Toledo, where industrial skill became a city’s signature.

The story of the place

Follow the places. Meet the people.

A small furnace helped change who could make glass.

Two workshops held at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962 became a turning point in American studio glass. Artist Harvey K. Littleton and scientist Dominick Labino brought artistic ambition and technical knowledge together. Small furnaces and glass that could melt at workable temperatures opened possibilities for artists to shape their own material.

The Corning Museum of Glass’s account emphasizes a change in the relationship between design and making: artists could become both designers and makers of individual objects. Its 2011 exhibition drew on Labino’s papers in the Rakow Research Library and included a bottle from the 1962 workshops. These surviving records and objects make the movement more concrete than a simple invention story. Experiment depended on people sharing tools, knowledge, and practical solutions.

Sources: Corning Museum of Glass: Littleton, Labino, and the 1962 workshops

A Toledo museum ship began life in Michigan.

The lake freighter Col. James M. Schoonmaker was built at Great Lakes Engineering Works in Ecorse, Michigan, and launched on July 1, 1911. The National Museum of the Great Lakes records its length as 617 feet. On its first voyage it carried 12,650 tons of coal from Toledo to Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

That voyage connects the shipyard, loading port, cargo, and receiving community. A freighter was one part of a larger transportation system moving coal, iron ore, and grain. The museum’s virtual tour and educator guide invite visitors to follow the machinery that transferred energy from fuel to propulsion and steering. Use that engineering story alongside the experience of the crew: cargo records tell us what a ship moved, while working spaces help us ask who made the movement possible.

Sources: National Museum of the Great Lakes: Schoonmaker educator guide (PDF)

Auto-Lite’s history survives beyond the factory walls.

The Toledo Lucas County Public Library’s labor exhibition preserves photographs of the 1934 Electric Auto-Lite strike. A scrapbook made by Toledo News-Bee photographers George Blount and Clarence Bailey documents events from May 22 through May 27, including damaged buildings, overturned vehicles, and National Guard troops.

The library pairs those images with a historical-marker account of organizing, an injunction, violent confrontation, and eventual union recognition. Read the scrapbook as a record made by particular photographers during particular days. Its dramatic scenes are evidence of conflict, but they are not a complete account of daily factory work or everyone involved. Comparing photographs with workers’ recollections makes the story less dependent on the most spectacular image.

Sources: Toledo Library: Auto-Lite strike photographs and scrapbook

Women’s recorded memories widen the labor story.

The library’s Labor In Their Own Words collection introduces people whose working lives can disappear behind company names. Its description of Jennie Bsharah’s interview identifies her as a member of the negotiating team during the 1934 strike. Mary Aberling worked as an Auto-Lite assembler for 33 years.

Another interview description follows Bertha Slaughterbeck, hired as a strikebreaker in 1933, who later walked out with the strikers and became involved with the union. These accounts offer routes into decisions, loyalties, and long careers. Begin with the library’s descriptions and listen to the linked recordings; keep the interviewee’s perspective and the date of recollection in view. Memory adds experience and meaning without eliminating the need to compare records.

Sources: Toledo Library: Labor In Their Own Words

Old West End houses can be read through tax records.

The Old West End’s houses reward close looking, but architectural style is only an opening question. The public library’s neighborhood feature uses Lucas County Auditor block cards from the 1930s through the 1960s alongside postcards and photographs. Examples include properties on Collingwood Boulevard and Scottwood Avenue.

A block card can help establish what a property looked like or how it was assessed at a particular time. Pair it with city directories, maps, and dated photographs before concluding who lived there or when a feature changed. The library’s digital collections provide these different kinds of evidence. For occupied houses, keep your exploration to public space unless a resident or an organized tour explicitly invites you inside.

Sources: Toledo Library: Old West End archival guide; Toledo Library: local history digital collections