More than a dozen descendants of Nathan Ransohoff (1805–1883) and Esther Kahn Ransohoff (1813–1894) recently gathered at the Cincinnati Art Museum for “New Works 2026: Celebrating New Acquisitions.”
On March 18, the galleries of the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) filled with museum patrons and with Ransohoff family members who were greeting each other for the first time in years. They gathered to celebrate the unveiling of newly acquired works, including the Ransohoff portraits; for many the evening was also a family reunion spanning several generations and nearly two centuries of history.
Many of the descendants of Nathan and Esther Ransohoff traveled from across the country, some from as far away as California, to see the portraits and to reconnect with relatives linked by a shared ancestor. Many of Nathan and Esther’s descendants still live in Cincinnati, and were among those who attended the Museum event.
The portraits that brought the family together tell the story of a lineage that began far from the American Midwest. Their origins trace back to early nineteenth-century Germany and to the life of Nathan Ransohoff, the immigrant ancestor whose journey to the United States in 1829 would shape the fortunes of generations to come.
Painted by Ohio artist Charles Soule, Jr. (1835–1897), the Ransohoff portraits capture members of the family at a moment when their fortunes were rising in the United States. They now provide an important visual record of that history.
Nathan Ransohoff was the fifth-born son of a prosperous farmer in Peckelsheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He belonged to the first generation of German Jews permitted to adopt surnames. Legend has it that the family took its name from the Russian count von Ransehof, from whom they purchased land.
Nathan was the first Ransohoff to come to the United States, arriving in New York City in 1829. It is not known exactly what prompted his decision to emigrate. His early years in New York were financially difficult, but he later became a successful industrialist in Cincinnati. By 1856, he had prospered enough to build a substantial three-story house on Bremen Street (renamed Republic Street in the anti-German sentiment during World War I).
Esther and Nathan raised three children: Jennie, Hannah and Joseph. Dr. Joseph Ransohoff (1853–1921), a renowned surgeon, graduated from Woodward High School and in 1874 from the Medical College of Ohio, establishing a medical career that would bring distinction to the family name.
The generations of Ransohoffs who gathered at the Cincinnati Art Museum are all descendants of Nathan and Esther. Most of them trace their more recent ancestry to lifelong Cincinnatians Jerry, William and Daniel Ransohoff.
The portraits were gifted to the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1966 by Helen Ransohoff Kahn Bejac, a granddaughter of Nathan and Esther, in memory of her mother Hannah. In 1989, the paintings were acquired from the museum by Daniel J. Ransohoff, and were proudly displayed in Regine and William Ransohoff’s Clifton home until Regine’s death in 2016. Upon her death, they were placed on long-term loan with the Skirball Museum at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and in 2025 returned to the Cincinnati Art Museum, where they have been restored.
The Ransohoff portraits serve not only as works of art but as reminders of a family story that spans continents and generations. Nearly two centuries after Nathan Ransohoff first arrived in the United States, his descendants gathered once again — this time in a museum gallery — to honor both their shared heritage and the legacy that continues to connect them.
The portraits will be on display at CAM through July 12, as part of the New Works 2026 exhibit.
Paul Ransohoff and Martha Ransohoff Adler
Cincinnati, OH