Ohio History Journal

NEWS and NOTES

ONE OF THE BETTER results of the effort

to recognize the centennial of the Civil

War has been the establishment of a

project to collect and publish the cor-

respondence and other papers of Ulysses

S. Grant, supreme commander of the

Union armies and eighteenth president of

the United States. To accomplish this

end the Ulysses S. Grant Association was

created through the efforts of the Civil

War centennial commissions of Ohio

(where Grant was born and lived his

early years), Illinois (which gave him

his first command in the war), and New

York (where he spent his last years).

The association has been chartered as

a non-profit corporation by the state of

Illinois. Its offices are located in the

OhioState Museum, Columbus, the head-

quarters of the Ohio Historical Society.

Officers of the association are: Ralph

G. Newman, Chicago, president; Bruce

Catton of the American Heritage, David

C. Mearns of the Library of Congress,

and T. Harry Williams of Louisiana

State University, vice presidents; Erwin

C. Zepp of the Ohio Historical Society,

secretary; Clyde C. Walton of the Illinois

State Historical Society, treasurer; and

Allan Nevins of the Huntington Library,

chairman of the editorial board. Dr.

John Y. Simon of the department of his-

tory of Ohio State University is executive

director and managing editor.

The Grant Association expects to pub-

lish the writings of U. S. Grant as com-

pletely as possible. Exceptions will be

formal and routine documents which

called only for Grant's signature as an

army officer or as president. These will

be noted, however, and located and de-

scribed briefly. Letters to Grant, espe-

cially those which elicited some response,

will be utilized as fully as space and

finances will permit.

According to Dr. Simon, the project

is "currently in the collecting phase of

its operations. The methods employed

are an adaptation of those employed by

the editors of similar projects, such as

the Jefferson Papers, Adams Papers,

Franklin Papers, and Woodrow Wilson

Papers." The association is acquiring

photoduplicates wherever available of all

material written by Grant or addressed

to him. The extensive collection of copies

of Grant letters gathered by Dr. Orme W.

Phelps of Claremont College, now of the

Brookings Institution, has been turned

over to the association, and Dr. Phelps

has agreed to assist in the project as a

member of the editorial board.

The association believes it already has

brought together the largest collection

of Grant material to be found in a single

depository. It urges that any person

knowing of Grant papers, particularly

isolated pieces in depositories and items

in private collections, notify Dr. Simon

of their existence.

A preliminary analysis of known Grant

letters and other manuscripts reveals a

dearth for the first forty years of his

life. By 1862, however, when Grant was

beginning to make a name for himself

in the Civil War, recipients of his letters

began preserving them. Hence there is

considerable material for the army years,

the period of the presidency, and the

immediate post-presidential years to

1880, when the Republican party denied

62 OHIO HISTORY

Grant the nomination for a third term.

Though his correspondence decreased in

the last five years of his life, much of

it contains valuable reflections upon the

previous crowded years.

The association anticipates that the

publication of the Grant papers will run

to twelve volumes. It hopes also to issue

in one volume Grant's interviews with

John Russell Young during his triumphal

world tour, which were published in the

New York Times, and to publish a new

edition from the manuscript of the two-

volume Memoirs.

ROBERT S. HARPER, public information of-

ficer for the Ohio Historical Society dur-

ing the years 1954-60, died in Wash-

ington Court House on December 5,

1962, after suffering a heart attack.

Mr. Harper first became associated in-

directly with the Society in 1951, when

he was named director of public rela-

tions for the Ohio Sesquicentennial Com-

mission, whose headquarters were located

in the Ohio State Museum. While on the

Society's staff, he directed much of the

work of the Ohio Lincoln Sesqui-

centennial Committee. In 1960 he joined

the staff of the Ohio Civil War Cen-

tennial Commission, whose offices also

are in the Museum, and was its staff

executive officer at the time of his death.

Born in 1899, Mr. Harper was edu-

cated in country schools in Fayette

County, Ohio, and graduated from Wash-

ington Court House High School. After

service in the army, he began his career

in journalism in 1919 as a reporter on

the Washington Court House Herald.

From there he went to the Columbus

Dispatch in 1924, the New York World

in 1927, and the Columbus Ohio State

Journal in 1928, serving on the latter

paper from 1928 to 1946 successively as

desk man, news editor, city editor, and

managing editor. In 1944 he spent sev-

eral months as a war correspondent in

the South Pacific.

An interest in historical writing had

developed in Mr. Harper some years

before he retired from the Ohio State

Journal. Two popular novels were the

result: Trumpet in the Wilderness, a tale

of the War of 1812 in Ohio (1940), and

The Road to Baltimore, a story centering

on Henry Clay (1942). In 1951 his

most significant work, Lincoln and the

Press, was published by McGraw-Hill. It

brought him national recognition and

meritorious awards from Sigma Delta

Chi, the Ohioana Library, and the Lin-

coln Foundation, and was selected as a

History-Book-of-the-Month. During his

remaining years he also wrote a number

of short stories and articles for maga-

zines.

In the midst of his administrative

duties with the Society, the Lincoln Ses-

quicentennial, and the Civil War Cen-

tennial, Mr. Harper found time to write

five booklets concerning Lincoln's as-

sociations with Ohio, a television script

on Lincoln in Columbus, a volume en-

titled Ohio Handbook of the Civil War,

and numerous pamphlets on the Civil

War period.

Early in the planning for the centennial

of the Civil War, he suggested as a major

project the collecting, editing, and pub-

lishing of the papers of Ulysses S. Grant.

In May 1962 he brought his proposal be-

fore representatives attending the fifth

national assembly of the national and

state Civil War centennial commissions.

Out of this came the formation of the

Ulysses S. Grant Association, sponsored

by the Civil War centennial commissions

of Ohio, Illinois, and New York, of

which Mr. Harper served as secretary

and a member of the board of directors.

Mr. Harper is survived by his wife

Aileen, of Stanton Place, near Washing-

ton Court House; his son Robert S., Jr.,

NEWS AND NOTES 63

of Los Alamos, New Mexico; and his

mother Mrs. Lee Harper of Washington

Court House.

THE WAR OF 1812: A Massachusetts His-

torical Society Picture Book ($1.50) has

been issued to mark the 150th aniver-

sary of the beginning of that war with

England. The sixteen-page booklet re-

produces twenty-one contemporary prints

and broadsides--drawn from its own col-

lections--hich illustrate various aspects

of the conflict.

Among the illustrations are several of

particular interest to Ohioans and stu-

dents of the war in the West: a portrait

of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who

defeated the British fleet on Lake Erie

in 1813; two views of the battle of Lake

Erie; a broadside commemorating the

Lake Erie victory, carrying a poem en-

titled "Yankee Perry, Better than Old

English Cider," to be sung to the tune

"Three Yankee Pigeons"; a broadside

containing a poem celebrating the peace

of 1815; and a broadside containing "A

New Song on the Causes--Beginning,

Events -- End & Consequences of the

Late War with Great Britain. Composed

by Silas Ballou, Richmond, New-Hamp-

shire. Tune.... 'The Girl I Left Behind

Me.' " Following are passages from the

latter song:

Old England forty years ago,

When we were young and slender,

She aim'd at us a mortal blow,

But God was our defender.

Jehovah saw her horrid plan,

Great Washington he gave us,

His holiness inspir'd the man,

With power and skill to save us.

She sent her fleets and armies o'er,

To ravage, kill and plunder,

Our heroes met them on the shore,

And beat them hack with thunder.

Our independence they confess'd,

And with their hands they sign'd it,

But on their hearts 'twas ne'er impress'd

For there I ne'er could find it.

Ever since that time they have been still

Our liberties invading,

We bore it, and forbore until

Forbearance was degrading.

Regardless of the sailor's right,

Impress'd our native seamen;

Made them against their country fight,

And thus enslav'd our freemen,

Great Madison besought the foe,

He mildly did implore them,

To let the suff'ring captive go,

But they would not restore them.

Our commerce too they did invade,

Our ships they search'd and seized,

Declaring also we should trade,

With none but who they pleased.

Thus Madison in thunder spake,

We've power and we must use it,

Our freedom surely lies at stake,

And we must fight or lose it.

* * * * *

Perry with flag and sails unfurl'd

Met Barclay on Lake Erie,

At him his matchless thunders hurl'd,

Till Barclay grew quite weary.

He gain'd the vic'try and renown,

He work'd him up so neatly,

He broeght Old England's banners down

And swept the Lake completely.

* * * * * *

Let William Hull be counted null,

And let him not be named,

Upon the rolls of valiant souls,

Of him we are ashamed.

For his campaign was worse than vain,

A coward and a traitor,

For paltry gold his army sold,

To Brock the speculator.

When Proctor found brave Harrison,

Had landed on his region,

Away the tim'rous creature run

With all his savage legions.

But overtaken were, and most

Of them were kill'd and taken,

64 OHIO HISTORY

But Proctor soon forsook his post,

And fled to save his bacon.

* * * * * * *

What has our infant country gain'd,

By fighting that old nation.

Our liberties we have maintain'd

And rais'd our reputation,

We've gain'd the freedom of the seas,

Our seamen are released,

Our mariners trade where they please,

Impressments too have ceased.

Now in ourselves we can confide,

Abroad we are respected,

We've check'd the rage of British pride,

Their haughtiness corrected.

First to the God of boundless pow'r,

Be thanks and adoration,

Next Madison the wond'rous flower,

And jewel of our nation.

Next Congress does our thanks demand,

To them our thanks we tender,

Our heroes next by sea and land,

To them our thanks we render.

Let us be just, in union live,

Then who will dare invade us,

If any shou'd our God will give

His angels charge to aid us.

ONE OF THE MOST significant events in

the recent history of the historical society

movement is the publication of a volume

entitled Independent Historical Societies,

by Walter Muir Whitehill (Boston, The

Boston Athenaeum, distributed by Har-

vard University Press, 1962).

The book is the result of an extensive

study sponsored by the American Anti-

quarian Society, the Historical Society

of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts His-

torical Society, and the Virginia Histor-

ical Society and was financed by a grant

made by the Council on Library Re-

sources, Inc., a subsidiary of the Ford

Foundation.

Dr. Whitehill visited historical socie-

ties and agencies in three-quarters of the

fifty states. Though his investigation em-

phasized the independent societies, he

examined the operations of many publicly

financed organizations and made an effort

"to get as clear a picture as I could of

related activities in many parts of the

country." He discusses the purposes, or-

ganization, collections, and activities of

more than fifty of the nation's major

private and public societies, and deals

with basic programs of collecting, re-

search, and publishing as well as with

problems of finance, program prolifera-

tion, "coddling" the public and legisla-

tors, tourism, and scholarship versus

popularization.

Three Ohio organizations--the Histori-

cal and Philosophical Society of Ohio,

Cincinnati, the Western Reserve Histor-

ical Society, Cleveland, and the Ohio His-

torical Society, Columbus--are discussed

at some length.

This provocative ⁶⁰⁰-page book will

be reviewed more extensively in a subse-

quent issue of Ohio History.

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION for State and

Local History announces two recent pub-

lications: A Look at Ourselves, by Clem-

ent M. Silvestro and Richmond D. Wil-

liams, and The Cost of Freedom, by

Frederick L. Rath, Jr.

A Look at Ourselves is a "report on

the survey of the state and local historical

agencies in the United States" conducted

in 1960-61 by the director of the associa-

tion and his assistant for the association's

council. Dr. Silvestro was responsible for

making the survey of the state societies

and agencies, and Dr. Williams for that

of the local societies.

Growth and increased self-confidence

have been the chief developments on the

state level, according to Dr. Silvestro.

"Budgets, staffs, buildings, libraries, col-

lecting activities, museums, historic mark-

ers, publications, and informal education

programs all reflect an expansion, both

NEWS AND NOTES 65

quantitative and qualitative, of historical

agency functions." While this enlarging

process has been proceeding, "we have

gained sufficient confidence in our work

and our objectives to accept the funda-

mental premise that the mid-20th century

historical agency can and should be a

broadly-based, educational institution

that serves both scholarship and the gen-

eral public, and that it can and should

be a dynamic cultural force in its state

and locality."

The report includes analyses of the

several programs of state historical so-

cieties throughout the country, outlining

their strengths and pointing up their

problems and weaknesses. Among the lat-

ter are the need for greater financial sup-

port, the lack of adequate staff, both in

numbers and quality, and the absence of

fringe benefits and working conditions

sufficient to attract and to hold a good

staff.

Membership in the state societies aver-

ages 2,500. These organizations have a

total of more than 5,250,000 volumes in

their libraries, which served 180,000 per-

sons in 1959. During the decade ending

in 1959, sixteen major libraries, eleven

archives, and twenty-one museums, re-

spectively, expanded their manuscript col-

lections by 156 percent, their archival

holdings by 764 percent, and their mu-

seum objects by 216 percent.

The local societies have a membership

of nearly 400,000, a total annual mone-

tary income of $5,850,000, property

valued at $18,000,000, approximately

1,200,000 volumes in their libraries, and

1,000 museums which attracted over

5,000,000 visitors in 1959.

In presenting his report on the local

societies, Dr. Williams offers what he de-

fines as "the ideal picture of what a local

historical society ought to be," and then

weighs his findings against it. This ideal

society he sees as devoting itself to the

"complete spectrum of human experience"

of a community and its sub-communities,

if any, by collecting and preserving the

written and printed records and artifacts

and buildings of the past, by advancing

the study of these materials, and by dis-

seminating and interpreting a knowledge

of the community's history to present and

future generations. Dr. Williams discov-

ered that "there has not been a wide ac-

ceptance and achievement of the local

historical society ideal; for each partic-

ular institution is limited in scope and

functions by history and circumstances."

The local societies, with their lack of pur-

pose and vitality, "seem to have an aver-

age life cycle of about twenty years....

The cycle runs from activity to stability

to senility unless the aims or concerns of

the founders become institutionalized."

In Ohio, for example, one-third of the

local societies passed from the scene be-

tween 1944 and 1959; in the nation, 502

of the 1,343 societies in existence in 1944

were defunct by 1961.

No attempt is made in the booklet to

evaluate the various historical society

functions and activities, nor to appraise

the role and significance of the historical

society as a cultural institution within the

community, nor are such important fac-

tors as organization, structure, govern-

ment, membership-trustee-staff relation-

ships, society obligations and responsi-

bilities, and standards of operation dis-

cussed. It is hoped the final report on

the survey will go further into these

matters.

The Cost of Freedom is the printed

edition of the presidential address to

the association, delivered at the annual

meeting in Buffalo, New York, August

23, 1962. In it Mr. Rath, who is vice

director of the New York State Historical

Association, Cooperstown, reiterates the

general definition and purposes of the

historical society, and devotes his major

66 OHIO HISTORY

remarks to the matter of presentation in

historical museums, forcefully supporting

the demand of modern professional lead-

ers of the historical society movement for

replacement of the "storehouse for collec-

tions of objects" by artistically con-

structed, clearly explained, interpretive

exhibits, which use objects, labels, and

other materials in combination to provide

historical narration.

Mr. Rath suggests that this type of dis-

play is needed particularly for attracting

and teaching the ordinary citizen who

visits the museum, though he admits that

the other "^5% too appreciate and profit

by the synthesis of careful research, the

analytical selection of materials; and

they realize that it is both an art and a

science when interpretation is effective."

These publications are available at the

offices of the American Association for

State and Local History, 151 East Gor-

ham Street, Madison 3, Wisconsin.

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION of Museums

announced the establishment of an ac-

crediting system for museums in the

October 1962 issue of Museum News.

The program will be administered by the

director of the association. The council

and committees of the association, repre-

senting the fields of art, history, and

science, will serve as advisors to the di-

rector in deciding upon the accreditation

of applicant institutions.

The new program is designed to help

raise the general standards of museums

throughout the country. It should be

valuable to the museums in seeking pub-

lic and private financial assistance to

operate and develop their programs and

facilities.

Museums registering for accreditation

must meet specified minimum require-

ments defined by the association. To be

eligible for registration, a museum must

be a "non-profit permanent establishment,

not existing primarily for the purpose of

conducting temporary exhibitions, exempt

from Federal and State income taxes,

open to the public and administered in

the public interest, for the purpose of

conserving and preserving, studying, in-

terpreting, assembling and exhibiting to

the public for its instruction and enjoy-

ment objects and specimens of educa-

tional and cultural value, including ar-

tistic, scientific (whether animate or in-

animate), historical and technological

material."

In addition, a museum must perform

one or more of the following functions:

(1) maintain exhibits of educational

value; (2) offer educational opportuni-

ties to the public by providing special

services such as guided tours, services to

schools, and adult education programs;

and (3) carry on, or provide facilities

for, research for the advancement of

knowledge. The name of an accredited

museum must be clearly consistent with

its purpose and its resources; the museum

must keep accession records; it must own

or occupy, in whole or in part, buildings

or land appropriate to its purpose; it

must have a "staff competent for the

stated purpose"; and it must file an an-

nual report with the association recording

its educational and cultural activities.

Accredited museums will be listed in

the Museums Directory of the United

States and Canada, a publication of the

association.

TWO SIGNIFICANT BOOKS on the Shakers,

a communitarian and celibate sect that

flourished in New England, New York,

Kentucky, and Ohio in the late eighteenth

and the nineteenth centuries, have been

reprinted by Dover Publications, Inc.,

New York.

Shaker Furniture ($2.00), by Edward

Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews, is

a scholarly examination of Shaker crafts-

NEWS AND NOTES 67

manship, especially in the manufacture

of furniture. The authors explain the

simple, rare charm of Shaker products

in terms of the spirit, the distinct re-

ligious philosophy, and the doctrines and

rules of life of this unique American

sect, for which purity, regularity, har-

mony, order, utility, and labor were the

cardinal principles.

The value of the volume is enhanced

by the inclusion of excellent photographs

of Shaker rooms, furniture, and craft

shops.

The Gift to be Simple ($1.50) by

Edward Deming Andrews, is a study of

the songs, dances, and rituals which were

inseparable forms of expressing praise,

joy, yearning, or union in Shaker wor-

ship. In a society where the believers

were disciplined to simplified functional-

ism in their crafts, to strict routines and

traditions in their work, and to doctrinal

taboos on recreation, reading, and inter-

course with the outer world and between

the sexes, the songs and exercises of

worship furnished the only release of the

urge to play, to love, and to create. The

author provides descriptions of the rit-

uals, reproduces many of the songs and

tunes, and reveals the steps and forms of

a number of the dances.

MANPOWER IN OHIO, 1960 TO 1970, is-

sued by the division of research and

statistics of the Ohio Bureau of Unem-

ployment Compensation, is an important

projection of significant changes in the

volume and composition of the popula-

tion and labor force of Ohio and the

resulting alterations in the general econ-

omy of the state and the lives of its

citizens.

Based upon the careful analysis of

statistics of the past three decades, the

study is the work of John Shea, re-

search assistant of the division, assisted

by Mrs. Gerry Ziegler, and was con-

ducted under the general supervision of

William Papier, director of research and

statistics, and C. Thomas Haworth, as-

sistant director for research. Among

their significant disclosures are these:

Ohio's population will increase by 2

million during the 1960's, to reach a

total of 11.7 million by 1970. Con-

tributing to this increase will be 2.4

million babies born in the state and a

net in migration of 550,000 people chiefly

from other states. Offsetting part of the

total increase will be the death of nearly

1 million Ohio residents.

Notable shifts in age composition of

the population will occur as a result of

the low birth rates of the depression pe-

riod of the 1930's and the high birth

rates since World War II. Thus, there

will be many more people over 45 years

of age and under 25 than in the last two

decades, while the age group 25 through

44 will have relatively little gain--less

than seven percent during the sixties. The

most startling population change will

occur in the age groups 14 through 17,

which will increase by fifty percent dur-

ing the decade, and 18 through 24,

which will increase by sixty-three per-

cent. Finally, the number of persons in

the dependent-age group (under 18 and

over 64) will rise by twenty percent.

Actually, between 1950 and 1970 the de-

pendent group will have increased by

seventy-two percent, while the productive-

age group will have grown by only

thirty-one percent.

These figures indicate several quite

challenging facts: (1) the relative de-

cline of a key producing group in the

labor force and a significant element in

the social and political life of the state;

(2) an increased financial burden upon

the productive-age group and govern-

mental agencies to provide for the care

of dependents; and (3) the inescapable

necessity of providing greater support