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
Notes and Queries
445
for the Centuries: Illinois 1865-1898
and Hildegard Binder Johnson's Order
Upon the Land: The U.S. Rectangular
Land Survey and the Upper Mississippi
Country. This category naturally shades off into the final
group: those books
which the editor feels are of such
importance that no historian, however special-
ized his or her interest, can afford to
ignore. These are books which shape our
entire way of thinking about the past
and point the direction toward new re-
search. Thus, this issue of Ohio
History includes reviews of John A. Garraty's
Unemployment in History, David Noble's America by Design and James H.
Moorhead's American Apocalypse:
Yankee Protestants and the Civil War, 1860-
1869. Individuals who wish to review books for the journal,
or who would like
to suggest books for review, are urged
to write the editor. Not all requests can
be honored, but all will be given
careful consideration.
The Ohioana Library Association holds
its annual meeting October 14 at the
Fawcett Center for Tomorrow in Columbus.
Winner of the Ohioana Book
Award in history is Dr. Thomas H. Smith,
Director of the Ohio Historical Soci-
ety, for his work, The Mapping of Ohio,
selected by a committee of librarians
and book reviewers throughout Ohio.
Ashland College hosts the fall meeting
of the Ohio Academy of History Fri-
day October 20. The OAH spring meeting
is scheduled for the Fawcett Center
for Tomorrow, April 20-21, 1979.
Proposals for papers to be delivered there
should be sent by November 10 to
Professor Jay W. Baird, Chairman, Program
Committee, Miami University, Oxford,
Ohio 45056.
The eleventh annual conference of the
American Italian Historical Associa-
tion will be held October 27-28 at John
Carroll University in Cleveland. The
theme of this year's conference is
"The Italian American Working Class." More
information may be obtained from Dr.
George E. Pozzetta, Department of
History, University of Florida,
Gainesville 32611. An interdisciplinary sympo-
sium, "Environmental Change in the
Lake States Forests," will bring specialists
in history, geography, ecology, and
other fields together at Madison, Wisconsin,
in the spring of 1979. The conference
examines processes of ecosystem change
and demonstrates the range of
disciplines and perspectives that may contribute
to an understanding of forest history.
Susan L. Flader of the Department of
History, University of Missouri-Columbia,
and biographer of Aldo Leopold,
serves as project coordinator.
Recent appointments, promotions, and
retirements within the professional
community of Ohio historians include the
following: Erika Laquer Wood to
assistant professor, John M. Gates to
professor and Floyd Watts to Chairperson
at the College of Wooster; Peter Rutkoff
to associate professor at Kenyon Col-
lege; at Cleveland State University
Ethel Porter to assistant professor and
Robert A. Wheeler to associate
professor; and at the University of Akron James
K. Burton and Barbara E. Clements to
associate professors. Sam S. Smith, Dean
of Academic Affairs and associate
professor of history at Rio Grande College
has retired and at Youngstown State
University David M. Behen has retired
as chairman of the history department.
Dr. Gale E. Peterson has been appointed
Director of the Cincinnati Historical
Society.
446 OHIO HISTORY
Among the grants and leaves awarded are:
Von Hardesty, of Bluffton Col-
lege, has received a Guggenheim
Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution for
1978-79; at the University of Akron
Sheldon B. Liss will be on leave spring
semester 1979 and Guy S. Alitto is on
leave as visiting professor at the Univer-
sity of Chicago this year; John Gates
and Hayden Schilling, of the College of
Wooster, are on leave for the 1978-79
academic year; William B. Scott is on
sabbatical from Kenyon College; and
Thomas Hartshorne is on leave from
Cleveland State University.
The third volume in a series A
Bibliography on Historical Organization Prac-
tices has been published by the American Association for
State and Local His-
tory (AASLH). Entitled Interpretation:
A Bibliography, it is an annotated
bibliography of books, pamphlets,
articles, and filmed or taped material on ways
in which museums and other historical
organizations can present their resources
through educational activities. In
addition, a Basic Reference Shelf summarizes
the monographs, reports, handbooks, and
conference papers that will provide
readers with a working library. The book
is available for $10.00 ($7.50 to
AASLH members). Frederick L. Rath, Jr.,
and Merrilyn Rogers O'Connell have
edited the three volumes to date in the
series, which is an attempt to update its
single-volume predecessor Guide to
Historic Preservation, Historical Agencies,
and Museum Practices. Both volumes I (Historic Preservation) and II (Care
and
Conservation of Collections) are still available from AASLH.