OHS in the News

Archaeology Curator Brad Lepper’s Latest Column in the Columbus Dispatch
Ancient Earthworks Share Similarities

OHS Collections Were Featured in a Story about Early Football
History of Pro Football in Ohio

Some of the collections used by 10TV for their football story include:

Group portrait of the Columbus Panhandles football team in 1907. The Panhandles were one of the first professional football teams to join the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League, when it formed in 1920. They operated as a professional football franchise from 1920-1922, then again 1923-1926.

*Columbus Dispatch Collection, call number P 245
*Allen J. “Spike” Drugan Collection, call number AV 58
*Jim Thorpe Collection, call number AV 235
*Professional Football Teams, call number SC 1403
*Columbus Panhandles Football Team photograph, call number OVS 5856
*Homer L. Ruh Photograph Album, call number AV 113

If you are interested in finding more items in OHS collections related to early football, search our Online Collection Catalog.

Have a great Super Bowl weekend!

UPDATE: February 9th Genealogy Webinar Canceled

The genealogy webinar, Family History Sources at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, scheduled for Saturday, February 9, has been canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

For more information about the 2013 Genealogy Workshop schedule, resources, and more, click here.

Big News! Afro-American Museum to Reopen

The National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center will reopen Saturday, January 26, 2013 from 12 p.m.- 4 p.m.

Exterior view of the National Afro American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio.

There will be a special reopening celebration with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, remarks by local and state dignitaries, guided tours, musical entertainment, and activities for all ages. The new exhibition, How I Got Over, features artwork about the African American experience. Click here to read more and watch a video with curator Aleia Brown.

More to Discover about the Albert J. Ewing Collection

A recent article about the exhibit Faces of Appalachia: Photographs by Albert Ewing in the Marietta Times is spreading the word about the exhibit in southeastern Ohio. People in the area think there may be people and places pictured in Ewing’s photographs that they can identify.

The Albert J. Ewing Collection in the Ohio Memory digital library is also generating comments. A researcher recently identified a photograph in the digital collection as a view of Marietta, Ohio.

View of Marietta, Ohio by Albert J. Ewing.

If you are using looking at the Ewing Collection in Ohio Memory, please leave comments. If you are visiting the exhibit at the Ohio History Center and have questions, you can ask our museum interpreters or e-mail us at collections@ohiohistory.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

L.Wood, Curator for Visual Resources

Faces of Appalachia Exhibit is Making Headlines

The newest exhibit at the Ohio History Center, Faces of Appalachia: Photographs by Albert Ewing got great coverage in the Columbus papers!

Columbus Dispatch
Appalachian Photos Frozen in Time

The Other Paper
Have Camera, Will Travel

Visitors have also been giving us feedback!

Visit the exhibit and write your own captions for the photos.

Archives Preservation and Digitization Grants Opportunity

The Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board (OHRAB) announces the availability of grants between $500 and $2,000 to archival institutions to fund projects to preserve and/or provide access to Ohio’s historical records. Proposals must be received by February 28, 2013. Awards will be announced March 20, and projects must be completed by December 31, 2013.

Full details of this grant opportunity and the application forms are available on OHRAB’s website.  Highlights include:

•Eligible institutions may be public or private.

•Any size institution may apply, but preference will be given to institutions with permanently valuable archival materials of 500 cubic feet or fewer.

•Eligible projects include those involving physical access, arrangement, and description; preservation (including storage materials); and making catalog descriptions of records or digital images of records available on line.

•Eligible expenses include supplies and storage materials, technical equipment, and contracted services.

Funding is made available by a Federal regrant opportunity from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), an arm of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). **OHRAB has been conditionally notified by NHRPC of the funds for this project. However, we are awaiting formal notification from NHPRC based on the recently passed Federal budget. While it is necessary for OHRAB to announce this grant opportunity and begin to receive your proposals, all awards are contingent on OHRAB receiving the funds from NHPRC.

If you have questions or require a hard copy of the application package, please contact Judith G. Cetina, Ph.D., County Archivist, 2905 Franklin Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44113; 216-443-7262; jcetina@cuyahogacounty.us.

The Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board is the central body for historical records planning in the state. Board members are appointed by the governor and represent Ohio’s public and private archives, records offices, and research institutions.  Administrative responsibility for the board rests with the Ohio Historical Society’s Museum and Library Services Division. The board also acts as the state-level review body for grants submitted to the NHPRC, in accordance with that commission’s guidelines.

Microfilm Room Gets a New Look

Before view of the old carpet in the Microfilm Room.

Come and see our new tile floor in the Microfilm Room, part of the Archives/Library at the Ohio Historical Society. The carpet previously covering the floor was starting to create a tripping hazard for our visitors, so immediate action was taken to remedy the situation. Last week, it was replaced by a lovely blue and white checkerboard tile floor. This was quite an undertaking as 80 fully loaded microfilm cabinets had to be moved out of the Microfilm room, to a temporary holding area, and then moved back again. Each fully loaded cabinet can hold as many as 790 rolls of microfilm and can weigh over 500 pounds. An expert crew from Commercial Works, Columbus, Ohio made moving these very heavy cabinets look almost easy. The Microfilm Room seems so much brighter and welcoming with the new floor.

After photo of the new tile in the Microfilm Room.

The Microfilm Room contains a wealth of treasures. There are over 53,000 rolls of newspaper microfilm, dating from 1793 to the present. Newspapers from all over Ohio are represented in the collection. There are even some newspapers for immigrants to Ohio written in foreign languages. For our visitors doing family history research, we have many birth, death, marriage, will, guardianship, cemetery and military records on microfilm. How do you find the collections in the Microfilm Room? Please explore our Online Collection Catalog to see if we have materials of interest to you.

Questions and comments can be sent by e-mail to Research Services at reference@ohiohistory.org or by calling (614) 297-2510.