These are just a few of many historic photos of Wheeling people, places, and things that need to be identified. Weelunk<\/a>, <\/span>Archiving Wheeling<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and the Ohio County Public Library Archives<\/a> have teamed up to reach out to Wheeling area residents or people who have lived in the Wheeling area at any time\u2014we need your help identifying the individuals in these photos!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an ongoing crowdsourcing project to connect today\u2019s Wheeling community to its historical resources and stories. The more we know about the people in these photos, the more we can uncover important and sometimes forgotten histories of Wheeling.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We Need Your Help<\/h2>\n
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$\"Weelunk$ <\/a><\/p>\n
Check out the featured photos on Weelunk\u2019s partner article, here.<\/a> If you recognize someone, please submit your comment in the entry space below the specific photo on the Weelunk page. The more information you can give us, the more complete the historical record. Please help us by sharing this project far and wide on social media and directly with anyone you know from Wheeling\u2014even if they don\u2019t live here anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Are you more of a paper person? We\u2019ve got you covered too. Download the February 2021 Black History edition<\/a> and the March 2021 Women\u2019s History edition<\/a> of the \u201cHelp Us Solve Wheeling History Mysteries!\u201d booklet or pick one up at the Library at 52 16th St.<\/a> (see rules on making an appointment to visit the Library during COVID<\/a>) or in the lobby at the Artisan Center at 1400 Main St.<\/a>, Wheeling. Then return your booklets with solved history mysteries to the Library.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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What is \u201cCrowdsourcing\u201d?<\/h2>\n
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Crowdsourcing history is reaching out to the wider community to solicit help and knowledge in preserving, discovering, diversifying, and communicating history. History is not just created by or for trained historians\u2014it is made up of stories, secrets, documents, and more that are preserved by everyday people. Historians have an important job of verifying, analyzing, and interpreting history, but it is the entire community that is responsible for maintaining and expanding the stories, records, and narratives that create the foundations of their society. Sometimes history\u2019s mysteries just need someone with the right key.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
As the internet and digital technology have become more accessible and widely used, so has the ability to reach a wider audience. You don\u2019t have to physically be at a museum or touring a historic site to participate in crowdsourced history projects. Other libraries are conducting similar photo identification campaigns, institutions like the Smithsonian<\/a> encourage patrons to help transcribe thousands of pages of handwritten documents, and other organizations like StoryCorps<\/a> create opportunities to record and archive the histories of people of all backgrounds.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Crowdsourcing Success Stories at OCPL and Archiving Wheeling<\/i><\/h2>\n
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$\"This$ <\/a>
Kathy Savage-Blanchard identified her mother, Clara, sitting at the piano in this photo from the <\/span>OCPL Archives YWCA Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The Ohio County Public Library and <\/span>Archiving Wheeling<\/span><\/i> have been getting the public\u2019s help deciphering Wheeling\u2019s history for years. Our success stories help illustrate just how important the community is to local history. she recognized\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
While examining an exhibit of the OCPL Archive\u2019s YWCA Blue Triangle Collection<\/a>, Wheeling resident Kathy Savage-Blanchard paused at one photo in particular\u2014her mother, Clara Katherine Jackson-Savage, sitting at the piano as a young adult. Kathy had seen very few images of her mother at that age and had almost passed over the photo, but she remembers that the shape of the woman\u2019s face caught her attention, and upon closer inspection, \u201csure enough, it was my mother!\u201d Previously, there was little known about the photo other than the fact that it was taken in the parlor of the Blue Triangle Branch\u2014the segregated African American branch of Wheeling\u2019s YWCA. Kathy\u2019s identification of her mother expands and clarifies part of Wheeling\u2019s recorded history, making it more accessible to future generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
In 2015, as another example,\u00a0<\/span>Archiving Wheeling<\/span><\/i> published an article with two photographs related to German Day celebrations\u2014asking for help identifying an unknown building in one of the pictures. Readers used architectural clues and their own knowledge and memories of Wheeling structures to correctly identify<\/a> the unknown building as the Pollack Stogies Factory (later, the Ott-Heiskell building) on Eoff and 18th Streets, which still stands to this day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t $\"Real$ <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tReal Photo Postcard of Pollack Stogie Factory Workers, German Day, 1908. OCPL Archives.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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\n\t\t\t\t $\"Arion$ <\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tArion Hall on 20th and Main was the Saengerfest headquarters.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n
Even though the other photograph\u2014of the 1906 Saengerfest at Arion Hall\u2014was already identified, it contained an unrelated secret. The background of the photo included a house on 20th Street (then Webster St.) that was the childhood home of Rebecca Harding (later Rebecca Harding Davis<\/a>) a renowned 19th century writer. While Rebecca\u2019s achievements are well known, an image of her family home on 20th street is rare\u2026and just what Dr. Dan Bonenberger, a professor at Eastern Michigan University, had been searching for to include in his research. To learn more about <\/span>Archiving Wheeling\u2019s<\/span><\/i> German Days crowdsourced discoveries, check out the <\/span>article<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
Another example arose from the fact that OCPL has digitized a significant portion of their photo collection on <\/span>Flickr<\/span><\/a> for the Wheeling community to view, allowing the \u201c Memories of Wheeling<\/a>\u201d Facebook community to identify the majority of Wheeling Clinic Doctors and Administration in this <\/span>photo<\/span><\/a> from the 1980s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
$\"Doctors$ <\/a>
Member of the Facebook group \u201c Memories of Wheeling<\/a>\u201d helped the OCPL Archives identify many of the doctors in the circa 1980 Wheeling Clinic photo. Take a closer look to see if you can help us identify more<\/a>!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
As these vivid examples demonstrate, everyone has the ability to contribute to local history!<\/p>\n
And this project<\/a> is your opportunity do the same. Please help us to fortify and diversify Wheeling\u2019s historical record by checking out these photos<\/a>\u00a0to see if you can solve Wheeling\u2019s history mysteries one face and one place at a time.<\/p>\n
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To Learn More\u2026<\/h2>\n
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After checking out the Weelunk post to see if you can identify anyone, if you would like to learn more about or participate in crowdsourcing history projects, please have a look at some of these additional examples from other libraries and institutions doing similar work using the links below. Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Mystery Photo Success Stories at the Library of Congress<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
Photo Identification Project at Bowdoin College\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n
Organization of American Historians: Crowdsourcing Digital Public History<\/a><\/li>\n
Library News: The Power of Crowdsourcing in Libraries and Archives<\/a>
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\nPARTICIPATE:<\/strong><\/li>\n
From The Page<\/a>: A platform for crowdsourced historical transcription<\/li>\n
Smithsonian Digital Volunteers: Transcription Center<\/a>: \u201cvolunpeers\u201d collaboratively transcribe pages from the Smithsonian\u2019s collections.<\/li>\n
StoryCorps:<\/a> Gives people of all backgrounds the opportunity to record and archive meaningful conversations at the Library of Congress<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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We Need Your Help<\/h2>\n\n