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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392 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
book-making all the way from the
manuscript copy to the printed
volume. Featured as a climax to the
completion of the six-vol-
ume History of the State of Ohio, this exhibit also included dis-
plays of other publications by the
Society, a case of the earliest
books, periodicals and newspapers
printed in Ohio, an early print-
ing press, and an antiquated typewriter.
This exhibition met with
much favorable interest from visitors to the Museum.
With all these activities crowding her
schedule, the chief
of this department is, nevertheless,
able to report the cataloging
of nearly 100 additional maps and the
completion of the cata-
loging of the Presbyterian Records
Collection. Under a new
system of card duplicating adopted this
summer, unit cards with
annotated headings are being introduced
into the Manuscript and
Map Catalogs of the department.* The
catalog cards for the
Presbyterian Records and those for the
above mentioned maps
represent the first examples of this
improved method.
The Presbyterian Records Collection
deals mainly with the
history of the Columbus Presbytery of
the Synod of Ohio and with
the First Presbyterian Church of
Columbus for the period from
1806 to 1921 (with some gaps). There are altogether 18 boxes
of records, letters, pictures, minutes,
etc. Of these, 148 un-
bound pieces are filed in three
successive boxes and the remaining
19 bound volumes are in fifteen other
boxes. Cataloging of this
collection resulted in the addition of
528 cards to the Manuscript
Catalog.
The next issue of Documentary Data will
attempt to give a
summary of the maps recently cataloged
as well as detailed data
on recent acquisitions.
* After her return from
a visit to the Illinois State Historical Society last
April,
the head of this department was instrumental in
securing a Cardmaster duplicating
machine for the joint use of the
Department of Book Cataloging and the
Documents
Department. This machine enables the reproduction of unit
cards with a minimum of
effort and is especially helpful in supplying complete catalog analyses
to manuscript
collections.