Forest City Block (Robinson Clothing, Forest City Bank, Parsons & Co. Law Book Store, Atlantic, Lake, & Mississippi Telegraph Office) with crates piled up on street
The Joseph and Feiss Company was established in 1841, by Caufman Koch and Samuel Loeb, as a general store in Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1845 they moved the store to Cleveland, Ohio, and began specializing in tailored men's clothing. The company underwent several name changes before becoming Joseph & Feiss in 1907. The collection consists of photographs of various operations, functions, facilities, events, and staff of the Joseph and Feiss Company of Cleveland, Ohio. Included are exterior and interior views of the factory; individual and group portraits of the founders of the company, other executives, and employees; views of employees at work and at various recreational activities; views of medical and sanitary facilities, the nursery, lunchrooms, and language and other classes for employees; views of machinery used in clothing manufacturing at the plant; and views of production and employees during World War II.
Louis Stokes was born on February 23, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio. He and his younger brother Carl were the only children to his widowed mother, who worked as domestic cleaning houses. Stokes and his brother had a very poor upbringing, and didn’t have many opportunities as children. After high school Louis worked as a shoe shiner, a machine operator, a dishwasher, and a clothing salesman, and then soon after he was drafted into the Army. Growing up in Cleveland segregation and inequality had never really made an impression on Louis Stokes until he joined the Army. It was during his service in the military that he began to realize that people thought he was inferior because of the color of his skin, and also when he began to understand the impact an education could have on changing his life, and the life of many others.