handsome buildings erected since 1895 on a campus of 43 acres in Burnet Woods Park, has an astronomical observatory on the highest point of Mt. Lookout, and is the only strictly municipal university in the United States. The institution embraces a college of liberal arts, a college of engineering, a college of law (united in 1897 with the law school of Cincinnati College, then the only surviving department of that college, which was founded as Lancaster Seminary in 1815 and was chartered as Cincinnati College in 1819), a college of medicine (from 1819 to 1896 the Medical College of Ohio; the college occupies the site of the old M‘Micken homestead), a college for teachers, a graduate school, and a technical school (founded in 1886 and transferred to the university in 1901); while closely affiliated with it are the Clinical and Pathological School of Cincinnati and the Ohio College of Dentistry. With the exception of small fees charged for incidental expenses, the university is free to all students who are residents of the city; others pay $75 a year for tuition. It is maintained in part by the city, through public taxation, and in part by the income from endowment funds given by Charles M‘Micken, Matthew Thoms, David Sinton and others. The government of the university is entrusted mainly to a board of nine directors appointed by the mayor. In 1909 it had a faculty of 144 and 1364 students. Lane Theological Seminary is situated in Walnut Hills, in the north-eastern part of the city; it was endowed by Ebenezer Lane and the Kemper family; was founded in 1829 for the training of Presbyterian ministers; had for its first president (1832–1852) Lyman Beecher; and in 1834 was the scene of a bitter contest between abolitionists in the faculty and among the students, led by Theodore Dwight Weld, and the board of trustees, who forbade the discussion of slavery in the seminary and so caused about four-fifths of the students to leave, most of them going to Oberlin College. The city has also Saint Francis Xavier College (Roman Catholic, established in 1831 and until 1840 known as the Athenaeum); Saint Joseph College (Roman Catholic, 1873); Mount St Mary’s of the West Seminary (Roman Catholic, theological, 1848, at Cedar Point, Ohio); Hebrew Union College (1875), the leading institution in the United States for educating rabbis; the largely attended Ohio Mechanics’ Institute (founded 1828), a private corporation not conducted for profit, its object being the education of skilled workmen, the training of industrial leaders, and the advancement of the mechanic arts (in 1907 there were in all departments 1421 students, a large majority of whom were in the evening classes); an excellent art academy, modelled after that of South Kensington; the College of Music and the Conservatory of Music (mentioned below); the Miami Medical College (opened in 1852); the Pulte Medical College (homeopathic; coeducational; opened 1872); the Eclectic Medical Institute (chartered 1845); two women’s medical colleges, two colleges of dental surgery, a college of pharmacy, and several business colleges. The public, district, and high schools of the city are excellent. The City (or public) library contained in 1906 301,380 vols. and 57,562 pamphlets; the University library (including medical, law and astronomical branches), 80,000 vols. (including the Robert Clarke collection, rich in Americana, and the library—about 5000 vols.—of the American Association for the Advancement of Science); the Young Men’s Mercantile library, 70,000 vols.; and the Law library, 35,000 vols.; in addition, the Lloyd library and museum of botany and pharmacy, and the library of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio (1831), which contains a valuable collection of rare books, pamphlets and manuscripts, are worthy of mention.
Art, &c.—The large German population makes the city noteworthy for its music. The first Sängerfest was held in Cincinnati in 1849, and it met here again in 1870, when a new hall was built for its accommodation. Under the leadership of Theodore Thomas (1835–1905), the Cincinnati Musical Festival Association was incorporated, and the first of its biennial May festivals was held in 1873. In 1875–1878 was built the large Springer music hall, named in honour of Reuben R. Springer (1800–1884), its greatest benefactor, who endowed the Cincinnati College of Music (incorporated in 1878), of which Thomas was director in 1878–1881. Until his death Thomas was director of the May festivals also. The grounds for the music hall were given by the city and are perpetually exempt from taxation. The great organ in the music hall was dedicated at the third of the May festivals in 1878. The Sängerfest met in Cincinnati for the third time in 1879, and its jubilee was held here in 1899. By 1880 the May festival chorus had become a permanent organization. The city has several other musical societies—the Apollo and Orpheus clubs (1881 and 1893), a Liederkranz (1886), and a United Singing Society (1896) being among the more prominent; and there are two schools of music—the Conservatory of Music and the College of Music.
The city has large publishing interests, and various religious (Methodist Episcopal and Roman Catholic) and fraternal periodicals, and several technical journals and trade papers are published here. The principal daily newspapers are the Enquirer, a Democratic journal, established in 1842 and conducted for many years after 1852 by Washington McLean (1816–1890), and then by his son, John Roll McLean (b. 1848); the Commercial Tribune (Republican; previously the Commercial-Gazette and still earlier the Commercial, founded in 1793, The Tribune being merged with it in 1896), the Times-Star (the Times established in 1836), and the Post, established in 1881 (both evening papers); and several influential German journals, including the Volksblatt (Republican; established 1836), and the Volksfreund (Democratic; established 1850).
Among the social clubs of the city are the Queen City Club, organized in 1874; the Phoenix Club, organized in 1856 and the leading Jewish club in the city; the Cuvier Club, organized in 1871 and originally an association of hunters and anglers for the preservation of game and fish; the Cincinnati Club, the Business Men’s Club, the University Club, the Art Club, and the Literary Club, of the last of which many prominent men, including President Hayes, have been members. This club dates from 1849, and is said to be the oldest literary club in the country. There are various commercial and trade organizations, the oldest and most influential being the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants’ Exchange, which dates from 1839.
Administration.—The city is governed under the municipal code enacted by the state legislature in 1902, for the provisions of which see Ohio.
Among the institutions are the City infirmary (at Hartwell, a suburb), which, besides supporting pauper inmates, affords relief to outdoor poor; the Cincinnati hospital, which is supported by taxation and treats without charge all who are unable to pay; twenty other hospitals, some of which are charitable institutions; a United States marine hospital; the Longview hospital for the insane, at Carthage, 10 m. from the city, and belonging to Hamilton county, whose population consists largely of the inhabitants of Cincinnati; an insane asylum for negroes; six orphan asylums—the Cincinnati, two Protestant, two Roman Catholic, and one for negroes; a home for incurables; a day nursery; a fresh-air home and farm for poor children; the Franciscan Brothers’ Protectory for boys; a children’s home; two widows’ homes; two old men’s homes; several homes for indigent and friendless women; a foundling asylum; the rescue mission and home for erring women; a social settlement conducted by the University of Cincinnati; the house of refuge (1850) for “the reformation and education of homeless and incorrigible children under 16 years of age”; and a workhouse for adults convicted of minor offences.
Communications.—Cincinnati is a railway centre of great importance and has an extensive commerce both by rail and by river. It is served by the following railways: the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (Pennsylvania system), the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (New York Central system), the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville, the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific (the lessee of the Cincinnati Southern railway,[1] connecting Cincinnati and Chattanooga, Tenn., its line
- ↑ The Cincinnati Southern railway is of especial interest in that it was built by the city of Cincinnati in its corporate capacity. Much of the city’s trade had always been with the Southern states, and the urgent need of better facilities for this trade than the river and existing railway lines afforded led to the building of this road by the city. The work was carried on under the direction of a board of five trustees appointed by the superior court of Cincinnati in accordance with the so-called Ferguson Act passed by the Ohio legislature in 1869, and the railway was completed to Chattanooga in February 1880. For accounts of the building and the management of the railway, see J. H. Hollander, The Cincinnati Southern Railway; A Study in Municipal Activity (Baltimore, 1894), one of the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science; and The Founding of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, with an Autobiographical Sketch by E. A. Ferguson (Cincinnati, 1905).
