Annual Report of the Society for
1960
AFTER LAST YEAR'S extensive report of the Society's development
through its seventy-five years, we shall
offer but a simple review of the
activities for 1960.* At the end of each
year the heads of the divisions
and the departments prepare annual
reports, which are submitted to the
director. These statements supply most
of the information from which
the Society's annual report is compiled.
The work of the Society is, after all,
primarily the work of its staff of
nearly ninety full-time and over eighty
seasonal and part-time employees.
Among them, at the headquarters at the
Ohio State Museum and at
certain of our other properties, are a
splendid group of professionals in
history, archaeology, and natural
history. These are the technicians who
guide the operations in the Society's
three principal fields of endeavor.
They collect and preserve the antiques,
artifacts, and animals and plants
that help to enlarge our understanding
of the lives of Ohio's peoples--
historic and prehistoric--and of their
natural surroundings. They are
the researchers who analyze the
collections, as well as the printed and
manuscript records, to explain and
relate the past to the present. They
build the exhibits and provide their
interpretation, supply the data for
restorations and reconstructions of
historic houses and prehistoric earth-
works, and guide the presentation of the
State Memorials.
There are the librarians, trained in the
science of library work and
also in history, whose responsibility is
to save the written record, and
the archivists, whose assignment is to
secure the documents of our state
and local governments. Their task also
involves making their valuable
resources available for use. There are
the editors--who are historians,
too--trained and experienced in a
complex and technical endeavor, who
publish books and articles whose purpose
is to enlarge the knowledge of
our state and her people, and other
printed materials designed to carry
this knowledge to the general reading
public. There are the teachers,
who instruct students in the Ohio State
Museum and guide the program
to develop an interest in history among
our youth. There are also the
* The report was read by the Society's
director, Erwin C. Zepp, at the business
session of the seventy-sixth annual
meeting, April 28, 1961.
248
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
professional artists, who provide the
designs and lighting and color for
the exhibits.
There are still many more members of
this staff who are necessary to
its effective operation. There are
highly trained and experienced persons
who manage our business affairs and
finances and are responsible for the
properties and their maintenance and
physical improvement. There are
excellent craftsmen, including cabinetmakers
and an electronics expert,
who erect the exhibit structures and are
responsible for the installation
of building improvements throughout our
properties system. There are
the secretaries and other office
personnel, who keep the departmental
files, handle the expanding
correspondence, and perform many other
necessary duties with admirable
efficiency. And last, but by no means
least, there are the museum attendants,
who greet and guide the visitors
at many of the properties, and the
caretakers and maintenance men, who
keep the properties clean and
presentable.
These are a dedicated group of persons
who devote themselves un-
stintingly to the service of this
Society. Perhaps we take them too much
for granted. Indeed many of them enjoy
more honor elsewhere than in
their own organization, where their
contributions are considered a part
of their responsibility. Each year we
attempt to give some specific pur-
pose, or theme, to our annual report.
This year that purpose is to express
respectfully and publicly this Society's
appreciation of the loyalty, devo-
tion, and attainments of the staff,
collectively and individually. We do
this in part in this report and in part
by recognizing the distinguished
service of an honored employee who
represents and exemplifies the
entire staff. We speak of Dr. Edward S.
Thomas, our curator of natural
history for thirty years, who has served
the Society well and, in so
doing, has achieved an eminent position
in the state and nation in the
biological sciences. Indeed, during the
past year at the request of the
American Institute of Biological
Sciences, he participated in an inspec-
tion of environmental research projects
in Alaska operated by the United
States Atomic Energy Commission. Though
he has reached the age of
retirement, we who know Dr. Thomas, can
be assured that this Society
and science will continue to benefit
from his active devotion to the fields
of his interest.
Over three decades Dr. Thomas has been
responsible for building one
of the great natural history collections
in this country devoted to a
particular geographical area. The large
collections of birds and birds'
eggs, insects, mammals, reptiles,
amphibia, and fishes attract students
and scholars from all over the country.
Each year the collections con-
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1960 249
tinue to grow as donors contribute to
them and as the curator, the
curator of vertebrate collections, and
the assistant curator of the depart-
ment bring in their findings from
numerous scientific expeditions. The
department has been concerned with the
flora and fauna of the natural
areas fast disappearing under the
trampling feet of our expanding popu-
lation. It is concerned too with
nature's adjustments to human civiliza-
tion. The curator of vertebrate
collections, for example, supported by a
grant from Ohio State University through
its Natural Resources Insti-
tute, last year began a survey of the
changing fish populations in central
Ohio streams. All is not collecting and
research, however, in this
department as well as in the others.
There are the tremendous jobs of
preparing, labeling, identifying, and
sorting the specimens. Last year
the task of reorganizing, standardizing,
and cataloging the birds, begun
in 1959, was completed, and many other
types of specimens were identi-
fied and cataloged and prepared for
permanent preservation. A major
project was one which absorbed the
original Ohio State Museum fish
collection, which had to be
re-identified and standardized and treated
with a preservative, into the vast
collections received from Ohio State
University several years ago. A primary
objective of the department of
natural history last year was the
completion of the new Hall of Birds,
which we are opening this afternoon. It
is an exhibition of the highest
quality and one that uses many of the
most recent techniques of display.
It is a compliment to the efforts and
high standards not only of the
department of natural history but also
of the staff designers and artists
and craftsmen, who, together with the
department, were responsible for
its installation. But this is only one
area of our activities.
In archaeology we are never standing
still. The annual summer exca-
vation was of an Adena burial mound
located on the Greenbrier Farms
of the Rose Development Corporation
about ten miles east of downtown
Columbus. This earthwork, measuring
fifty-six feet in diameter at the
base and five and one-half feet high,
disclosed fourteen Adena Indian
burials, along with cultural remains.
Most significant was a unique,
small, hematite hemisphere, with a
conventionalized design of a raptorial
bird finely engraved on its surface. The
department of archaeology also
installed ten permanent colorful
exhibits in the office hallway at the
Ohio State Museum. They illustrate the
use of stone by the prehistoric
Indians in making implements and tools,
utensils, weapons, ornaments,
and art objects. Major researches by
this department are a continuation
of the study of the Hopewell Culture, a
study of the Archaic People of
the Shell Middens, on which the curator
is collaborating with Dr. Wil-
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THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
liam S. Webb of the University of
Kentucky, and an investigation of
the Early Hunters of Ohio, being made
with Dr. Olaf Prufer, curator
of anthropology of the Cleveland Museum
of Natural History. A
National Science Foundation grant has
been obtained to help finance the
study and publish the results.
Three major exhibits were prepared and
installed by the department of
history: Lotus Ware, the fine bone china
produced at East Liverpool in
the 1880's and 1890's, at the Ohio State
Museum; Spatterware, the
highly decorated Staffordshire china
produced for the American trade
from about 1820 to about 1860, at the
Ohio State Museum; and the
River Museum in the new wing of Campus
Martius Museum. In pre-
senting the Lotus and Spatter displays,
the Society had the cooperation
of two families who are among Ohio's top
collectors of antiques, Mr.
and Mrs. Paul Brunner of Dayton, who
loaned us more than one hundred
pieces of Lotus Ware, and Mr. and Mrs.
Thomas C. Christopher of
Greenville, who loaned us their singular
collection of Spatterware.
Booklets on these displays were prepared
by the department, and the
new Arts and Crafts Hall, which housed
them, was opened in January
1960. During the year substantial
additions were made to the historical
collections, among them nearly 350
pieces of early American glass from
the estate of the famous collector
George McKearin of Hoosick Falls,
New York. Acquired also were some sixty
pieces of Ohio and mid-
western pottery; a three-piece pewter
tea set manufactured by Sellew
of Cincinnati; and many other fine
antiques, among which were an
exquisite and very valuable pair of
silver-mounted flintlock pistols made
by Minelli of Italy, given to the
Society by Charles Moses of Kingsville,
Ohio. While adding to the collections,
the department's curators were
also organizing and cataloging those
already in the storage areas and
providing them with decent and efficient
storage facilities. All the wood-
working, blacksmithing, cobblers', and
harnessmakers' tools and the fire-
arms were cataloged and stored in proper
order. The work with the
collections and exhibits demands much
research, but there were also
many other historical research problems
worked on by the historians of
this department as well as those
responsible for publications. These
included such subjects as Ohio's canals,
women of Ohio, the trade prac-
ticed by General George Custer's father
at New Rumley, Ohio, American
Indian ethnohistoric resources in Ohio,
the history of the Ohio Historical
Society, and the Piqua Historical Area.
Some 4,300 persons used the Society's
library at the Ohio State
Museum in 1960, and 1,300 mailed or
phoned inquiries to its staff.
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1960 251
Researchers and readers came from all
over the country, and mail
inquiries were received from as far away
as Belgium and Germany.
Acquisitions to the collections included
1,500 books, over 20,000 issues
of current newspapers and 593 rolls of
microfilm of newspapers, over
4,000 periodical issues, plus 15
manuscript collections and other manu-
scripts and microfilm of manuscripts.
Notable among the acquisitions
were such items as a first edition of
the Nasby Papers, published in
Indianapolis in 1864; the Journals of
Major Robert Rogers During the
Late War (London, 1765), in which the wily English army officer
describes his visits to the shores of
Lake Erie and Lake Huron and to
Detroit; and the early travel and
description, Voyage dans les Etats-
Unis d' Amerique ... 1795-7, by Francois Alexandre Frederic de La
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (Paris, 1799).
Eleven rare newspapers were
obtained, including twenty-four volumes
of Stern des Westlichen Ohio,
published from 1885 to 1923 at Minster
and New Bremen, which are on
permanent loan from the heir of the
publisher. Among the manuscript
additions are a collection of the papers
of Hugh Boyle Ewing, which
compliments the extensive William
Tecumseh Sherman and Thomas
Ewing papers; a small collection of
letters of Newton H. Fairbanks,
chairman of the Ohio Republican state
committee and an active supporter
of Warren G. Harding; and the papers of
Benjamin Tappan, founder
of Ravenna, member of the Ohio canal
commission, and law partner of
Edwin M. Stanton.
The division of archives surveyed all
the depositories and areas where
public records of the state have been
accumulated over the past thirty
years or more. About 800 cubic feet of
material, stored at the Ohio
State Museum, was moved to the Ohio
Archives Building on East Broad
Street. Advice and aid were given to
thirty-six state offices, which re-
sulted in the destruction of several
tons of valueless files and the transfer
to the archives building of some 300
cubic feet of records from the offices
of the governor, the auditor of state,
the secretary of state, the fire mar-
shal, the departments of mental hygiene
and correction and personnel,
the legislative reference bureau, the
bureau of unemployment compensa-
tion, and the pardon and parole
commission. The archives building is
now full to capacity. The county records
program was inaugurated, and
assistance was given in fifty-two
counties. In several instances arrange-
ments were made to transfer county
records to nearby libraries or his-
torical societies. This division,
working with the County Commissioners
Association of Ohio, helped formulate a
schedule of records retention
252
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for that office, and also worked on
administrative histories of the offices
of adjutant general, secretary of state,
and governor.
Several innovations were introduced by
the department of education.
A junior historians program was begun to
reach school pupils of the
upper primary grades, and the Buckeye
Historian was established as
the periodical for this age group. Museum
Echoes is also supplied to
these students and their teachers and
advisers. The assembling of new
and improved school loan collections is
also under way to replace the
old and worn groups we are now
supplying. This department served
724 school groups, with 30,000 students,
at the Ohio State Museum,
and sent loan collections to 740 classes,
with 26,000 students. The radio
program "Once Upon a Time in
Ohio," written by Mrs. Margaret C.
Tyler and produced over the Ohio State
University station WOSU,
continued its outstanding performance
and was reproduced by other
stations throughout Ohio.
The department of publications edited
and issued Volume 69 of the
Ohio Historical Quarterly and the twelve monthly issues of the Museum
Echoes. In addition, it wrote and published the little volume The
Ohio
Historical Society, 1885-1960, edited the booklet A Guide to the Care
and Administration of Manuscripts, by Lucile M. Kane, curator of
manuscripts of the Minnesota Historical
Society, which was published
by the American Association for State
and Local History, and reissued
a number of leaflets and booklets.
Another Society publication was the
June 1960 issue of Antiques Journal, which
was devoted to the Society's
collections, with special emphasis on
the historical collections. It was
written by a number of members of the
staff, and compiled, edited, and
illustrated by the curator of history
and his assistants. The articles,
covering twenty different collections,
were reprinted as a booklet for
general distribution. Two books were
scheduled for publication early in
1961 under the joint imprint of the
Society and the Ohio State Uni-
versity Press. Members of this
department worked with the Ohio Civil
War Centennial Commission on planning
its publication program, a
considerable portion of which is to
appear under the publishing arrange-
ment of the Society and the university
press.
While there was no startling new work at
the various State Memorials,
significant repairs and improvements
were undertaken by the division of
properties. There were new roofs, for
example, for the Rutherford B.
Hayes Library, John Rankin House, and
the church and school at
Schoenbrunn. Extensive repairs were
necessary on the W. P. Snyder,
Jr., and an anchorage was built there also. A retaining wall
was built
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1960 253
at Campus Martius Museum, and the area
around the new wing was
graded. A new lower floor was built at
the Hayes Library, and new
exhibits were installed on that floor by
the director and his staff. Road
work, some of it extensive, was done at
seven properties. While other
improvements were made, the chief work
was the day-to-day operation
of the properties, which were visited by
2,500,000 persons during 1960.
Among these visitors were 450,000 school
children.
Under general operations and
administration, several projects con-
sumed staff time. High on the list was
the preparation of the budget,
which called for a more extensive cost
analysis of the Society's opera-
tions and activities than had ever been
undertaken before. The burden
of this study, of course, fell chiefly
upon the business office, working
closely with the several divisions. Also
during the year the capital plan
for property development and improvement
was prepared, and a number
of employees were reclassified to new
positions. A report on a future
program for the acquisition and
development of historical and archae-
ological sites and natural history areas
was prepared at the request of the
governor, and a study of the relationship
of the Society to Ohio State
University was written. Finally, in
response to legislative action, an
extensive report and program for the
development of the Piqua Histori-
cal Area was compiled and submitted to
state authorities.
In addition to these activities, the
Society's staff served on and for
the Ohio Historical Markers Committee,
the Ohio Civil War Centennial
Commission, the Governor's Committee for
Commemorating the Sesqui-
centennial of the War of 1812, the newly
formed Association of Histori-
cal Societies of Ohio, and the Anthony
Wayne Parkway Board. Ex-
ternally, also, but as a part of their
Society obligations and to the
honor of the Society, members of the
staff served, and won recognition
in, their several professions. They
taught classes at Ohio State Uni-
versity and at Radcliffe College,
participated in examinations of candi-
dates for the doctor's and master's
degrees, published articles and reviews
in national and even international
publications, and held high positions
in state and national professional
organizations.
The members of the staff will realize
how incomplete this report is.
It does not speak of the mass of routine
tasks to which much of their
time must be given, nor does it tell of
the problems and frustrations
which are faced from day to day. It
highlights some of their work and
contributions, however, and pays tribute
where tribute is due.