blanchesterareahistoricalsociety

Z.T. Peddicord’s Advertising Promotional piece, Blanchester


A 1905 Z.T. Peddicord’s advertising piece featuring a sewing kit of needles. These promotional pieces were popular in the early 1900’s. They contained something of value which meant the advertising wasn’t thrown away and the message was delivered every time someone needed a sewing needle.

Peddicord’s was located at Crosson’s Block on the east side of South Broadway, the space where the new UDF is being built.

Source: This piece is part of the permanent collection at the Blanchester Area Historical Society.

blanchesterareahistoricalsociety

C.M. & B. Traction Line – Bourbon Street, Blanchester

A postcard from 1908 showing the Cincinnati, Milford & Blanchester traction line car heading into the Blanchester depot. Traction lines were trains that ran on electrified rails. They were popular in the early 1900’s but as the automobile became more popular their days were numbered.

The tracks in Blanchester ran along the west side of Bourbon Street. The depot was on South Broadway near where the Blanchester Oil Company building stands.

The photographer of this photo was standing in the center of South Broadway looking south down Bourbon Street. The building to the left in more recent years was the location of Wilson’s Meat Locker. None of the buildings visible are still standing.

Not only could Blanchester residents hop on the train and ride to Cincinnati and other towns along the way but local farmers could load their produce, eggs and milk on the freight sections of the train and sell their farm goods to towns far away.

See full size image here.


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Blanchester High School Flag-The Brown & Blue

Blanchester High School Wildcat fans are well familar with the blue and white school colors. But those weren’t always the school’s colors. Until at least 1948 the colors were Blue and Brown. They are a unique color combination that you probably won’t find these days for school colors. This combination was so important to the school that there was even a school song about them, “Cheers To The Brown & Blue”.

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P.E. Snyder Hardware – Another look inside

Circa 1912. Another glimpse into P.E. Snyder’s Hardware with a great description of the store and it’s operation as told by Mr. Snyder’s only daughter, Isabel.

At this time the horse and buggy was still the major form of transportation. Snyder’s Hardware sold alot of buggies. There are photo’s of buggies lined up all down South Broadway when their new shipments were assembled.

As Isabel explains the buggies were assembled and then loaded onto an elevator. They were raised to the second floor showroom by a rope and pulley. If you look closely in the background you can see a sign that says “buggies upstairs”

Left to right Unknown, Sarah “Sally” Snyder (sister of P.E. Snyder), Burch Newland (Snyder’s best saleman), Ed Anderson, Unknown, Charles Jones (handyman), Red Barker (salesman for South Bend Malleable Ranges) and P.E. Snyder. The man sneaking in from the right-hand side is unknown.

See full size image here.

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Blanchester High School – 1937 Yearbook

The restoration on the 1937 yearbook is complete. All the photographs that were loose or falling off have been reglued with archival glue which should ensure that they will remain in place for many decades.

Now that the yearbook is digitized we can easily view the book online. This will further help preserve the already fragile book by reducing the amount of people physically handling it.

See the whole book here.

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1937 Yearbook restoration

This yearbook was an unusual one. Instead of being printed like previous and subsequent ones, this yearbook is essentially a scrapbook. The pages are single pages three-hole punched and assembled into a folder with clasps. All the photos are actual photos pasted into the book.

Unfortunately the adhesive ( probably rubber cement) has hardened over the years causing the photos to fall off.

The first step in the restoration is to remove and number all the pages. There are no page numbers on the originals. Each page with photos is then inspected to make sure the photos are securely fastened. Over the years others have used scotch tape on the corners to keep them in place. Standard transparent tape is not recommended for this as it will eventually discolor and damage the photo. Ideally this tape would be removed but in this case when the restorer tried to remove the tape it started to pull the emulsion from the photo. For that reason the old repairs where left.

The photos in danger of falling off were then glued back on using Lineco Neutral ph glue. This is an archival museum quality glue that is specially designed for this purpose. It dries clear and remains flexible so that the photos won’t fall off in the future. The acid-free nature of this adhesive also prevents damage to the photo that other adhesives can cause.

Finally all the pages will be digitized. The resulting high resolution images can be enlarge and printed at large sizes. Digital copies are easy to share and do not suffer from reproduction problems like physical photos. Physical photos are just one disaster away from being lost forever. Digitizing ensures these valuable pieces of history will be preserved forever.

Photo: ©2021 Steve Ziegelmeyer, Ziegelmeyer Photography