CINCINNATI — Get your singing voices ready and cue the tune to "Happy Birthday" because it's Ulysses S. Grant's 200th birthday!
The 18th U.S. president is blowing out his theoretical candles today, and Tri-State residents can celebrate the president's 200th trip around the sun with the Cincinnati Type & Print Museum.
To celebrate Grant, the museum — located at 2307 West 8th Street in Lower Price Hill — is printing copies of his 1872 presidential campaign ad. The museum is taking it an extra historical step further by printing the ad on an 1860s Cincinnati-made printing press.
Grant was born in 1822 in Clermont County, and grew up majority of his life in Fayette County. As president, Grant was the first to serve after the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed. He also signed the first Civil Rights Act in 1875 — the last federal civil rights law enacted until 1957.
After Grant's death in 1885, American abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote about Grant in an epithet:
"In him, the Negro found a protector, the Indian a friend, a vanquished foe a brother, and imperiled nation a Savior," Douglass wrote.
Ohio is nicknamed the "mother of presidents" because seven U.S. presidents, including Grant, were born in the Buckeye state. The other presidents are Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding. Though not born in Ohio, William Henry Harrison is often claimed as an Ohio president as well because he settled in the state.
To honor the president, the museum is holding an open-house event from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. alongside the printing of the presidential campaign ad. At the event there will be multiple presses running, refreshments and of course a birthday cake.
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