Started by the Special Collections Department of the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University, The Cleveland Memory Project is a collaborative website where “serious researchers and casual browsers will find thousands of historical photographs as well as a growing collection of ebooks documenting the history of greater Cleveland and the Western Reserve region of northeastern Ohio, its industries and its people.”

Considering Mansfield to be the southernmost point of their service area, the co-coordinator of The Cleveland Memory Project, Bill Barrow, and M/RCPL’s former local history librarian, Boyd Addlesperger, decided that digitizing the Sherman Room Photo File would be beneficial to customers and students throughout Northeastern Ohio–and the project could be completed at no cost to M/RCPL.

Images come straight from the Sherman Room Photo File, a collection of approximately 1,700 photographs which have been archived and housed in the The Sherman Room at Main Library. It includes several notable people, places, and events that have taken place in Richland County over the last several hundred years. Visit the Mansfield Collection webpage to view the photos. 

Contact current Sherman Room Librarian Jayson Schlechty.

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