We're very happy to announce that the Michael Schwartz Library has published a new ebook in EngagedScholarship@CSU: "A History of University Circle in Cleveland: Community, Philanthropy, and Planning", by Darwin H. Stapleton. We at the Library have published a great many ebooks, through MSL Academic Endeavors and through Cleveland Memory, but this one has a special story, and fills a niche in local Cleveland history that has long been unfulfilled.
This book has been a long time coming! Begun some 35 years ago, the manuscript was completed in 1990, was intended for publication first by University Circle, Inc., and then by The Ohio State University Press, but ultimately was a casualty of budget cuts. Nevertheless, author Darwin Stapleton continued to make minor revisions and additions to the manuscript over the next three decades, also publishing articles and presenting material drawing on his research and on the manuscript.
By 2018, the still-unpublished manuscript was known about by some students of Cleveland history, including the Michael Schwartz Library's own Bill Barrow. Barrow, Head of our Special Collections, noted that a history of University Circle had yet to appear, and he contacted Stapleton to propose the creation of an ebook edition under the Michael Schwarz Library's imprint. Having been under continual revision over the years, the manuscript was certainly ready! In several cases Stapleton's new publications and presentations have considerably extended subjects undertaken in the manuscript, and our ebook edition includes this new material.
As the title suggests, the book uses the concepts and processes of community-building, philanthropic activity, and city planning to frame the 200-year history of University Circle, the educational, medical, and cultural center of Cleveland.
As the home of the Cleveland Memory Project, we are delighted to have facilitated this important addition to the chronicle of our city's history. Darwin Stapleton, of course, states it best:
"A good deal of what is the best and worst of United States history can be better understood by studying cities, which both involved citizens and scholars should do. I hope that this book is a contribution to that process."
READ THE BOOK ONLINE NOW:
"A History of University Circle in Cleveland: Community, Philanthropy, and Planning" (MS #1017)