Historical News
The Alexander Hamilton Bicentennial
Commission, established by con-
gress in 1954 for the celebration of the
two-hundredth anniversary of
Hamilton's birth in 1957, is pursuing a
comprehensive program of
memorial exercises, publications,
activities in the field of education and
public affairs, commemorative
exhibitions, and the issuance of special coins,
stamps, and medals. Its publication
program is well under way, with
Columbia University undertaking to edit
and publish a complete edition
of the Hamilton papers. In this
connection, the commission is conducting
a "treasure trove search" for
letters, documents, manuscripts, and other
memorabilia relating to Hamilton.
A committee of the American Association for
State and Local History,
under the chairmanship of S. K. Stevens,
executive director of the Pennsyl-
vania Historical and Museum Commission,
has been appointed to direct
the participation of the association in
the work of the bicentennial com-
mission, of which Senator Karl E. Mundt
of South Dakota is chairman.
The Annual Student History Conference,
composed of history students
at Hiram, Baldwin-Wallace, John Carroll,
and Mt. Union colleges, held its
spring meeting this year at
Baldwin-Wallace. A student from each school
presented a paper, which was followed by
a critique by a student from
another school and then by a general
discussion. The conference was
organized five years ago at Hiram
College. The Hiram student who pre-
sented a paper at the first conference
in 1951 was present this year as a
member of the staff at Baldwin-Wallace.
The library of the Western Reserve
Historical Society recently received
as a gift the Alfred Mewett collection
of prayer books, missals, graduals,
and other liturgical works. There are
over seventy pieces in the collection,
including many in manuscript dating from
the early fifteenth century. The
library has also acquired the General
Simon Perkins land records and
manuscript map books, with surveys of
towns and individual tracts in the
Western Reserve from 1803. The fourteen
volumes in this collection were
the gift of Mrs. Russell Wilson and
Samuel Watson Smith, direct descen-
dants of General Perkins.
HISTORICAL NEWS 307
The Historical and Philosophical Society
of Ohio is celebrating this year
the 125th anniversary of its founding,
and its activities are centered around
that event. The April issue of the Bulletin
features the history of the
society from its founding in Columbus in
1831 to the present. It includes
also an article on the historical
resources of the library.
Rare books, pictures, manuscripts, and
documents from the society's
collections were on display at the
annual spring exhibition of the society
at the Taft Museum from April 26 through
June 17.
The American Jewish Archives has
recently acquired a collection of
papers relating to Beth Shalome, the
first Jewish congregation established
in Virginia (1789). The collection
includes a minute book beginning with
1859, which was believed to have been
destroyed when federal troops cap-
tured Richmond; correspondence and
documents of the Ezekiel-Levy families
of Richmond (1830-75); correspondence of
William Flegenheimer, who
engrossed the Virginia ordinance of
secession; photographs of Jewish
soldiers in the Confederate army; and
the scroll of the Book of Esther used
by the congregation in the late
eighteenth century.
A special exhibition was opened at the
Rutherford B. Hayes Library on
May 30 in observance of the fortieth
anniversary of the dedication of the
Hayes Library and Museum. The exhibition
continued for a month.
The Hayes Library recently acquired an
excellent collection of local
history materials from the estate of the
late Charles Hochenedel, city sur-
veyor of Fremont, Ohio, presented by his
son, Earl Hochenedel of Fremont.
Clara G. Roe, acting head of the history
department of the University
of Akron, has received a grant from the
American Philosophical Society
for the summer of 1956 to enable her to
complete a biography of General
Nathanael Greene.
Jacob R. Marcus, professor of history at
Hebrew Union College and
director of the American Jewish
Archives, has been named director of the
recently established American Jewish
Periodical Center. The center, which
was made possible by a grant from the
Jacob R. Schiff Fund, aims to micro-
film every Jewish periodical published
from 1823 to 1925 and a selected
group of journals after that date.
Microfilms will be made available to
recognized institutions on an
interlibrary loan basis. Memoirs of American
Jews, 1775-1865, Volume III, by Dr. Marcus has recently been published
by
the Jewish Publication Society of
America.
308
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
A facsimile reprint of Clotelle, by
W. W. Brown, the first novel by an
American Negro, with an introduction by
Maxwell Whiteman, has been
published recently. Mr. Whiteman, who is
assistant director of the American
Jewish Archives, has also published a
bibliography, the first in the field, A
Century of Fiction by American
Negroes, 1853-1952, a Descriptive
Bibliography.
Selma Stern-Tauebler has retired after
nine years of service as archivist
with the American Jewish Archives. Dr.
Stern-Tauebler was awarded the
honorary degree of doctor of humane
letters by Hebrew Union College on
June 2.
Several changes in personnel in the
history department at Antioch Col-
lege are slated for the academic year
1956-57. Joel Hayden, Jr., has re-
signed; Roger L. Williams, of the
department of history at Michigan State
University, has been appointed assistant
professor; William M. Landeen,
professor of European history at the
State College of Washington, has
been appointed visiting professor. Irwin
Adams, chairman of the depart-
ment, will be on sabbatical leave during
the year, and Louis Filler, who has
recently been promoted from associate
professor to professor, will serve as
chairman during his absence.
Dr. Abrams plans to spend his leave in
Europe, the major part of the
time in Geneva engaged in research in
the history of the organized peace
movement. He will also do some traveling
for Antioch College in connection
with the development of its program for
student overseas study. This sum-
mer he will serve as educational
director of a shipboard orientation pro-
gram of the Council on Student Travel
and later serve on the staff of the
Quaker International Student Seminar in
Switzerland.
"The Historian's Craft and General
Education," by Irwin Abrams ap-
peared in the Journal of General
Education for October 1955, and "The
Thirties in Partial Perspective,"
by Louis Filler, in the Southwest Review,
Winter 1956. The Newberry Library Bulletin
for May 1956 featured a re-
port, "The Newberry Library
Conference on American Studies," which
discussed, among others at the
conference, Dr. Filler's paper on "'Amer-
ican Civilization' as Art and as
Discipline."
John F. Oglevee of the department of
history at Bowling Green State
University published this spring an
edition of the letters of the Archbishop-
Elector of Cologne to Robert de Cotte
(1712-1720). Professor Oglevee
wrote an introduction to the letters and
added notes and an appendix.
Robert W. Twyman was invited to attend a
conference on the Progressive
HISTORICAL NEWS 309
period at the University of Kansas, June
17-28. The invitation was extended
to twenty-five or thirty young
historians with some special training or research
activity in the Progressive period.
Grover C. Platt and Virgina B. Platt are
spending the summer traveling
in Europe.
Stanton Ling Davis is again conducting
the study tour, "Europe in
Historical Perspective," offered by
Case Institute of Technology during its
summer term July 1 to September 2.
Edwin R. King has been promoted to the
position of assistant professor
of history at the University of Dayton.
The promotion becomes effective
in September 1956.
William T. Utter's Granville: The
Story of an Ohio Village is in the
process of publication. It is scheduled
for release in the late summer. The
companion volume, Denison: The Story
of an Ohio College, by G. Wallace
Chessman will appear later in the year.
"The Rutherford B. Hayes Memorial
Library," an article by Watt P.
Marchman, the director, was published in
College and Research Libraries
for May 1956. Mr. Marchman was elected a
vice president of the Manu-
script Society at the society's annual
meeting on May 6, 1956, in Chicago.
He has also been selected as guest
editor for Civil War History, a new
quarterly journal published by the State
University of Iowa and edited by
Clyde C. Walton, Jr. Mr. Marchman will
edit a special Ohio issue, which
will be published next year.
Kimon Giocarinis, assistant professor of
history at Hiram College, spent
the second semester of this year as
visiting professor of history at the
University of Wisconsin, where he taught
the courses of Professor Gaines
Post, who was on leave. Dr. Giocarinis
will return to Hiram in September.
The Historical and Philosophical Society
of Ohio announces the addition
on June 1 of Robert C. Herron to its
staff as assistant to the editor and
curator of manuscripts.
Charles R. Ritcheson of the department
of history at Kenyon College
has been awarded a faculty research
fellowship by the Social Science Re-
search Council. This grant will enable
him to devote half time to research
310
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
during the next three years. His topic
is "The Aftermath of Independence:
Anglo-American Relations,
1781-1795." Dr. Ritcheson will spend this
summer in England carrying on research
on this project.
The department has added William Kerr to
its staff for next year as an
instructor. Mr. Kerr received an A.B.
from Princeton in 1947, an A.M.
from Harvard in 1949, and is completing
his thesis for the Ph.D., which he
expects to receive from Harvard next year.
He spent 1953-54 at the Warburg
Institute and the University of London
collecting material for his thesis on
"The Idea of Fortune in the Prose
Writing of Some Early Italian
Humanists."
Charles Mayes of the history department
at Ohio University has an
economics-in-action fellowship at Case
Institute of Technology for this
summer. The grant is from the American
Philosophical Society.
At the University of Toledo, Cecil E.
Cody has been promoted to assist-
ant professor of history, effective in
September 1956. Mr. Cody gave a
paper, "The Effects of Itagaki's
Trip to Europe in 1882-83 upon His Views,"
at the meeting of the Far Eastern
Association in Philadelphia, April 5, 1956.
Karol Marcinkowski recently published a
pamphlet under the title,
Dwa Listy Przeora A. Kordeckiego, Rok
1655 [Two Letters of Prior A.
Kordecki, Year 1655]. Dr. Marcinkowski attended the thirteenth annual
meeting of the American Catholic
Philosophical Association in Cincinnati
on April 3 and 4.
Paul F. Bloomhardt is retiring as
professor of biography and history at
Wittenberg College after thirty-one
years. Dr. Bloomhardt will spend a year
in Palestine as visiting lecturer with
the Palestine Exploration Expedition.
Two additions have been made to the
history staff at Wittenberg: Robert
G. Hartje (Ph.D., Vanderbilt), who is
now head of the Columbus Center
of the University of Georgia, and Arend
D. Lubbers (A.M., Rutgers),
now a candidate for the Ph.D at Rutgers.