How To - Find Pictures

Finding old pictures of your property can be quite difficult, unless your property is located near a landmark, owned by a famous Cincinnatian or located in a prominent neighborhood. There are a few websites worth searching just in case.

If you do not find any success, try locating living family members of former owners. Perhaps photos were taken of the home and are hiding in someone’s attic. Using the information collected from your research, try an internet people search and make contact with the relatives. It cannot hurt to ask!

Cincinnati History Library and Archives 
http://library.cincymuseum.org/

The Cincinnati History Library is located in the Cincinnati Museum Center. Their website offers access to some pictures that have been scanned and indexed, but many more are available at the Museum Center. They also offer many books in their library of local interest and also have archives of materials related to Cincinnati history and Cincinnati families. It is worth the trip to their library to see what information they may have to offer.

CincinnatiViews
http://www.cincinnativiews.net/

This is a large collection (over 12,000) of postcards and photographs of Cincinnati. A search page is offered and images are nicely categorized. The author of this site has also provided a lot of research of buildings which is extremely helpful.

Greater Cincinnati Memory Project
http://cincinnatimemory.org/

This site is a continuing effort being made by the Greater Cincinnati Library Consortium to make available to the public the large collection of images that these libraries hold in their collections. Initially, almost 6,000 pre-1940 images were scanned to preserve and share. More from post-1940 are being added and more institutions are joining the Project, making this a wonderful resource even better.

University of Cincinnati Digital Resource Commons; UC Libraries – Historical Records
https://drc.libraries.uc.edu/handle/2374.UC/702759

The University of Cincinnati’s Libraries has a variety of historical records on-line, including many photographs of streets that were repaired from 1920 to 1956. These were obtained from the archives of the City of Cincinnati’s Engineer Office. Homes along these streets are often also photographed. Within this collection are photographs of the construction of the rapid transit system, commonly called the subway, which was never completed.

Other Photograph Resources
Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

New York Public Library: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm

Old Photos of Cincinnati Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/Old.Cincinnati/