Annual Report for 1958
FOR A DOZEN YEARS OR MORE the annual
report of this Society has
regularly recorded significant
advancements in our operations.* Since
World War II we have acquired nine
properties, including Adena,
Glendower, Fort Meigs, and the W. P.
Snyder, Jr.; visitation to the
State Memorials has increased by over
1,000,000; collections have
expanded; and the educational, research,
publication, exhibit, library,
and other services have recorded growing
programs.
The year 1958, for which I now make an
accounting, however, has
been somewhat of a period of frustration
for us. While our efforts to
preserve the records and artifacts of
the state's history and to make
them available to the people have not
diminished, the accomplishments
unquestionably have declined relatively.
I am reminded here of an
anecdote of the Civil War, the
centennial of which we are soon to mark
in this state and nationally. In the
last days of the conflict, as the
Confederate forces were falling back on
Richmond, a lady of the city
asked her servant if he had picked up
any news of the fighting. "Yes,
ma'am," he replied tactfully,
"As I understand it, those Yankees are
retreating forward, while our forces are
advancing backward." This year,
to be frank, we must admit to some "advancing
backward."
In this movement we have not marched
alone. We have been accom-
panied by the other departments of state
government, which felt the
depressing shock of declining revenues,
and by many businesses and
other organizations and persons who
suffered from the effects of the
economic recession. In a sense we have
been like the Baptist Church
in a small community back in the 1930's.
The announcement of one of
its regular functions ran: "The
annual First Baptist Church Strawberry
Festival will be held next Saturday. On
account of the depression,
prunes will be served." We had to
serve some prunes instead of straw-
berries last year, but we did our best
to provide choice ones.
The facts of the matter are these: Our
appropriations for the bien-
nium 1957-59 were reduced by executive
action more than ten percent.
* The annual report was read by Erwin C.
Zepp, director, at the Society's
annual meeting on April 17, 1959.
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1958 291
The restrictions of funds began in
December 1957 and are operative until
the next appropriations go into effect.
In adjusting to these limitations,
the board of trustees decided: 1) to
maintain the full regular staff
(already undermanned), especially the
professional, administrative, and
supervisory personnel; 2) to operate as
fully as possible the major prop-
erties and the technical programs; and
3) to continue planning for better
days. Some of the prunes we served were
the results of reducing the
schedules of the historic houses, now
on a seven-month basis; holding
a major library position vacant after
the resignation of its incumbent
and reducing other areas of staff
employment; stopping the installation
of the exhibits in the new wing at
Campus Martius Museum and
delaying that in the new Bird Hall at
the Ohio State Museum; halting
the further furnishing of Adena;
restricting the publication and distribu-
tion of leaflets; weakening the archives
program; and suspending major
property improvements, including the
replacement of the dangerous
staircase at the north entrance to the
Ohio State Museum. Some of the
Society's staff and activities were
saved only by the use of private funds,
money which should be applied in
considerable part to Society objectives
for which state funds are traditionally
insufficient--the advancement of
the library and historical collections,
publications, and certain other
programs.
It is my responsibility, at this time, to
enlarge upon the economic
condition of the Society in this period
of inflation. During the past ten
years there has been what appears on
paper as a munificent increase in
state appropriations of operating
funds. Actually, the total biennial
appropriations, including capital
improvements funds, have remained on
an even keel. The appropriation for
1949-51 was $1,170,000, our
highest in the past decade. The next
three biennial appropriations
averaged $1,095,000, and the present
amounted to $1,123,440. Within
these figures, however, is an increase
in personal services from $394,000
in 1949-51 to about $749,000 for this
biennium, and an increase in
maintenance funds from $161,000 to
approximately $240,000. These
increases represent the effects of
economic growth and the inflationary
spiral in this country. Only at the
beginning of the decade, as a result
of the state salary and position study,
were some of our salary ranges,
disgracefully low at this Society,
raised to levels somewhat comparable
to those of other agencies. Since then
the rise in the personal service
figure has come in the main from the
four-step increases in each salary
classification and the cost-of-living
raises granted generally to state
employees. In spite of the apparent
increase in personal service appro-
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THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
priations, we find ourselves out of step
with similar institutions in the
pay schedules of a number of our jobs.
These deficiencies we hope may
be met to some extent by the present
general assembly. I can assure
you that these adjustments in salary
will not result in high salaries for
any of our staff members. They will
still be low; they average slightly
less than $3,200 for the entire
public-fund staff, including part-time and
seasonal workers. I would point out,
further, that the total personal
service appropriations by the state from
the general revenue for the
decade were increased by 153 percent,
while the Society's were in-
creased by 90 percent, which is over 60
percent less.
The next figures I shall give you will
undoubtedly shock you; for
us, you will see, they are a cause of
deep concern. Perhaps they may be
accounted for by our failure to keep
pace with the general increase in
state appropriations for personal
services. Here they are: In 1951 the
Society had on its state payroll 73
full-time people, 25 part-time, and 13
seasonal; last year it had 71 full-time
people, 26 part-time, and 25
seasonal, a loss in eight years of 2
full-time people, and a gain of 13
part-time and seasonal workers. In those
years we completed the large
addition to the Ohio State Museum, set
up the state archives, and
opened Adena, Sherman Birthplace, and
McCook House to the public.
In order to help meet our obligations in
the administration of the prop-
erties, the private fund payroll has
been increased from 19 persons to
40, most of whom are seasonal employees.
Today, with 18 more prop-
erties and nearly a million more
visitors than we had in 1941, we have
only 1 1/5 full-time employees on the
state payroll as compared with
nearly 1 1/2 full-time employees per
property in the last pre-war year.
I suggest that the Society's condition
is not exactly healthy. Some
of you may remember the contest that was
reported some years ago.
It was to find a name for a new
hospital. The prize was a free appen-
dectomy. I do not think we need any
major parts removed, but we do
need some plasma--in this case, not
blood plasma, but money plasma. We
need this now just to keep our
institution alive and well; we will need
more to meet the demands of the future.
Our prime concern up to now
has been with historical materials of
the early and middle nineteenth
century. But already we are nearly
two-thirds of the distance through
the twentieth. The records and artifacts
of 1900 have now become
ancient, and we should be gathering and
protecting them. This means
eventually adding historical properties
and constructing depositories
for historical collections. Even now we
are trying to provide for the
preservation of the public records of
the state and its subdivisions, a
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1958 293
necessary effort which this state has
failed to recognize. The federal
government and many states are far ahead
of us in this. Finally, we
must do far more to serve our people, to
help them to acquire a knowl-
edge of their history through effective
media of interpretation and an
expanded educational program within our
museums, within the schools,
through publications, and over radio and
television. This Society must
keep pace with a changing and expanding
world.
Now for some of the strawberries. In the
first place, in spite of the
recession, visitation to all the
properties remained at the high figure of
approximately 2,300,000. It was the same
as that for 1956, but about
100,000 below the 1957 mark. The Ohio State
Museum visitation
dropped from 170,000 to 150,000.
Schoenbrunn continued the most
popular area, with 277,000 visitors,
while George Rogers Clark Memo-
rial reported 204,000. These two areas,
plus Fort Ancient, Fort Hill,
Fort Meigs, Fort St. Clair, Newark
Earthworks, and Serpent Mound,
all of which have picnic facilities,
again attracted a total of over 1,000,000
visitors. Among the other properties,
Campus Martius Museum had
63,000 visitors, Zoar Village, 56,000,
the Hayes Memorial, 34,500,
Adena, 16,000, and the W. P. Snyder,
Jr., our sternwheeler at Marietta,
16,000. While our major properties
continue to serve a broad section
of the public, a few areas maintain a
low visitation rate. The staff has
been aware of this situation for some
time. It may be advisable to re-
evaluate our properties at this time,
and the removal of certain of them
from the list of State Memorials may be
necessary, especially if their
cost of operation is not in a
justifiable proportion to their historical
value.
Within the staff, probably the most
significant general effort in
behalf of the State Memorials was the
preparation of a statement of
needed improvements and developments at
the various properties. From
this the capital improvements program
was drawn up for presentation
to the state capital planning division.
Among the more important
improvements called for are these: At
Adena we plan to complete the
furnishing, roof the house with
original-type shingles, install iron rail-
ings between the chimneys, restore the
terrace wall, plant the remaining
garden terraces and an orchard, study
the grounds for the location of
outbuildings and perhaps erect a
springhouse, a barn, servants' quarters,
and necessaries, and build a new
reception center. At Campus Martius
we wish to re-develop the entire
basement and first floor exhibits, inte-
grating them with the displays being
planned for the two floors of the
new wing which was erected last year.
The Putnam House needs a full
294
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
study, some rehabilitation of the
structure, and restoration of furnish-
ings and decoration. Our recommendations for Campus Martius
include some structural changes, one of
them being a better access to
the new River Museum which is to be
installed on the basement floor.
A complete study of Our House, one of
our very nice historic
structures, is needed, to be followed by
a full restoration. At Schoen-
brunn the Indian cabins should be
reconstructed according to the speci-
fications of our recent researches, bark
huts and fences should be added,
structures should be furnished properly,
and a completely new exhibit
should be installed in the museum. The
restoration of our Zoar prop-
erties should be brought to completion,
and perhaps other structures in
the village should be added to that
State Memorial. New small museums
are planned for Newark Earthworks, Fort
Ancient, Fort Hill, Serpent
Mound, and Fort Meigs, a major museum is
recommended for Fort
Greene Ville, and a reconstruction of
the fortification is included in
the plans for Fort Miamis. At the Ohio
State Museum eight new exhibit
halls are included in the future
program, plus the modernization
of six more halls and the installation
of a street of shops and stores.
Here, also, we hope to air-condition the
library in order to preserve
the rare and valuable sources of Ohio
history it contains. This is a part
of our chart for the future. While
planning to better our properties, the
staff continued with its basic services
within them.
Among these, the collecting program
showed distinctive accomplish-
ments. In the library there were
additions to the Charles Dick, Warren
G. Harding, and Frank B. Willis
manuscript collections, and the Hon-
orable John W. Bricker supplemented the
great collection of his guber-
natorial papers with those of his terms
in the United States Senate.
Among new manuscript groups acquired
were the papers of former
Congressman John M. Vorys of Columbus,
former Congressman Robert
M. Crosser of Cleveland, and Friedrich
Hassaurek, a Forty-Eighter who
came to Cincinnati, where he was a
prominent editor and writer.
A number of newspapers were added to a
collection which is one of
the Society's greatest treasures. Among
those acquired were four Craw-
ford County papers dating from 1854 to
1889; the first three volumes
of the Columbian of Columbus,
1853-54, thus far unrecorded; the
Ironton Spirit of the Times, 1853-56;
two Holmes County papers,
1856-59; Die Menschenrechte of
Cincinnati, 1853; the Cleveland Liberal
Advocate, 1917-18; and the Toiler of Cleveland, 1919-21.
The library
also received microfilm copies of
important newspapers of Bluffton,
Jackson, Lima, Norwalk, and Sandusky,
and the Miami Visitor and the
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1958 295
Miami Gazette of Waynesville, 1850-1955, which were filmed under the
co-sponsorship of the Warren County
Historical Society.
To these source materials were added
microfilm copies of the large
Governor Duncan McArthur collection at
the Library of Congress;
selections from the papers of Colonel
John Johnston, the Indian agent, at
the National Archives; the 1820 census
of Ohio; Ohio postmaster
records, 1832-1930; and the Sears and
Roebuck catalogs, 1888-1920.
All these, and more, came into the
library, along with the routine acqui-
sition of 3,258 books, 13,000 periodical
issues, and 32,000 contemporary
Ohio newspaper issues.
The library served numerous students and
researchers not only from
Ohio but also from spots as far away as
New York on the east and
California on the west.
The Society's division of public
records, you will recall, was initiated
late in 1957. During the year 1958
various state record groups were
surveyed, and materials were secured
from the adjutant general, the
auditor, the treasurer, the highway
department, the department of social
welfare, and the department of taxation.
The records of twenty-four
counties were examined, and county
officials were aided in their disposal
and microfilm programs.
The new emphasis on historical
collections continued its pace. In
the effort to acquire representative
pieces of Ohio arts and crafts, the
following items were added to the
collections: a pewter teapot and a
pewter lamp, both made by Sellew at
Cincinnati; a small mechanical
safe-bank, patented in 1881; an amberina
vase, with the Libbey mark,
made in Toledo in the 1890's; a
stoneware churn made in Antioch in
the 1850's; a pottery dog manufactured
in Dalton in the 1860's; pieces
of Findlay pressed glass in the Queen's
Necklace and Heck patterns of
the late nineteenth century; one
Zanesville amber glass pitcher; a cover-
let by Charles Meily of Mansfield; and
forty-six Zoar items. Other
interesting acquisitions were a ten-inch
dark blue Staffordshire platter
decorated with a Chillicothe scene, a
set of six signed Hitchcock chairs,
and the Boyd Young collection of early
nineteenth-century tools, imple-
ments, and kitchen utensils.
From the Ohioana Library we received an
unusual gift in the form
of eighteen primitive water-color
paintings, each measuring six feet
by seven feet and depicting scenes of
the famous Andrews Raid of the
Civil War. Glued together to form a long
vertical strip and placed on
rollers, the paintings were used by
William J. Knight of Williams
296
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
County, Ohio, one of the locomotive
engineers on the raid, to illustrate
public lectures in the 1890's.
Research in the area of the historical
collections will be an important
activity of the staff for several years.
For most of its life the Society
neglected the collection of historical
artifacts, especially those of Ohio
manufacture, and neglected also the
study of such materials. Among
the investigations in this field in the past
year were studies of Ohio
weavers and Ohio artists, as well as of
sewing machines, washing
machines, coverlets, glass and other
ceramics, and farm machinery. Our
curators are gradually becoming experts
in various aspects of American
arts and crafts, and they are called
upon to help many persons each
year who have collections or interests
in such things.
Every year the Society advances its
notable achievements in archae-
ology and natural history. In 1958 a
prehistoric Indian village, known
as the Zencor Site, located just south
of Columbus, was excavated. Two
complete house patterns, circular in
form, were discovered, as well as
considerable village debris which was
scattered over the area and in
refuse pits. The vast collections at the
Ohio State Museum attracted
several researchers, including scholars
from the United States National
Museum and the United States Geological
Survey.
The natural history department served
scholars from such institutions
as the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh,
studying birds' eggs; the American
Museum of Natural History, Oregon State
College, the University of
Kansas, and the University of Michigan,
studying insects; the Maryland
Department of Research and Education,
studying fishes; the Chicago
Natural History Society, studying
reptiles; Cornell University, studying
salamanders; and Ohio State University,
studying various groups in
the collections.
Among other major activities of the
staff was the installation of
a number of exhibits, including African
art, lusterware, and Ohio glass
displays at the Ohio State Museum, and
one on Ohio crafts and crafts-
men at the Ohio State Fair. Work on the
new Bird Hall, which we
had hoped to have opened long since, was
stopped for a time because
of the money situation, as I have said,
but has been resumed. This
promises to be our finest hall, and will
indicate the advancement in
exhibit techniques we hope to
incorporate in the improvements planned
for this and other museums.
Besides the Quarterly and Museum
Echoes, the Society published
seven books and reprinted one book and a
number of leaflets. Scholars
at forty-three of the nation's leading
educational institutions, museums,
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1958 297
libraries, and historical societies
contributed articles and reviews to
the Quarterly. The Echoes featured
a series of twelve articles on the
Society's outstanding collections,
written by members of the staff.
We are proud to announce that a
biography entitled Thomas Worth-
ington: Father of Ohio Statehood, by Professor Alfred Byron Sears
of the University of Oklahoma, was
published through the joint efforts
of the Society and the Ohio State
University Press. It is receiving
excellent reviews. The first volume
issued jointly with that press--
The Adena People No. 2--appeared the last day of December 1957 and
was reported to you at the last annual
meeting. In 1958, that book,
which was designed and produced by our
own staff, was one of twenty-
two books selected by the Midwestern
Books Competition as the "out-
standing titles of the year from the
standpoint of design and produc-
tion." Other books which were
issued from the Society were one entitled
Ideas in Conflict: A Colloquium on
Certain Problems in Historical So-
ciety Work, prepared by Clifford L. Lord, director of the State
Histori-
cal Society of Wisconsin, and a
five-volume mimeographed series of
Document Transcriptions of the War of
1812 in the Northwest, tran-
scribed by Richard C. Knopf, historian
of the Anthony Wayne Parkway
Board.
Last year I reported to you that our
leaflet program was jeopardized
by the lack of funds. During 1958 we
felt impelled to limit distribution
of this popular interpretive medium, and
only 100,000 were given out
as compared with 400,000 the year
before. As a result the interpreta-
tion of many of our properties was
weakened, and schools and school
children particularly were denied
materials which they have sought
avidly since Ohio history has become a
part of the curriculum. A History
of Ohio, by Eugene H. Roseboom and Francis P. Weisenburger, went
into its fourth printing. We have now
put out 16,000 copies of this
work, and have sold over 12,000.
Last, and by no means least, I call your
attention to our exceptional
education program for school children.
Nearly 45,000 pupils in 1,368
classes were given instruction and
guided tours at the Ohio State
Museum, and other thousands were served
at various State Memorials.
About 500 schools and school systems in
81 counties used our visual
aids to teach well over 125,000 pupils.
"Once Upon a Time in Ohio,"
the Society's school program of
dramatized stories in Ohio history,
which originates at Ohio State University's
radio station WOSU, was
re-broadcast by thirteen stations
throughout the state.
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THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Here, in brief, I have given an outline
of our chief activities for 1958.
The Society's responsibilities as the
state's historical agency have led us
to serve in other ways too. We continue
to work with the county and
local historical societies. Last year we
sponsored a highly successful
institute on local history at Kingwood
Center in Mansfield. Action by
the last general assembly obliged the
Society to select the artist to do a
painting of the Wright Brothers for the state
capitol. We set up a com-
petition and a jury of judges, composed
of leading art directors, which
selected Dwight Mutchler of Ohio
University for the assignment. The
Society also assisted the governor in
creating a Civil War centennial
committee and an Abraham Lincoln
sesquicentennial committee, and
is active in their operation.
All of these activities have brought the
Society and its officers and
staff wide recognition in the historical
society and museum field of the
nation. A dozen members of the staff had
writings published during the
year, and one member recently was given
the Wildlife Award by the
American Wildlife Society for his book Fishes
of Ohio, published in
November 1957. Several appeared before
organizations as speakers,
and a number are active in professional
organizations. The trustees
and members of the Society have reason
to be proud of the immediate
record. Staff members now hold, or held
last year, the offices of presi-
dent and secretary-treasurer of the Ohio
Academy of History, vice
president and member of the editorial
board of the Midwest Museums
Conference, association editor and
member of the council of the Ameri-
can Association for State and Local
History, member of the council of
the American Association of Museums,
member of the board of directors
of the Early American Industries
Association, president of the Associa-
tion of Historic Sites Administrators,
chairman of the historic sites com-
mittee of the National Conference on
State Parks, president of the
Social Studies Association of Central
Ohio, chairman of the Columbus
Metropolitan Park Commission, secretary
of the American Indian
Ethnohistoric Conference, member of the
staff of the Radcliffe College
Institute on Historical and Archival
Management, and others.
This report began on a pessimistic note.
May I conclude it on this
happier one, that, so far as our staff
is concerned, I have the greatest
optimism? Given the full support it
needs and deserves, this Society
will go far in its role as conservator
and teacher of the history of Ohio.