Audioguides Toledo

Toledo sits at the mouth of the Maumee River where it drains into the southwestern corner of Lake Erie, and it got its start through a border dispute. The Toledo War of 1835-36, a near-bloodless standoff between Ohio and Michigan over which state owned the strip of land containing the mouth of the Maumee River, ended with Ohio keeping the city and Michigan receiving the Upper Peninsula as consolation, which historians generally agree was Michigan's better deal. Toledo grew into a manufacturing center for glass, aided by the natural gas fields of northwestern Ohio, and by the late 19th century it was producing more glass than any other American city.

The Toledo Museum of Art, founded in 1901 and free to the public ever since, has assembled a world-class collection anchored by one of the finest holdings of glass art anywhere in the world.

Its Glass Pavilion, a 76,000-square-foot structure opened in 2006 designed by SANAA, is all curved glass walls and houses ancient Roman glasswork alongside contemporary studio pieces from masters including Dale Chihuly. The adjacent main museum building contains El Greco, Rembrandt, Bellini, and a remarkable collection of medieval stained glass rescued from European churches. The Toledo Zoo on the Maumee River banks, consistently rated among the best in the country, occupies a Depression-era WPA campus of distinctive stone buildings.