Brothers from Another Mother

Taft Museum of Art

R.L. Polk Building

Sunday, I was really feeling the spirit! After I left Findlay Market, I decided to head back downtown and head to the Lytle Park Historic District and check out two buildings rich in African American culture. 

First, a true downtown icon: the Taft Museum of Art. This served as a residence of Martin Baum, Nicholas Longworth, considered to be the father of the American wine industry, Charles Sinton, who lived in the house with his daughter Anna, who later became Mrs. Charles Phelps Taft and sister-in- law to 27th President of the United States William Howard Taft, who also accepted his nomination for President from this house in 1908.

A really neat part that very few people know is that when winemaker and arts patron Nicholas Longworth was living in what was known as the Belmont house, he commissioned a series of landscape murals painted by Robert S Duncanson. Duncanson was one of the first African American artists to gain international national attention. As a free black man in antebellum America, he was able to gain support from the abolitionist community in the U.S. and England. It was his success that caught the attention of Longworth, and Longworth commissioned Duncanson to paint eight landscape murals adorning the entry way of the house. The murals are among the largest pre-Civil War domestic collection of landscape murals in the United States.

 

Just across the street from the museum is the R.L. Polk Building, which was the former A.H. Pugh Printing Company. The printing company published James Birney's abolitionist newspaper The Philanthropist in April 1836. Achilles Pugh was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) who shared Birney's views on slavery. As a result, mobs attacked the printing company's office and dumped his typing materials into the Ohio River. There is also a marker on Pike Street that commemorates the printer's fight against slavery. Pugh moved his business to Springboro, Ohio to continue to publish Birney's newspaper for a short time but returned to Cincinnati to set up shop again. Pugh was also active in the Underground Railroad. The printing company continued to be family owned and operated until it went out of business in the 1980s. 

 

Well, this makes part of a great walking tour! In fact, I could add this on my sartorial or real to do list! Anything is possible!