which houses a partial collection of the wide-ranging types of cars that comprise the collection of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum (see right, click to enlarge). From early “horseless carriages” to modern sports cars, the mix of wood, steel, chrome and leather beckon. Along one of the walls is a type of “street of dreams” that looks the part of a turn-of-the-century main street.

Depending upon the usage of the other galleries, some of the collection can be viewed on the main level as well. On this particular visit stainless steel was a theme of a segment of a gallery that housed a DeLorean (made famous in the Back to the Future movies from the 1980's) and other unusual vintage cars of stainless steel or brushed nickel finish. Along the same gallery were several planes, including a vintage P-51 Mustang.

Some say that visiting a history museum is a bland walk through historical artifacts; a place to wander and gaze at writings, costumes and furniture. But when a museum such as the Western Reserve Historical Society couples history of sizes, shapes, and perhaps just as importantly, speed there is bound to be a little adrenaline coursing through the body.

-J.