Did you know that during World War II, Akron was likely the biggest producer of condoms for U.S. troops? Or that Emmer Lancaster, an Akron native born in 1900, was the first Black member of the Akron Bar Association?
These nuggets of history are among those now on display at the Akron History Center. On Saturday morning, the long-awaited attraction in downtown Akron opened to visitors following the cutting of a “Ribbon of Rubber.”
Hundreds showed up for the grand opening, including Todd Williams, a longtime Akron resident. Williams said he loved seeing original rubber manufacturing artifacts. He was also astounded by staircases that doubled as an Akron civil rights timeline.
“You come in here and you’ll learn about what the city means and what the people mean,” Williams said, “and how we’re a community that’s driven to have equal justice for everybody.”
The history center, which is free to visit, is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nestled next to the Akron Civic Theatre and adjacent to Lock 3, it doesn’t have an inch of space that isn’t thoughtfully covered by displays and homages to the Rubber City’s storied past.
The three-floor building on Main Street houses more than 60 exhibits and 150 artifacts, accompanied by 30 flat screens with video presentations of historical figures and moments. It was all thoughtfully curated by a team of local historians.
Caitlyn Conley, a local history and museum specialist for the Akron-Summit County Public Library, will run the history center going forward. Her favorite exhibit? The rhythm section highlighting Akron’s musical past.
“A lot of people don’t know the depth of Akron music history,” Conley said. “They know like The Black Keys or Ruby and the Romantics, but they don’t really know about the significance of the Tuesday Musical or our Metropolitan Opera singer[s].”
Tuesday Musical is an arts organization started here in 1887 by Celia Baker, the wife of George Baker — the former president of the Akron Electric Light and Power Co. The organization still exists, organizing performances across the region.
Akron is also home to a number of women who took to the Metropolitan Opera stage, including Queena Mario, who performed more than 300 times, and Helen Jepson, who sang leading roles at the Met from 1935 to 1941.
Conley said the displays will remain relatively static for the first couple of years, but there will be no shortage of artifacts and memorabilia on display, thanks to support from the Summit County Historical Society, the library’s Special Collection Division, the University of Akron’s Archives and Special Collections and the Lighter-Than-Air Society, a nonprofit focused on airship technology and history.
Akron Mayor: ‘Inspired by what they see’
The son of an Akron history maker attended Saturday’s grand opening.
Dave Jennings’ father, Garland, developed the first rigid PVC designs for B.F. Goodrich in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Decades later, the technology his father developed is ubiquitous in homes and industry.
“It’s a very rich history, and as the mayor said when he was talking about it, [the] past is prologue,” Dave Jennings said.
Mayor Shammas Malik gave opening remarks alongside Akron History Center Board Chair William Considine and Dave Lieberth, the former deputy mayor and longtime civic leader who worked for four years to launch the history center.
“What I’m most excited about is the young people who are here today, the young people who are going to walk through this space for generations to come who are going to be inspired by what they see, by the rich legacy of talent and tradition and achievement that they see, and who one day are going to have their work enshrined in spaces like this as well,” Malik said.
Honoring an Akron leader: ‘It was a surprise to me’
Lieberth’s work with and love for Akron is obvious when you enter the history center. After all, he’s long been a flagbearer for the city’s history, and the downtown center is a capstone on a storied career.
On Saturday, he was honored with the naming of the David A. Leiberth Gallery on the Lock 4-level floor of the museum.
“It was a surprise to me, and I feel very grateful that they’ve acknowledged four years of volunteer work,” Lieberth said of the gallery honoring him.
He hopes the history center serves as a tool for people to learn about his city’s past and a beacon that can inspire hope in the future, especially as Akron navigates change.
“People often get discouraged by the news of the day, and one of the things that history does tell us and allows us to reflect on is that we’ve been here before,” Lieberth told Signal Akron.
“Our ‘20 Steps to Social Justice’ include events that were real positive and events that were real negative in Akron history, but we’ve always been able to overcome our difficulties, and that’s the lesson I want people to take.”
