Exhibit Overview

About the full exhibit: The Port of Toledo and the Maumee River have played a vital role in our region since people first settled here thousands of years ago.  This 3-part exhibit began in March 2020 and showcases images of stories highlighting the history of the museum’s hometown port of Toledo, Ohio. Part 1, the Port of Toledo: Then is an online exhibit released in Spring 2020.  Part 2 is a temporary physical exhibit housed at Promedica downtown Toledo headquarters highlighting the Port of Toledo through the years. Part 3, the Port of Toledo: Now is an online exhibit released in Winter 2020. 

The Complete Exhibit Contains:

12 separate interactive maps
(highlighting locations of 10 different photos per map)

A Video Series
(highlighting the physical exhibit gallery)

An Exhibit Guide and Activities
(for Educators and Students)

Roundtable Lecture Recording
(featuring experts and historians from the Toledo area)

Part 1: Then

Part 1 of Port of Toledo: Then and Now launched in March of 2020 in 6 virtual installments as an interactive online exhibit exploring images and stories highlighting the history of the museum’s hometown port of Toledo, Ohio. Focused on the Port of Toledo from “Then”, this exhibit was merely the beginning of an extended three-part experience. 

Exhibit Directions: To visit the full 10 images connected to each of 6 total separate exhibit updates, click on the initial “map” image in the rotating deck under the appropriate date. This will take you to that update’s interactive map landing page. Once there, hover over the orange location indicators to show images connected to their location on the Maumee River and click “Learn More” to read about the featured images and see other related historic images. NOTE: If you click individual images in the rotating deck you will be led to explore more about that particular image’s historic story.

Part 2: Physical Exhibit

Part 2 of Port of Toledo: Then and Now is a physical exhibit located in the History Walk Gallery at ProMedica headquarters. This gallery sits in downtown Toledo overlooking the “Mighty Maumee River”. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, this exhibit is not as accessible as originally hoped. We virtually introduced audiences to it through our H2Oh! live-streamed fundraiser taking place on September 26th. To help better share the exhibit, we’ve created a few short video segments including guests Tom Walton, Kay Anderson, Tedd Long, Bob Lucas, and Ted Ligibel. Special thanks goes out to Allied Media and Matt Russell, LLC for the segments’ video production.

Part 3: Now

Part 3 of Port of Toledo: Then and Now explores the Port of Toledo: Now as we currently know it by showcasing collected and crowd-sourced images mirroring the historic story of the “Mighty Maumee.” The last update of this exhibit was February 1, 2021. Thank you for joining us on this journey down the Maumee River. 

Exhibit Guide & Activities

Roundtable Lecture

All images from:
The Great Lakes Historical Society
The Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
at Bowling Green State University
Larry Clapper
Carrie Sowden
Toledo Lucas County Port Authority
Danny Woodcock
Christopher Winters
Ellen Kennedy
Ashley Ankney
United State Coast Guard
The Blade
Interlake Steamship Co.
Don Lee
US Navy
Sandpiper
Ring Lardner
Paul LaMarre, III
Metroparks Toledo
US Army Corps of Engineers
NOAA
Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society