The Great Lakes Industrial Archive — Established 1987 Photographs 18,420 · Documents 7,860 · Oral Histories 614 · Objects 1,205 Cleveland, Ohio
THE GREAT LAKESIndustrial Archive
Nonprofit archive — Documents, photographs, oral histories Visit · Research · Support
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The Great Lakes Industrial Archive
Preserving documents,
photographs, oral histories,
and physical artifacts
related to Great Lakes
manufacturing history.
Holdings index
Photographs — 18,420
Documents — 7,860
Oral Histories — 614
Physical Objects — 1,205
Est. 1987 — Cleveland

01 — Institutional hero

Industry rememberedthrough the people who built it.

A scholarly, public archive for the manufacturing life of the Great Lakes — shop floors, neighborhoods, and the records they left behind.

Established 1987 · Nonprofit · Free and open to researchers, educators, and the public.

Photographs
18,420
records
Documents
7,860
records
Oral Histories
614
records
Physical Objects
1,205
records
Archive reading room with industrial document cases — Cleveland
Archive reading room — Cleveland Est. 1987
The archive holds material from steel, automotive, shipbuilding, glass, rubber, and tooling industries across the Great Lakes basin.
Holdings — 28,099 records total 1987 — present
02 — Collections

Four forms.
One history.

Each collection is catalogued,
preserved, and made
available for research.
28,099 records total
Collection 011890 — 1985
18,420 records

Photographs

Shop floors, portraits, aerials, and neighborhood views. Many identified by worker, plant, and year.

Search photographs →
Collection 021902 — 1991
7,860 records

Documents

Pay stubs, manuals, union newsletters, company correspondence, and plant records.

Search documents →
Collection 031978 — present
614 records

Oral Histories

Recorded interviews with workers, organizers, and families. Transcribed and indexed.

Listen & read →
Collection 041910 — 1980
1,205 records

Physical Objects

Tools, badges, garments, and shop artifacts. Stored and photographed for remote reference.

Browse objects →
Established
1987
Founded by historians and
former plant workers to
preserve a disappearing record.
Access
Free and open.
Appointments encouraged
for object viewing.
Reading room — Tue–Sat, 10am–5pm
Counts reflect catalogued records as of 2026. Growth ongoing.

03 — Featured archive object

18k+
From the photograph
collection — workers
identified wherever
possible.
Placeholder — object details use supplied counts only
Archival photograph of factory workers — representative collection scope
Collection: Photographs — Undated shop viewFig. 03
Image is illustrative of collection scope — representative of plant and portrait holdings.
Photographs — 18,420 records · Documents — 7,860

A face, a name, a shift.

Our cataloging prioritizes identification: who made it, where they worked, and when. Many photographs arrive with names on the back — we keep them there.

Featured object details beyond supplied collection counts are marked as placeholder. No fabrication of dates, locations, or identifiers.

Placeholder labeling — Featured object's specific accession number, date, and donor are not supplied and are shown as [placeholder] in the catalog record. Search the holdings for verified records.
Search photographs How we catalog
Holdings at a glance28,099
Photographs18,420
Documents7,860
Oral Histories614
Physical Objects1,205
Only counts supplied above are claimed. No individual object fabrication.
Research note
“We keep the name on the back of the photograph. That’s the finding aid.”
— Cataloging principle, since 1987
04 — Research & Access

Come
with a
question.
Leave with
sources.

Free & open. We help
first-time and
experienced
researchers alike.

How to use the archive

Start with the catalog — every record is searchable by name, plant, year, or subject. Reading room staff pull photographs and documents for in-person viewing; oral histories stream with transcripts.

  • Reading roomTue–Sat · 10–5
  • CatalogOnline · Free
  • Oral histories614 records · Transcribed
  • Object viewingBy appointment

For educators & families

We host class visits and family research sessions. Many visitors arrive with a single photograph or pay stub and leave with context about the plant, the neighborhood, and the work.

Start here
Search by plant → if you know where they worked
Search by name → if you have a photograph or document
Reading room
Cleveland — University Circle
Free and open to the public
Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm
Appointments encouraged for object viewing. Walk-ins welcome for photographs and documents.
Oral histories — 614 records
Recorded interviews with workers, organizers, and families. Indexed by plant and subject.
Browse oral histories
05 — Preservation mission
Not a corporate museum.
A public record.
Built by the people
who kept the material.
“Industry remembered is not
about machines. It’s about
who showed up to run them.”

We preserve material that industry itself often discarded: the manual that went home in a toolbox, the portrait on the break-room wall, the interview recorded at a kitchen table. That’s the history that would otherwise disappear.

Established 1987 by historians and former plant workers. Nonprofit, independent, and accountable to the communities whose history we hold.

Founded
1987 — by historians & former workers
Holdings
28,099 catalogued records — photographs, documents, oral histories, objects
Stewardship
Climate-controlled storage · Digitization · Transcription
Support
Donations and grants — free access maintained
06 — Visit / Contact
We answer
research questions
by email and
in the reading room.
The Great Lakes Industrial Archive — Visit
Bring what
you have.

A photograph, a name, a plant, a year — whatever you hold, we can help place it in the larger holdings.

Plan a visit Ask a research question
Visit
Cleveland — University Circle
Reading room — Tue–Sat, 10am–5pm
Free and open · Appointments for objects
Contact
research@glia.archive
+1 (216) 555-0187
28,099 records — searchable online
Only holdings counts and establishment year supplied are claimed. Featured object details are placeholder where not supplied.