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Part 1 published on March 1, 2026. After an hour of focused skimming through the Cincinnati Court Index, I finally came across the case I was looking for.  courtesy Cincinnati Public Library The Court Index is organized by date. On the first page, there’s a broad overview of what moved through the court—everything from property resolutions to what I’m investigating: first-degree murder. I started there, hopeful that the main page for the day would give me something, anything

I left the Hamilton County Law Library disappointed, but also strangely happy. I walked in with the mindset that I was going to access a wealth of information: documents, testimony, evidence. I walked out with a few words. But on the bright side, it was still more than I entered with.  A common theme is starting to harden into fact after this latest search: the narrative of my community is largely absent from the archives . Our representation is left in the hands of the narra

In 1854, the California Supreme Court’s decision in People v. Hall formalized racial exclusion by interpreting Chinese witnesses as legally equivalent to “Black, Indian, or Mulatto” persons, thereby barring them from testifying against white defendants. In contrast, Cincinnati did not employ explicit racial exclusion.

Historic buildings are often treated as static landmarks. This essay explores how memory, storytelling, and shared authority transform them into living sites of meaning—particularly for APIA histories in Cincinnati. Cincinnati, Ohio, is renowned for its abundance of Italianate architecture. The city’s skyline is defined by the bracketed cornice rooflines that stretch across entire neighborhoods. The style flourished in neighborhoods such as Over-the-Rhine, Lower Price Hill, t

This Sunday, nearly 200 million people worldwide will watch Super Bowl LX—or at least the commercials.

Every public history project carries limits. Recognizing them is not a failure—it is an ethical obligation.  Reflecting on the Food, Family, and Tradition program, several areas invite deeper attention. While the event centered on community voices, the final panel did not fully represent the diversity of Over-the-Rhine. Time constraints and limited community interactions—due to time constraints—in the neighborhood shaped who could participate. Gender diversity was also constr

Public history is not only about what we know—it is about how we come to know it, and who is invited into that process. Foodways offer a particularly powerful entry point for this work because its experiential, remembered, and shared across generations. The Food, Family, and Tradition program, developed in collaboration with the Over-the-Rhine Museum, was grounded in the idea of shared authority. Rather than presenting a finished narrative, the program invited community membe

This post is Part One of a three-part adaptation drawn from a research paper I wrote on foodways, migration, and identity in Over-the-Rhine. The writing grows out of my work connected to the Over-the-Rhine Museum’s Three Acts program. It reflects an ongoing effort to translate academic research into public, community-centered history. Food rarely appears in archives as a headline, yet it quietly carries some of our deepest histories. Recipes, grocery lists, street food, and s

The new year is often associated with beginnings: a fresh start, new journeys, and the courage to move forward. For Cincinnati’s earliest Chinese migrants, beginnings were rarely clean or easy. Their arrival in the city in 1873 was not the start of a story, but another chapter in a long migration shaped by displacement, labor, and survival. Cincinnati Enquirer, May 26, 1873 Most early Chinese migrants did not arrive in Cincinnati directly from China. Many came by way of San F

12 West Court Street | George Lim | 1960s The start of a new year invites reflection. We set intentions, look back at what shaped us, and imagine what comes next. But a new year is also a moment to ask harder questions: What histories are we carrying forward and which ones have been left behind?  As we step into 2026, Cincinnati’s past offers an opportunity not just for remembrance but for reconsideration and reclamation. Cincinnati’s historical narrative has long been told t

In the heart of the Midwest, nestled in the bustling city of Cincinnati, there lies a silenced stories of Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) community, waiting to be unearthed and shared with the community.

In May 2024, I had the honor of presenting my research on Vincent Hambright at the Avondale Branch Library. His story, forgotten and...