Toledo
Toledo names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 2 of them are described by more than one encyclopedia.
Toledo a city of Ohio
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Ohio, the county seat of Lucas co. It is on the Maumee river, on both sides. The river is crossed by many bridges. Toledo is the third railroad center in America, and is the terminus of many important railway lines, including the Pennsylvania, the Hocking Valley, the Clover Leaf, the Pere Marquette, and the Grand Trunk. There are in all 17 railroads, operating 22 divisions. In addition there are 10 interurban lines. A belt line, 22 miles long, connects all railroads. The city is the most important shipping point of cargo coal on the Great Lakes, situated as it is at the west end of Lake Erie and at the foot of the upper chain of the Great Lakes. It is also the natural receiving point for the iron traffic from the Lake Superior region and of grain and lumber from the northwest. The city has an area of 31.51 square miles, and is most attractively laid out. It has about 250 miles of streets, of which about 200 are paved. There are 8 parks, well distributed, comprising a total of 1,533 acres, and including municipal golf courses and wading and swimming pools. Among the important public buildings are the Jessup W. Scott High School, the Morrison R. Waite High School, St. Patrick's Cathedral, a court house, post office, Newsboys' Building, Toledo Club, and the Chapel State Hospital for the Insane. The Museum of Art is one of the most beautiful buildings devoted to art in the United States. The school system is unusually effective. It includes open air schools, and other modern developments in educational lines. Over 45,000 pupils are enrolled in the public schools and nearly $2,000,000 are spent annually for educational purposes. Its two high schools rank among the finest educational institutions in the United States. In addition there are many parochial and private schools. There are over 140 churches. The industries of the city are diversified, and include the manufacture of automobiles, automobile parts and accessories, plate glass, cut glass, machinery, refined oil, sugar, elevators, women's clothing, children's vehicles, etc. There were in 1920 four national and fourteen State banks, with deposits of $82,632,236 and a surplus of $7,047,279. There were also ten building loan associations with deposits aggregating $8,800,546. Many conventions and annual meetings are held in the city. The Terminal Auditorium has a seating capacity of over 5,000. The Farmers' Exposition alone brings 150,000 people to the city each year. Toledo is the outgrowth of two townships, Port Lawrence, settled in 1817, and Vistula, settled in 1832. It was a famous battle ground in Indian wars. The village was incorporated in 1836 and with the opening of the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1843 and the Miami and Erie Canal in 1845 it grew rapidly. Pop. (1900), 131,822; (1910), 168,497; (1920), 243,164.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of Ohio. It is situated on both sides of the Maumee, near its entrance to Lake Erie. The general government and the city have expended $2,000,000 in dredging and improving the harbor. A twenty-one foot passage is maintained. Like other important lake ports, Toledo has an enormous traffic in grain. It is the center of the clover-seed business, and makes prices for the United States just as Liverpool makes prices for wheat. Large shipments of soft coal received by rail from the mines of West Virginia , eastern Ohio, and Pennsylvania are transferred to boat at Toledo. Iron ores from the Superior district of Minnesota are unloaded here. Toledo handles more coal, ore, and lumber than any other one lake port. The water front is occupied by enormous elevators, coal docks, and loading wharves. Toledo is an important manufacturing center. Coal, iron, and coke meet here for the manufacture of steel. The largest single plate glass establishment in the United States is at Toledo. Castings, cars, automobiles, brushes, coopers' supplies, coffee, spices, computing scales, bicycles, flour, and beer swell the list of important manufactures. Wage earners receive a million dollars a month from these establishments. The site of the city was covered with dense forests. Many fine trees and groves have been preserved in the residence section. The business blocks, streets, library buildings, parks, lighting and sewerage systems, and water supply bespeak a wealthy, prosperous city. Toledo lies in the direct canoe route between Lake Erie and the Ohio, by way of the Maumee and the Great Miami. It was an early rendezvous of voyageurs and trappers. Various settlements and hamlets were consolidated in 1833 under the name of the old Moorish capital. The site lies within a famous strip of territory. The ordinance of 1787 provided for the division of the Northwest Territory by a boundary running east and west through the most southerly point of Lake Michigan, then through the mouth of the Maumee into Lake Erie. Toledo is north of this line. Congress admitted Ohio to the Union with a northern line as now established, giving Toledo to Ohio. Michigan protested. In the clash that followed, both states called out their militia and occupied the disputed strip. Congress settled the matter by admitting Michigan with its present boundaries, the peninsular region north of Lake Michigan being accepted in lieu of the Toledo tract. The contest, by no means a friendly one, passed into local history as "the Toledo War." The population in 1909, according to a federal estimate, was 174,059. See Ohio
Toledo a famous city of Spain
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a famous city of Spain; capital of a province, and long the capital of the whole country; on the N. bank of the Tagus, by which it is encompassed on three sides, 40 miles S. S. W. of Madrid. It is situated on a number of hills, 2,400 feet above sea-level; and the climate, excessively hot in summer, is bitterly cold in winter. The Tagus, surrounding the city on the E., S. and W., and flowing between high and rocky banks, leaves only one approach on the land side, which is defended by an inner and an outer wall, the former built by the Gothic King Wamba in the 7th century, the latter by Alfonso VI. in 1109, and both remarkable for the number_and beauty of their towers and gates. Seen from a distance the city has a most imposing appearance; within it is gloomy, silent, inert, and its narrow streets are irregular, ill-paved, and steep. In the middle of the city rises the lofty, massive cathedral, surrounded by numerous churches and convents, mostly deserted. The cathedral, built in 1227-1493, on the site of a former mosque (consecrated to Christian uses in 1086, but pulled down to make way for the new church), is a large oblong edifice with semi-circular apse, and belongs to the simplest, noblest style of Spanish-Gothic, with a few touches of the florid Gothic, classical, and Saracenic styles. The interior is more impressive than the exterior, which is blocked by other buildings on all sides save one. It was ransacked and plundered in 1808, but it still contains some admirable stained glass, and pieces of sculpture. The cathedral is 404 feet long and 204 feet wide, and has five naves; the tower is 329 feet high. Connected with the cathedral are an extraordinary number of chapels, of great interest, alike from their architectural beauty, their decorations, and their historical associations. The great square or Zocodover, thoroughly Moorish in its architectural character, is a fashionable promenade, and was long the site on which heretics were burned and bull-fights took place. Moorish architecture is conspicuous_in some churches, and in two gateways. The Alcazar, or old palace, the fortress commanded by the Cid, rebuilt as a palace in the time of Charles V. and subsequently, occupied the highest part of the city, but was burned down in 1887. The buildings of the town include a theological seminary, one or two old palaces, hospitals, what was once a great monastery, town hall, etc. There are manufactures of church ornaments and vestments in gold, silver, and silk, and confections. The best Spanish is said to be spoken here. Toledan sword blades, famous since old Roman times, are still made. Pop. about 22,000. Province, area 5,919 square miles ; pop. 440,000. Toledo, the Toletum of the Romans, is of very early origin It was the capital of the Goths during their dominion; in 714 it fell into the possession of the Moors, who retained it till 1085, when it was permanently annexed to the crown of Castile as capital. In the days of its highest prosperity it is said to have contained 200,000 inhabitants. It was the headquarters of the Inquisition. university, founded in 1498, is long since extinct. The whole place has now a dilapidated and broken-down appearance. The
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of Spain. It is situated on the Tagus River near the center of the kingdom. It is the capital of the province of Toledo, occupying the basin of the upper Tagus. It was once a densely forested region. Only a few groves are left. The city is the center of much mineral wealth, including gold, silver, lead, iron, quicksilver, copper, and tin. Peas, potatoes, olive oil, wine, flax, oranges, lemons, chestnuts, and melons are for sale in the markets and are exported in considerable quantities. Bees and silkworms do well. Toledo was once noted for silk, woolen cloth, pottery, soap, chocolate, guitar strings, and, above all, for the famous sword known as a Toledo blade. Swords and firearms are still the most important manufactures. Toledo was for centuries the capital of Castile. The cathedral of Toledo ranks next to that of Seville. The Alcazar or royal palace is one of the imposing buildings of Spain. Toledo was the center of the Spanish inquisition. Some famous burnings of heretics took place in the square where bull-fights are now held. The city's prosperity came to a close with the removal of the capital to Madrid in the sixteenth century. The population was at one time 200,000. The present population is about 25,000. See Sword
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 called Toledo "the third railroad center in America" with 17 railroads, and counted 243,164 people; the city kept growing to a peak of about 383,000 in 1970, then fell back to roughly 270,000 today as rail traffic, coal shipping and heavy industry contracted. The plate glass and automobile trades both named in these accounts became the city's identity in different ways: Owens-Illinois and Libbey-Owens-Ford made it "the Glass City," while Willys-Overland's wartime Jeep has been built in Toledo ever since, now under Stellantis. The Museum of Art, praised in 1921 as "one of the most beautiful buildings devoted to art in the United States," is still there and still free to enter. The Spanish Toledo, from which the Ohio city took its name in 1833, was made capital of the Castilla-La Mancha region in the 1980s and its old town a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.
Written for this edition, 2026.