Echoes Magazine, May/June 2018

MAGAZINE

““

MAY & JUNE 2018 DARYL BALDWIN

APRIL 5, 1968

OHIO’S STORIES

Waking a Sleeping Language

A Nation Mourns MLK in Cleveland

Collecting Then and Now

Page 44

Page 40

Page 34

CINCINNATI MUSIC HALL

“ A gift to the next generation.”

Page 24 OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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MAGA ZINE

Cover: Cincinnati Music Hall on opening night.

See page 24. Photo by Matthew Zory.

Vol. 57, No. 3 EDITORS

Bill Eichenberger Shannon Thomas Tom Wolf CONTRIBUTORS

Emmy Beach David A . Simmons ADVISORY BOARD

Susannah Cleveland B owlin g G re e n St ate Unive r sit y

Donna DeBlasio Youn gstown St ate Unive r sit y

Nishani Frazier Miami Unive r sit y

Rober t G enheimer

M AY & J U N E 2 0 1 8

Contents 6 6 8

Letter From CEO Burt Logan Meet Our Advisory Board In the News

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Ohio History Connection Historic Sites & Museums

24 34 40 44

Nothing Like It in the World Collecting Ohio’s Stories Brothers & Countrymen Waking a Sleeping Language

Cin cinn ati Muse um Ce nte r

Stephen G eorge O hio Histor y Conne c tion

I N E AC H I S S U E

Alex Hastie O hio v. the World

G eorge Ironstrack Miami Unive r sit y

Chester Pach O hio Unive r sit y

Roger Pickenpaugh Historian an d Auth or

Daniel Rivers T he O hio St ate Unive r sit y

Erin Wingfield O hio Histor y Conne c tion

Echoes Magazine (ISSN 0012-933X) (Vol. 57, No. 3) is published bimonthly and distributed by the Ohio History Connection as a benefit of Ohio History Connection membership.

2 4 4 12 17 32 48 50

Contents Letter From Our Editors What’s Your Story?

At the Ohio History Center & Ohio Village Featured Events & Exhibits I Wish I’d Been There Young Eyes on the Past Reviews

Editorial Offices: Ohio History Connection, Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43211-2474 Phone 614.297.2318 • Email echoes@ohiohistory.org Periodicals postage paid at Columbus, Ohio, and additional entry offices; USPS Number 737-830 Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Echoes Magazine, Ohio History Connection, Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43211-2474 Entire contents © 2018 by the Ohio History Connection. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reprinted or electronically reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher.

The Ohio History Connection accepts no responsibility for facts and opinions expressed by the authors.

The Ohio History Connection is a

2 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

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Nothing Like It in the World CINCINNATI MUSIC HALL RETURNS FOR AN ENCORE Cincinnati Music Hall was built for the Queen City’s annual May Festival in 1878. A recent, $143 million renovation has brought the building into the 21st century while preserving and restoring what Cincinnatians cherish most about this beloved landmark.

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Collecting Ohio’s Stories OUR CHANGING HISTORY COLLECTIONS Collecting for history museums has changed dramatically over the past 100 years. Our curators explain the changes and discuss collecting history.

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Brothers & Countrymen ROBERT KENNEDY ON THE MINDLESS MENACE OF VIOLENCE The City Club of Cleveland was expecting a routine political speech when presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was booked to appear in early April 1968. Instead, on the heels of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Kennedy gave one of his greatest speeches, On the Mindless Menace of Violence.

Waking a Sleeping Language

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Q&A WITH LINGUIST DARYL BALDWIN Linguist and cultural preservationist Daryl Baldwin, winner of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2016, has dedicated his career to awakening the language and celebrating the culture of his Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

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LET TER FROM OUR EDITORS First and foremost, thank you.

Your Ohio History Connection membership is an investment in preserving and sharing the stories of our great state. It allows us to fulfill our mission as an organization: to spark discovery of Ohio’s stories, embrace the present, share the past and transform the future.

resonates as much today as it did back then. We’ll look at an aspect of 1968 in every issue of Echoes this year: the Democratic National Convention, Ohio women serving in Vietnam and Ohio entertainers storming show business during a time of cultural upheaval.

Echoes Magazine is one way we’re transforming Ohio history for you and all Ohioans. Thanks to your feedback about what you loved best about both our popular-history magazine, Timeline , and our membership newsletter, Echoes, we’ve created a publication that brings the best of Timeline and the best of Echoes together—fascinating stories about Ohio history, along with information about how you can connect with Ohio history around our state.

In every issue we’ll feature writing and research by our state’s student historians. In our feature I Wish I’ d Been There, we’ll ask historians, scholars and other experts to write about a significant event in Ohio history that they wish they could have attended, and why. We’ll feature capsule reviews of books, DVDs, podcasts and more to guide you on your journey deeper into Ohio history.

We’re also looking forward to hearing from you, our readers, and in every issue we’ll ask What’s Your Story?

Each bimonthly issue of Echoes Magazine will bring you news about Ohio History Connection events, programming and services, along with features culled from Ohio’s rich past.

As always, we aim to cover our entire state, from Ashtabula to Cincinnati, Montpelier to Marietta, Huron to Ironton and everywhere in between.

Whether you like to read from cover to cover or scan the headlines for a story or two of interest to you, we’re dedicated to connecting you with Ohio’s past, illuminating the present and shedding light on our future.

Whatever type of reader you are, we want to be your guide to Ohio history, connecting you to the best sources and ways of learning about our past, one story and one issue at a time.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of 1968, one of the most consequential years of the 20th century. In this issue, we look back at Robert Kennedy’s speech at the City Club of Cleveland on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. His speech, On the Mindless Menace of Violence,

There are a million stories in our state’s past. We can’t wait to share them with you. We hope to see you soon at one of our 50+ museums and attractions or at a member event.

In every issue of Echoes Magazine, we’ll be featuring the stories of Ohio History Connection members and other Ohioans to stoke memories and shed light on our shared past.

For this issue, we asked, “Where’s your favorite place to see live music in Ohio?” Here are some of your responses.

TOLEDO SPORTS ARENA Sure you could see a circus, monster trucks or International Hockey League hockey there, but from a 1956 Elvis show until 2007, the Toledo Sports Arena is where northwest Ohioans went to rock. On the Maumee River near downtown, the 6,500-capacity arena was dark, smoky and loud, loud, loud. In the ’70s and ’80s heyday of arena rock, the bills were heavy on pounding guitars, especially if they came down I-75 from just over the border. The MC-5, the Stooges, Bob Seger and Ted Nugent were all regulars. At a mid-’80s throwdown with George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers, preppy suburban kids mixed with bikers in leather and nobody got hurt. –Doug Caruso

DAY TON MEMORIAL HALL

P.S.

Dayton Memorial Hall. I went there on a fifth-grade school trip, and it was the first live classical music I ever heard. It gave me goosebumps! –Harold Allen

As we embark on this new path,

BEACHLAND BALLROOM

we want to hear from you.

Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom and the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights have great memories for me. Amazing

Please don’t hesitate to call us at 614.297.2318 or email us at echoes@ohiohistory.org with your questions, thoughts and ideas for Echoes Magazine.

club shows and tremendous talent.

–Erik Neforos ROSE MUSIC CENTER I LOVE the Rose Music Center in Huber Heights. The Toledo Zoo Amphitheatre is great, too! –Sherry Leedy Wells

4 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

What’s Your Story?

Greg Sanders

Youngstown’s Cedars Lounge was a mecca for punk, New Wave and art bands in the 1980s and ’90s. Downtown Youngstown was deserted after dark in those days, and Cedars was located right at the center of it, an easy walk from Youngstown State’s campus. Cedars patrons included students, news-media folks (who were based downtown and worked odd hours), bikers, artists,

B-Minors at Cedars Lounge, Youngstown

activists and some incredibly talented musicians from Youngstown State’s Dana School of Music. In social media retrospectives, it’s crystal clear that Cedars changed many lives and influenced many people.

–Greg Sanders, Lead Singer of the Sharkbites GERMAIN AMPHITHEATER Germain Amphitheater, originally Polaris Amphitheater, plopped down in the former cornfields of Delaware County, was central Ohio’s first and— given the dearth of contemporary bands able to draw 20,000 fans these days—perhaps last state-of-the-art, open-air ‘shed.’ Its standard lineups were studded with acts everyone had made up their minds about long ago: Kiss, Neil Young, and the Eagles.

In general, it was not the place you paid to see musical ground broken.

It was the place—from 1994 through 2007—that you saw old familiars bringing the tried-and-true ruckus night after night. Nothing at all wrong with that. Just as there’s something thrilling about packing yourself into a sardine can club with your fellow sweaty in-the-know fire code violators

to witness budding unbranded musical greatness, there always was, and will be, something equally incredible about communing with 20,000 people locked into the electrifying spirit of an anthem we all know by heart. –Aaron Beck,

BLOSSOM MUSIC CENTER

Cleveland Orchestra

CEDARS LOUNGE

Former Pop Music Critic for the Columbus Dispatch STACHE AND LIT TLE BROTHER’S No Other Presents booked punk, folk and jazz for six years during the ’80s.

Taking the torch in 1988, Dan Dougan balanced hot national acts with the best new local talent. By the time the club closed in 1997, it had fostered the careers of Nirvana, the Replacements, Buddy Guy, Soundgarden, Koko Taylor, Richard Thompson, the Violent Femmes, Jaco Pastorius, Nick Cave, Buckwheat Zydeco, Burning Spear and many more. Stache’s made local punters feel like they were at CBGB, the Checkerboard Lounge or the Village Vanguard every night. National and international acts talked about performances in the famed nightspot for years after. Stache’s was like a fireball in Columbus alternative culture, one that burned bright enough for the rest of the country to envy. –Curtis

Schieber, Concert Promoter, Music Critic, WWCD Radio Host SOUTHERN THEATRE Without a doubt, the Southern Theatre in Columbus is my favorite venue, for music and more! It very nearly became an apartment building and garage.

Thankfully, those plans fell through. As it had with the Palace and Ohio theatres, CAPA—the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts—restored the 1896 Southern to glory. Along with the incredible architecture, musicians rave about the acoustics ... not just that they can be heard amazingly well (seats in the second balcony offer some of the best sound), but that they can hear each other, which makes for an incredible experience for both audience and performer! –Boyce Lancaster,

Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Center, Cuyahoga Falls

Blossom Music Center is a great place to see a summer show with the kids. When I was a kid, we would see the Cleveland Orchestra every Fourth of July. Wonderful memories.

–Amy Neforos

WHAT’S YOUR STORY? We want to know your stories, so in every issue of Echoes Magazine we’re going to ask you a question. We’ll run your answers in the following issue.

Here’s the question for July & August: Where was your favorite summer/vacation hangout spot in Ohio when you were a kid?

And why did you enjoy going there so much? Mill Creek Park?

Old Man’s Cave? Geauga Lake Amusement Park? Kitty Todd Nature Preserve?

Email your responses (100 to 250 words) by May 11 to echoes@ohiohistory.org or, if you follow us on Facebook, send us a Facebook message.

Classical 101 Host, WOSU Radio OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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A MESSAGE FROM BURT LOGAN CEO & EXECUTIVE DIREC TOR , OHIO HISTORY CONNEC TION

MEET OUR ADVISORY BOARD

Our mission is to spark discovery of Ohio’s stories. Embrace the present, share the past and transform the future.

Meet the members of our Echoes Magazine advisory board:

When we changed

the lens of today with an eye on

our name from Ohio

how to make a better future.

Historical Society to Ohio History Connection in 2014, we committed to being a more inclusive and relevant history organization. We understand the value of making history approachable to all of our audiences and continuing to maintain the quality content you’ve come to expect from us. Through everything we do, from programming and events to our publications, we want to demonstrate the importance of history in an engaging and welcoming way, with a goal of sparking meaningful dialogues and the discovery of new perspectives.

We create experiences and tell stories that personify that favorite teacher you remember from school—the knowledgeable, fun and engaging teacher who brought history to life through vibrant storytelling and conversation. We strive to be subject experts without talking over your head, sharing a relevant viewpoint on Ohio history that appeals not just to history buffs, but to students, families and casual readers. When we share compelling stories about Ohio’s past—like Jesse Owens’s historic victories at the 1936 Olympic games in Germany, Victoria Woodhull’s

As the public history organization for

jaw-dropping run for president in

the state of Ohio, we’re increasingly

1872 and John Glenn’s pioneering

aware that our greatest impact on

spaceflight around the globe—

Ohio’s future begins with Ohio’s

we can appreciate our place in

youngest citizens. When I volunteer

this narrative and see ourselves

at Ohio History Day each year, I

reflected in these stories of

see the positive impact that history

freedom, equality and the triumph

has on every student, and I witness

of the human spirit.

students using skills that we hope all

Echoes Magazine explores stories

our children have when they graduate from high school: critical thinking, advanced literacy, public speaking and confidence. It’s moments like these at Ohio History Day that reinforce our role in education.

like this and shares even more of Ohio’s fascinating history.

It’s through these authentic and engaging stories that we better understand what came before, and gain valuable insight into

As we look to how we can help build

what’s next.

a better future in Ohio we are, first

I’m looking forward to what’s next.

and foremost, committed to bringing history to life for Ohio’s students, which is why you’ll find student voices in every issue of Echoes Magazine.

Ohio’s students are doing important work to understand the past through

6 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

Susannah Cleveland BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSIT Y Susannah Cleveland is head librarian of the Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives and chair of special collections at Bowling Green State University. She teaches music research and has published and presented on music librarianship, popular music and issues of diversity and inclusion in libraries. She’s also an avid music fan who’s been lucky enough to find one of the few jobs that combines her love of preserving special collections with a passion for providing access to popular and vernacular music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Donna DeBlasio YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSIT Y Donna DeBlasio, a Youngstown State University history professor, teaches applied history and late 19th- and early-20th-century U.S. history. She also directs Youngstown State’s Center for Applied History and its oral history program, and is editor of Kent State University Press’s Ohio History journal.

Before becoming a professor, she was senior historian at the Cincinnati Museum Center and a site manager for the Ohio History Connection.

Nishani Frazier MIAMI UNIVERSIT Y Nishani Frazier, an associate professor of history at Miami University, specializes in U.S. history, African American history, the 1960s and 1970s, public history, black internationalism, women’s and feminist history and culinary history. She is the author of Harambee City: The Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland and the Rise of Black Power Populism (University of Arkansas Press) and an editor of Freedom on My Mind: The Columbia Documentary History of the African American Experience.

George Ironstrack

Daniel Rivers

CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER

MIAMI UNIVERSIT Y

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSIT Y

Robert Genheimer is the George Rieveschl Curator of Archaeology at the Cincinnati Museum Center. His career with the center began in 1990 when he started as a collections manager in the anthropology department. Through the years, he has worked on numerous field, laboratory and exhibit projects and has spent more than two decades supervising volunteers and interns in all aspects of museum work. Genheimer describes his work as “getting to the truth by getting dirty.”

George Ironstrack of Miami University has participated in Myaamia (Miami Indian) languagerenewal projects as a student and teacher since the mid-1990s. A citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, he’s assisted in organizing and administering the tribe’s Eewansaapita Summer Educational Experience since its inception in 2005, and continues to research and write about Myaamia history. Examples of his work can be found on the Myaamia Community History and Ecology Blog, Aacimotaatiiyankwi. As a tribal educator and former public school teacher, he’s also interested in the study of indigenous instructional practices and specifically Myaamia Neepwaantiinki (Miami Education).

Daniel Rivers is an associate professor in The Ohio State University Department of History.

He specializes in the history of LGBTQ communities in the 20th century; Native American history; the family and sexuality; and U.S. social protest movements. He received his Ph.D. in history from Stanford University, and his book, Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States Since WWII, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2013. His publications also include articles on the history of gay and lesbian custody cases and the practice of queer oral history. He has been the recipient of a number of fellowships, including a Social Science Research Council fellowship, a Mellon Fellowship at Smith College, a visiting fellowship with the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference and a fellowship from the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University.

Robert Genheimer

Stephen George OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION Stephen George is senior advisor to the Ohio History Connection CEO. A native of Mount Vernon, where he was a youthful president of the Knox County Historical Society, he served as executive director of the Ohio Bicentennial Commission. His service to the State of Ohio and to Ohio history has allowed him to have considerable professional interaction with four Ohio governors and their staffs as well as legislative and judicial leaders. He has a keen interest in the history and architecture of America’s early republic and its antebellum period.

Alex Hastie OHIO V. THE WORLD PODCAST Alex Hastie is an attorney whose passion for Ohio history led him to create Ohio v. the World: An Ohio History Podcast. Hastie told Columbus Alive magazine that “I think my goal is to bring history to a younger generation of people, and bring it to them in a format that’s a little more fun.” Guests on Hastie’s podcast have included historians, professors, journalists and experts from the Ohio History Connection.

Embrace the present, share the past and transform the future.

Chester Pach OHIO UNIVERSIT Y Chester Pach is an associate professor in the Ohio University Department of History. He specializes in U.S. foreign relations and recent U.S. history. His research has focused on U.S. involvement in the Cold War and the Vietnam War as well as the Eisenhower, Johnson and Reagan presidencies. He has a particular interest in television coverage of international issues and intersections between politics, popular culture and international history. He is author or editor of four books, including, most recently, A Companion to Dwight D. Eisenhower (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017).

Roger Pickenpaugh HISTORIAN/AUTHOR

Erin Wingfield OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION Erin Wingfield is the membership director at the Ohio History Connection.

She previously served as a director of development for the college of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State and as director of the Ohio 4-H Foundation.

Roger Pickenpaugh is a historian and author who has written 10 works of history, including McKinley, Murder and the Pan-American Exposition: A History of the Presidential Assassination, September 6, 1901; Captives in Blue: The Civil War Prisons of the Confederacy; and Johnson’s Island: A Prison for Confederate Officers.

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In the News Board Election & Annual Meeting, History Now Ohio History Connection members help determine our future by electing members of the board of trustees each year. Member participation is critical to our success, which is why we’re working to make it easier to cast your ballot.

In mid-May, members who currently receive our Ohio History Connection enewsletter will receive an email with a link to vote online. If you’re unsure whether we have your email address on file or would like to opt in to our email communication, please send an email to membership@ohiohistory.org with your request to be added to our enews distribution list.

We’ll send paper ballots to Ohio History Connection members who haven’t shared an email address or who’ve opted not to receive email communication from us. Members are also welcome to request a paper ballot by calling 800.686.2474.

We’ll announce the newly elected members of our board at the 2018 Annual Meeting & Celebration History Now, on Thurs., June 21.

All members are invited to attend this special event at the Ohio History Center in Columbus from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Please RSVP by June 8.

Visit ohiohistory.org/historynow to purchase your tickets.

History Fund Grants Awarded Ohio History Connection

Active-Duty Military?

History Fund

Enjoy free admission to the Ohio History Center and many other Ohio History Connection museums and attractions that are participating in the Blue Star Museums program this summer.

Nine Projects Benefit From Grants Totaling $76,000

Blue Star Museums is a collaboration of the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and more than 2,000 museums across America offering free admission to active-duty military personnel, including National Guard and Reserve and their families, from Memorial Day, May 28, through Labor Day, Sept. 3, 2018.

More than 2,000 museums are participating, including children’s museums, art museums, history and science museums and nature centers.

Get details and find a list of participating museums in Ohio and nationwide at arts.gov/national/blue-star-museums.

Seventh Annual Member Celebration SAT., MAY 26 • 10 A .M.–5 P.M.

Ohio History Center & Ohio Village, Columbus 4 Join us in opening Ohio Village for the summer! Bring the entire family and experience an 1890s-style carnival and enjoy a few extra perks just for you as we celebrate our members!

Pack a picnic or pre-purchase a tasty box lunch to pick up when you arrive.

Watch your mail or visit ohiohistory. org/member-celebration for details.

RSVP by May 17—800.686.1545 or ohiohistory.org/member-celebration.

8 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

Nine history and heritage organizations in seven communities across Ohio are benefiting from History Fund grants totaling $76,000, awarded during the annual Statehood Day luncheon in Columbus. Now in its sixth year, the History Fund is a competitive matching grants program funded largely through voluntary contributions Ohioans make through the Ohio History Connection “check-off” on Ohio personal income tax forms.

Recipients of the 2018 Ohio History Fund grants are: ALLIANCE HISTORICAL SOCIET Y, ALLIANCE $13,240 to replace the

asphalt shingle roof of the society’s museum, the 1867 Mabel Hartzell Historical Home, with a historically accurate standing-seam metal roof.

Once the new roof has been installed, the society will proceed with other repairs to the house and artifacts damaged when the old roof leaked.

CENTER FOR ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS, BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSIT Y, BOWLING GREEN $6,700 for Experiencing War,

a project that will preserve, digitize and share the center’s collection of about 100 oral histories of Ohioans’ experiences of World War II. CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, CLEVELAND $10,000

for archaeologists from Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Kent State University to conduct preliminary excavations of the Jackson Farm Clovis site in Columbiana County.

Surface collections there produced

13,000-year-old artifacts including a fluted projectile point 765 yards from where the remains of a mastodon were discovered. The project is expected to reveal whether the two discoveries are connected.

HISTORICAL SOCIET Y OF MOUNT PLEASANT, MOUNT PLEASANT

$6,000 to install heating, ventilating and air conditioning and restore windows in Mount Pleasant’s Historical Center, part of a National Historic Landmark District recognizing the community’s role as a center of the 19th-century antislavery movement. The project will let the society consolidate its collections into one climatecontrolled space and make them available to researchers and visitors.

MUSEUM OF CERAMICS FOUNDATION, EAST LIVERPOOL

$14,950 to microfilm about 65 volumes of local newspapers, rescuing information in them from destruction due to inevitable deterioration of the newsprint and preserving stories about East Liverpool’s 19th- and 20th-century heyday as a pottery-making center.

ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME, CLEVELAND $9,100 for a project that

will preserve local rock and roll history by digitizing one-of-a-kind amateur film and video recordings and making them available at the Rock Hall’s library and online. The Rock Hall will host a Film Preservation Day to collect donations from northeast Ohioans, then digitize and archive analog recordings and create a compilation video to show at a Home Movie Day.

TRUMBULL COUNT Y HISTORICAL SOCIET Y, WARREN $5,000 to

inventory and rehouse more than 580 articles of 19th- and 20th-century men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and an 1863 Civil War flag in the society’s textiles collection. With the grant, the society will hire a parttime project manager to execute the project, act on a textile consultant’s recommendations for care of the collection and buy collections-storage materials.

WOOD COUNT Y HISTORICAL SOCIET Y, BOWLING GREEN

$4,010 for the first phase of a collections-storage initiative that will prepare 9,000 objects for eventual placement in preservation-quality collections-storage cabinets. The project will enable the society to better care for its collections and will serve as a model for other organizations.

When you make a voluntary gift to the Ohio History Fund through the “check-off” on your Ohio personal income tax form, you help make grants like these for history- and preservation-related projects across Ohio possible.

The Ohio History Fund is also aided by sales of Ohio History “mastodon” license plates and contributions to the Ohio History Connection for the Ohio History Fund.

To learn more about the grants program, visit ohiohistory.org/ historyfund or call 800.686.6124 or 614.297.2341

Know of a worthy history- or

ABOUT THE HISTORY FUND:

preservation-related project that

Since 2013, the Ohio History Fund has made 63 grants in 36 counties totaling $598,000. “Proving there is a strong need for the grant program, it has received 295 grant proposals totaling $3.6 million in requests,” says the Ohio History Connection’s Andy Verhoff, who coordinates the

could benefit from a History Fund

History Fund grants program.

or call 800.686.6124 or 614.297.2341.

grant? Applications for 2019 History Fund grants are due Sept. 1, 2018.

Find application forms and more information about applying for History Fund grants at ohiohistory. org/historyfund starting in mid-June,

SAVE THE DATE!

SOUTHEAST OHIO HISTORY CENTER, ATHENS $7,000 to digitize

about 8,000 35mm negatives taken by photographer John M. Webb (1850– 1942) in southeast Ohio at the start of his career and rehouse the entire John Webb Collection of more than 40,000 negatives in archival storage sleeves and boxes. After the negatives have been digitized, the center will make about 2,000 of them available on Ohio Memory (ohiomemory.org), an online scrapbook of Ohio history.

THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2018 From startups to large scale manufacturing, explore the stories behind some of Ohio’s groundbreaking innovators, creators and go-getters.

Presented by

OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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Judy and Tom Loeb at Glacial Grooves on Kelleys Island

The Loebs’s travel-planning map

Photos: Judy and Tom Loeb

Passport Pair A fateful rest stop on their way back from Chicago to their home in North Canton changed the course of Judy and Tom Loeb’s leisure life for the next six years.

“We’d stopped at a rest area in Ohio and I saw the Ohio History Connection’s Passport to Your Ohio History in one of the racks,” Judy recalls. “I told Tom, ‘This looks cool. We have to do this.’”

Between 2012 and 2017, the Loebs took 27 trips, during which they visited all of the Ohio History Connection’s 50+ museums and attractions, logging more than 6,000 miles on their car and spending more than $3,000 on food and lodging.

“I guess you could say we helped a few local economies,” Tom says with a laugh.

LE T US G U ID E YO U Passport was designed to help guide you on journeys to encounters with history across Ohio, from prehistoric earthworks and natural wonders to presidential sites and stops along the Underground Railroad. Along the way, you’ll learn stories about settlement, migration and transportation, life in a 19th-century separatist village, hard work forging steel in the 20th century and John Glenn’s trip into outer space.

Glacial Grooves Geological Preserve. I told the girl there ‘This is our last site, so please tell me you can give me a stamp for visiting.’ She said she could.”

B E N E FI T S O F M EM B E RS H IP The Loebs—who’ve been Ohio History Connection members since 2014—began their journey into Ohio’s past with a color-coded map of the state, with circles drawn around clusters of sites, lines pointing out the most direct routes or those most likely to be scenic or a road previously untraveled.

They say it was helpful, and much less expensive, visiting all the sites as Ohio History Connection members.

Before the Loebs discovered Passport, Judy was unlikely to take a ferry to Kelleys Island or a walk deep into Fort Hill Earthworks & Nature Preserve or the Leo Petroglyphs & Nature Preserve.

“I don’t mind the occasional spider,” Judy says, “but I can’t abide snakes. It was always, ‘OK, just a little bit further and no more.’ But I made it through all of the sites, indoors and out.”

Tom says when the couple was walking out of Cedar Bog Nature Preserve and back into cell phone range, he called their children.

“I asked them, ‘Would you believe your mother is not in the mall but out in the woods?’”

Passport users can pick up stamps at most of the Ohio History Connection sites.

“Those stamps became an obsession for me,” Judy says. “The last site we went to was in Lake Erie, the

10 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

Ohio History Connection members enjoy free admission to Ohio History Connection museums and attractions plus news about events and activities at our sites in Echoes Magazine. For your free copy of Passport to Your Ohio History, email membership@ohiohistory.org 1

Ohi o

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O HI O HIS TO RY CO NNEC T I O N

Historic Sites Historic Sites & Museum & Museums OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION

NORTHWEST OHIO 1. Armstrong Air & Space Museum 2. Cedar Bog Nature Preserve 3. Cooke-Dorn House 4. Fallen Timbers Battlefield Memorial Park 5. Fort Amanda Memorial Park

ZOAR VILLAGE

6. Fort Jefferson Memorial Park 7. Fort Meigs 8. Fort Recovery Museum & Monument 9. Glacial Grooves Geological Preserve 10. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums 11. Indian Mill 12. Inscription Rock Petroglyphs 13. Johnston Farms & Indian Agency 14. Lockington Locks

NORTHEAST OHIO 15. Custer Monument 16. Fort Laurens 17. McCook House 18. Museum of Ceremics 19. Quaker Yearly Meeting House 20. Schoenbrunn Village 21. Shaker Historical Museum NORTHWEST

SOUTHWEST OHIO 20. Schoenbrunn Village

37. Harriet Beecher Stowe House 38. John Rankin House 39. Miamisburg Mound 40. National Afro-American Muse Cultural Center 41. Paul Laurence Dunbar House 42. Serpent Mound 6. Fort Jefferson Memorial ParkBeecher Stowe CENTRAL SOUTHEAST OHIO House 37. Harriet CENTRAL OHIO 43. Story Mound 7. Fort Meigs 38. John Rankin House 25. Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries 44. U.S. Grant Birthplace 8. Fort Recovery Museum & Monument 47. Big Bottom Memorial & Nature Preserve Miamisburg Mound 25. Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries 45. U.S.Park Grant Boyhood Home & Sc 9. Glacial Grooves 39.

Geological Preserve 26. Hanby House 48. Buckeye Furnace46. William Henry Harrison Tomb & Nature Preserve National Afro-American 40.

10. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums 27. Logan Elm Museum & Cultural Center 49. Buffington Island Battlefield Memorial Park 26. Hanby House 11. Indian Mill SOUTHEAST 28. Newark Earthworks Paul Laurence Dunbar House 41.

12. Inscription Rock Petroglyphs 50. Campus Martius Museum 27. Logan Elm 47. Big Bottom Memorial Park 29. Ohio History Center & Ohio Village 13. Johnston Farm & Indian Agency Serpent Mound 42.

MuseumFurnace 51. John & Annie Glenn 28. Newark Earthworks 48. Buckeye 30. Shrum Mound 14. Lockington Locks 43. Story Mound & Nature Preserve 52. Leo Petroglyphs 49.

29. Ohio History Center & Ohio Village Buffington Island Battlefield 31. Wahkeena Nature Preserve Memorial Park MemorialRoad & Zane NORTHEAST 44. U.S. Grant Birthplace 32. Warren G. Harding Home Grey Museum 53.&National 30. Shrum Mound 50. Campus Martius Museum 15. Custer Monument & Schoolhouse 45. U.S. Grant Boyhood Home 54. Ohio River Museum 31. Wahkeena Nature Preserve SOUTHWEST 51. John & Annie Glenn Museum 16.

Fort Laurens William Henry Harrison Tomb 46.

55. Our House Tavern 32. Warren G. Harding Home & Memorial 33. Adena Mansion & Gardens 52. Leo Petroglyphs & Nature Pre 17. McCook House 34. Davis Memorial Nature Preserve 53. National Road & Zane Grey M 18. Museum of Ceramics 35. Fort Ancient Earthworks & Nature Preserve 54. Ohio River Museum 19. Quaker Yearly Meeting House 36. Fort Hill Earthworks & Nature Preserve 55. Our House Tavern OHIOHIS TORY.ORG 11 Find locations, hours and more at ohiohistory.org/places.

22. Tallmadge Church

21. Shaker Historical Museum 1. Armstrong Air & Space Museum 23. Youngstown Historical Center 33. Adena Mansion & Gardens 22. Tallmadge Church 2. Cedar Bog Nature Preserve of Industry & Labor Preserve 34. Davis Memorial Nature 23.

Youngstown Historical Center 3.

Cooke-Dorn House 24. Zoar Village Industry & Labor Fort Ancient Earthworks & of Nature Preserve 35.

4. Fallen Timbers Battlefield Memorial Park 24. ZoarPreserve Village 5. Fort Amanda Memorial Hill Earthworks & Nature 36. FortPark

P R O G R A M S & E X H I B I T S AT T H E

Ohio History Center & Ohio Village

Enjoy the following programs free with museum admission.* Questions? Call 800.686.6124.

Take a brief tour with one of our guides, who’ll highlight three don’t-miss objects.

Women’s History Tour

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

SUN., MAY 13 F NOON–12:30 P.M. Explore the museum with a staff guide for a look at objects representing Ohio women in history.

FRI., MAY 4 • 5–9 P.M. MOVIE AT 7 P.M. (After a summer break, First Friday Film

Art Wall

FIRST FRIDAY FILM SERIES

Series returns in November) 4 Join us for an evening of family fun at a nice price.

Starting at 5 p.m., museum admission is just $6, $3 ages 6–12, Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under.

Explore the exhibits, enjoy special First Friday activities and catch a familyfriendly movie starting at 7 p.m., with snacks and beer, wine and soft drinks available for purchase.

ECHOES IN TIME THEATRE

Never Go to a Doctor Whose Office Plants Have Died: A Chat With Erma Bombeck SAT., MAY 5, 12, 19 & 26 F 1 & 3 P.M. Humorist Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) was widely known for her syndicated newspaper column, At Wit’s End. The popular column, which followed the everyday life of a suburban housewife, brought laughs to readers from the 1960s–1990s. Pull up a chair and get ready to laugh, as Bombeck, portrayed

by Harriett Merriman, regales you with stories from her life in this one-woman performance. About 30–45 minutes.

Museum Highlights Tour SUN., MAY 6 F 11–11:30 A.M. SAT., MAY 19 F 2–2:30 P.M. Want to see the coolest stuff in the museum, but don’t know where to start?

SUN., MAY 13 F 2–2:30 P.M. Visit the open-storage “art wall” in Gallery Three for custom access to our art collection. See and enjoy some pieces that aren’t ordinarily on exhibit.

Weird History Tour SUN., MAY 20 F NOON–12:30 P.M. Explore the museum with a guide who’ll point out some of the weirder things on exhibit and talk about why we collect things whose value may not be apparent until you know the story behind them.

Seventh Annual Member Celebration SAT., MAY 26 F 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Join us in opening Ohio Village, our recreated 19th-century community, for the summer season.

Bring the whole family to experience an 1890s-style carnival and enjoy a few extra perks just for you, as we celebrate our members! Pack a picnic or pre-purchase a tasty box lunch to pick up when you arrive. Watch your mail or visit ohiohistory.org/member-celebration for details. RSVP by May 17. 800.686.1545 or ohiohistory.org/member-celebration EXHIBIT TOUR

Poindexter Village: A Portrait in Stories SUN., MAY 27 & JUNE 24 F NOON–12:30 P.M.

Ancient Fossils Tour SUN., MAY 27 F 2–2:30 P.M. Learn about, and get hands-on with, some of the animals and plants that lived in ancient Ohio habitats, from shallow seas to massive glaciers.

Poindexter Village: Remember, Restore, Rejoice SAT., JUNE 2 F 11 A.M.–2 P.M. Explore ways to commemorate the history of Poindexter Village and other Ohio communities. Some of our curators will be on hand with tips for how you might preserve your own family photographs, papers and objects.

Disney’s Ohio Connections SAT., JUNE 2 F NOON–12:30 P.M. SUN., JULY 8 F 2–2:30 P.M. See Disney-related collections on display and learn how the House of Mouse relates to Ohio.

ECHOES IN TIME THEATRE

Preaching, Music & Speechifying!

The Lakeside Chautauqua SAT., JUNE 2, 9, 16, 23 & 30 PERFORMANCES AT 1 & 3 P.M. The chautauqua, a popular late 19thcentury adult education movement, was a natural fit for scenic Lakeside, Ohio. In 1873, Methodists from the area gathered on Lake Erie’s Marblehead Peninsula to create a place where people could come together and enjoy music, preaching and popular speakers of the day. Listen as one Lakesider, played by Sarah Jaquays, talks about her summer chautauqua memories.

About 30–45 minutes.

The Nature of Skulls SUN., JUNE 3 F NOON–12:30 P.M. Get hands-on with real Ohio animal skulls in this interactive tour.

Kenner Products SUN., JUNE 3 F 2–2:30 P.M. Could you imagine Star Wars without the toys? Learn how Cincinnati toy company Kenner Products got the first rights to make Star Wars toys and hear about some of the quirky toys they produced.

See page 14.

12 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

* Museum admission is $12; $10/age 60+; $6/ages 4–12; Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 3 & under.

THURS., MAY 17

Kingwood Center Gardens

Bus Tour to Mansfield’s Old Ohio State Reformatory & Kingwood Center Gardens, Mansion & Greenhouse

EXHIBIT TOUR

Hometown Histories: Toledo

1950s: Building the American Dream

SAT., JULY 7 F NOON–12:30 P.M. Love local history? Learn about some historical hot spots in Toledo from our staff and share your favorite northwest Ohio history hideaways.

SUN., JUNE 10 F 2–2:30 P.M. See page 14.

Inside the Sampler Case SAT., JUNE 16 F NOON–12:30 P.M. Meet us in Gallery Two for an up-close look at some samplers we’ll take out of the exhibit case, and hear stories of 19th-century young women learning the practical art of needlework.

Domestic Life Tour SUN., JUNE 17 F NOON–12:30 P.M. Learn about daily life for ordinary Ohioans throughout history on this guided tour.

Vintage Film Screenings SUN., JUNE 24 F 2–3 P.M. Enjoy vintage educational and fire-safety films, including The Ohio State Band, Snuffy’s Fire Brigade and Learn Not to Burn, featuring Dick Van Dyke.

Ohio Art Company Toys SAT., JUNE 30 F NOON–12:30 P.M. Take a trip down memory lane through toys of the 1940s–1960s from our collection.

The Life and Works of Elijah Pierce SAT., JUNE 30 F 2–2:30 P.M. Join History Curator Becky Preiss Odom to learn about Columbus folk artist Elijah Pierce, whose wood carvings drew inspiration from religion, popular culture and his Near East Side community.

Olympic Glory: The Life and Legacy of Jesse Owens SAT., JULY 7 F 2–3 P.M. Though Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, his legacy reaches far beyond that, to include work with children around the world and service as an Olympic goodwill ambassador. Hear about his life and legacy from Ohio State University archivists and see artifacts from the Jesse Owens Collection, including his gold medals and other Olympic memorabilia.

THURS., MAY 17 F 9 A.M.–4 P.M. Departs from the Ohio History Center, I-71 & 17th Avenue (Exit 111), Columbus, at 9 a.m. and returns by 4 p.m. 4 A Conestoga Program 4 Travel with us to Mansfield for a guided tour of the 1886 Ohio State Reformatory. Walk the same halls as some of history’s most infamous prisoners and immerse yourself in the site that served as much of the setting for the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption. Today, tourists, movie buffs, thrill seekers and paranormal investigators from around the world visit this majestic structure. After, travel to Kingwood Center Gardens for lunch and a guided tour of the gardens, greenhouse and Kingwood Hall, a 1926 French chateau-style mansion. Tulips, magnolias, daffodils, crocus, redbuds, dogwoods, silver bells and more spring flowers will provide a feast for the eyes, as will several themed gardens. $70, $65/Conestoga member (all-inclusive).

Advance registration required by Friday, May 4. 614.297.2334.

GENEALOGY WORKSHOP

Coming to Columbus: The Jewish Journey

SUN., JULY 8 F NOON–12:30 P.M. See page 14.

THURS., JUNE 14 F 6:30–8:30 P.M. Join Toby Brief, director and curator of Columbus Jewish Historical Society Historical Collections, to hear the fascinating story of five distinct waves of Jewish immigration to Columbus since 1838. $20; $15/Ohio History Connection member. Advance registration recommended. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/genealogy

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS • • •

Country Living Fair—Spring

DISPLAY TOUR

World War I

NEW!

Pleasures of the Cup: Drinks of the Speakeasy SAT., MAY 12 F 7–9:30 P.M. Travel back in time to a world of bathtub gin, Jazz Age music and flappers.

Explore the underground world of Ohio Village with an escort as you learn how Prohibition sent alcohol from bars and taverns to secret watering holes. Advance registration required. $40, $35/Ohio History Connection member. 800.686.1541 or reservations@ohiohistory.org

JUNE 15–17 F 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Ohio Village, Columbus 4 Shop antiques, vintage wares, handcrafted goods, art, furniture, home decor, handcrafted clothing and jewelry, specialty foods and more. Meet the editors of Country Living magazine, attend seminars and how-tos, see artisan demonstrations, shop the Harvest & Gourmet Market and gather ideas and inspiration. $13–$40 advance, $18–$40

OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

13

Country Living Fair—Spring at the door. Get details, advance tickets and register for workshops at 866.500.

FAIR or stellashows.com. Find an Ohio History Connection member discount coupon at ohiohistory.org/clf. Country Living Fair—Fall returns to Ohio Village Sept. 14–16. Watch for details.

JUNE 15–17

Ohio History Connection Annual Meeting & History Now: Made in Ohio THURS., JUNE 21 F 11:30 A.M.–1:30 P.M. Attend our annual thought-provoking conversation on Ohio’s contributions to the past and its influence on the future. Luncheon $50, $35/Ohio History Connection member through May 10. Beginning May 11: $60, $45/ member. Advance registration required

by June 8. Learn more at ohiohistory. org/historynow. 800.647.2498 or mskrobot@ohiohistory.org

Mad for Martinis SAT., AUG. 11 F 7–9:30 P.M. Member ticket sales start Mon., June 18 You’re invited to a blast from the past, 1950s style! Learn about the 1950s and enjoy vintage cocktails as you explore the Ohio History Center museum and the special exhibit 1950s: Building the American Dream with an Eisenhowerera guide. The evening includes drinks, dancing, music and tons of retro fun, daddy-o! Advance registration required.

Tickets are $40, $30/Ohio History Connection member. Nonmember sales start July 2. You must be 21 or over. 800.686.1541 or reservations@ ohiohistory.org FEATURED EXHIBITS

Poindexter Village: A Portrait in Stories Explore the story of African American migration to Ohio through objects, artwork and memories created and shared by members of the Columbus Near East Side community of Poindexter Village. RELATED PROGRAMS: Exhibit Tour Sun., May 27, at Noon & Sun., June 24, at Noon; Poindexter Village: Remember, Restore, Rejoice Sat., June 2, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. The exhibit Poindexter Village: A Portrait in Stories is funded in part by the Gordon Chandler Memorial Fund of The Columbus Foundation.

14 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

1950s: Building the American Dream Get a look at life in the 1950s. Peek in the closets and snoop in the drawers of a real, fully furnished Lustron steel house made right here in Ohio. From the contents of the cupboards to the news on TV and the toys in the yard, this hands-on exhibit is a fascinating journey back in time. RELATED PROGRAMS: Exhibit Tour: 1950s: Building the American Dream, Sun., June 10, at 2 p.m.; Mad for Martinis, Sat., Aug. 11, 7–9:30 p.m.

World War I Display See equipment, weapons, uniforms and memorabilia commemorating the centennial of the United States entering World War I. RELATED PROGRAMS: World War I, Sat., May 19, 10 a.m.; Display Tour: World War I, Sun., July 8, Noon.

Picturing World War I See period photos of Ohioans during World War I. Learn about Camp Sherman, a massive training camp—third largest in the nation—near Chillicothe; participation by women and African Americans; and the work of noncombatants.

Star Wars Day Star Wars: The Force Awakens FRI., MAY 4 F 7 P.M. See page 12.

SAT., MAY 5 MUSEUM OPEN 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Explore Ohio’s connections to Star Wars with a day of special programming.

Creatures of Star Wars 11–11:30 A.M. Ever wondered why Porgs were created for The Last Jedi? Or which animal served as inspiration for the Bantha? Learn about the creatures of Star Wars and the real-life animals that inspired them in this talk.

Kenner Toys & Star Wars NOON–12:30 P.M. Could you imagine Star Wars without the toys? Learn how Cincinnati toy company Kenner Products got the first rights to make Star Wars toys and about some of the quirky toys they produced.

German Mauser C96 12:45–1 P.M. Did you know that Han Solo’s famous blaster was based on a real handgun from World War I? Stop by to take a look at a real German Mauser C96 that later inspired Solo’s blaster.

* Museum admission is $12; $10/age 60+; $6/ages 4–12; Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 3 & under.

Star Wars Day MAY 5

Historian in Training We believe it’s never too soon to start learning the tools of the history trade. That’s why we’ve created Historian in Training, a monthly series offering kids a chance to start building historical-thinking skills through hands-on engagement and fun activities.

PRE-K (AGE 3–6)

B is for Bones (and Fur and Feathers and Scales)

A Galaxy Here & Now: Star Wars as a Window on American History, 1977–2017 1:15–1:45 P.M. While Star Wars tells the story of “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...” it’s also a story about our own changing time and place over the last 40 years.

Hear film and popular culture scholar Jared Gardner talk about some of the historical fears and fantasies the three trilogies reflect.

Star Wars Show & Tell 2–3 P.M. Have a prized Star Wars possession?

Show it off at our Show & Tell. Share how you got it and what it means to you with a roomful of other Star Wars fans.

Star Wars Tabletop Games ALL DAY Are you a fan of Star Wars: Armada, Star Wars: Legion or even Star Wars Monopoly? Bring your own game and set up in our gaming area to play against other Star Wars fans. Never played before? We’ll have a demonstration Armada game for beginners and our friends from Tabletop Game Cafe will be on hand to offer tips and tactics.

SAT., MAY 12 F 9:30–11 A.M. Learn what makes an animal through stories and hands-on experiences.

C is for Conway SAT., JUNE 2 F 9:30–11 A.M. Learn about ancient fossils and more recent Ice Age animals like Conway, our resident mastodon skeleton.

Ohio History Learning Lab Digitizing Your Family History SAT., JUNE 9 F 10:30 A.M.–NOON Pictures, pixels, resolution, oh my!

How do you know that you’re taking the right steps to convert and preserve your family history? This seminar with instructor Lily Birkhimer offers an introduction to digitizing historic materials. You’ll learn what to look for in a scanner; basic scanning techniques; and guidelines for managing your digital images. Learn about best practices for digitizing photographs and manuscripts, with a focus on creating high-quality files that’ll stand the test of time. $25, $20/Ohio History Connection member.

Advance registration required by Sat., June 2. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory. org/learninglab

$5/child, Free/adult. Advance registration required. You must participate with your child. (Don’t worry—we’ll give you things to do!) 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/ littlehistorians ELEMENTARY (AGE 7–12)

World War I SAT., MAY 19 F 10–11 A.M. Discover the art and technology of World War I in this hands-on, interactive program.

Bones & Fossils JUNE 23 F 10–11 A.M. Learn to identify different animal bones and fossils in this hands-on program. $5/program. Advance registration required. Caregivers do not stay for the program, though must remain on site. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/ littlehistorians

GENEALOGY WORKSHOPS OHIO HISTORY CENTER

Find schedule Findour our full full 2018 2017 schedule and online at at and register register online ohiohistory.org/genealogy

OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

15

Ohio Village Opening Day 1890s Carnival SAT., MAY 26 F 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Bring the entire family and experience an 1890s-style carnival. Explore Ohio Village and get to know the folks who live there on this day of family fun. Included with general admission. Outdoor activities are weather-dependent.

Independence Day SUN., JULY 1 F 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Enjoy old-fashioned family fun celebrating our nation’s independence at Ohio Village, including a parade, music, dancing, base ball (yes, two words) played by 19th-century rules and more.

Storybook Village SAT., JUNE 9 F 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Ohio History Connection members enjoy special early admission 9–10 a.m 4 See characters from favorite kids’ books and TV shows come to life.

Bring your little ones to meet classic children’s book characters and popular favorites from PBS as they roam Ohio Village to greet children of all ages.

Sponsored by CollegeAdvantage, Ohio’s 529 Plan, Storybook Village is made possible through a partnership with Columbus Metropolitan Library and WOSU Public Media. Included with Ohio History Center museum admission: $12, $10/age 60+, $6/ages 7-12, Free/age 6 & under. Advance registration encouraged.

800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/ storybookvillage

Dressing Victorian SAT., JUNE 23 F 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Try on Victorian-era fashions, make some of the most popular crafts of the 1890s, stop by the barbershop to see the latest hairstyles, plus much more on this fashionable day.

16 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

OHIO VILLAGE OPEN 5–8 P.M. (OHIO HISTORY CENTER CLOSES 5 P.M.) MUSIC 6–8 P.M.

Bluegrass With The Relentless Mules THURS., JUNE 21

Irish With The Drowsy Lads THURS., JULY 19

Jazz With SCAT: The Long Street Project THURS., AUG. 16 Ohio Village stays open late on three summer Thursdays to bring you some of central Ohio’s finest music, thanks to a special partnership between WOSU Public Media and the Ohio History Connection. Bring your family and enjoy live music, explore our recreated 19thcentury community and play games on the village green. Bring a picnic or enjoy dinner from a local food vendor. Beer, wine and soft drinks for sale (no outside alcohol permitted). Pay what you want.

Donations benefit the Ohio History Connection’s Annual Fund. In case of rain, music moves inside the village church.

Ohio History Center Hours Museum WEDS.–SUN. 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Ohio Village, our recreated 19thcentury community, opens for the summer Sat., May 26. Enjoy special evening hours with live music on June 21, July 19 and Aug. 16, when the village is open until 8 p.m. for Evenings on the Green (see above). Ohio Village will be closed Weds., June 13, through

Sun., June 17, for the Country Living Fair and will reopen Weds., June 20.

Third Floor Research Room WEDS.–SAT. 10 A.M.–5 P.M. CLOSED SUN.–TUES. The Ohio History Center & Ohio Village are closed Memorial Day, Mon., May 28, and Independence Day, Tues., July 4.

* Museum admission is $12; $10/age 60+; $6/ages 4–12; Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 3 & under.

F E AT U R E D O H I O H I S T O R Y C O N N E C T I O N

Events & Exhibits CENTRAL OHIO

NORTHEAST OHIO

Ohio History Center

Maifest

SEE PAGE 12 FOR LISTINGS

SAT., MAY 12 F 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Zoar Village, Zoar 4 Enjoy a traditional German Maifest (May Festival) featuring German food, drink and music plus a maypole. See the 2018 Bimeler Gallery exhibit, Power of Painting: Lilly Martin Spencer (see page 18), which premieres May 12, and shop the Zoar Garden plant sale. 800.262.6195 or historiczoarvillage.com

Woodland Wildflowers SUN., MAY 13 F 1–2:30 P.M. Wahkeena Nature Preserve, Sugar Grove, near Lancaster 4 Explore the beauty, folklore and medicinal uses of native Ohio wildflowers. About 90 minutes with frequent stops. Other natural history topics may be discussed along the way.

Ages 12 & up. Free. 800.297.1883 or wahkeenanaturepreserve.com

Fern Hike SUN., MAY 27 F 1–2:30 P.M. SUN., JUNE 10 F 1–2:30 P.M. Wahkeena Nature Preserve, Sugar Grove, near Lancaster 4 Wahkeena’s home to 33 species of ferns. Learn to identify some of the most common ones.

About 90 minutes with frequent stops.

Ages 12 & up. Free. 800.297.1883 or wahkeenanaturepreserve.com

Taking Tea With Mary Elizabeth Bowser SAT., JUNE 9 10 A.M.–NOON Hanby House, Westerville 4 Enjoy tea and cakes, and hear Mary Elizabeth Bowser, portrayed by Revonne Hammond, share her experiences as a slave in the Van Lew household of Richmond, VA, and her simultaneous exploits as a spy for the North. $20, $18/Ohio History Connection member.

Advance registration required by June 8.

800.600.6843 or hanbyhouse.org F

Spring Lantern Tour SAT., MAY 19 F 7:30–9:30 P.M. Schoenbrunn Village, New Philadelphia 4 Explore the grounds of a 1770s Moravian mission town by lantern light and see cabins busy with 18th-century life. $7, $6/age 60+, $5/ages 6–17, Free/ Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.752.2711 or schoenbrunnvillage.org

Orrville Building Doctor Clinic SEMINAR: THURS., JUNE 14 F 7–9 P.M. Orrville City Council Chamber, 207 N. Main St., Orrville 4 CONSULTATIONS

BY APPOINTMENT: FRI., JUNE 15 9 A.M.–3 P.M. Meet our old-building experts and learn how to make informed decisions about repairs and improvements to any home or building built between 1800 and 1955. Free seminar followed by free on-site consultations by appointment. Cosponsored by the Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office and the City of Orrville. Advance registration required by June 7. 800.499.2470, 330.684.5003 or building-doctor.org

Beyond the Fences of Zoar Garden Tour & Luncheon SAT., JUNE 16 F 9 A.M.–5 P.M. Zoar Village, Zoar 4 Tour Zoar’s private and public gardens, learn about gardening in special symposiums, shop vendors for garden accessories and place your bids in a silent auction. $35/Tour and Luncheon in the Zoar Garden (Limited seating. Advance registration required by June 8). $15/Tour Only. 800.262.6195 or historiczoarvillage.com

14TH ANNUAL GRACIOUS GARDENS OF SHAKER HEIGHTS WEEKEND

Cocktails in the Garden FRI., JUNE 15, 2018 F 6–9 P.M. Shaker Heights

Gracious Gardens Tour SUN., JUNE 17, 2018 F NOON–5 P.M. Tour begins at Shaker Historical Museum, Shaker Heights 4 Friday’s Cocktails in the Garden party features a private historic home with superb architecture and gardens.

Sunday’s Gracious Gardens Tour features beautiful Shaker Heights gardens of all designs and sizes.

Proceeds from both benefit Shaker Historical Society, the Ohio History Connection’s managing partner for Shaker Historical Museum.

For more information or to purchase tickets for Friday’s party or Sunday’s tour, call 800.860.6078 or visit shakerhistoricalsociety.org/ graciousgardens

OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

17

Children’s Day SUN., JUNE 17, 2017 F 11 A.M.–3 P.M. Schoenbrunn Village, New Philadelphia Enjoy a day of fun for children, with traditional 18th-century crafts and activities. $7, $6/age 60+, $5/age 6–17, Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.752.2711 or schoenbrunnvillage.org

Power of Painting: Lilly Martin Spencer ZOAR VILLAGE MAY 12–OCT. 28

College for Kids MON., JUNE 18–FRI., JUNE 22 9 A.M.–2 P.M. Schoenbrunn Village, New Philadelphia 4 Spend a week learning about life in 1772, including hearth cooking, butter churning, gardening, pen and quill writing, sewing, weaving and more. Advance registration required

by June 8. Call for cost and registration details. 800.752.2711 or 330.663.6610.

Tallmadge Church Open House SUN., JUNE 24 F 3–4 P.M. Tallmadge Church, Tallmadge 4 Step inside the 1825 Tallmadge Church, a Federal-style architectural landmark and reminder of northeast Ohio’s New England heritage, and the nearby Old Town Hall and Museum (1859)—both on Tallmadge Circle and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Free. 330.633.0855 or ohiohistory.org/tallmadge

Festival of the Arts Celebration SAT., JULY 7 F 10 A.M.–4 P.M. Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor, Youngstown 4 Join in honoring the late Sen. Harry Meshel’s contributions to Youngstown Historical Center and the Mahoning Valley with a rededication of the museum’s classroom at 10 a.m. The ceremony kicks off Youngstown State University’s Summer Festival of the Arts, two days of music, dance and art.

Explore the museum free all day. More July 7 events at the museum include the program Working Class Heroes: The Book, the Men and the Music at Noon and a kids’ art and history activity at 2 p.m. 800.262.6137 or 330.941.1314

FEATURED EXHIBITS • • • Shaker Eats THROUGH JULY 6 F TUES.–FRI. 11 A.M.–5 P.M. & SUN. 2–5 P.M. CLOSED SAT. & MON. Shaker Historical Museum, Shaker Heights 4 See a delectable exhibit on the tastes of Shaker Heights. Included with museum admission: $5, $3/ages 6–12, Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.860.6078 or shakerhistoricalsociety.org

Jenny Adams: Views of My Neighborhood FRI., MAY 11–SUN., JULY 8 F TUES.–FRI. 11 A.M.–5 P.M. & SUN. 2–5 P.M. CLOSED SAT. & MON. Shaker Historical Museum, Shaker Heights 4 Included with museum admission: $5, $3/ages 6–12, Free/ Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. Exhibit Opening 6–8 p.m. Fri., May 11, free with advance registration required. 800.860.6078 or shakerhistoricalsociety.org

Power of Painting: Lilly Martin Spencer SAT., MAY 12–SUN., OCT. 28 F MAY & OCT.: SAT. 11 A.M.–4 P.M., SUN. NOON– 4 P.M. F JUNE–SEPT.: WEDS.–SAT. 11 A.M.–4 P.M., SUN. NOON–4 P.M. Bimeler Gallery, Zoar Village, Zoar See work by Lilly Martin Spencer (1822– 1902), a pioneer for women in the arts.

Born in England to French parents, she grew up near Marietta, studied drawing and painting with local artists and became a leading artist in Cincinnati.

After moving to New York City, where her career spanned more than half a century, she became nationally known for her genre paintings, illustrations and portraits. Included with Zoar Village admission: $7, $4/student, Free/ Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.860.0145 or historiczoarvillage.com

NORTHWEST OHIO

Exploring The Art of Photography With Gil Gonzalez & Kristina Smith TUES., MAY 1 F 4–6 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont Meet the photographers, learn about their techniques and hear stories behind the photos in this show and sale

18 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

ARMSTRONG AIR & SPACE MUSEUM, MAY 12–13

Rod Berry Photography

Rocket Weekend

plants with herbalist Erika Galentin. $10, $5/Ohio History Connection member.

800.860.0147 or cedarbognp.org

Rocket Weekend & Rocket-Building Workshops

featuring a variety of works by Gonzalez plus Smith’s Lake Erie birding and nature photographs. Free. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Season-Opening Events and Ohio’s Land of the CrossTipped Churches, With Mary Ann Olding SUN., MAY 6 F NOON–4 P.M. Fort Recovery Museum, Fort Recovery Visit the museum on opening day for special displays and guests. Noon–3 p.m.: Archaeologist Chris Thompson of Ball State University’s Applied Anthropology Laboratories, with battleground wayside exhibits and traveling interactive story maps. 1–2:45 p.m.: Fort Recovery area church history displays. 3–4 p.m.: Hear featured speaker Mary Ann Olding, on Ohio’s Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches, a region of German Catholic settlement in Auglaize, Mercer, Darke and Shelby counties whose heritage is reflected in imposing historic churches, schools, rectories, convents and other related buildings. Free. 800.283.8920, 419.375.4649 or 419.375.4384 or fortrecoverymuseum.com

Family Days at the Johnston Farm

United States Indian Agent from 1812–1829, John Johnston made many contributions to the settlement of Ohio’s frontier. See his farm come alive with old-time games and activities. Visit the Johnston family home; take in the Historic Indian & Canal Museum and learn about the American Indians who called Ohio home; and enjoy a ride aboard the mule-drawn canal boat General Harrison of Piqua. $9, $4/student, Free/ Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.752.2619 or johnstonfarmohio.com

Moth Night FRI., MAY 11, JUNE 8, JULY 13 & AUG. 10 F DUSK Cedar Bog Nature Preserve, near Urbana 4 Learn about moths with naturalist Jim Lemon at this 450-acre haven for many rare plants and animals.

Free. 800.860.0147 or cedarbognp.org

Second Saturdays R 4 Kids SAT., MAY 12 & JUNE 9 F 9 A.M.–5 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Kids age 12 and under can earn a prize by completing a scavenger hunt. $1/ ages 1–12 & $7.50/adult includes museum admission. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

SAT., JUNE 9, & SUN., JUNE 10

Edible & Medicinal Native Plants

NOON–5 P.M. Johnston Farm & Indian Agency, Piqua 4 Farmer, public official and

SAT., MAY 12 F 10 A.M. Cedar Bog Nature Preserve, near Urbana 4 Learn about edible and medicinal native

MAY 12–13 F 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Rocket-Building Workshops 2 p.m. & 3:30 p.m. with advance registration 4 Armstrong Air & Space Museum, Wapakoneta 4 Enjoy special guided museum tours, learn about rocketry and propulsion and join the Wright Stuff Rocketeers in building and launching rockets, weather permitting. In optional Rocket-Building Workshops at 2 or 3:30 p.m. ($20, advance registration required) build an easy-to-assemble rocket to take home. To register, email programs@armstrongmuseum.org.

Museum admission: $8, $7/age 60+, $4/ age 6–12, Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.860.0142 or armstrongmuseum.org

Fremont Building Doctor Clinic SEMINAR: THURS., MAY 17 F 7–9 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 CONSULTATIONS BY APPOINTMENT: FRI., MAY 18 9 A.M.–3 P.M. Meet our old-building experts and learn how to make informed decisions about repairs and improvements to any home or building built between 1800 and 1955. Free seminar followed by free on-site consultations by appointment. Cosponsored by the Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office, Hayes Presidential Library & Museums and Birchard Historic Neighborhood Association.

Advance registration required by May 10. 800.499.2470, 419.332.2081 or building-doctor.org

Drums at the Rapids MiniatureWar-Gaming Conference FRI., MAY 18 & SAT., MAY 19 NOON–10 P.M. Fort Meigs, Perrysburg 4 Learn to play miniature war games on tabletop battlefields. Hosted by Great Lakes Chapter Historical Miniatures Gaming Society. $18/two-day pass, $12/one-day pass. 800.283.8916, 419.874.4121 or fortmeigs.org/drums

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Music in the Parlor

Orchid Walk

SUN., MAY 20 F 4–5 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Hear a live concert in the parlor of the Hayes home. $12. Advance registration required.

800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

SAT., JUNE 2 F 11 A.M.

Guided Bird Walk SAT., MAY 26 F 8 A.M. Cedar Bog Nature Preserve, near Urbana 4 Enjoy a guided walk with birder Steve Moeckel. $5, $4/Ohio History Connection member or child.

800.860.0147 or cedarbognp.org

First Siege 1813 SAT., MAY 26 & SUN., MAY 27 9:30 A.M.–5 P.M. Fort Meigs, Perrysburg 4 Experience authentic War of 1812 military camps, musket and cannon demonstrations, battles and more as Fort Meigs hosts reenactors from the United States and Canada to commemorate the 1813 First Siege of Fort Meigs. $11, $9/senior, $6/ student, $2/Ohio History Connection member, Free/age 5 & under.

800.283.8916 or fortmeigs.org/firstsiege Photo courtesy Rod Berry Photography

Memorial Day Commemoration MON., MAY 28 F NOON–5 P.M. Fort Meigs, Perrysburg 4 Join in remembering our nation’s fallen heroes as War of 1812 soldiers and civilians reenact camp life. A special wreath-laying takes place at 2 p.m. $10, $8/senior, $5/ student, Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.283.8916 or fortmeigs.org/memorialday

Presidential History Book Club WEDS., MAY 30 & JUNE 27 NOON–1 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Read biographies of the presidents and enjoy lunch-hour discussions. Bring your lunch. May 30 and June 27: The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Free. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

20 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

SUN., JUNE 3 F 2 P.M. Cedar Bog Nature Preserve, near Urbana 4 See wild orchids in bloom on a guided walk. $5, $4/Ohio History Connection member or child.

800.860.0147 or cedarbognp.org

GroveFest: Nature at the Grove HAYES PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUMS, JUNE 23

Author & Historian William Hogeland SUN., JUNE 10 F 3 P.M. Nazarene Family Center, 401 E. Boundary St., Fort Recovery 4 Sponsored by Fort Recovery Museum, Fort Recovery 4 Hear historian William Hogeland, author of Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S.Army and the Invasion That Opened the West. Free.

800.283.8920 or fortrecoverymuseum.com

Verandah Concerts WEDS., JUNE 13 & JUNE 27 F 6:30–8 P.M. Free Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Social at 6:30 p.m. • Music Starts at 7 p.m. 4 Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Enjoy free outdoor concerts. Bring your lawn chair or blanket. June 13: Fossil Creek Band, Bluegrass. June 27: Grand Royale Ükulelists of the Black Swamp. If there are thunderstorms on concert night, the event will be canceled. Get updates at 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Muster on the Maumee SAT., JUNE 16 & SUN. JUNE 17 9:30 A.M.–5 P.M. Fort Meigs, Perrysburg 4 Learn how soldiers have changed over 10 centuries. See Vikings, medieval knights, Revolutionary War soldiers, World War I doughboys and World War II GIs demonstrate weapons and other aspects of military life. $11, $9/senior, $6/student or child, $2/Ohio History Connection member, Free/age 5 & under.

800.283.8916 or fortmeigs.org/muster

Hands-on History WEDS., JUNE 20, JULY 18 & AUG. 15 10 A.M.–NOON Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Kids age 6–11 will design roller coasters, discover how airplanes fly and experiment with algae during three free programs using

photographs, drawings and documents from the museum. June 20: Aviation.

July 18: Roller Coasters. Aug. 15: Ever-Changing Lake Erie. Advance registration required—register for one, two or all three sessions. Parents are welcome to attend. Limit 10 students/ session. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

GroveFest: Nature at the Grove SAT. JUNE 23 F 10 A.M.–2 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Bring the kids for a free nature-themed family event on the grounds of Spiegel Grove, estate of 19th president Rutherford B. Hayes. Enjoy crafts, games and live animals. Food available for purchase.

800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Wabash 1791 Battlefield Walk With Author John Winkler SUN., JULY 1 F NOON–2 P.M. Fort Recovery Museum, Fort Recovery 4 Walk the 1791 battlefield with John Winkler, author of Wabash 1791: St. Clair’s Defeat. Limit of 30 participants. $10. Advance registration required by June 30. 800.283.8920 or fortrecoverymuseum.com

Tariq Tarey, Photographer

Steamboats on the Western Waters, With Danny Lee Black CAMPUS MARTIUS MUSEUM, MARIETTA, JUNE 1

Bhutanese-Nepali Neighbors: Photographs

by Tariq Tarey Photo courtesy of Hayes Presidential Library & Museums

Independence Day 1813 TUES., JULY 4 F NOON–5 P.M. Fort Meigs, Perrysburg 4 Be on hand as War of 1812 soldiers and civilians recreate July 4, 1813, at Fort Meigs with cannon firings, demonstrations and hands-on activities for kids. The highlight, an 18-gun National Salute accompanied by toasts and fife-anddrum music, starts at 2 p.m. $10, $8/ age 60+, $5/student, Free/Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under.

800.283.8916 or fortmeigs.org/ independence

Toledo Symphony Concert Band Independence Day Concert WEDS., JULY 4 F 2–3:30 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Enjoy a free holiday performance by the Toledo Symphony Concert Band, including Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture accompanied by real cannons. Bring a lawn chair or blanket.

800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

FEATURED EXHIBITS • • • Bhutanese-Nepali Neighbors: Photographs by Tariq Tarey THROUGH FRI., MAY 25 F MON.–SAT. 9 A.M.–5 P.M. & SUN. NOON–5 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Learn about the brave journeys that have brought more than

Rod Berry Photography

20,000 Bhutanese-Nepali refugees to central Ohio, through 30 portraits by Columbus photographer Tariq Tarey. $7.50, $6.50/senior, $3/ages 6–12, Free/ Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Photography of Gil Gonzalez & Kristina Smith THROUGH SUN., JULY 1 F MON.–SAT. 9 A.M.–5 P.M. & SUN. NOON–5 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 See a variety of works

by Gil Gonzalez, Hayes head of photographic resources, and Lake Erie nature photographs by Kristina Smith, marketing/communications manager.

Free. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives THROUGH FRI., MAY 25 F MON.–SAT. 9 A.M.–5 P.M. & SUN. NOON–5 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 See how photographer Jacob Riis (1849–1914) used his camera to peer behind the gilded veneer of high society and expose harsh realities of day-to-day life for New York City’s poor in 1890, plus photos and stories of Ohioans who are struggling today. $7.50, $6.50/ senior, $3/ages 6–12, Free/Ohio History Connection member. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

HAYES PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUMS. THROUGH MAY 25

In Search of Healing: Medical Practices of the Gilded Age FRI., JUNE 7–OCT. 21 F MON.–SAT. 9 A.M.–5 P.M. & SUN. NOON–5 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Learn about ineffective procedures and oftendangerous medical practices that prevailed in the 19th century, making disease the ever-present danger that loomed over every family. Included with museum admission: $7.50, $6.50/ senior, $3/ages 6–12, Free/Ohio History Connection member. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org

SOUTHEAST OHIO

Brown Baggin’ Through History: Steamboats on the Western Waters, With Danny Lee Black FRI., JUNE 1 F NOON–1 P.M. Campus Martius Museum, Marietta 4 Learn about the rise of the steamboat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries. Free thanks to the support of Washington County Public Library.

800.860.0145 or mariettamuseums.org

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Jazzin’ Up the Museums

Heirloom Plant Sale

FRI., JUNE 1 F 6–9 P.M. Aboard the Valley Gem Sternwheeler, Marietta, Proceeds benefit Marietta’s Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums 4 Board the riverboat Valley Gem for a delicious buffet including prime rib and chicken madeira. Dance the night away to a live band playing favorites from the ‘40s, ‘50s and 60s while cruising down the Ohio River. $75/couple, $40/person includes meal, musical entertainment and two-and-a-half hour cruise. Cash bar. Advance registration required

by Fri., May 25. 800.860.0145 or campusmartiusmuseum.org

SAT., MAY 5—SUN., MAY 20

Summer Camp at the Museum TUES., JUNE 26–FRI., JUNE 29 9:30 A.M.–3 P.M. Ohio River Museum, Marietta 4 Join us for a week full of activities for kids age 7–12, each day with a different theme. $100/camper. Advance registration required by June 11. Scholarships available. 800.860.0145, 740.373.3750 or campusmartiusmuseum.org

SOUTHWEST OHIO

DISCUSSION SERIES

Visiting Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Stowe & Friends WEDS., MAY 2 F 7 P.M. HOUSE OPEN FOR TOURS AT 6 P.M. Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati 4 Take part in a series on Frederick Douglass and Mark Twain, and their personal and literary connections with Harriet Beecher Stowe and the struggle for social justice, led by professors emeritus John Getz of Xavier University and John Douglass of the University of Cincinnati. May 2 topic: The Later Twain, the Beechers & Social Justice.

Visit stowehousecincy.org/events for short recommended readings prior to May 2, all available free online. Free. 800.847.6507 or stowehousecincy.org

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WEDS.–SAT.: 9 A.M.–5 P.M. SUN.: NOON–5 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Shop over 80 types of herbs, tomatoes, vegetables and flowers raised before the days of industrial farming, along with metal art and some hanging baskets.

Plant sale admission is free. Shop early for best selection. 800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

Behind the Scenes at Fort Ancient SAT., MAY 5 F 11 A.M.–2 P.M. Fort Ancient Earthworks & Nature Preserve, near Oregonia & Lebanon 4 Join us for an overview of the history of Fort Ancient. Learn about the American Indian people who built Fort Ancient, see the mounds they built and hike the trails.

800.283.8904 or fortancient.org

Art With Skip Hathaway SAT., MAY 5, JUNE 2 & JULY 7 F NOON Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Attend a free art class with Chillicothe artist Skip Hathaway, for children of all ages accompanied by an adult chaperone.

Art supplies provided. 800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

Native Americans at Adena: The Relationship Between Tecumseh & Thomas SUN., MAY 6 F 2 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Children can learn from non-native staff about the relationship between Tecumseh and Thomas Worthington and the historical and political importance of Tecumseh’s visit to Adena in 1807, then make a dreamcatcher to take home. $5.

Advance registration required. All children must have an adult chaperone.

800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

High Tea at Adena SUN., MAY 13 F 2 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Ever wonder what Victorian social calls were like? Join us for High Tea with Martha Worthington, wife of James Worthington—son of early Ohio statesman Thomas Worthington, for whom Adena

was built. Enjoy tea and assorted desserts in the garden. $20. Advance registration required by May 11. 800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com/tickets

Scavenger Hunt at Adena SUN., JUNE 3 F 2 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Do your kids like to explore the natural world? Join us for a scavenger hunt.

Explore the grounds of Adena and learn about some of the natural features. Free with advance registration required. All children must have an adult chaperone.

800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

Return of the Snakes SAT., JUNE 9 F 10 A.M.–4 P.M. Serpent Mound, Peebles 4 See live snakes, turtles and lizards on display and enjoy related presentations throughout the day. Parking $8/vehicle, Free/Ohio History Connection member.

800.752.2757 or arcofappalachia.org

Kill the Hill SUN., JUNE 10 F GROUNDS OPEN AT 7 A.M. F RACES BEGIN AT 8 A.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Take part in a 5K run/walk or 10-mile run. Adena Mansion stands atop a high hill where these events begin and end.

Runners and walkers will descend the hill, follow a course through Chillicothe and return uphill to the finish line.

5K run/walk: $20–30. 10-mile run: $25–$35. Advance registration required

by June 4. Proceeds benefit Adena Mansion & Gardens. 800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

A Look Into the Worthington Men SUN., JUNE 10 F 2 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Hear a talk by Adena historian Mary Anne Brown and learn about the lives and legacies of the Worthington men, from early Ohio governor and “Father of Ohio Statehood” Thomas Worthington (1773–1827), for whom Adena was built, through his five sons. Free with advance registration required. 800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com/tickets

Archery at Adena

African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory

ADENA MANSION & GARDENS, JULY 1

NATIONAL AFRO-AMERICAN MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTER Courtesy National Archives

Summer Solstice & Feast of the Setting Sun SAT., JUNE 23 F 4–8 P.M. Serpent Mound, Peebles 4 Hear archaeologist Brad Lepper talk about what’s known about Serpent Mound, including some of the latest research, followed by a guided tour and optional dinner. Enjoy music by Steve Free.

Dinner $15 with advance registration required by June 1. Event free with $8/vehicle parking. Ohio History Connection members enjoy free parking.

800.752.2757, 937.365.1935 or arcofappalachia.org

Semi-Colon Club How to Kill a City, by Peter Moskowitz F

SAT., JUNE 23 F NOON–1 P.M. Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati 4 Join us for a discussion of the book How to Kill a City, by Peter Moskowitz. We’ll discuss ramifications of gentrification and new development, and how it can be done in a socially responsible way. Free. 800.847.6507 or stowehousecincy.org

Archery at Adena SUN., JULY 1 F 2 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Children with an adult chaperone can get an introductory lesson in archery on the lawn of the estate. Free with advance registration required by July 1.

800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com/ tickets.

19th-Century Independence Day Celebration SUN., JULY 1 F 2 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Celebrate Independence Day as Ohioans did two centuries ago, with readings from the Declaration of Independence, patriotic poems, a presentation of the flag, a toast to George Washington and a 21-gun salute. Free. 800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

Ohio Village Muffins vs.

Adena Worthingtons SUN., JULY 8 F 2–3:30 P.M. Adena Mansion & Gardens, Chillicothe 4 Bring your blanket or lawn chair and join us as the Adena Worthingtons take on the Ohio Village Muffins in a game of base ball (yes, two words) played by 19th– century rules. Free. 800.319.7248 or adenamansion.com

FEATURED EXHIBITS • • • African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory WEDS.–SAT. 9 A.M.–4 P.M. National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center, Wilberforce 4 Explore the many ways African Americans served our country during World War II and get a look at the impact black veterans had on postwar advances in civil rights. $6, $5/ senior, $3/ages 6–17, Free/Ohio History Connection member. 800.752.2603 or ohiohistory.org/naamcc

Color Outside the Lines: Celebrating 30 Years at NAAMCC THROUGH SAT., FEB. 2, 2019 WEDS.–SAT. 9 A.M.–4 P.M. National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center, Wilberforce 4 Opened in 1988, the Ohio History Connection’s National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center pioneered in preserving and presenting African American history and culture. See milestones of museum history, plus rare items from the collection. Included with museum admission: $6, $5/ senior, $3/ages 6–17, Free/Ohio History Connection member. 800.752.2603 or ohiohistory.org/naamcc

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Matthew Zory, Photographer

Nothing Like It in the World C I N C I N N AT I M U S I C H A L L R E T U R N S F O R A N E N C O R E

W

hen Thea Tjepkema walks the streets of Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, the old buildings talk to her, tell her their stories, whisper their secrets.

“That’s funny you should put it that way,” says Tjepkema, the historic preservationist for the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall, “because in an interview for a documentary on the renovation of Music Hall, I told them that I listen to bricks.”

Music Hall was designed by Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford and built in 1878 and 1879.

Even before it was complete, Music Hall was praised in 1877 by the Cincinnati Enquirer for the bricks that Tjepkema listens to: The “Elm Street front is exquisitely ornamented,” the newspaper reported. “In the moldings, arches, panels, and spandrels, blacked bricks are used to break the monotony of redness and add a variety of forms, and required so much care as to necessarily reduce the rapidity with which it could be done.”

By the time Music Hall was complete, the Queen City of the West could certainly take pride in its “cathedral” to music, industry and horticulture.

The official 1878 May Festival program described a “magnificent structure, elegant site, (and) beautiful natural appearance, grand within. Not a church, temple or monument, nor Opera house, but a building that combines and unites these various ideas in one.”

Music Hall was, according to the program, sui generis (Latin, meaning “in a class by itself”): “Immense, comfortable, delightful, agreeable for sight and sound. Arranged with access and light for use for Expositions, nothing like it in the world. Various cities have Music Halls and Exposition buildings but not combinations.”

Cincinnati is fortunate that the building not only still stands after 140 years, but will be viable “for another hundred years” thanks to a recent $143 million rehabilitation.

24 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

2017—CINCINNATI, OHIO

Cincinnati Music Hall

Cincinnati Music Hall on the evening it reopened after a $143 million rehabilitation OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

25

An illustration of Cincinnati Music Hall, circa 1880s.

PL ANNING THE REHAB A coalition of local organizations came together several years ago and began planning the most significant rehabilitation in Music Hall’s illustrious history. That group included the Cincinnati Music Hall Revitalization Corporation, 3CDC (a community development corporation) and, of course, the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall.

“Music Hall is an amazing example of High Victorian Gothic design, and to me it was just plainly obvious it was a signature building from a famous local architect that demanded rejuvenation,” says Alan Weiskopf, managing principal at PWWG. Weiskopf’s firm is a leader in historic preservation.

He says it’s only natural to rehabilitate buildings rather than tear them down and start over again.

“The energy that it took to build that building is already spent and can’t be undone,” he says.

“It makes good sense to save the building, improve it and give it many more years of useful life.”

A H Y B R I D F R O M T H E S TA R T

Cincinnati Music Hall has always been a hybrid, with the middle building accommodating musical events and the north and south wings hosting industrial and horticultural exhibitions. An industrial After preliminary work, the exhibition held in Saenger Halle in 1870 three Music Hall buildings were drew 300,000 visitors and prompted shut down entirely in June 2016 llections n Archival Co tio ec nn city leaders to draw up plans for a larger Co and reopened to much fanfare History From Ohio venue. In the last 140 years, Music Hall has been on Oct. 6 of last year. Five different home to a bicycle school and colleges of music design and construction firms were hired for and engineering and has hosted sporting events the renovation, including lead architect Perfido, Weiskopf, Wagstaff + Goettel of Pittsburgh.

26 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

Matthew Zory, Photographer

“We’re lucky the building didn’t get torn down,” Tjepkema says. “It almost did, more than once over the years. We had to reinvent the building in a way, do an adaptive rehabilitation. The underlying love and pride Cincinnatians have for Music Hall saved it in the end, I think.”

Courtesy of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

such as boxing matches and University of Cincinnati basketball games.

It is now home to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Cincinnati Ballet, the Cincinnati Opera and the May Festival.

Peter Koenig is the board president for the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall and yet another Cincinnatian smitten by Music Hall.

“We identified, applied for and won a (State of Ohio) catalytic tax credit award and ultimately put the financing in place,” he says. “We managed that entire process along with the reprograming and design modifications to fit within our new budget.”

The project benefited from roughly $45 million in state and federal historic preservation tax credits, according to the Ohio History Connection’s Technical Preservation Services Manager Scott McIntosh.

“My mother and father would take me to Music Hall when I was a boy to listen to the symphony,” he says, “so it’s no exaggeration to say that I have been in awe of that building almost my entire life.”

“I think Americans have become more preservationminded,” he says. “I think in the last half century we’ve come to appreciate the value of historic buildings.

They give neighborhoods and communities a sense The society raised $5 million of identity, of place and of time.

Americans have become on its own for the project, They give a city vibrancy and attract more preservation-minded. a point of pride for Koenig. younger workers who like to work, live and play all in the same place.”

“We paid for most of the really cool stuff in the renovation,” he says, “the black brick detailing on McIntosh says historic preservation is as much art the exterior, the stenciling in the interior of Corbett as it is science: “You have to make sensitive changes Tower, moving the three chandeliers from the lobby so that the building can function in today’s world, into Corbett Tower, where they can now be seen but retain the character-defining features that make sparkling and twinkling from across Washington Park.” the building historic in the first place.”

Jeff Martin is a vice president for 3CDC, a nonprofit community development corporation focused on strengthening and revitalizing Cincinnati’s Central Business District and Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

“3CDC basically acted as the owner’s agent and representative,” Martin says. “I was the project manager and executive. I oversaw the planning, design, budget and construction of the project. I was also responsible to interface with all the resident artistic companies.

McIntosh and others reviewed the proposed work to Music Hall to ensure that it met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, a set of guidelines used nationwide to encourage work that’s compatible with the character of older buildings.

The Ohio History Connection’s State Historic Preservation Office recommended to the National Park Service—the final arbiter—that the Music Hall project receive a federal tax credit. The historic preservation staff also worked with the Ohio

OHIOHIS ohiohistory.org TORY.ORG 27

Work to Music Hall was completed between March 2015 and September 2017. The hall reopened Oct. 6, 2017

Matthew Zory, Photographer

Development Services Agency to ensure that the project would qualify for a similar state tax credit.

Together, the two credits—both designed to make it attractive to invest in preserving and rehabilitating income-producing historic properties—helped make the rehabilitation of Music Hall viable.

A GIFT TO THE NEXT GENERATION “Buildings like these are monuments,” McIntosh says.

“They’re not built to be demolished in a few years, but as a gift to the next generation. The renovation of Music Hall will perpetuate that gift for another hundred years or more.”

And as for those talking bricks, Tjepkema says she’s happy they spoke to her.

“I’d been reading the earliest descriptions of Music Hall, and every single article mentioned ‘dead black bricks’ that provided the building with numerous

28 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

patterns—quatrefoils, diamonds, checkerboards, a basket weave, piano keys,” she says.

“Those black bricks were an essential part of Hannaford’s style and were in his original design.

But the black bricks had been lost when the entire building was sandblasted around 1970. They’d literally been forgotten, faded away from all memory.”

Tjepkema consulted an old journal, The Brick and Clay Record, “a wonderful magazine from the era,” and also got her hands on an old brick, discovering that it had been “dipped in tar and then coated with linseed oil to make it shine.”

Music Hall tells a broad range of Cincinnati’s stories, Tjepkema says. Its patrons have included Cincinnati’s most august citizens as well as some of its hardest workers.

“When it was first built, Music Hall featured four million bricks,” Tjepkema says, “and they employed 80 bricklayers. But it was the hod carriers who did all the hardest labor, hauling bricks up the scaffolding to the bricklayers.

The story of Music Hall is the story of Cincinnati.

It is a testament to Cincinnati’s enduring patronage of the arts, industry and agriculture.

But it is also a symbol of hard work, a cathedral built by workers who hauled and laid four million bricks, among them Irish immigrants, former slaves and others.

So many stories. All you have to do is listen.

–EM

For more information about the history and architecture of Cincinnati Music Hall, visit the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall at spmhcincinnati.org, where you’ll also find information about touring the rehabilitated building.

Photographer Matthew Zory chronicled the rehab in Through the Lens: The Remaking of Cincinnati’s Music Hall, which is available online at matthewzory.com.

A short biography of renowned 19th-century Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford is available in Legendary Locals of Cincinnati

by Kevin Grace (Arcadia Publishing).

1876

Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford is chosen to design a new Music Hall

1878

The Music Hall opens on May 14 with the May Festival Chorus and an orchestra conducted by Theodore Thomas

1880

The Democratic National Convention is held at Music Hall, and General Winfield Scott Hancock is nominated for president

1939

The Music Hall Association files for reorganization under the Bankruptcy Act

1946

The University of Cincinnati basketball team joins boxing and wrestling in the north wing

1953

Music Hall reopens after three years of repairs and improvements

1964

1883

The Corbett Foundation, donates money to rebuild the backstage area at Music Hall

1886

Music Hall is added to the National Register of Historic Places

Electric lighting is added to the Industrial Exposition in Music Hall

The Technical School of Cincinnati (later the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering) opens in Music Hall

1904

Composer Richard Strauss conducts the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall

1917

Danceland at Music Hall opens in November. The 27,000-square-foot venue is described as the “classiest dance palace in the city.”

1922

Music Hall is remodeled

1929

Thomas Alva Edison is honored at Music Hall on the 50th anniversary of his invention of the light bulb

1936

Music Hall is foreclosed on and is almost razed

1970 1975

Music Hall is designated a National Historic Landmark

1994

The Corbett Foundation finances the refurbishing of Corbett Tower

2013

The National Trust for Historic Preservation adds Music Hall to its list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places

2014

Music Hall is awarded a one-time $25 million historic tax credit, and fundraising continues to completely renovate the site’s buildings

2017

Music Hall reopens to the public on Oct. 7

Source: Society for the Preservation of Music Hall

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Black brickwork patterns, a High Victorian detail lost when Music Hall was sandblasted around 1970, have been carefully restored.

30 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

REPRISE After performing last year in Cincinnati’s Taft Theatre, the May Festival returns to Music Hall, its home since 1878, on May 18, 19, 25 and 26.

The chorus consists of 145 volunteer singers, many professionally trained, and serves as the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops orchestras. Throughout the year, chorus members collectively devote more than 40,000 hours to rehearsals and performances.

This year’s concerts boast several firsts: the May Festival’s return to Music Hall after its brief hiatus; the debut of the May Festival’s new principal conductor, Juanjo Mena; and the appearance of the first female conductor in festival history, Eun Sun Kim (Verdi’s Requiem).

“Juanjo is such a fantastic, creative mind,” says Chris Pinelo, vice president of communications for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. “He turns the chorus and the orchestra into a force with artistry, confidence and sensitivity.”

Mena will conduct Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the North American premiere of James MacMillan’s Credo.

Matthew Zory, Photographer

Courtesy of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

“These are massive, complex programs performed over two very intense musical weekends,” Pinelo says.

The May 19 performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass is certain to be a festival highlight. The piece requires a full orchestra, three choirs, a marching band and a rock band.

“It’s such an undertaking that it is rarely presented today,” Pinelo says.

“But this year we’re celebrating Bernstein’s 100th birthday with Mass, which is likely to be a oncein-a-generation opportunity.”

It is fitting that the May Festival perform the work, since Bernstein had a close association with, and appreciation for, the festival, conducting it during its centennial year (1978) and praising it for “preserving the involvement of the community chorus.”

To learn more about the festival and purchase tickets for May Festival performances in the National Historic Landmark Cincinnati Music Hall, visit mayfestival.com.

Below: The May Festival Chorus at Cincinnati Music Hall.

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I Wish I’d Been There W H E N S O C I A L I S T E U G E N E D E B S WA S T R I E D F O R S E D I T I O N

BY K E V I N B OY L E

When his lawyers first urged him to make a final address to the court, Eugene Debs refused. But having spent his life rousing crowds with the power of his words, it didn’t seem right to be sentenced in silence.

So on the day before his hearing he spent a few hours alone at a friend’s house in Akron, emptying a pint of bourbon and thinking through what he wanted to say.

He’d been imprisoned once before, for organizing a boycott that crippled the railway system during the great Pullman strike of 1894.

LABOR LEADER TO SOCIALIST He’d gone into the penitentiary in January 1895 as a labor leader, come out six months later a socialist. Or so he liked to say. In fact, his route to socialism was a bit more circuitous. But it led to the same place. In 1900, the newly formed Socialist Party made him its first presidential candidate.

For the next decade and a half he was the party’s public face, a gaunt working man of stunning eloquence preaching a radical creed he insisted was profoundly American.

“I like the Fourth of July,” he said. “It breathes the spirit of revolution.”

The Socialists peaked in the election of 1912, Debs’s fourth campaign.

That year he took 6 percent of the vote nationwide, 8 percent in Ohio, his best showing in any state of the Union. The moment didn’t

32 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

last. Two years later, Europe’s great powers plummeted into war.

On April 2, 1917, Woodrow Wilson asked the American people to follow them, out of their solemn duty to make the world safe for democracy. Off they marched, taking democracy with them.

of position that would draw the authorities’ attention, until his conscience wouldn’t let him stay safe any longer.

He came to Ohio to get arrested, to the bandstand at Canton’s Nimisilla Park. It was a steaming Saturday in June 1918, a perfect day for a searing speech. A thousand people came to hear him, including a stenographer from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Cleveland. For two hours he gave them a scathing, occasionally sneering attack on Wall Street, the war and the government’s suppression of civil liberties. Two weeks later, he was indicted.

The trial opened in Cleveland’s federal courthouse on Sept. 9, 1918. The prosecutors brought to the stand two days’ worth of witnesses, Debs’s attorneys, Like most socialists, Debs was none at all. In their place, they convinced that the United States put their client, who closed the was wrong to join the carnage. proceedings with an impassioned But Washington was in no mood defense of Americans’ right to to tolerate dissent. In June, stand for their beliefs, however Congress made it a crime for unpopular they may be. As he anyone to interfere with the reached his conclusion, some military or to support its enemies. of the jurors Almost Debs stepped into the well fought back immediately, tears. But they federal of the court, leaving his weren’t willing prosecutors notes behind. to fight the law turned the Debs had defied. After five hours law against those radicals who’d of deliberations, they found him dared to publicly oppose the war. guilty as charged. The judge By early 1918, some 200 promptly gave him a day of socialists, anarchists and freedom, to be followed by his unionists had been convicted sentencing. under its provisions, with 2,000 The final session followed a set more awaiting trial. Debs wasn’t form. The judge took the bench. among them.

The prosecutor moved that a He’d never been given to caution. sentence be imposed. Then the But he was 62 now, an old man clerk asked the defendant if he’d feeling his age, and he didn’t like to make a statement. want to go to jail. So he picked Debs stepped into the well of the his way through the law’s first court, leaving his notes behind. year, carefully avoiding the sort

This time he reached past the law to the principles that had shaped him.

“Your honor,” he said, “years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind I was not one bit better than the meanest on Earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

CONDEMNED ECONOMIC INJUSTICE

He took just a moment to condemn the injustice of an economic order in which “5 percent of our people control two-thirds of our wealth.”

But injustice couldn’t be reduced to a statistical measure.

“I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and the factories,” he said.

“I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children, who in this system are … forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are starved body and soul. I see them dwarfed, diseased, stunted, their little lives broken and their hopes blasted, because in this high noon of our 20th-century civilization, money is still so much more important than human life.

“This order of things cannot always endure,” he insisted.

Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs Library of Congress

realize that before we may truly enjoy the blessings of civilized life, we must reorganize society upon a mutual and cooperative basis ... In that day we shall have the universal commonwealth— not the destruction of the nation, but, on the contrary, the harmonious cooperation of every nation with every other nation on Earth. In that day war will curse this Earth no more.”

Suddenly he wasn’t talking to the court anymore. He was talking to his fellow workers, his fellow criminals, his fellow prisoners. And he was promising them the world.

“I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity,” he told them, “for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing and joy I recognize the cometh with the feebleness of my effort, morning.”

but, fortunately, I am not alone.

“I have registered my protest against it. I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone. There are multiplied thousands of others who, like myself, have come to

He was wrong. But in that moment, before the judge ordered him imprisoned for a 10-year term that broke his health, before the socialist movement crumbled, before the gulags and the

concentration camps, before the wars he didn’t see coming and a new age of inequality he couldn’t have imagined, Debs had claimed the future for the most marginal of Americans.

I wish I’d been there.

Kevin Boyle taught modern American history at Ohio State for 11 years. He now teaches at Northwestern University. He won a National Book Award in nonfiction for The Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age (Henry Holt). The book was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

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1944—CLEVELAND, OHIO

Letter From Charles Walder Parke to His Parents

34 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

Collecting Ohio’s Stories O

n the afternoon of April 6, 1944, Warren Skinner was walking home from school on Mapledale Avenue on Cleveland’s West Side when a strange object fell from the sky.

Left: B-17 navigator Charles Walder Parke sent this letter to his parents in Cleveland, asking if they’d received the message he’d dropped from the sky.

Above: The ice cream carton that Parke used to “bomb” Cleveland in his B-17 on his way to the European Theatre, World War II. Below: Parke (left), with pilot Ray Graves and bombardier Al Silva, circa 1943.

From Ohio History Connection Collections

The nine-year-old investigated and found that the object was, in fact, an ice cream carton wrapped securely in tape with a dollar attached to it and a note that read: “Finder, keep this money. Take this box to Mr. and Mrs. Parke,” followed by an address.

What young Skinner couldn’t have known at the time was how the ice cream carton came to land at his feet in the first place.

Cliff Eckle, curator of history for the Ohio History Connection, picks up our story: “The 94th Bombardment Group had been training at the Hondo Army Airfield outside San Antonio, Texas,” he says. “The group was called up and ordered to fly to Bury St. Edmunds in England, refueling en route in Bangor, Maine, and Gander, Newfoundland.

“Charles Walder Parke of Cleveland was named navigator for the lead bomber and, hence, lead navigator for the entire group. All the planes would follow his route to Bangor, Gander and, finally, to England.”

And what would it hurt, Parke must have thought, if his group took the slightest of detours to fly over his hometown and drop a note to his parents from his B-17?

“We jokingly refer to it as Parke’s Bombing Raid of Cleveland,” Eckle says of the event, which was memorialized the following day in a Cleveland Press feature story.

Parke’s note was short and sweet: “Hi, Everyone,” he began, “Just a note while I’m buzzing over. Wish I could stop in for a while, but I guess it can’t be done. I doubt very much that this note will ever reach you because it will probably be blown to bits before it leaves the plane.

“Take good care of yourselves and I’ll be seeing you soon. Love, Walder.”

The Ohio History Connection acquired the Charles Walder Parke World War II collection—including letters, newspaper clippings, squadron orders,

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maps, photographs and the ice cream carton—in 2013.

“Collecting for history museums has certainly changed over the years,” Eckle says. “I would say for a long time we used what I’d call an antiquarian model—we collected old things and we collected based on the specific areas of staff interest or expertise. That was the collecting principle at that time.”

The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society (now the Ohio History Connection) was founded in 1885. Apart from archaeology and natural history specimens, it did not acquire its first historical objects—a selection of materials collected by Dr. J.P. MacLean including clothing, dolls, baskets and boxes made by the Shakers—until 1903.

Jason Crabill is manager of curatorial services for the Ohio History Connection. He describes the old collecting model as a “cabinet of curiosities” and says the organization also acquired objects to do with “old, dead, important people, mostly white.”

COLLECTING TO TELL OHIO’S STORIES The Parke Collection is a perfect example of a new emphasis in collecting at the Ohio History Connection.

Parke wasn’t a general. He wasn’t famous. But he had a story, a dang good one.

He wasn’t famous.

And that added value to But he had a story, his collection.

a dang good one.

“We’ve switched to telling stories through the objects we collect,” Crabill says.

“We’re interested in collecting more broadly, in trying to represent everyday life in Ohio and the everyday life of Ohioans in the things we add to our holdings.”

Though Parke fought in World War II and served in the armed forces through 1955, an object needn’t have been to hell and back to be valuable to the Ohio History Connection.

“We had a gap in our mid-20th-century furniture collection, and one of our staff members brought in two side tables and a coffee table that her mom and dad had owned,” Eckle recalled. “The set was their first Christmas present to each other after they’d been married. So the furniture fell into several categories: mid-century furniture, an object from Ohio, housekeeping as a part of daily life.”

The tables took on added significance when they were used at the Ohio History Center on the set of a roundtable panel featuring four former governors: James Rhodes, John Gilligan, Richard Celeste and George Voinovich.

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Parke’s B-17 crew in England From Ohio History Connection Collections

In his recent book, Inside the Lost Museum: Curating, Past and Present, former Smithsonian curator Steven Lubar describes the demise of Brown University’s Jenks Museum of Natural History in 1915, a cautionary tale about an institution that lost its way, and then lost its relevance.

“Museums are paradoxically always the same and always changing,” Lubar wrote in his introduction. “Arguments from a century or more ago continue today.

“Museums can tell so many stories, to so many people. And those stories can coexist and change.

We can build in many directions. Museums sometimes resist this diverse potential, looking for a narrow notion of truthfulness and value, but if they accept it, acknowledge it, perhaps even play it up, it becomes a source of strength.”

FILLING THE GAPS Crabill agrees with Lubar’s assessment of museums and says the goal of the Ohio History Connection is “to be more agile than we have been in the past, and to fill in the gaps we’ve identified in our 130-year-plus existence.

We’re looking for things that have been overlooked, things that have been underrepresented.”

The organization is also trying to be much more proactive when it comes to collecting. Though Eckle estimates that 98 percent of the items in the history collection have been donated, that still leaves room for a dedicated staff of curators to identify objects we should collect, objects that we can collect. (The Ohio History Connection has an estimated 1.8 million items in its collection.)

That includes collecting in the present.

The Henry Walter long rifle is a prized recent addition to the Ohio History Connection’s collection. The silver inlay tells who made the rifle, as well as when and where it was made.

Photos by Pete Nitschke for the Ohio History Connection

The Ohio History Connection actively sought objects of interest from the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, landing the coveted “Ohio” floor delegation sign. More recently, it collected items from the Women’s March in Washington, DC, and its sister march in Columbus.

He notes that the long rifle “was signed in silver by the gunsmith, Henry Walter, with the location of Ohio and the date of 1804. As such, it is the earliest signed and dated firearm manufactured west of the Alleghenies.”

Curators have to weigh each accession. Can we afford it? Does it fill an important gap in our collection? Do we already have something like it? Does it reflect our communities? Will people be interested in seeing the object down the road? Will scholars want to study it?

“This is more of an art than a science, collecting in the present,” Crabill says. “We have to ask ourselves, ‘Which event is going to be considered important by Ohioans 25, 50, The Ohio History 100 years from now?’”

Connection has an Though the Ohio History Connection continues to collect, it must do so in an orderly, intentional way.

estimated 1.8 million items in its collection.

LOOKING FOR UNIQUE ITEMS “When we collect something, we take on an enormous responsibility,” Eckle says. “Preserving an object in perpetuity is very expensive. And we have to anticipate what will be useful to researchers and patrons in the future.”

It pays to collect in the present, literally. The Ohio History Connection added the Henry Walter (of Columbiana County) long rifle to its firearms collection in 2015. The prized addition cost $55,000.

In Muzzle Blasts magazine, John Kolar explained the significance of the acquisition: “In the antique business any time you can find an object of merit that has the name of the owner or manufacturer, as well as a location and date, you have hit a home run.”

Recently the Ohio History Connection acquired the sign from outside Larry’s Bar, an Ohio State University campus institution from its opening in 1934 through its closing in 2008. The bar was long a cultural hub, according to Columbus poet Steve Abbott.

“It was a place where the beat and offbeat gathered before being an outsider became cool,” he says. “You could go there to talk literature or philosophy, to drink or think or both, to the sound of a jukebox of jazz, folk, rock or classical.”

Abbott helped found the Poetry Forum, presented every Monday night at Larry’s from 1984 until the place closed.

Eric Feingold is the Ohio History Connection history curator who prepared the formal referral for adding the sign.

“As a curator, I need to think of what object could represent the bar itself if we wanted to talk about it in an exhibit or educational program,” Feingold says.

“I can’t imagine any object representing Larry’s as well as the green sign that hung outside the bar.”

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The Ohio History Connection would have been as interested in accessioning a sign from a bar at Ohio University or Oberlin College, so long as it had Larry’s pedigree. Devotees of Larry’s have convinced Feingold of the importance of obtaining the sign.

“When I talk to people about Larry’s, they wonder aloud what happened to the green sign after the bar closed,” he says. “More often than not, those people lament that long-time familyowned businesses like Larry’s near (the Ohio State University) campus are disappearing as national chains take their place.”

But now the sign has a home, where it can fulfill the Ohio History Connection’s mission to preserve Ohio’s stories and share them with future generations.

—EM

When I talk to people about Larry’s, they wonder aloud what happened to the green sign after the bar closed.

Larry’s Bar, just east of Ohio State’s main campus, was a cultural mecca from 1934 until it closed in 2008.

The Columbus Dispatch

Below: The Ohio History Connection collects history as it unfolds, most recently at the July 2016 Republican National Convention and the January 2017 Women’s March in Washington, DC. Ohio History Connection

COLLECTIONS SPOTLIGHT

Collecting History as It Happens By definition, history is something that already happened. It’s human endeavor in the past tense.

But history’s also being made now, at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland and at the January 2017 Women’s March in Washington, DC. Ohio History Connection Curator Karen Robertson has mounted a small display of artifacts—handwritten notes, posters, banners, tweets, video and more—from the Women’s March that’s on display at the Ohio History Center in Columbus through June 30.

She says she’s certain that the events of that day—and those that took place in Cleveland back in the summer of 2016—are already a part of the history of our times.

“I believe that the Women’s March is going to be remembered for two main reasons,” she says. “First, I’ve seen this event resonate deeply with many of the women I know. This is the kind of event that people will remember and tell their grandchildren about, report in

an oral history or donate items from to museums, including ours.”

There’s an old curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Robertson says we’re living in very interesting times.

“The Women’s March was the first and largest public reaction to the new administration,” she says. “I believe that the 2016 election and the new administration are so historically different, that there is no way they won’t be a huge part of future history books. The Women’s March will be part of this story.”

Ohio’s delegates to the Republican National Convention all signed the Ohio delegation marker used to show where they were located on the floor at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.

In July 2016, the Ohio History Connection’s director of museum and library services, Megan Wood, told the Plain Dealer, “We have ... a collection that goes back to the first presidential conventions. With the convention being in Ohio again, as soon as it was announced we were interested in collecting from it.”

She said the floor sign was of interest to the Ohio History Connection because “those signs are so iconic” and because the organization does not have a floor sign in its collection from any other presidential convention.

Robertson says the Women’s March has several historical antecedents, pointing to the activities of the

NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Perhaps the Women’s March is most aptly compared to the suffragist movement in the 19th- and early-20th centuries, whose advocates worked tirelessly for women’s right to vote.

“History, at least in the way we normally interpret it, is the study of human beings,” Robertson says.

“So we’re all creating history every day. Sometimes, to remember this, it’s helpful to think of yourself through the eyes of your greatgreat-grandchildren. You feel pretty average, right? But think about the average Civil War soldier. Don’t you feel like he’s pretty important and historic?

“Chances are, with time, your greatgreat-grandchildren are going to feel this same way about the things you’ve experienced. This is also helpful for interpreting that Civil War soldier’s life.

It’s important to remember that, more than likely, he felt pretty average too.”

Organizations such as the Ohio History Connection would do well to keep in mind the words of Tip O’Neill, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, “All politics is local.”

“We use history in so many ways every day,” Roberston says. “We define ourselves by our local, state, national and family histories. We operate in systems created by actors of the past.

Everyone has a stake in history. That’s why it’s so exciting and so important!”

See items collected from the 2017 Women’s March on display in the New Acquisitions case in the Welcome Lobby at the Ohio History Center in Columbus through June 30. Questions?

Call 800.686.6124.

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APRIL 5, 1968—CLEVELAND, OHIO

Robert Kennedy Decries Violence in America A large crowd gathered in downtown Cleveland to hear Robert Kennedy on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

40 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

Brothers & Countrymen T

he most significant event in the storied history of the City Club of Cleveland almost never happened.

Founded in 1912, the nonpartisan debate forum, known as “America’s Citadel of Free Speech,” welcomed such preeminent speakers as Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Eugene V. Debs, Clarence Darrow, Mohandas K. Gandhi and Rosa Parks.

But 1968 was unlike most years, not only for the City Club but for the country and the world. The Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. The Tet Offensive in Vietnam. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. Urban riots.

Violence at the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

A MONUMENTAL EVENT IN THE MAKING On Sat., March 30, 1968, “We booked Bobby Kennedy to speak,” recalls Fred Vierow, who was the club’s secretary at the time. “We started selling tickets the next day, and by Tuesday we had sold 2,400. We had seating for 150 at the City Club.”

No one knew at the time, however, just how monumental.

The Michael Schwartz Librar y, Cleveland State University

Kennedy, who had announced his candidacy for the presidency on March 16, only a few weeks prior to his engagement at the City Club, was an unlikely challenger to the incumbent, Lyndon B. Johnson. But when Johnson announced he would not seek reelection—on Sun., March 31, the day after Kennedy had agreed to speak in Cleveland—a monumental event was in the offing.

Above: Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at a freedom rally in 1962 at the Washington Temple Church of God in Christ, Brooklyn, NY. Librar y of Congress

41

A TR AGIC TURN OF EVENTS “We of course moved the event from the City Club to the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel on Public Square,” Vierow says. “But then, well, that Thursday Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and just about everything changed.”

On the evening of King’s assassination, Kennedy was campaigning in Indianapolis. He announced King’s assassination to an audible gasp from the mostly African American crowd and extemporaneously spoke words of empathy, frustration and consolation.

“For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling,” Kennedy told the crowd.

“The vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together,” he reminded the stricken crowd, “want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.”

his speech writing team, which included the awardwinning journalist and author Jeff Greenfield, and they wrote for most of the night what came to be known as On the Mindless Menace of Violence,” Moulthrop says.

Vierow says some club members—one he recalls in particular—were displeased because Kennedy refused to participate in the club’s “mandatory” question-and-answer period.

Instead, Kennedy told the large gathering, “Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I speak to you under different circumstances than I had intended to just 24 hours ago. For this is a time of shame and a time of sorrow. This is not a day for politics.”

Before the assassination, Vierow says, “We probably expected a political-type rally, but that wasn’t the mood that day at all. The crowd was somber, and Kennedy delivered a very somber address.”

In it, the presidential candidate spoke of America’s apparent tolerance for the “rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization.” Not just the tolerance of the sniper’s bullet, he continued, but for “another kind of violence of institutions— indifference, inaction, decay.”

Though rioting broke out in cities all across America, there was no James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to shooting King with a .30-06 rifle while the civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner stood on the balcony (pictured here) outside rioting that night his room at the Lorraine Motel on Mulberry Street in downtown Memphis. (He later in Indianapolis. recanted his confession but never received a retrial and died in a maximum-security But Kennedy prison at the age of 70 in 1998.) LIBR ARY OF CONGRESS had a decision to make. Should he suspend his campaign the next He spoke about “the violence that afflicts the poor, that day or fulfill his obligation to the City Club? He was poisons relations between men because their skin has encouraged by leaders of Cleveland’s African American different colors. This is a slow destruction of a child community to forge ahead with the speech. by hunger, and schools without books, and homes without heat in the winter.”

“Bobby Kennedy’s speech is the most significant speech ever hosted by the City Club in its 106-year King gave the last speech of his life at the Mason history,” says current club secretary, Dan Moulthrop. “It Temple Church of God in Memphis. In it, he famously was broadcast around the world.” said, “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with NOT A DAY FOR P OLITIC S me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. …

After he decided to honor his commitment to the Like anybody, I would like to live a long life … but I’m City Club, Kennedy still had work to do. “The night not concerned about that now.” before he came to Cleveland, Kennedy gathered with

42 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

Robert Kennedy addresses the City Club of Cleveland on April 5, 1968 Michael Schwartz Librar y, Cleveland State University

He was dead just after 6 p.m. the following day. And Robert Kennedy was assassinated two months later, on June 6, 1968.

Cleveland author James Robenalt (Ballots and Bullets: Black Power and Urban Guerilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland, Chicago Review Press) says the similarities between King and Kennedy in 1968 are striking.

“They were both getting to the same place at the same time,” Robenalt says. “They shared like views about nonviolence and civil rights. And they both felt the country needed to move towards an honest discussion about racism and poverty.”

Toward that end, King had moved on from his critical role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to focus his attention not only on the war in Vietnam, but also on poverty, with his Poor People’s Campaign.

King’s assassination and the ensuing riots across America seemed to fulfill another of the minister’s prophecies. Earlier in 1968, he told his fellow activist, Ralph Abernathy, “Maybe we just have to admit that the day of violence is here, and maybe we have to just give up and let violence take its course.”

Kennedy would have wished it otherwise.

“Surely we can learn, at the least, to look around at those of us, of our fellow man,” he told the hushed crowd, “and surely we can work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our heart brothers and countrymen once again.”

–EM EXPLORE MORE

Hear audio recordings of Robert Kennedy’s speeches from the day of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination

Taken together, the speeches King and Kennedy gave on April 3 and 5, respectively, are, Robenalt says, “almost biblically prophetic.”

and the day after at the City Club of Cleveland at

“I think On the Mindless Menace of Violence is Robert Kennedy’s Gettysburg Address,” Robenalt says. “It’s short, but it says so much. It was his farewell speech, though he didn’t know it at the time.” King’s I Have Been to the Mountaintop was also eerily prescient.

Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech at Ohio Northern

americanrhetoric.com. Click on “Speech Bank” and search for Robert Kennedy.

University on Jan. 11, 1968. Hear an audio recording of the speech by typing in the search terms “Martin Luther King Jr. speech” at onu.edu.

For more information about the City Club of Cleveland and for a calendar of upcoming events, visit cityclub.org.

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Waking

44 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

a Sleeping Language L

anguages can fall into disuse. They can fall asleep, as linguists would say.

But a language that has been dormant for decades can be awakened from its slumber.

When he was younger, linguist and cultural preservationist Daryl Baldwin felt a void. He was a member of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, a vibrant group full of spirit and life. But he didn’t know as much as he would have liked to about his tribe’s culture or its language.

“Something felt missing during my childhood experiences as a Myaamia youth,” he says. “I had to go searching and to do that I had to leave, step out of my comfort zone—follow a path of exploration and learning.”

But the search proved difficult, the language at first a riddle. Forced removal of the Miami nation from their Great Lakes homeland scattered the Myaamia people, who now number roughly 5,000, across the country, and accelerated the decline of the Miami language.

“My heritage language was unknown to me growing up, and when I saw it in documentation form it felt foreign to me, but it was still mine because I claimed it as part of my heritage,” Baldwin says.

Fortunately for him, historical documentation of the Miami language and the groundbreaking work of fellow linguist David Costa provided him with the necessary tools to implement a bold initiative: to reintroduce and teach the language to younger members of his tribe at community-supported youth camps.

Left: Miami Tribe of Oklahoma traditional ribbonwork Karen L. Baldwin Top: Linguist and cultural preservationist Daryl Baldwin Courtesy of the Myaamia Center at Miami University

Bottom: Two members of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma in 1910 National Museum of the American Indian

In 2001, Baldwin and several colleagues, in conjunction with Miami University, founded The Myaamia Center, with the goal of “advancing the research needs of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, with a focus on Myaamia language, culture, and history.”

Baldwin, who was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (also known as a “genius grant”) in 2016, agreed to answer several questions posed to him by Echoes Magazine.

Echoes: Richard Wilbur wrote a poem, To the Etruscan Poets, about a “lost” language, about poets writing without knowing that “all could melt and go.”

What’s your reaction to it?

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Andrew J. Strack

Echoes: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the task at hand? According to one study, nearly 90 percent of the 175 Native American languages have no child speakers.

DB: Language loss … is often presented to the public as a doom-and-gloom scenario. I do not view it that way. Not because I’m being unrealistic, but because I don't believe that’s an accurate way to look at this entire situation.

As Myaamia people, we have experienced a tremendous amount of change over time when we look at our history. In many if not most cases these changes were not by choice but by forces beyond our control. Despite all of the realities of our past, we have, in fact, survived as a tribal nation and been able to respond to most of those changes in a way that’s allowed us to carry forward. There have been both losses and gains in all of this. The struggle builds incredible resilience among us when we work together, and we are ready to take on the challenge of finding an appropriate place for our language in our contemporary lives.

Above: Daryl Baldwin teaches the Myaamia language to young members of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma

DB: When I read this poem, I think of the transformation in our lives as Myaamia People, uncontrollable change over time, feeling for the losses, and embracing new possibilities. There are times to mourn and times to celebrate: ooniini meehtohseeniwinki, ‘this is life.’

Echoes: Has your work at the center deepened your experience and knowledge of Myaamia heritage?

DB: The language is almost like an ancestor of the past who is part of who I am, but I never knew them. This language was mine because if I didn't speak it, no one would, and I believed I might find something of myself through learning my language.

That journey has shaped me and others who have chosen to follow it.

Echoes: What’s the greatest challenge in reviving a dormant language?

DB: In order to reconstruct a language from documentation, and for a contemporary purpose, there have to be some key ingredients. First, there has to be enough documentation to reconstruct all the grammatical and phonological aspects of the language, and that requires the help of linguistics.

Second, there has to be enough of a community interested in reclaiming it as a part of their identity.

46 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

Echoes: Is your work in any way nostalgic?

DB: Our work in revitalization is not about recreating the past; it’s about our needs for the present. We are not our ancestors but a living extension of them. Our language cannot lock us in the past, but has to help us emerge into the present and help us carry forward our identity and knowledge system as Myaamia people.

Twenty years ago no one spoke the Myaamia language. Today there are many who use it daily and several families who are raising their children to have some level of proficiency in the language.

It may not be a language of politics and commerce here in the United States, but it is a language of identity.

Echoes: How have your four children responded to your work?

DB: My children didn't really have a choice in the matter because we made our home an important domain for Myaamia language to be spoken, so in that regard they were born into it. We reinforced this through homeschooling over an 18-year period, which was largely carried out by my wife who was very supportive even though she doesn't possess Myaamia ancestry.

Our initial goal was to reinforce their heritage over time, but what we didn't expect was how strongly it

would shape their adult identity. For me, Myaamia language is and always will be a “second” language.

For my children, Myaamia language will always be part of their first language. Granted, they are more fluent in English, but they learned Myaamia along with their English, and that experience shaped their youth differently than it did for me.

stories, in a contemporary setting to have fun expressing their heritage. These kinds of interactions are just now emerging after 30 years (of work) and indicate to me a new transformation in the internalization of Myaamia language, culture and community.

Echoes: And how have your students responded to the language over the years?

DB: A couple of years ago I started hearing some of our students say to each other, niilaahka teehši niiši iišileniaani—‘only I can do that.’ I found this really funny, partly because the line comes from a winter story where our cultural hero is engaging in some nonhuman behavior and the students were applying that to those moments in life when something incredibly funny occurs.

Learn more about the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma’s language and culture at myaamiacenter.org.

Read more about the Algonquian languages and oral histories gathered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in New Voices for Old Words: Algonquian Oral Literatures, edited by Myaamia Center linguist David J. Costa (University of Nebraska Press).

I also found it deeply insightful that they were using their language, and the cultural ideas from winter

A fun and lively community game of lacrosse during the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma’s Annual Gathering Weekend.

Karen L. Baldwin

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EDITOR’S NOTE Administered by the Ohio History Connection, Ohio History Day is a social studies program that engages students in dynamic, creative and rigorous learning. Students conduct historical research that turns into imaginative exhibits, documentaries and original performances as well as scholarly papers. In 2017, TriCounty Middle Schoolers Parker Williams and Devin Corrington (pictured below) created a storyboard telling the story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger of nearby Piqua, Ohio. The boys won an Ohio Local History Alliance Award and a Society of Ohio Archivists Award for their project. From their research, Williams and Corrington construct a plausible scene on the morning of Pitsenbarger’s death and then tell us about their research methods.

Below: Devin Corrington (left) and Parker Williams at the statue of Piqua Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger.

Courtesy of Stacy Williams

Piecing Together a Hero’s Story

YO U N G E Y E S O N T H E PA S T

BY PA R K E R W I L L I A M S A N D D E V I N C O R R I N G T O N , O H I O H I S T O RY D AY S T U D E N T S

I rushed outside to the frantic shouting of orders— wounded soldiers needed rescuing.

My commanding officer said it was my day off and I could do what I wanted with it, so I grabbed my gear and jumped up in time to get a seat on the chopper.

The pilot asked, “Pits, you really want to do this on your day off?

It’s a fiery hell down there!”

“I don’t want to, I have to,” I replied.

• • •

During an eight-month period of the Vietnam War, Airman First Class William H. Pitsenbarger flew in more than 300 missions as a pararescueman in the Air Force.

He risked his life over and over, attempting nearly impossible missions to help wounded soldiers.

On April 11, 1966, Pitsenbarger dropped 100 feet on a winch line out of a helicopter into a thick jungle. He spent hours crawling through the depths of the woods.

One by one, Pitsenbarger helped wounded soldiers. When his chopper was hit, they called Pitsenbarger back, but he refused.

Instead he waved the helicopter off so he could save more soldiers.

Pitsenbarger continued collecting and distributing weapons, dragging wounded soldiers to safety and bandaging their wounds, all while being shot three times. Eventually, Pitsenbarger was shot between the eyes by a sniper and died at age 21.

Pitsenbarger gave up his life to save the lives of nine strangers that day.

S O O T H E R S M AY L I V E William H. Pitsenbarger was awarded the Air Force Cross medal

48 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

for his bravery in the Vietnam War. This medal was upgraded in April 2000 to a Medal of Honor. This is the highest medal you can receive from the military. The upgrade took place because Pitsenbarger went above and beyond what was expected of him when he risked his life to save the lives of others. Pitsenbarger also received an Air Medal for participation in aerial flight, an Airman’s Medal for risking his life to help others, and a Purple Heart for dying while in combat. William H. Pitsenbarger was a true example of a pararescueman’s motto, “So others may live.”

A S T O RY F I L L E D WITH HEROISM We were given the opportunity to learn about Pitsenbarger when we were assigned a History Day project in our sixth-grade social studies class. The reasons we chose him as our Taking a Stand in History hero is because Pitsenbarger’s story is filled with action, violence and heroism.

We were curious to find out how Pitsenbarger made an impact on history. Early on, we realized that we both had family members in the military. We had a grandpa who was a paratrooper in the Korean War, a great-uncle who was a medic in Vietnam and an uncle in the Air Force. These connections made us even more excited to learn about Pitsenbarger’s life. We couldn’t wait to tell his story through an exhibit.

After our local competition, we continued to research and went through several revisions to get to

where we are now. First, based on feedback from the judges at Tri-County North, we redesigned the color scheme of our board and added Pitsenbarger’s name to the title. At districts, we received a superior rating and wanted to prepare for the state competition.

Again, we decided to redo our board. Knowing that we needed more primary sources and that Pitsenbarger was a local hero from Piqua, Ohio, we visited the Pitsenbarger display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton and the Pitsenbarger statue at the Pitsenbarger Sports Complex, met with two historians from Piqua Public Library, and interviewed two Vietnam veterans and a childhood friend of Pitsenbarger. Our most valuable primary source was Harry O’Beirne because he had a personal connection with Pitsenbarger.

They were planning to go to college together after Vietnam.

Unfortunately, O’Beirne was the person who found Pitsenbarger dead on the battlefield. We also met with Tim and John Stubblefield from our school, who won first place at the History Day state competition a few years ago, qualifying them for the national History Day competition in Washington, DC.

We decided to incorporate some of their feedback into our project as well.

Doing this History Day project taught us how to research topics more in depth and challenge ourselves to reach our ultimate goal. We realized through this process that historians have difficult jobs because there is always more studying and work to be done.

Although we did not make it to the national competition our first time competing, we won two awards and had an amazing journey.

History Day has made us more intrigued about learning history.

We have become better researchers and have improved our ability to speak publicly. Pitsenbarger taught us to power through even when things get tough.

Read On! The following titles mentioned in this issue of Echoes Magazine are available at the Ohio History Store at the Ohio History Center and online at ohiohistorystore.com: Paul Laurence Dunbar: Beyond the Mask, a documentary written and directed by Frederick Lewis (Ohio University Press, $22.95); A Serpent’s Tale: Discovering America’s Ancient

Above Left: A portrait of Pitsenbarger hangs in the Piqua Public Library.

Courtesy of Piqua Public Librar y

Above Right: Storyboard about William H. Pitsenbarger that Devin Corrington and Parker Williams created for the Ohio History Day competition.

Courtesy of Stacy Williams

Mound Builders by Lorett Treese (Westholme Publishing, $28); Through the Lens: The Remaking of Cincinnati’s Music Hall by Shelly Reese and Matthew Zory (Cincinnati Book Publishing, $49); Legendary Locals of Cincinnati by Kevin Grace (Arcadia Publishing, $12.85.

Ohio History Connection members save 10 percent on most purchases in our Ohio History Store and at ohiohistorystore.com.

Special thanks to our 2018 Ohio History Day Champion Sponsor, CollegeAdvantage, Ohio’s 529 Savings Program.

OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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Reviews BOOK

A Serpent’s Tale A Serpent’s Tale: Discovering America’s Ancient Mound Builders (Westholme Publishing, $28), by Lorett Treese, is an engaging history of how we’ve come to know what we think we know about the remarkable ancient American Indian cultures that built the monumental earthworks of the Ohio Valley. The book is, however, much more than that. It‘s an entertaining travelogue chronicling her visits to the most important sites and museums in the region, such as Serpent Mound, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Newark Earthworks, Fort Ancient Earthworks and the Ohio History Center, which she describes as

“the best place to compare and contrast the artifacts of Ohio’s various ancient cultures and understand their relationship with even earlier ones.” Treese also presents an up-to-date summary of what we do know about these ancient monuments with the important acknowledgment that new discoveries leave our interpretations “subject to change at any time.”

Finally, Treese has a chapter devoted to “alternative” views of the mounds, in which she discusses some of the crazy ideas that have been proposed for who built these wonders of the ancient world. Everyone from refugees from the lost continent of Atlantis to Hebrews, Egyptians and even alien astronauts have

been put forward as the builders of the mounds. But as Gerard Fowke wrote in the pages of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly back in 1888, “All this misconception is due to the readiness of people to accept notoriety and bombast for authority and learning; to believe the false, rather than the true, so long as it appeals strongly to their love of the marvelous.” Whatever the explanation for “all this misconception,” the more than two centuries of archaeological investigations recounted

by Treese overwhelmingly prove that the ancestors of modern American Indians were “America’s ancient mound builders.” A Serpent’s Tale is their story.

Brad Lepper, Ohio History Connection Curator of Archaeology

DOCUMENTARY

Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar: Beyond the Mask (Ohio University Press, $22.95) is a documentary written and directed

by Frederick Lewis.

The DVD introduces viewers, perhaps for the first time, to Dunbar (1872–1906), an underappreciated Ohio poet, novelist, lyricist, civil rights essayist and public speaker. Dunbar was a precocious student, delivering his first reading at age 12 and editing the short-lived Dayton Tattler at 18. To make ends meet, he worked briefly as a janitor for National Cash Register in Dayton and later as an elevator operator. But his aspirations exceeded his day job. He

50 Echoes | MAY & JUNE 2018

had a desire, he once wrote, “to be a worthy singer of the songs of God and nature. To be able to interpret my own people through song and story, and to prove to the many that after all we are more human than African.”

Beyond the Mask does not flinch at the obstacles Dunbar faced. “Financial fears” is a phrase that runs through the documentary. He toiled for years mostly in obscurity and when he did gain a modicum of fame, after the literary critic William Dean Howells praised one of his poetry collections, it came at a price.

Howells focused too much on Dunbar’s skin color and use in his poetry of African American dialect. When Dunbar portrayed white characters, critics complained, “Mr. Dunbar should write (exclusively) about Negroes.” Another

detractor opined that Dunbar should “shut his mouth and shoe horses.”

Lewis labored on Beyond the Mask for eight years and packs a great deal into his two-hour documentary, including Dunbar’s prolific talent, his ill-fated but glorious love affair and marriage to Alice Ruth Moore, and important friendships with Orville Wright, Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois.

In a particularly moving scene, Maya Angelou tells a television interviewer that the title of her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, came from the Dunbar poem Sympathy, then recites all three verses of the poem from memory.

Bill Eichenberger, Echoes Magazine

Shop our Ohio History Store at the Ohio History Center or ohiohistorystore.com for these titles and more.

Writing Room, Paul Laurence Dunbar House, Dayton Learn about visiting the Dunbar House at ohiohistory.org/dunbar OHIOHIS TORY.ORG

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