206 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
it is a job well done. It is really only
in its beginning. The op-
portunity for service to the State of
Ohio has been multiplied
many times beyond that we ever hoped for
in years gone by.
As I remarked at the opening of the
meeting this is a sort of
birthday for the director. He is today
joining the quarter cen-
tury group in service. In lieu of the
report of the director I am
going to ask him to say something about
the Society and the staff,
feelings he may have about his hopes for
the future. Imme-
diately following Dr. Shetrone's address
I will ask a committee
to retire for a moment to make
nominations for three members of
the Board of Trustees to succeed Dr.
Rightmire, Mr. Clark of
Cleveland, and Commander Hayes, whose
terms expire this year.
I will appoint Mr. Carlisle, Mrs. Dryer
and Curator Thomas.
The director needs no introduction, and
for this tough citizen who
grows better with age, we wish another
twenty-five years of very
active service in behalf of the Society.
If the Nominating Com-
mittee will now slip out, we will ask
the director for his report.
THE SOCIETY--A QUARTER CENTURY OF
PROGRESS
By H. C. SHETRONE
After the disastrous flood of 1913 had
subsided and the debris was
partly cleared away, this speaker found
himself lodged on the threshold
of the Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Museum, as assistant to
the then curator. Which is but a
round-about way of saying that just
now he is observing the twenty-fifth anniversary
of his connection with
this organization.
Presumably a quarter-century of service
entitles the servitor to lay
aside inhibitions and modesty and to
make free use of the personal pro-
noun "I". With your
permission, then, I shall attempt a brief evaluation
of the twenty-five-year period
corresponding to my incumbency, with per-
haps a word of comment as to the future
of the Society.
Without doubt, time is an important
factor in human activities, since
conditions obtaining in any given
time-period definitely influence the careers
both of individuals and organizations.
The period under consideration--1913
to 1938--in many respects has been the
most remarkable quarter-century
on record. It has witnessed the greatest
era of peace and prosperity that
humans have known; the most widespread
and destructive war in history;
the most poignant period of depression
that society has had to endure; and,
finally a social revolution which finds
us now living in a new social, in-
dustrial and economic world. Had conditions remained favorable the
Society by now might be well on the way
toward realizing its ideals. Since
they have not so remained, we may
inquire as to just how the changes have
been met.
This twenty-five-year period, in so far
as the present discussion is
concerned, separates into two distinct
sub-periods; the first fifteen years
were a time of prosperity and the last
ten years a time of depression.
PROCEEDINGS 207
Coincidentally, these correspond
precisely to the administrations of Director
Mills and your speaker, respectively.
By way of reminiscence and as a standard
for comparison, the status
of the Society in 1913 was somewhat as
follows: Dr. George Frederick
Wright, president; Emilius O. Randall,
secretary; Edwin F. Wood, treasurer,
and Dr. William C. Mills, curator. Among
the trustees were such illustrious
personages as Dr. W. O. Thompson, Gov.
James E. Campbell, Hon. Myron
T. Herrick, Col. Webb C. Hayes, Mr.
George F. Bareis, and Hon. Daniel
J. Ryan. Incidentally, none of the then
seventeen trustees, and only two
of the members present at the 1913
Annual Meeting (Mrs. Howard Jones
and Mr. J. S. Roof) survive today. The
Society occupied modest quarters
in Page Hall. Curator Mills, assisted by
Starling L. Eaton, our present
efficient superintendent of maintenance,
and a part-time stenographer, com-
prised the staff. Twenty-one volumes of
the Publications had made their
appearance. Several seasons of archaeological explorations had yielded
gratifying results. A number of private
archaeological collections and a
corresponding amount of historical
material had been secured. The begin-
nings of our present great Library were
accommodated on shelves at the
rear of the office room. The Society
held title to Serpent Mound, Fort
Ancient, and two or three lesser
properties.
But these modest possessions and
accomplishments were by no means
a true index to the status of the
organization. Officers, trustees and mem-
bers, taking advantage of the nascent
era of prosperity, were alert and
active.
A period of expansion was at
hand. Public approval of the
Society's activities was finding
expression in State recognition and increased
appropriations. The Museum and Library
building even then was in process
of erection, and all concerned looked to
the time when the Society would
occupy a home of its own and assume
place as the official repository for
Ohio's historical and archaeological
treasures. The pioneering had been
done.
It was at this time and as a part of
this broader program that your
speaker came into the picture. These
first ten years or more were years
of action, without watching the clock,
and oftener than not without vaca-
ions; years of intensive training in
archaeological and museum methods,
under an exacting but just
disciplinarian, for which I always have felt
grateful and appreciative.
The succeeding fifteen years under the
energetic administration of
Dr. Mills were years of progress,
placing the institution at their close
in pretty much its present form. There
were accomplished the addition of
the North Wing; construction of the
South Wing, which Dr. Mills was
not to see completed; acquisition of
Campus Martius, Hayes Memorial,
Mound City and Ft. Laurens; exploration
of the Tremper Mound, the
Feurt site, the Hopewell Group and the
Seip Mound, with publication of
results; accumulation of historical
materials; growth of the Library under
Secretary Galbreath; and establishment
of a Department of Natural History,
Prof. James S. Hine, curator.
The decade and a half witnessed the
passing of a number of the men
who had made this growth possible. Dr. Wright passed to
his reward in
1919 and was succeeded as president by
Gov. James E. Campbell: in the
following year the secretaryship, left
vacant by the death of Mr. Randall,
was assumed by Charles B. Galbreath. Governor Campbell
was called to
his fathers in 1925, and was succeeded by Mr. Arthur C.
Johnson. Finally,
to close this remarkable era, Director Mills was called
to a higher estate
on January 17, 1928, leaving for his
successor a standard of conduct and
achievement difficult to attain.
208 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Without further detail, we turn to the
recent decade--1928-1938, and
to the incumbency of the present
director. Never had any individual
entered a new field of work under more
auspicious circumstances. The
South Wing was nearing completion.
Appropriations for the biennium
were adequate, with no inkling that they
might not so continue.
As successor to Director Mills, I had no
revolutionary program in
mind; rather, a continuation of the
program which he had devised, with
such modifications as developments might
indicate. Among the more im-
portant items which I had set for
myself, were these: A program for
membership, bequests and endowments; a
broader service to the remoter
districts of the State; a means for
supplying growing demands on the part
of the Columbus Public Schools; closer
cooperation with Ohio State Uni-
versity; more effective use and
interpretation of archaeological and his-
torical materials within the Museum, and
a wider recognition of the Society
and its Museum.
Partly owing to a set of unfortunate
circumstances but mainly be-
cause of the depression, which came as a
bolt from the blue, efforts in
the interest of membership, grants,
bequests and endowments were nothing
short of a failure. I had been conscious
for some years of the generosity
of citizens of wealth in aiding
educational institutions, and believed it to
be logical and possible for our
institution to share in this. But we had
begun too late; that source of financial
support disappeared from sight,
temporarily only, let us hope.
Greater success attended our efforts to
serve outlying districts of
the State. Despite curtailed
appropriations subsequent to 1928, we have
been able to prepare and furnish free of
cost to the outlying schools portable
loan collections in archaeology, history
and natural history. This modest
service has done much to take the museum
to the people, and the demand
for the collections is limited only by
our inability to finance additional
sets. This initial effort to serve
equally the citizens of the state should
lead eventually to realization of our
ultimate aim--branch museums in the
several counties to act as
clearing-houses for the parent institution.
For some years past the Columbus Public
Schools, because of their
proximity to the Museum and Library, have evinced a
desire to make
specific use of the collections and
facilities. The temptation to discriminate
in their favor was averted by inviting
them to place trained teachers in the
Museum, in order that they might help
themselves. This suggestion was
accepted and has been effective for
several years, thus affording the local
schools the equivalent of municipal
museum service without unduly taxing
our personnel and funds. The suggestion
is offered that the Columbus
Public Schools might make even greater
use of the Museum and Library
facilities, and that they might
conceivably contribute financially to the
supplying of a more detailed service.
A most satisfactory and mutually
advantageous working relationship
with Ohio State University has been
effected, as evidenced by the fact
that the president of the university is
one of our most interested and
active trustees. The addition to the
university faculty recently of a highly
competent anthropologist, who regards
the Museum's archaeological col-
lections as an invaluable source of study
and instructional material, assures
an even greater degree of cooperation,
and justifies the prediction that
in the not distant future the two
institutions will be recognized as outstand-
ing in the field of anthropology and
archaeology.
While the result of years of exploration
had disclosed the material
culture of the Ohio aborigines, at least
from the technical point of view,
PROCEEDINGS 209
there remained the need of clarifying
these concepts for the average lay
individual. Relics alone, displayed in
cases, were not enough. As a be-
ginning, we devised two displays--the
"Story of Stone" and the "Story
of Flint," illustrating the
sequential use of these basic materials. While
the scientist readily pictured the
physical aborigine from his skeletal
remains, the general public continued to
wonder as to what manner of
man he may have been. To gratify this
interest, and with funds furnished
by our late lamented trustee, Gen.
Edward Orton, the figure of a male
Moundbuilder, accurately reproduced
through scientific methods and with
an actual mound skeleton as its base,
now graces the Museum's Hall of
Ohio Prehistory. A little later, on the
assumption that "it is not good
for man to live alone," our
ever-generous President Johnson financed
"The Basket Maker," as a mate
to the "Prehistoric Sculptor." Historical
material is being treated in a similar
manner. Through the able efforts of
Dr. Harlow Lindley, the then curator of
history, a Hall of Ohio History
was installed. To illustrate adequately
the use of relics of pioneer days,
an actual log cabin was brought into the
Museum and completely equipped
with actual furnishings of the period of
1850. This is supplemented by
period rooms from early Ohio homes.
At this point I desire to comment on a
phase of the Society's activities
which in later years has assumed
undreamed-of proportions. From the
first the preservation of outstanding
archaeological and historic sites has
been recognized as a proper function of
the Society. Prior to 1932 the
Society assumed sponsorship of such
areas as the need for so doing arose,
and in an orderly manner. Since then,
however, a combination of circum-
stances has resulted in inordinate
growth of the park movement, as a
result of which the Society now holds a
total of forty State Parks or,
more properly, State Memorials. Since
park procedure is something of
an innovation without adequate precedent
for its control, those concerned
therewith virtually have had to proceed
along the lines of trial and error.
With the coming of federal relief
activities, to which park development
is particularly suited, demand on the
part of communities adjacent to exist-
ing parks for relief projects has been
frequent and persistent. Further,
the general public has become definitely
park-minded, one might say
competitively so--to the point where
legislators, yielding to pressure from
their constituencies, have secured
appropriations for purchase of areas ill-
suited for park purposes. On the whole,
a situation was precipitated wherein
the Society could not exercise full control,
and it is doubtful if any or-
ganization could have dealt with the
complex without some attendant com-
plications. The situation as regards
State Memorials is now fully under
control, and will so remain. There can
be no question that the future will
justify the Society's sponsorship of
archaeological and historical areas, in
which it is the pioneer in the State,
and that the recent untoward features
will be looked upon as inevitable
details, insignificant in comparison with
the importance of the development
itself.
As to wider recognition of the Society:
Through the years of its
existence the organization rightly has
concentrated on the state of Ohio;
in other words, we have been
intentionally provincial. This attitude, or
policy, latterly has given an impression
of aloofness and self-sufficiency in
outside quarters. Feeling that the time
had come when the Society might
take its place in the broader museum
picture, the director sought ways and
means of effecting this. Publication of The
Mound Builders helped; affiil-
iation with the various scientific
organizations and associations, in most
of which we have held office, were
further aids. Bringing of the American
210 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Anthropological Association to Columbus
convinced its members that
Ohio has something worth considering.
The finishing touch, however, came
with the establishment, through funds
provided by Trustee H. Preston
Wolfe and President Johnson, of the
Lithic Laboratory for the Eastern
United States. This innovation, while
primarily serving our own institu-
tion, accords a service to other museums in the area.
It has been widely
publicized and has met with a
surprisingly enthusiastic reception. Highest
recognition of the Museum as a whole
came just recently, with the naming
of the director to the Council of the
American Association of Museums,
an honor which, of course, is shared by those functions
of the institution
directly in charge of Dr. Lindley.
This brief review does not admit of
details. There are countless
things which we should like to say, but
which we must leave unsaid. We
shall, however, make mention of some of
those who have contributed so
largely to the success of the
organization. Among the individuals and
organizations which have supplied funds
may be mentioned the Columbus
Dispatch, which came to our rescue substantially when important
explora-
tion work otherwise would have had to
cease; President Johnson and
Trustee Wolfe, Mr. Frank C. Long, Mr.
Charles F. Kettering, Dr. W. K.
Moorehead, and others. Numerous members
and friends have presented
specimens and collections, without which
the Society would be far less
developed than at present.
Loss by death during this ten-year
period, while not great in numbers,
includes several of the Society's most
ardent supporters. The list includes
Claude Meeker, Myron T. Herrick, George
F. Bareis, Edward Orton,
William
O. Thompson and Webb C. Hayes, trustees; James S. Hine,
curator of natural history; Edwin F.
Wood, treasurer; Charles B. Gal-
breath, secretary. Our only consolation
in their loss is that their successors
in every instance are men best qualified
to continue their work--Edward S.
Thomas, for Prof. Hine; Oscar F. Miller,
for Treasurer Wood; and Dr.
Harlow Lindley for Mr. Galbreath.
With the appointment of the present
director, Dr. E. F. Greenman was
elected to succeed him as archaeologist;
Dr. Greenman resigned in 1936, and
his place was filled by our present
curator of archaeology, Dr. Richard G.
Morgan.
The much-needed and long-delayed
Department of History was
established in 1929, with Dr. Harlow
Lindley as curator: when Dr. Lind-
ley succeeded to the secretaryship, Dr.
William D. Overman became
head of the Department of History; Dr.
Overman, now on leave of
absence, is being ably represented by
Dr. John O. Marsh.
On March 1 of this year, Mr. H. R.
McPherson resigned as curator
of State Memorials, and was succeeded by
Mr. Erwin C. Zepp, erstwhile
assistant curator in the division.
What of the future? Frankly, in this
time of unsettlement and un-
certainty, museumists are somewhat at a
loss as to just how museums should
Steer their courses. They are marking
time. At the convention of the
American Association of Museums, to be
held in Philadelphia in mid-May,
the matter will be discussed. As chairman
of the History Section, I have
scheduled a symposium on the subject:
"History Museums; Present and
Prospective Programs."
The program of our own institution is
based on recognized good
museum practice and is modeled to fit
our particular situation. Under it,
we have traveled a goodly distance. I
have no doubt that continuance along
the same lines, with such modifications
as conditions may require, will
PROCEEDINGS 211
carry us still further and assure us
comparable achievement. We shall
continue, I believe, to avoid
overstepping the limitations within which we
are authorized and equipped to act; we
shall make no attempt to be all
things to all men. The task which you
have set the members of your
Museum and Library staff is, as I
interpret it, just this: to discover, secure,
preserve, interpret, publish and make available
for study purposes mate-
rials relating to Ohio history and
prehistory. In this direction lies success;
to yield to suggestions not infrequently made by some
of our well-meaning
friends and attempt more would be to
duplicate what already is being done
elsewhere, and to weaken our cause
correspondingly.
May I offer this brief paper as an
accounting of my twenty-five years'
stewardship? For my failures, I accept
the responsibility; for the success
that I have enjoyed, I have to thank the
officers and trustees of this
Society for the confidence and support
accorded me, and the members of
my staff, who have borne the burden of
the battle.
Although not given at the meeting the
Directors' Annual Re-
port with a List of Accessions appended
is inserted here as a
matter of record.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR FOR THE YEAR
ENDING
MARCH 31, 1938
The past year has been a notable one for
the director. A trip to
Europe, during June and July of 1938
afforded an opportunity to study
methods of the so-called flint knappers at Brandon,
England, and experi-
ments in flint-chipping techniques by several
individuals in Paris. The
trip was made preparatory to
establishing the Lithic Laboratory for the
Eastern United States, within the Ohio
State Museum, which was effected
on January 1, 1938. The Laboratory, with
Mr. H. H. Ellis as Technical
Associate, has made excellent progress
in assembling a bibliography on
flint-working methods and in carrying
out initial experiments looking to
a solution of the aboriginal flint
chipping arts.
The director, with the curators of the
several departments, attended
the Convention of the American
Association of Museums at New Orleans
in May, 1938, and read a paper on
"State Museums." He was elected
chairman of the History Section of the
American Association of Museums
and, later, a member of the
Association's Council.
The several departments of the Museum
cooperated in devising and
installing the display in the Ohio
Building during the second year of the
Great Lakes Exposition. This display was
one of the more outstanding
at the exposition and attracted a great
deal of favorable comment. In
recognition of the service, the display
cases, furniture and furnishings of
the Ohio Building were turned over to
the Museum at the close of the
exposition.
The director and several members of the
staff attended the Michigan-
Indiana-Ohio Museums Conference at
Cleveland in November, and as presi-
dent of the organization, the director
took an active part in the program.
The Department of Archaeology, Richard
G. Morgan, curator, con-
ducted explorations at Fairport Harbor,
near Painesville, and secured nu-
merous valuable specimens illustrative
of the material culture of the oc-
cupants of the site, which proved to be
of Erie origin. The curator of
the Department gave freely of his time
in connection with the newly in-