Here’s a review of this week’s questions: 

  1. The 23rd U.S. president, who served from 1889 to 1893, was born in the town of North Bend, Hamilton County, Ohio, which is now incorporated as part of the “Greater Cincinnati area.” What president was it?
  2. Who was the world leader that gifted the Capitoline Wolf statue in Eden Park to the City of Cincinnati?
  3. What is the name of the museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, that is the world’s only museum dedicated to ventriloquism?

And here are the answers:

  1. Benjamin Harrison’s family relocated from Virginia to Ohio before he was born in 1833. His grandfather was William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States. His father owned a farm near Cincinnati and sent Benjamin to Farmer’s College at age 14. He then transferred to Miami of Ohio where he graduated in 1852. He fought for the 70th Indiana regiment in the Civil War and entered politics in Indiana after the war. He lost a run for governor of Indiana before winning a later election to the US Senate. He won the Presidency in 1888 and served one term. He died of pneumonia in 1901 at age 67.
  2. The back story related to the statue – which oddly depicts two male human babies nursing at the underbelly of a she-wolf – goes back to Italy, where the original from which it was copied resides at the Palazzo dei Conservatori on Campidoglio (Ancient Capitoline Hill) in Rome. Legend has it that Cincinnati’s statue was a gift from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who sent it over for a Sons of Italy Convention in 1929.
  3. The Vent Haven in Fort Mitchell sounds like it might be a home improvement store, but it’s actually a one-of-a-kind attraction that locals are lucky to have in their backyard! It was founded by Cincinnati native William Shakespeare Berger, who began collecting ventriloquist figures (“dummies” to the uninitiated) in 1910. His collection grew over the years to the point where he did the only reasonable thing – open a museum of ventriloquism – in 1973. The site becomes ground zero for the annual International Ventriloquist ConVENTion, which takes place every July and attracts thousands of visitors.