PROCEEDINGS 287
MR. STOUT: To honor Mr. Sater I think it
would be very
fitting that these resolutions become a
part of the Minutes of our
Society. Will someone make a motion to that effect?
A motion was made by Mr. Spetnagel and
seconded by Mr.
Roof that these resolutions be made a
part of the Minutes of the
Society. The motion was unanimously
carried.
Mr. Spetnagel, chairman of the
Nominating Committee, then
made the following report: "Speaking
for your Nominating
Committee, I wish to propose for
trustees for the ensuing term of
three years the following names: Dr.
Carl Wittke, head of the
Department of History in Ohio State
University, Chief Justice
Carl V. Weygandt, and, lastly, the
reelection of our very efficient
treasurer, Mr. Oscar F. Miller."
By motion the secretary was instructed
to cast a unanimous
ballot of the Society approving the
report of the committee,
which was done.
Before adjournment, announcements
concerning the after-
noon program were made and the attention
of those present was
called to the loan exhibit now on
display in the Museum building
which was made by WPA to illustrate the
value of farm and
market roads; also to the original desk
of Benjamin Hanby upon
which he wrote a number of his poems.
This is of especial in-
terest just now since the Society has,
during the year, acquired
the Hanby home in Westerville as a State
historical monument.
The meeting then adjourned to reconvene
at two o'clock.
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF
TRUSTEES OF THE OHIO STATE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, HELD APRIL 21,
1936.
The regular annual meeting of the Board
of Trustees of the Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical
Society convened in the Trustees' Room
of the Ohio State Museum at one P. M.,
Tuesday, April 21, 1936.
In the absence of the president and
first vice-president of the Board,
Mr. Wilber Stout, second vice-president,
called the meeting to order.
Members present were: Messrs. Stout,
Miller, Rightmire, Spetnagel,
Wolfe and Florence. Governor Davey was
officially represented by Con-
servation Commissioner Larry Wooddell.
Director Shetrone and Secre-
tary Lindley were also present.
The Minutes of the adjourned meeting of
April 9, 1936, were read
and approved.
The committee appointed to consider the
possibility of ways and means
for securing the Bimeler property at
Zoar for a State historical monument
and museum reported that they had
continued their investigations and, after
having advised with the attorney
general, approved of a plan providing for
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the creation of a Zoar Foundation,
consisting of nine members, representing
the interests of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society, the
Zoar Historical Society and the
Tuscarawas County Historical Society,
which would be incorporated as a
non-profit-making corporation, with
power to proceed in securing the
property under consideration for permanent
preservation, and to make final
disposition of the property after it was
secured and paid for, in such a way as
to guarantee its preservation as a
permanent historical memorial.
By motion this report was approved, and
the way cleared for such a
foundation to be organized.
The members then proceeded to the
election of officers for the ensuing
year, as follows:
President, Arthur C. Johnson, Sr.
First Vice-President, Freeman T.
Eagleson
Second Vice-President, Wilber Stout
Secretary, Harlow Lindley
Treasurer, Oscar F. Miller.
By motion of Mr. Miller, seconded by Dr.
Rightmire, all members of
the present staff of the Society were
reelected.
Upon the suggestion of Director
Shetrone, it was moved and carried
that plans be made for a special call
meeting of the Board to be held early
in the summer, at one of our State
parks, preferably at the Hayes Memo-
rial, Fremont, to discuss a policy for
the development of our historical
monuments.
The meeting then adjourned.
HARLOW LINDLEY, Secretary.
Afternoon Session--2 P. M.
The afternoon session convened at 2 P.
M. The first feature
of the program was the presentation of a
series of sound movies
which had been prepared by the
Educational Department of the
Standard Oil Company of Ohio. The first
of these, entitled
"Historical Ohio," crowded
into one reel, in chronological se-
quence, some of the major events of
historical importance in the
State. Beginning with the pre-historic
remains of the Mound
Builders the picture follows through the
time of the Indians, the
early period of settlement, the War of
1812, and later events.
This reel was followed by one, entitled
"The Sohio Sketch Book,"
dealing with matters of interest in the
State. The third reel,
entitled "Beautiful Ohio,"
started with a view of the State Capitol
Building in Columbus, and presented in
succession, scenes from
Mill Creek Park, Youngstown, Nelson
Ledges, the beauties of
Hocking County, the Ohio Caverns, views
of interest in Cincin-
nati and Cleveland, the Blue Hole at
Castalia, and, finally, sunset
on the Ohio River.
PROCEEDINGS 289
The guest speaker of the day was Mr.
Wilbur D. Peat,
director of the John Herron Art
Institute, of Indianapolis, who
spoke on the subject, "The Museum
and Library in Modern Edu-
cation," parts of which follow:
The place that the museums and public
libraries occupy in contempo-
rary life is so well known to curators
and librarians that any further
comment is unnecessary, and instead of
reviewing their achievements for
you here I would prefer to point out
certain dangers that might result
from uniting their functions under one
roof or from correlating their activ-
ities where the benefits are not mutual.
Museums and public libraries hold their
important place in modern
education by virtue of possessing the
most effective seeds of education--
books and objects--and by virtue of
their approach to the public. Their
appeal is universal and they offer a
kind of service that cannot be obtained
elsewhere. They believe in education,
yet they do not maintain regular
class rooms, teaching staffs nor lesson
plans, as do our schools and col-
leges. They delight in disseminating
information, yet they see the necessity
of supplying certain forms of
entertainment. And they constantly feel the
urge of devising new schemes for
reaching a larger and wider audience.
In these respects they are mutual and
except for the character of their
collections their problems are similar
enough, in this light, to make some
people wonder if the two institutions
would not do more effective work
if their resources were pooled. This
feeling is strengthened by the fact
that the workers in one field show a
strong desire to assist those in the
other, as seen in the many instances
where public libraries have served as
foster parents to small museums and
where museums have generously lent
their collections and staff members to
the public libraries. But would the
union of administrative and functional
activities produce a more effective
educational institution? The answer, I believe, lies in an analysis
of the
basic function of the two.
In their philosophy toward their
material, the curator and librarian
are so opposed that it is reasonable to
assume that a combination of their
functions would not be successful. A
successful librarian must have abso-
lute faith in books. He must believe
that books are the ultimate, unques-
tionable sources of knowledge and the
greatest factors in acquiring informa-
tion or enjoyment. If he is a good
librarian he must never question the
power of the printed page in leading
humanity to boundless worldly goods
and aesthetic pleasures. He must agree
with Andrew Carnegie, that libraries
"reach the aspiring and open to
those the chief treasures of the world."
The museum worker, on the other hand,
has an instinctive doubt in the
printed page. His natural tendency is to
question the written account of
an event and to return to the source
material--the objects themselves. The
history of mankind, for him, is in
things, not in books, and the "chief treas-
ures of the world" are the objects
that have been brought into the museums
for preservation and study. This difference in the structure of the two
minds will always keep the museum and library apart,
particularly if they
desire to be effective educational
agencies, and it is reasonable to assume
that no single person can combine two
opposite mental states such as these,
unless he is a very rare individual.
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
It is obvious, of course, that both the
curator and librarian see the
value of the other person's
material. Museums are constantly
increasing
their own libraries--devoted, for the most part, to the
subjects in which
they specialize--and many libraries form collections of objects, ranging
from old paintings to specimens of
minerals; but they do not use the
material in the same way.
This is clearly seen in the case of the
library. With a few excep-
tions, the library collects and borrows
material for the purpose of illus-
trating certain books or of increasing the public's
interest in reading along
certain lines. The science that underlies collecting in a certain field,
including history, research and preservation, is either
unknown to the
librarian or is too involved for his
limited time. In other words, the most
effective material for him is the material that has
already been collected,
classified and catalogued.
It has already been pointed out that the
process of turning from
passive guardians of old books and
specimens to aggressive promoters of
educational material the museums and
libraries have adopted new tactics
and new methods. The scope of their
collections and the quality of scholar-
ship has not changed as much as the
manner of presenting this material
to the public. Display, information, and
publicity--common to both--have
undergone revolutionary changes and now
offer fields for mutual assist-
ance. The library has realized, for some
time, the value of objects for
increasing the interest in certain
books. These, combined with posters,
pictures, stuffed birds and foreign curios
serve as graphic illustrations
and tend to increase the public's desire
to follow up certain subjects. Mu-
seums and private collectors have been
generous in their loans, but it
should be pointed out that there is
danger in increasing this service. The
effectiveness of museum material
decreases in proportion to the extent of
its distribution outside of the
galleries. This point deserves more am-
plification than can be given to it
here. However this matter of display
can be worked out in such a way as will
benefit both: by the careful
planning in advance of the scope of the
collection, its function in the
library, its importance to the museum,
and with as much emphasis on the
quality of the objects themselves as
upon the books dealing with the
subject. By introducing its wares to the
public, through the libraries, the
museums can reach a wider audience than
they now possess, but they must
be certain that their wares will bring
people to the museum to see more
complete and more important displays in
their proper setting. The museum
and library can do much more together in
arousing interest in more whole-
some subjects, and in helping people to actually look
at things--an art that
is almost entirely lost in the twentieth
century--to observe objects and
deduct certain facts from them without
having to refer to books first.
For their part the museums can devise
effective plans for calling
their visitors' attention to the books
in the public library dealing with the
subject under consideration. Labels,
amplified to include certain references
and book titles, or additional gallery
standards, showing book-jackets and
giving bibliographies, can be very
effective. Such a plan as this would
increase the effectiveness of each building and make
the public realize that
a very definite correlation exists
between them.
In many more ways the public libraries
and museums could be mu-
tually beneficial, and by holding
frequent conferences the curator and
librarian could devise many schemes for
making their material more at-
tractive to the community. Up to this
time the popularity of the former
PROCEEDINGS 291
has eclipsed the latter but with the
growing belief in the value of visual
material in education, it is reasonable
to assume that more and more
demands will be made on the museums, and
the libraries will resort to
their sister institution for more help
if they want to vitalize their position
in the community. For this reason both
must fully understand their basic
similarities and natural differences--and act
accordingly.
These brief remarks have been designed
to point out the similarities
in the approach of the two institutions
toward the public, their mutual
desire to help one another, their belief
in the usefulness of the other's
material and the underlying differences
in their ideals. It is natural that
in an age of efficiency attempts will be
made to form unions, even of
library and museum workers. But it is
reasonable to assume that more
effective work will not be achieved by
merely adding museum galleries to
already existing libraries and by
extending museum buildings to include
public libraries. Their common meeting
ground is not in the domain of
institutional activities, but in the
field of indirect popular education.
The final feature of the day's program
was the singing, by
the entire audience, of "Ohio, the
Beautiful."