Notes and Queries
This issue of Ohio History marks
the completion of the editor's first volume-
year and provides the occasion for a
brief report on his tenure and a glimpse into
the future. The journal has undergone a
major revitalization during the past
three years, and the editor's chief task
has always been to continue this process.
We have increased the number of articles
and documents carried per issue, en-
larged the reviews section and tried to
give greater weight to those fields Ohio
History has not heretofore emphasized-social, labor, women's
and business
history.
To insure that Ohio History publishes
scholarly work of a high standard we
have this year reinstated an editorial
board and established the policy that every
manuscript seriously considered for
publication be refereed by at least one out-
side reader and by a member of the
editorial board. The academic community in
Ohio and elsewhere has responded to our
frequent requests for aid in an extra-
ordinarily generous and helpful fashion.
On page 447 Ohio History thanks pub-
lically the 77 individuals who have
given so much of their unremunerated time
and effort. The journal also thanks the
Department of History at The Ohio State
University which has graciously provided
funding for a part-time graduate
student intern.
Of course, a journal is only as good as
the articles which it receives, and this
year the editor has made a strenuous
effort to increase the quality and quantity
of the manuscripts submitted. In the
twelve-month period ending July 1, 1978,
Ohio History received 78 manuscripts, compared to 59 for a similar
period in
1976-1977. Twenty were published in
Volume 87, either as articles, documents
or as review-essays. More than half of
all the manuscripts submitted were sent
by individuals who hold regular faculty
positions in college and university his-
tory departments. Contributions from
such historians will probably always make
up the bulk of the articles published in
the journal, but the editor has been im-
pressed with the innovative and
imaginative quality of the relatively few manu-
scripts submitted by graduate students
and talented amateurs. To encourage
their work, the Ohio Historical Society
is sponsoring an essay contest in recog-
nition of Ohio's 175 years of statehood
(see page 500 of this issue for details).
The two best essays submitted will be
published in the journal in 1979.
The editor has also increased the number
of books reviewed each year by
about 50% (from 66 to 103) and tried to
give the review section of the journal a
character that will make it particularly
useful to those interested in a broad and
imaginatively conceived definition of
the history of Ohio and the region of which
it is a part. In each issue we try to
publish between 20 and 25 reviews, divided
roughly into three categories. First are
the books on topics of a clearly regional
or local interest, such as James
Murphy's A Bibliography of Ohio Archeology
and Richard Beach's Two Hundred Years
of Sheep Raising in the Upper Ohio
Area. Many works such as these will be reviewed in full or
given a shorter notice
in the book notes section. (Since many
of these are locally published, the editor
would be grateful if interested readers
brought these works to his attention for
possible review.)
A second category includes many of the
important books of a broader regional
or topical nature. Among such works in
this issue are John H. Keiser's Building