Ohio History Journal

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Notes and Queries

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