DOCUMENTARY DATA
By BERTHA E. JOSEPHSON
Contrary to expectations, the summer
months brought an
increase in the activities of this
department. Not only have the
collateral duties of editing been
unusually heavy (what with the
completion of the History of the
State of Ohio series, the issuing
of another volume in the Ohio
Historical Collection series, and the
compilation of a revised list of Publications in Print
and For Sale
--all these in addition to the routine
editing of Museum Echoes
and the Quarterly and the
preparation of the annual index to the
latter), but the number of reference
patrons have also increased.
The various departments of State, as
well as individuals and
legal firms, have made augmented use of
the State Archives in the
custody of this department. Inquiries by
telephone, letter and
in person have been varied, running the
gamut all the way from
routine information for a notary
commission record to involved
research in executive correspondence or
complicated data on early
canal history. In fact, no week passed
without at least a couple
of requests for information from the
records of the State of
Ohio. (The awareness of State officials
and private citizens of
the value and importance of the State
Archives seems to be em-
phasized more each day. Let us hope that
it will shortly lead
to provision for adequate housing and
servicing of these same
Archives.) There has also been a marked
increase in the tempo
of advanced student and scholarly
research, and visitors here have
been both local and from out of the
State.
In addition, the chief of this department has managed to
prepare each month a new "Man of
the Month" exhibit as well
as to assist in putting up two special
exhibits, one of Audu-
boniana and the other or the New Citizens'
Day program. The
biggest display job she undertook,
however, was the extensive
"Making of a Book" exhibition,
which depicted the story of
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