MAGAZINE
JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2022 SPACE RACE
RAGGIN’ ON
JOURNEY OF APPRECIATION
PLAYING ABOVE THE RIM
John Glenn Orbits the Earth
The Aminah Robinson Legacy Project
Ulysses S. Grant at 200
Georgeann Wells Makes Basketball History
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MAGA ZINE
Cover: Sixty years ago, on Feb. 20, 1962, Ohioan John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, in the space capsule Friendship 7. See page 24. NASA
Vol. 61, No. 1
Contents J A N U A R Y & F E B R U A R Y 2022
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EDITORS
Bill Eichenberger Tom Wolf CONTRIBUTORS
Bella Czajkowski
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Raggin’ On—The Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Legacy Project
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Ulysses S. Grant at 200— A Journey of Appreciation
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Playing Above the Rim— Georgeann Wells Makes Basketball History
Erin Esmont C arole M . G enshaf t
“Good Lord Ride All the Way”— John Glenn Orbits the Earth in 1962
Stephen G eorge Annalissa Hankinson David A . Simmons Tom Staf ford ADVISORY BOARD
Donna DeBlasio Youn gstown St ate Unive r sit y
Nishani Frazier Miami Unive r sit y
Rober t G enheimer Cin cinn ati Muse um Ce nte r
Stephen G eorge O hio Histor y Conne c tion
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
Truda Shinker O hio Histor y Conne c tion
I N E AC H I S S U E
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Contents From Our Editors What’s Your Story? In the News Historic Sites & Museums At the Ohio History Center & Ohio Village Online Events Featured Events & Exhibits I Wish I’d Been There Young Eyes on the Past Reviews
Echoes Magazine (ISSN 0012-933X) is published bimonthly and distributed by the Ohio History Connection as a benefit of Ohio History Connection membership.
THANKS TO OUR OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION STRATEGIC PARTNERS:
Editorial Offices: Ohio History Connection, Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43211-2474 Phone 844.836.0012 Email echoes@ohiohistory.org Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Echoes Magazine, Ohio History Connection, Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43211-2474 Entire contents © 2022 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.
Moving? Contact us at membership@ohiohistory.org or 800.686.1545 to share your new address.
The Ohio History Connection is a
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“Good Lord Ride All the Way” JOHN GLENN ORBITS THE EARTH IN 1962
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Sixty years ago, on Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn blasted into space aboard the Friendship 7, becoming the first American to circle the globe. Erin Esmont talks with his daughter, Carolyn “Lyn” Glenn, then 15, about her memories of that time, and with Ohio History Connection curators Becky Odom and Cliff Eckle about the invitation they received to visit the Glenns’ home and choose items to be preserved in the Ohio History Connection’s collections, among them “Daddy’s chair.”
Raggin’ On THE AMINAH BRENDA LYNN ROBINSON LEGACY PROJECT
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Artist Aminah Robinson (1940–2015) grew up in Columbus’s Poindexter Village and went on to chronicle the story of Black life in Columbus through her art. Columbus Museum of Art Curator Carole M. Genshaft shares the museum’s plans for preserving and sharing Robinson’s colorful art and legacy.
Ulysses S. Grant at 200 A JOURNEY OF APPRECIATION
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Ohio History Connection senior advisor Stephen George reflects on the life and career of Ulysses S. Grant, born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, 200 years ago this April. Washed out of his early military career, the secession crisis gave Grant the purpose he needed and led him to be the Union’s triumphant military leader and, as a national hero, to the presidency.
Playing Above the Rim GEORGEANN WELLS MAKES BASKETBALL HISTORY
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On Dec. 21, 1984, Columbus native Georgeann Wells became the first woman to dunk in a college basketball game, playing for West Virginia University. Wells later was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Bella Czajkowski talks with Wells, now a Gahanna, Ohio, business owner and grandmother, about that momentous event.
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FROM OUR EDITORS Ulysses S. Grant was maligned after the Civil War for his blunt tactics, his heavy drinking and his alleged corruption while president. His presidency was written off as a failure, an opinion that lasted well into the 20th century. In his epic 2017 biography of the general and president, Ron Chernow writes, “Perhaps the most explosively persistent myth about Grant is that he was a ‘drunkard,’ with all that implies about selfindulgence and moral laxity. … The drinking issue, both real and imaginary, so permeated Grant’s career that a thoroughgoing account is needed to settle the matter.” Likely due to the bad press, Grant was ranked by a survey of American historians in 1948 as the second-worst president in the country’s history. Military historian John Keegan, on the other hand, once described Grant as “the towering military genius of the Civil War” and insisted that he “was the greatest general of the war, one who would have excelled at any time in any army.” The America we live in today would look markedly different had Grant not helped the Union to win the war and then protected African American rights throughout his presidency. He was a trailblazer. Aminah Robinson, John Glenn and Georgeann Wells—all featured in this issue of Echoes Magazine—blazed trails of their own nearly 100 years after Grant’s presidency ended. Most of us likely recall Glenn’s achievements, becoming the first American to orbit the earth in 1962 and his tenure as a U.S. senator from 1974 to 1999. Like Grant, Glenn was remarkable for his humility and courage. One could do worse than adhere to Glenn’s life advice, nuggets such as “If there is one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people I’ve known are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest” and “Don’t give in to complacency and cynicism. Don’t ignore what is bad, but concentrate on building what is good. Don’t take America and the values reflected in our form of government for granted. And never forget that in our democracy, the government is not ‘them’—it is ‘us.’” Aminah Robinson called her art “the missing pages of American history,” and her aim as an artist was “to celebrate the everyday lives and culture of Black people and their endurance through centuries of injustice.” In 1984, she received the Ohio Governor’s Award for the Visual Arts. And in 2004, she won a MacArthur Genius Grant for folk artists, praising her themes of “family, ancestry, and the grandeur of simple objects in drawings, paintings, and large-scale, mixed-media assemblages.” Upon her death in 2015, Robinson bequeathed her estate to the Columbus Museum of Art, which led the museum to establish the Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Legacy Project. Georgeann Wells was a superb college basketball player at West Virginia University in the mid-1980s, but she’s remembered for one monumental achievement as the first woman to slam dunk a basketball during a college game. More than 35 years later, only three additional collegiate women players have dunked. So Wells was a pioneer, but her legacy is relevant today.
What’s In every issue of Echoes Magazine, we feature 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,
“ What is your occupation and what two or three books do you refer to on a regular basis? ” Here are some of your responses: THE BIBLE As professor emeritus and former head of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at The Ohio State University, and as I’m writing this at Thanksgiving time, I suggest the three volumes on Miles Standish’s bookshelf, per Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Bariffe’s Artillery Guide, and the Commentaries of Cæsar out of the Latin translated by Arthur Golding of London, and, as if guarded by these, between them was standing the Bible.” As a specialist in American cultural history, I cite a more recent work, These Truths (2018) by Jill Lepore, whose interpretation of American history is thorough, fair and enlightening. In fact, I would recommend any book by Lepore, particularly The Name of War (1998), the story of King Philip’s War (1675–1678), the deadliest conflict, per capita, in colonial and American history. Generally, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden should be read every 10 years or so. —Geoffrey D. Smith, Columbus
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Your Story? In 25 years of writing about nature and the environment, both as a journalist and as an advocate, I’ve drawn inspiration by re-reading the classics: Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire for attitude, Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to spark a sense of wonder and— for interpreting natural science with clarity and reverence—Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. Dog-eared copies of these favorites hold honored spots on my bookcase. As a daily reference guide, I’ve turned often to Home Ground, a compilation of geographic terms describing the lands and waters that make up our home continent. Subtitled Language for an American Landscape (edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney), it is far more than a dry glossary. Because the 850-plus entries in Home Ground are written by poets and writers, from writer-activists like Terry Tempest Williams to Barbara Kingsolver and other novelists, they’re not mere scientifically accurate descriptions of geology, geography, biology or weather. They also capture elements of history, etymology, art, literature and religion— all the ingredients that make up the natural and human narrative of this vast and complex land. Thus, you learn that a cordillera is a series of parallel mountain ranges and comes to English from the Spanish word for rope, cordilla. In another entry, writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer explains that many of the words Americans adopted to describe mountain features come from 18th-century Romantic poets and artists who chose words to evoke majesty and awe, so a freestanding rock formation that points to the heavens may be a spire or minaret.
As a writer who may need to know the difference between slackwater and slickrock, an esker from an escarpment or a promontory from a pokelogan, I’ve found Home Ground to be both valuable and entertaining.
Ohio Memory | Lakewood Public Library
OPEN GROUND
GO-TO BOOKS
—Randy Edwards, Columbus
BIG-HEARTED BUSINESS In my nearly two decades in funeral service as both a licensed social worker and licensed funeral director, I have four favorite books. The first book is Funeral Home Customer Service A–Z by Dr. Alan Wolfelt. Wolfelt describes the book as for those in funeral service who want to be “strivers.” This book teaches funeral directors how to create experiences that count. The only prerequisite to this book is that you must care. The second book I read before entering funeral service but have read several times since my entry into this small, big-hearted business. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D., wrote On Death and Dying in 1969. This book is about hope and healing. I feel more prepared to help and understand those in hospice care with funeral planning. A third book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach, is sidesplitting. I cannot speak with a family about body donation without selections of this book coming to mind. The donated departed can do so much more than cure cancer, which most seem as though they are going to do. Lastly, The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, by poet and author Thomas Lynch, reminds us that a good funeral gets the dead where they need to go and the living where they need to be.
Young adults peruse an exhibit at the Lakewood Public Library called Books to Help Think Things Through in this photograph from November 1940. Lakewood Public Library fostered an atmosphere of free speech and open discussion of topics of the day.
WHAT’S YOUR STORY? We want to know your stories, so in every issue of Echoes Magazine we ask you a question, then run selected answers in the following issue. Here’s the question for March & April: What do you remember about John Glenn orbiting the earth or Neil Armstrong’s moon landing?
—Rebekah Manofsky, Columbus Email your story responses (50 to 150 words) by Jan. 10 to echoes@ohiohistory.org or, if you follow us on Facebook, send us a Facebook message.
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In the News work with many organizations and his ability to connect, promote and advocate for Ohio history.
Ted Prasse LOCAL HISTORY
Outstanding Achievement Awards Since 1960, the Ohio Local History Alliance, in partnership with the Ohio History Connection, has recognized excellent projects, programs and publications created by Ohio’s historical societies, museums and related organizations, as well as individuals who’ve made significant contributions to the field of history. At its annual meeting in October, the alliance presented 12 Outstanding Achievement Awards. CHAMPION AWARDS
Cleveland: Richard T. Prasse, known as Ted, has served National History Day for more than 30 years. Immediate past chair of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance, which manages Ohio’s National Aviation Heritage Area, he’s a former president of the Ohio History Connection Board of Trustees and a current trustee of Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums and Dawes Arboretum. Prasse was honored for his
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Caldwell: Brayden McAfee constructed a museum of 19thcentury farm vehicles and equipment in Noble County Historical Society’s barn as his Eagle Scout project. The equipment had been stored at the barn for years. McAfee cleaned it up and repaired it, built a level base in the barn, added lighting so visitors could see the collection and put together text explaining how the equipment was used. $2,000 was raised for materials. INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
Cleveland: Timothy Daley retired in May as director of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument on Public Square in downtown Cleveland. As director, Daley enjoyed bringing in visitors. He developed the popular Tunnel Tours, one weekend a year when more than 1,000 people make their way through tunnels under the monument. Decoration Day, Descendants Day, Veterans Day, Christmas at the Monument and other events keep the 127-year-old landmark honoring 9,000 Cuyahoga Countians who served in the Civil War relevant to modern visitors.
continually searches for items of interest for Warren, Ohio’s, Upton House, home of nationally prominent suffragist Harriet Taylor Upton (1854–1945). In her work for the Upton Association, Sheridan has demonstrated excellence in finance, leadership, historic preservation, membership, communication, publicity and community outreach. HISTORY OUTREACH AWARDS F Media and Publications F
Huron: Huron Historical Society and Project Coordinator Kathy Muehlhauser Moore for Explore Huron History, a website plus portable touch-screen kiosk to exhibit at various venues in Huron. Working with a Cleveland-based firm, Moore produced much of the video content, conducting interviews, researching information in the society’s archives and local newspapers and choosing photos. To supplement a $10,000 grant from an anonymous donor, she secured additional funds for the $20,000 project from Sandusky’s Mylander Foundation and a Maryland foundation with Huron ties. You can check out Explore Huron History at thehuronhistoricalsociety.org/explore. Marion: Randy Winland and Marion County Historical Society for Moments & Memories: A Collection of Marion County History in Celebration of the 2020 Bicentennial. Winland’s
Warren: Judith M. Sheridan is a member of many northeast Ohio historical societies, allowing her to network with others who share similar interests and to promote education and raise interest in Ohio history. Historic preservation is paramount to Sheridan, who Sandusky County Bicentennial Traveling Museum
interest in his adopted hometown led him to collect local memorabilia, postcards, photographs, books and stories. Active in local history for many years, in 2020 he chaired the county’s bicentennial celebration. Most activities were canceled due to COVID-19, though publication of Moments & Memories, 366 snippets of local history, continued unabated. Proceeds benefit Marion County Historical Society. Sidney: Shelby County Historical Society for The Churches of Shelby County Past and Present. The idea for a book about local churches came out of planning for the bicentennials of Shelby County in 2019 and Sidney in 2020. Help came from many people and organizations, including the Shelby County Historical Society staff and several volunteers. Every school system in the county was asked for students to help research churches, involving them in creation of the book. F Exhibits or Displays F
Cincinnati: Friends of Harriet Beecher Stowe House for Our Neighborhood Story: A Tour of This Walnut Hills Block. The outdoor exhibit highlights the story of the Walnut Hills neighborhood over time, centering on the block where Stowe lived. Visitors can learn about changes over time involving historic Lane Theological Seminary, the Stowe House, the development and apex of the Black
business district and changes wrought by road construction and urban planning. Fremont: Sandusky County Bicentennial Traveling Museum. Local residents planned a year of events to celebrate the county’s bicentennial in 2020, then its bicentennial + 1 year in 2021, because most 2020 events were postponed due to the pandemic. One initiative was creating a traveling museum to visit fairs, events and schools throughout the county. The committee raised money through grants and private donations to buy a trailer and outfit it with exhibit cases, museum panels and video displays. Loveland: Loveland Museum Center for Restoring the World War II Honor Roll, dedicated in 1944. An octagonal structure topped by an eagle, it was designed by Carl Zimmerman (1900– 1985), who taught at the Cincinnati Art Academy. The honor roll listed all area men and women serving in the war. Removed about 1953 to make way for a shopping center, it was rediscovered on a farm where it had been used for years as a garden shed. Moved to the museum campus, it was restored and dedicated following Loveland’s 2021 Memorial Day Parade. Warren: The Sutliff Museum for A Million Ways to Die in the 19th Century, its first online exhibit. Six short video segments touch on everyday items that were potentially
deadly to people in the 19th century, from lighting and wallpaper to clothing and makeup. Two longer segments look at diphtheria, a disease that touched the Sutliff family, and miasma and contagion theories. Fifteen Melnick Medical Museum photos depict 19thcentury remedies and medical devices that have since proven deadly. See the exhibit at sutliffmuseum.org/digitalexhibit. F Public Programming F
Delaware: Delaware County Historical Society for Cultural Communities of Delaware County: Early Settlers and American Indians 1770–1850, an experience for school-age to adult audiences. Nine vignettes depict interactions between the Lenni Lenape (Delaware People) and pioneers who settled Delaware County, through multi-media presentations that incorporate reenactment, art, dance and music. The vignettes were recorded and edited into a 90-minute video on YouTube and Facebook with a follow-up Q&A session on Zoom. Active in a local historical society or related organization? Consider submitting your outstanding achievements for the 2022 Ohio Local History Alliance Awards. Nominations are due Aug. 1. Learn more at ohiolha.org.
Images courtesy of Ohio Local History Alliance
Randy Winland and Marion County Historical Society
Sutliff Museum, Warren OHIOHIS TORY.ORG
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THE NEXT 10 YEARS
T.E.A.M. by Charles Wash Beginning in this issue, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Learning Officer Ben Garcia turns his column over to our division directors, who’ll share how each part of the Ohio History Connection is responding to our strategic priorities of Equity, Sustainability and Relationship Building. First up is Charles Wash, director of the Ohio History Connection’s National AfroAmerican Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio. T.E.A.M.—together, everyone, achieves, more! This is the mantra of the Ohio History Connection’s National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center as championed by Greg “The Maintenance Man” Harris. The idea of working together from top to bottom in every facet of our operations has permeated not only our day-to-day work relationships, but also how we interact with colleagues, partners and the general public. Going into our 34th year since opening to the public in 1988, we’re poised to expand our impact on and relevance to Ohio in a way that benefits a greater number of people than ever before. Since 2013, we’ve made it our mission to focus more on Ohio’s rich African American history and culture while continuing to connect it to the broader national American story. This has allowed us to become more relevant and appealing to state and local stakeholders, especially educators around Ohio. After all, Ohio African American history is American history and it involves multiple genders, races and identities. We’re proud of our success so far, but understand this is only the beginning. A MORE HONEST PICTURE OF HISTORY
Our division has responded to the most recent Ohio History Connection strategic priorities of Equity, Sustainability and Relationship Building simply by continuing our
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current efforts with an eye on highlighting what we’ve always done in those areas. First, we’ve consistently centered on Equity. To us, Equity in history means that we’re compelled to share the full stories of the past even while understanding how unpleasant and uncomfortable they may be. Gaining a clearer picture of what has gone on in our collective past only positions us to move forward with more clarity and purpose. Without a more honest picture of history, or at least an open and candid dialogue, our path forward will be clouded with uncertainty and ultimately be unproductive. ENTERTAIN, EDUCATE AND INSPIRE
Since 2013, we’ve sought to ensure that all we’ve built is Sustainable, whether it shows up in recurring public programs such as our Historically Speaking lecture series, our Black History Month programs or even our annual Art of Soul! juried art show. We seek to create relevant and leading-edge programs that not only entertain and educate, but also inspire. It’s inspiration that we feel is readily passed on to the next generation, to us the seeds of creating and sustaining clarity and understanding. Relationship Building is core to our division and it goes back to the founding of our museum. As much as we feed off of the vigor and expertise of our colleagues throughout the organization, we have also positioned ourselves among communities around the state to benefit from their energy and perspective. In the same way we believe T.E.A.M. is an internal mantra, it fully applies to the relationships we’ve built over the years. We rely on the community at large and aim to continue to work together to create a fuller, more meaningful understanding of history. With a deeper understanding, we’ll come to truly know who we are.
Charles Wash is director of the Ohio History Connection’s National AfroAmerican Museum & Cultural Center.
Relationship Building is core to our division and it goes back to the founding of our museum. Right: Singer Billie Holiday and a 1939 petition seeking Congressional enactment of a federal anti-lynching law, in the exhibit Rhythm of Revolution at the Ohio History Connection’s National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio.
Memberships make great gifts for friends newly moved (or returned) to Ohio!
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DesignGroup
archaeology at our sites,” Odom says. “We’ll also continue sharing our expertise and talking about our amazing collections in presentations, at collections tables in the Ohio History Center museum and in our weekly blog posts.” NEW GUIDE HELPS ANSWER QUESTIONS
Odom says people sometimes contact curators for help in identifying and preserving items they’ve found in and around their homes. Our new collections storage facility will be at the north end of the north parking lot on the Ohio History Center campus. In this artist's rendering looking northeast from the museum, Ohio Village is at left and I-71 is at top right. BREAKING GROUND SOON
New Facility to Provide Improved Collections Storage and Access Thanks to the efforts of dedicated staff and board members and support from the State of Ohio, the Ohio History Connection has secured funds to build a new collections storage facility on the Ohio History Center campus at I-71 & 17th Avenue in Columbus. Construction is expected to get underway in May. The $14.8 million facility will house our natural history collections and a portion of the objects in our history collections. Our curators, collections managers and registrars will also have offices and dedicated collections workspaces in the building.
When they’re not on exhibit, objects are stored in our collections facility in Columbus, where they’re available to staff, other museum professionals and the public for research. Our current collections facility consists of a series of repurposed warehouse buildings that are less than ideal for storing museum collections. The new climate- and humidity-controlled collections storage facility on the Ohio History Center campus is expected to open at the end of 2023. Because of the time it takes to pack so many items in preparation for the move, curators are already at work on that, and most objects will be unavailable for loan or exhibit until they’ve been moved and unpacked in their new home.
MORE THAN 1.7 MILLION ITEMS
“In the interim, we’ll be unable to answer questions related to our collections or provide access to them, or to our current storage facility for research or tours,” says History Curator Becky Odom, manager of the curatorial department.
The Ohio History Connection cares for more than 1.7 million objects large and small, among them American Indian artifacts, artworks, furniture, clothing and natural history
“Meanwhile, we’ll continue caring for our existing collections, evaluating and accepting donations of items, reviewing and approving permit requests and conducting
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Construction of the new facility, principally for three-dimensional objects, will not affect access to books, papers, letters, photos and similar kinds of materials in our library and archival collections. The Ohio History Center’s Third Floor Research Room remains open by appointment. Learn more about using our library and archives collections at ohiohistory.libguides.com/home. ALL HANDS ON DECK!
Tax Time = History Fund Time Since 2012, the Ohio History Connection has awarded nearly $870,000 in Ohio History Fund Alliance Historical Society
In the future, we expect to add more storage space to the building, which will be built northeast of the Ohio History Center, on a site just east of Ohio Village and west of I-71, and move our archaeology collections and our remaining history-object collections there.
specimens. As with many museums, only a small percentage of our collection is on exhibit at any one time.
“While we’re preparing for the move to our new facility, we’ll be unable to answer questions of that kind,” Odom says, “so we’ve created a handy guide listing some of our favorite resources to help answer those types of questions.” The guide is at ohiohistory.libguides.com/ objectresearch.
A $13,240 Ohio History Fund grant helped the Alliance Historical Society replace the roof of the Mabel Hartzell Historical Home museum.
Cleveland Restoration Society
Ohio History Connection Archival Collections
The book The Making of Cleveland’s Black Suburb in the City: Lee-Seville & Lee-Harvard was made possible in part by a $9,000 Ohio History Fund grant to Cleveland Restoration Society.
grants to aid projects by Ohio’s local history-and-heritage organizations. The grants are made possible by generous contributions from Ohioans like you who make gifts to the Ohio History Fund from their annual state income tax refund. With tax time here, it’s time for us to ask you once again to consider a gift to the Ohio History Fund when you complete your Ohio personal income tax return. No gift is too small. Though the average annual gift is $9.25, that $9.25 in combination with many similar gifts has had an $870,000+ impact on preservation of our state’s history and historic places to date. In completing your 2021 Ohio personal income tax form, please consider a gift to the Ohio History Fund on line 26, or ask your tax preparer to include one. Questions? Visit ohiohistory.org/historyfund. The Ohio History Fund is a result of the collective efforts of the Ohio History Connection and nine partner organizations: Heritage Ohio, the Ohio Academy of History, the Ohio Archaeological Council, Ohio Council for Social Studies, Ohio Genealogical Society, Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board, Ohio Local History Alliance, Preservation Ohio and the Society of Ohio Archivists.
National Historic Landmark John Rankin House, Ripley
Warren G. Harding
200 YEARS
OHIO CHANNEL
Ripley Marks Rankin Anniversary
New Harding Documentary
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Rev. John Rankin’s arrival in Ripley, Ohio, in 1822. His life in Ripley and his role as one of Ohio’s leading Underground Railroad conductors had a lasting impact on the Ohio River Valley and the state of Ohio. Ripley Heritage Inc., the Ohio History Connection’s partner in managing the National Historic Landmark John Rankin House overlooking the Ohio River in Ripley, plans to honor Rankin’s legacy with events throughout the year, including a YouTube piece, 5K run/walk, firstperson events and music. For more on upcoming events, visit ohiohistory. org/rankin. Learn more about Rankin and his pivotal role in the antislavery movement and Underground Railroad at ohiohistorycentral.org, our online encyclopedia of Ohio history.
The Ohio Channel and the Ohio History Connection commemorate the 100th anniversary of President Warren G. Harding’s inauguration in a new documentary that recounts the successes and scandals of his public life. Harding was the last of eight presidents hailing from Ohio and began his career as a small business owner in Marion. His charm and unique campaign style, coupled with an unusual time in the Republican political arena, helped him win the presidency in 1920. His wife, Florence Harding, paved a modern path for first ladies as America entered a new age in industry, technology and culture. Their distinctive place in Ohio and American history sets the stage for a compelling tale of the reshaping of America in the 20th century. You can see the documentary at youtube. com/watch?v=ChIQzQG_-vw.
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Recent Ohio Additions to the National Register of Historic Places CINCINNATI • HAMILTON COUNTY
parking garage occupy most of the lot, with a park to the north, singlefamily homes on the south and east and a two-story apartment building across the road.
SOUTH CRESCENT ARMS 3700 Reading Rd.
CINCINNATI • HAMILTON COUNTY
Completed in 1951, South Crescent Arms—today called The Redding— was the first high-rise apartment house built in Cincinnati’s Avondale neighborhood after World War II. Its design is an amalgam of modern influences, featuring bold geometric massing with setbacks reminiscent of Art Deco, though contrasting limestone trim outlining the center section of the brick façade is the only ornament, more toward the Modern movement. In 1964, the nine-story building changed hands from the original private owner to Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority, which continues to operate it as senior housing. Close to Reading Road and accessed by a semicircular driveway, the building and its adjoining
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MERCANTILE LIBRARY BUILDING 414 Walnut St.
Completed in 1904, this 12-story mixed-use building is locally significant for its association with the history of education and development in Cincinnati. The 11th and 12th floors house the Mercantile Library. One of the earliest and longest-surviving membership libraries in the United States, it holds a 10,000-year lease on the site. The building is significant as one of a half-dozen Cincinnati skyscrapers built between 1900 and 1910, and for its association with Thomas Emery’s Sons, who were among the city’s leading real estate developers of the time. An example of the Chicago
Commercial Style designed by the Cincinnati architectural firm Joseph G. Steinkamp & Brother, it has a stone foundation, steel framing and brick curtain walls with terra-cotta trim. The first and second floors are faced with ornamental bronzed cast iron in the style of Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. TOLEDO • LUCAS COUNTY MADISON AVENUE HISTORIC DISTRICT SUPERIOR STREET BOUNDARY INCREASE 311, 315–317, 319–323, 325–327, 329, 331–333 and 335 N. Superior St.
Toledo boomed in the 1890s and early 1900s, following the discovery of oil and natural gas in the area in the 1880s. The discovery led to the birth of Toledo’s glass industry when what became Libbey Glass Co. relocated there from Massachusetts in 1888. This boundary increase adds the west side of the 300 block of North Superior Street to the existing Madison Avenue Historic District, a section of Madison Avenue that’s been referred to as Toledo’s original “financial canyon,” with structures as tall as 30 stories. The seven three- to six-story buildings dating from 1887 to 1959 in the expanded district along the west side of North Superior are in a variety of architectural styles ranging from Italianate and Classical Revival to Queen Anne and Art Deco, and once housed some of Toledo’s betterknown retail and service enterprises.
All National Register photos courtesy of the State Historic Preservation Office
FIVE SITES BENEFIT
Ohio Humanities Grants Several of our Ohio History Connection sites have been awarded SHARP (Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan) grant funding from Ohio Humanities. Says Ohio Humanities Executive Director Rebecca Brown Asmo, “Local historic sites and other cultural organizations are the cornerstones of many of our communities, places where we can once again come together as our state reopens. We’re proud to have worked alongside the Ohio History Connection to distribute nearly $80,000 in federal support to five of their historic sites across the state. Providing critical support to these local organizations helps ensure that all Ohioans can continue to learn about the past, celebrate the present and imagine the future of our great state.” Ohio History Connection sites receiving SHARP grants include Adena Mansion & Gardens in Chillicothe, Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, Cincinnati’s Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Zoar Village in Tuscarawas County and the National AfroAmerican Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce. The SHARP grants help humanities organizations recover from the impact of COVID-19 and build capacity for the future while funding programs that help Ohioans collectively recover from the pandemic.
ECHOES MAGAZINE
May I Have the Envelope, Please? We have some great news to share about the Ohio History Connection’s Echoes Magazine. First, Echoes Magazine is among recipients of the Ohio Travel Association’s 2021 RUBY Awards and is one of just a few entries that received perfect scores. The awards, sponsored by Ohio Magazine, are the Ohio Travel Association’s way of honoring those who’ve found innovative ways to market their destination, experiences or services. The award was presented at the 2021 Ohio Conference on Travel. But wait, there’s more! Echoes Magazine recently received three MarCom Awards, including a Platinum Award for the January & February 2021 issue featuring White Castle and a Gold Award for the March & April 2020 issue featuring the exhibit Queens of the Heartland, both in the nonprofit magazine category; and a Platinum Award for design for the May & June 2021 Baby Boom issue (thanks to our designer, Lydia Stutzman of Lydiary Design). The MarCom Awards honor excellence in marketing and communication and recognize the creativity, hard work and generosity of industry professionals. Each
year, about 6,500 print and digital entries are submitted from dozens of countries. The MarCom Awards are administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The international organization, founded in 1995, consists of several thousand marketing, communications, advertising, public relations, digital and web professionals. And here’s the icing on the cake: no sooner had we learned about the MarCom Awards than news came that the November & December 2020 issue of Echoes Magazine, featuring Leslie Barlow’s portrait of civil rights leader Anna Arnold Hedgeman on the cover, had won an American Graphic Design Award from Graphic Design USA magazine.
Members enjoy early admission to many of our most popular Ohio History Center events, including Night at the Museum.
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Ebenezer Zane and Zane’s Trace
Zane’s Trace was more of a trail than a road. Zane used existing American Indian trails wherever possible and cut down trees to create a primitive path. Prior to Ohio’s statehood, Zane’s Trace was not accessible by wagon—it was so narrow and rough that it was only passable on foot or on horseback. Zane built ferries at each of the river crossings and profited from travel over the road. A small town began to develop where the ferry was located at the mouth of the Licking River. It came to be known as Zanesville.
Jan. 1 marks the 225th anniversary of Zane’s Trace, a major early Ohio road, which opened in 1797. Ebenezer Zane was an early settler and town builder in the Ohio Country in the years after the American Revolution. Zane was born in Virginia in 1747 and moved west with his wife and brothers in 1770 to the area near what is now Wheeling, West Virginia. In the late 1700s, Zane became known for building a frontier road through the Northwest Territory. Known as Zane’s Trace, the road connected Wheeling to Limestone, Kentucky (present-day Maysville). It was a major road in early Ohio until well after the War of 1812. In 1796, Zane petitioned Congress for permission to build a road through the region, with the stipulation that the U.S. government would grant him land where the road crossed the Muskingum, Hocking and Scioto rivers. The government agreed to his terms and required the road to be open by Jan. 1, 1797. It was widely believed that a road would encourage increased trade and settlement in Ohio.
After Ohio became a state in 1803, the state legislature set aside money to improve the road. The goal was to make Zane’s Trace accessible to wagons. By 1804, trees had been cut down to make the road 20 feet wide. Logs were laid across marshy areas to create corduroy roads, and several bridges were built. It was now possible to travel by wagon from Wheeling to Chillicothe, although many tree stumps were still standing in the middle of the road. People who traveled the road began to refer to it by a number of different names, including the Wheeling Road, the Wheeling-Limestone Road or just the Limestone Road, rather than Zane’s Trace. FUELED EARLY GROWTH
WHEELING NATIONAL ROAD
AC
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ZANESVILLE
ZA
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CHILLICOTHE
MAYSVILLE
Route of Zane’s Trace through Ohio.
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Zane’s Trace encouraged significant economic and population growth in the Northwest Territory and the young state of Ohio. Many people traveled along the road, and a number of settlements were built along the way. German settlers from Pennsylvania moved westward along the road and settled in communities like Lancaster. A number of Welsh immigrants moved into Licking County. In addition, many businesses were built along the road. Taverns and inns catered to travelers, and
Treber Inn, built in 1797 on Zane’s Trace (now State Route 41) in Adams County, Ohio. Remarkable Ohio
MORE TRAIL THAN ROAD
Don O’Brien | Wikimedia Commons
OHIO STORIES
Ohio Historical Marker in S-Bridge roadside park just west of New Concord on U.S. 40.
ferries transported people and goods across the rivers. Farmers used Zane’s Trace to get their crops to market. Stores were opened in nearby communities to sell a variety of items brought from the East to Ohio settlers. The road had a major influence on development in the southern half of Ohio. Zane, who died in 1811, played a significant role in the early economic and social development of the region and helped put Ohio on the path to statehood. This story combines entries on Ebenezer Zane and Zane’s Trace that appear in Ohio History Central, our online encyclopedia of Ohio history. Discover many more stories of Ohio history at ohiohistorycentral.org.
O HI O HIS TO RY CO NNEC T I O N
Historic Sites & Museums 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 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 Farm & Indian Agency 14. Lockington Locks
NORTHEAST OHIO 15. Custer Monument 16. Fort Laurens 17. McCook House 18. Museum of Ceramics 19. Quaker Yearly Meeting House 20. Schoenbrunn Village 21. Shaker Historical Museum 22. Tallmadge Church 23. Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor 24. Zoar Village
SOUTHWEST OHIO 33. Adena Mansion & Gardens 34. Davis Memorial Nature Preserve 35. Fort Ancient Earthworks & Nature Preserve 36. Fort Hill Earthworks & Nature Preserve
CENTRAL OHIO
37. Harriet Beecher Stowe House
SOUTHEAST OHIO
38. John Rankin House 39. Miamisburg Mound
47. Big Bottom Memorial Park 48. Buckeye Furnace
26. Hanby House
40. National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center
27. Logan Elm
41. Paul Laurence Dunbar House
50. Campus Martius Museum
28. Newark Earthworks
42. Serpent Mound
51. John & Annie Glenn Museum
29. Ohio History Center & Ohio Village
43. Story Mound
52. Leo Petroglyphs & Nature Preserve
30. Shrum Mound
44. U.S. Grant Birthplace
53. National Road & Zane Grey Museum
31. Wahkeena Nature Preserve
45. U.S. Grant Boyhood Home & Schoolhouse
54. Ohio River Museum
32. Warren G. Harding Presidential Sites
46. William Henry Harrison Tomb
55. Our House Tavern
25. Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries & Nature Preserve
Before traveling, visit ohiohistory.org/sites or call 800.840.6127 to confirm what’s open, hours and any special requirements.
49. Buffington Island Battlefield Memorial Park
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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
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some Ohio History Center & Ohio Village programs have moved online. See page 19. Before traveling to visit the Ohio History Center & Ohio Village, we recommend that you first visit ohiohistory.org/sites or call 800.686.6124 to confirm hours and any special requirements.
Lustron House Decorated for the Holidays + Holiday Train Display THROUGH SUN., JAN. 9 Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 It’s Christmas, 1950s-style, in our real, fully furnished Lustron house! Drop by to see how Dottie and Bob have decorated and check out little Jimmy’s model train display, courtesy of the Central Ohio Model Railroad Club. Included with museum admission.*
Doc Film Friday EVERY FRIDAY THROUGH JAN. 28 SHOWINGS AT 11 A.M. & 1 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 As a Smithsonian Affiliate, we’re excited to bring you a series of Smithsonian documentary films every Friday in January. JAN. 7 & 21: The Day We Walked On the Moon. JAN. 14 & 28: Drinks, Crime and Prohibition. Included with museum admission.*
Common Greens Winter Market SATURDAYS STARTING JAN. 8 9 A.M.–NOON Indoors on the Plaza Terrace, Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Common Greens Winter Market features 30+ producers who grow or make everything they sell. At the market, you’ll find Ohiogrown produce, meats, dairy, eggs, baked goods and a variety of artisanal food products, all produced locally and
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brought to market at the peak of freshness. Preorder and/or shop onsite at the market! commongreensohio.org OHIO—CHAMPION OF SPORTS
International Incidents SAT., JAN. 8 • FILM SCREENING AT 1 P.M. FOLLOWED BY PANEL DISCUSSION Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 See a documentary by Eric Weltner chronicling three International Hockey League professional teams who called Columbus home between 1966 and 1977. After the film, hear from seven former players for the Columbus Checkers, Columbus Golden Seals and Columbus Owls and see real player jerseys, photos, pennants, sticks, equipment bags, ticket stubs, pucks, autographs, programs and more. Included with museum admission.*
Letter Writing with the National Veterans Memorial and Museum 10 A.M.–5 P.M. The National Veterans Memorial and Museum partners with Operation Gratitude to provide letters written by K–12 children to service members both at home and overseas. Each letter serves as a comfort and reminder of those waiting for them back home and connects service members to the communities they are serving. In each letter, students can write a message thanking the service member for their service and draw them a picture.
MLK Day Open House with the King Arts Complex 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Enjoy dance, music and spoken-word theatre performances exploring the impact of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Learn about the civil rights movement, participate in art activities and meet new friends. Included with Ohio History Center museum admission: $13, $11/senior or student with ID, $7/ages 4–12, Free/Ohio History Connection member or ages 3 & under. 800.686.6124 or ohiohistory. org/center
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration J MON., JAN. 17 • 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Join us for a day of activities and programs in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. SPECIAL FILM SCREENING
The Green Book— Guide to Freedom SHOWINGS AT 10:30–11:30 A.M. & 3–4 P.M. In the 1930s, a Black postal carrier from Harlem named Victor Green published a book that was part travel guide and part survival guide. Called The Negro Motorist Green Book, it helped African Americans navigate safe passage across America well into the 1960s. Explore some of the segregated nation’s safe havens and notorious “sundown towns” and witness stories of struggle and indignity as well as opportunity and triumph.
NATURAL HISTORY
Wild Ohio Weekend SAT. & SUN., FEB. 5 & 6 • 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Join us for a weekend of special natural history programs and learn more about the plants and animals that call Ohio their home.
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Table SAT., FEB 5 ONLY • 10 A.M.–2 P.M. Come explore glaciers, a big part of Ohio’s history. Play with flubber, touch an ice core, learn how glaciers help us understand past climates and experience the impact glaciers had on Ohio’s topography through a virtual reality tour of Kelleys Island. Coloring pages and activity packets will also be provided.
*Museum admission is $13; $11/ages 60+; $7/ages 4–12. Ohio History Connection members and ages 3 & under enjoy free admission.
SPECIAL FILM SCREENING—
America’s National Parks at 100 SAT., FEB. 5 & SUN., FEB. 6 • NOON–1 P.M. The National Park Service has been active for over a century in preserving and protecting more than 400 national park sites across America, from the wild and natural to the human-made and historic. Take a tour through iconic Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon and discover smaller, hidden treasures throughout the country as we explore the agency’s evolution over the past century. Through rarely seen footage and stunning aerial views, discover the sites and stories of the national landmarks that reflect our country’s past, present and future.
Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative Table SAT., FEB. 5 & SUN., FEB. 6 ONGOING BOTH DAYS The Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative is a collaboration of nonprofits, businesses, state and federal government agencies and citizens that are participating in, or are interested in, bird conservation in the Buckeye State. Matthew Shumar, the program coordinator, will be on hand with information about ways you can make your home and yard safer for birds. Wild Ohio Weekend programs are included with Ohio History Center museum admission.* Visit ohiohistory.org/wildohio for a full list of Wild Ohio Weekend programs.
A Short Walk Through the Ice Age SAT., FEB. 5 & SUN., FEB. 6 • 1 P.M. Take a walk through our Natural History Gallery and learn about the unusual large mammals that lived in Ohio during the Ice Age, from the well-known Conway Mastodon to the giant beaver, shortfaced bear and bizarre elk-moose. Fossils from some of these species will be available for a close-up look. OHIO DIVISION OF WILDLIFE
Mammal Table SAT., FEB. 5, 10 A.M.–2 P.M. & SUN., FEB. 6, 1–5 P.M. The Ohio Division of Wildlife aims to manage Ohio’s fish and wildlife resources for the enjoyment of all. Stop by their table to check out furs, skulls and tracks of Ohio mammals. Learn how to score a set of deer antlers and guess the restitution value for a chance to win a prize! Winners will be announced at 1 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. You must be present to win. FRANKLIN PARK CONSERVATORY & BOTANICAL GARDENS
Worms and Composting Table SAT., FEB. 5 & SUN., FEB. 6 ONGOING BOTH DAYS Meet your worm friends and learn fascinating facts about how they help your garden.
BLACK HISTORY
The Tea Room J SAT., FEB. 19 • 11 A.M.–2 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 The Tea Room is a contemporary version of the African American Tea Ceremony that began in the mid-19th century. Annually on Feb. 15, enslaved people were given teas, food and tableware left over from Valentine’s Day celebrations. This tradition evolved into gatherings held at churches and later Blackowned tea houses. Designed to create an environment of fellowship and empowerment, our Tea Room will be a forum for networking and learning about the achievements of African Americans in Ohio. $15, $10/Ohio History Connection member. Advance registration required by Feb. 18. 800.686.1541
Presidents Day MON., FEB. 21 • 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Join us for a day of presidential history! SPECIAL FILM SCREENING
America’s Hidden Stories— Madam President NOON–1 P.M. On Oct. 2, 1919, Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Edith, discovered her husband on a White House bathroom floor, the victim of a massive stroke. What happened over the
February is Black History Month. Follow the Star J to Black History Month programs in this issue of Echoes Magazine.
next year would make history—or would have, had it not been so carefully guarded. Join a team of historians as they investigate newly uncovered documents suggesting that Edith Wilson was, in effect, America’s first woman president, and that she and others may have schemed to conceal an incapacitated president from the public. GUEST SPEAKER
Two Ohioans in the White House—Rutherford B. Hayes and William Howard Taft 1–2 P.M. Meet two of the eight presidents from the Buckeye State whose political careers led them all the way to the nation’s highest office. One got a boost from the House of Representatives and the other from a very ambitious wife. Their stories have an amazing link, too! Guest speaker Jeri Diehl-Cusack seeks out presidential homes, libraries, museums, birthplaces, summer White Houses, memorials and burial sites wherever she travels. She’s served on the board of The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership, an organization committed to preserving Mrs. Roosevelt’s cottage home in Hyde Park, New York. Presidents Day programs are included with Ohio History Center museum admission: $13, $11/senior or student with ID, $7/ ages 4–12, Free/Ohio History Connection member or ages 3 & under. 800.686.6124 or ohiohistory.org/center
Vanishing Communities— Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Photography J SAT., FEB. 26 • 11 A.M.–1 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Hear local photographers Shellee Fisher, T. Graves and James Reid discuss the changing dynamics of the inner city due to urban renewal. They’ll talk about the importance of documentation and how photography is one method for preserving the important stories of these communities. Included with Ohio History Center museum admission: $13, $11/senior or student with ID, $7/ages 4–12, Free/ Ohio History Connection member or ages 3 & under. 800.686.6124 or ohiohistory. org/center
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FAMILY FUN!
Night at the Museum SAT., FEB. 26 & SUN., FEB. 27 • 7–9 P.M. MEMBERS ENJOY EARLY ACCESS AT 6 P.M. Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Here’s your chance to explore the museum after hours and see whether our exhibits really do come to life! This family event promises to entertain children and adults alike. You’ll find dozens of figures from history roaming the museum. Grab a (provided) autograph book, collect signatures from your favorites and learn about their roles in Ohio history! Several hands-on activities for kids will also be available. Snacks and beverages available for purchase. Advance timed tickets required. No on-site ticket sales. Get your tickets early—these events will sell out. Ohio History Connection member tickets available starting Mon., Jan. 17: $11/ member adult, $7/member child, Free/ ages 3 & under. Ohio History Connection premium members with tickets in advance enjoy free admission. Non-member tickets go on sale Mon., Jan. 24: $16/ adult, $12/ages 4–12, Free/ages 3 & under. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/ nightatmuseum The Ohio History Center will close at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26, and Sunday, Feb. 27, to prepare for this special event.
FEATURED EXHIBITS • • •
Ohio—Champion of Sports ONGOING Ohio—Champion of Sports features more than 70 stories and 35 oral histories covering more than 25 sports ranging from baseball, football and basketball to roller derby, skateboarding and e-gaming. The exhibit showcases the Ohio athletes, coaches, owners and fans at the center of the action and explores sports through the themes of Character, Adversity, Innovation, Identity, Tradition and Victory—values that relate to the human condition—to connect a broad audience to Ohio’s national sports history. You can test your basketball skills at the Wall of Hoops, record a “victory dance” to share with family and friends,
run an obstacle course and record your own “One Minute Legends” sports story. RELATED PROGRAMS: International Incidents, Jan. 8. See page 16. 800.686.6124 or ohiohistory.org/sports
Ohio History Center Hours
Votes for Women— 100 Years of Change
CLOSED MON.–TUES.
ONGOING Votes for Women commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Through the voices of Ohio women, explore women’s activism in the suffrage movement and other related social movements—such as voting and citizenship—from the 19th century to the present. Featured are a suffrage parade blouse, jacket and sashes worn in the 1910s by Mary Stuart Andrews of Warren, who worked for the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, and a suffrage parade banner made in 1910 by Columbus Sign Co.
Museum WEDS.–SUN. 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
OPEN 10 A.M.–8 P.M. NEW YEAR’S DAY, JAN. 1 OPEN MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY, MON., JAN. 17 OPEN PRESIDENTS DAY, MON., FEB. 21 CLOSES AT 4 P.M. ON FEB. 26 & 27
Third Floor Research Room OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY ohiohistory.org/learn/archives-library WEDS. 12:30–3 P.M. THURS. & FRI. 10 A.M.–3 P.M. CLOSED SAT.–TUES.
Plaza Cafe WEDS.–SUN. 11 A.M.–2 P.M.
1950s—Building the American Dream ONGOING 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.
The Plaza Cafe is open 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and serves grab-n-go salads, sandwiches, sides and desserts, coffee, tea, juices and Pepsi products. Ohio History Connection members save 10% at the Plaza Cafe.
World War I Display ONGOING See equipment, weapons, uniforms and memorabilia commemorating the centennial of World War I.
Creative Ohio—Artists, Artwork & Their Inspiration ONGOING Through pieces from Ohio History Connection collections, explore the artwork, inspiration and creative processes of four Ohio artists—PaulHenri Bourguignon (1906–1988), Emerson Burkhart (1905–1969), William Hawkins (1895–1990) and Josephine Klippart (1848–1936)—and create your own artistic masterpiece!
Leave a Legacy Passionate about preserving history for future generations? Consider including the Ohio History Connection as a beneficiary in your estate plans. Our staff can help you choose options that best fit your needs.
Call 800.647.6921 to learn more. 18 Echoes | JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2022
AT T E N D FROM A N Y W H E R E !
Online Events Weaving on a Handloom for Ages 55+
THE POWER OF VOICE
THURS., JAN. 13–MARCH 3 10 A.M.–NOON OR 2–4 P.M. Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by the Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Explore the art of weaving in historical and contemporary styles. Become proficient with a variety of tools and skills and leave with a kit of items you’ll need to weave at home. You’ll have the chance to make a wall hanging and a custom textile piece for a project of your choice. You must have a reliable Internet connection as well as a computer with a webcam and microphone. $40/ages 55+ with required advance registration. Ten students per session. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/virtual
WEDS., FEB. 2 • ONLINE DISCUSSION 7–8 P.M. • RSVP FOR LINK Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati 4 Find links to suggested readings at stowehousecincy.org. $5 suggested donation. 800.847.6507 or stowehousecincy.org
This program for ages 55+ is made possible by a Seeding Vitality Arts in Museums grant from Aroha Philanthropies.
Who Needs American Voices? J
THE POWER OF VOICE
Sat., Feb. 5 & Sun., Feb. 6 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Stories Within the Story J
OHIO HISTORY CENTER, COLUMBUS
WEDS., MARCH 2 • ONLINE DISCUSSION
Go wild with nature-themed things to do in the museum both days!
7–8 P.M. • RSVP FOR LINK Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati 4 Find links to suggested readings at stowehousecincy.org. $5 suggested donation. 800.847.6507 or stowehousecincy.org
ohiohistory.org/wildohio
NOW OPEN
PLEASURES OF THE CUP
Ohio on the Rocks SAT., JAN. 22 • 7–8 P.M. Online—Attend from Anywhere! 4 Hosted by the Ohio History Center, Columbus 4 Join us from the comfort of home for our coolest Pleasures of the Cup event yet! Learn about mammoths, mastodons, short-faced bears and other creatures who roamed Ohio during the Ice Age while you mix icy drinks along with us! Register and you’ll receive drink recipes in advance plus a link to the presentation about two hours before it starts. Must be 21+ to attend. Alcohol not provided. Advance registration required: $10, $5/Ohio History Connection member, Free/premium member. 800.686.1541 or ohiohistory.org/virtual
Open 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Wednesday–Sunday SERVING GRAB-N-GO:
• Salads • Sandwiches • Sides • Desserts
• Coffee • Tea • Juices • Pepsi Products
Ohio History Connection
MEMBERS SAVE 10% at the Plaza Cafe!
February is Black History Month. Follow the Star J to Black History Month programs in this issue of Echoes Magazine.
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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 Statehood Day
Due to the evolving status of COVID-19, we recommend that you call the number or visit the website listed after each program to confirm hours and any special requirements before you travel. Many programs and events at Ohio History Connection museums and attractions currently require advance registration. To register, call the number or visit the website listed with each program. Our online calendar offers more upto-date information about programs and events at Ohio History Connection museums and attractions. Find it at ohiohistory.org/calendar. M asks are required indoors at all Ohio History Connection sites. Most of our museums and attractions are managed by local partner organizations who set their own requirements for outdoor areas. Questions? Call 800.840.6127.
STATEWIDE STATEWIDE OHIO HISTORY DAY
Regional History Day Contests SAT., FEB. 26, MARCH 5, 12, 19 & 26 & APRIL 2 • 9 A.M.–5 P.M. See fourth- through 12th-graders present their history projects, competing for a chance to move on to our April 23 statewide History Day competition. FEB. 26: Canton. MARCH 5: Cleveland, Piqua & Rio Grande. MARCH 12: Columbus. MARCH 19: Bowling Green, Cincinnati & Sandusky. MARCH 26: New Concord. APRIL 2: Youngstown. Get details at 800.686.6124, 614.297.2526 or ohiohistoryday.org. Special thanks to Champion Sponsor Ohio’s 529 Plan, CollegeAdvantage, and to Sponsor William K. Laidlaw Jr. Memorial Endowment Fund.
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TUES., MARCH 1 • 9:30 A.M.–1:30 P.M. Statehouse, Columbus 4 Join advocates for preserving Ohio’s history and heritage for our annual Statehood Day advocacy event. Meet with your state legislators, network with others from across the state and be on hand when recipients of this year’s Ohio History Fund grants are announced. Statehood Day is sponsored by the Ohio History Connection, Heritage Ohio, the Ohio Academy of History, Ohio Archaeological Council, Ohio Council for Social Studies, Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board, Ohio Humanities, the Ohio Local History Alliance, Ohio Museums Association, Ohio Travel Association, Preservation Ohio and the Society of Ohio Archivists. Free with required advance registration by Feb. 22 at ohiohistory.org/statehoodday. Questions? Contact Todd Kleismit, the Ohio History Connection’s director of community and government relations, at tkleismit@ohiohistory.org.
Ohio Local History Alliance Regional Meetings SAT., MARCH 5, 12, 19 & APRIL 2 & 9 9 A.M.–4 P.M. Active in local history? Register now for the Ohio Local History Alliance Regional Meeting in your vicinity. These annual gatherings of local historians and others active in local historical societies, museums and related organizations start Saturday, March 5. This year’s theme is Be the Change. Each meeting includes a session related to the theme, plus additional skill-building sessions; reports from the Ohio Local History Alliance and the Ohio History Connection; an opportunity to share what your organization is doing; and a tour of a nearby museum or site. Advance registration required. MARCH 5: Southwest (Region 8) in Cincinnati and Southeast (Region 10) in Caldwell. Register by Feb. 25. MARCH 12: West Central (Region 7) in Wapakoneta and
South Central (Region 9) in Chillicothe. Register by March 4. MARCH 19: East Central (Region 5) in Dennison and Central (Region 6) in Columbus. Register by March 11. APRIL 2: North Central (Region 2) in Tiffin and Northeast (Region 3) in Chagrin Falls. Register by March 25. APRIL 9: West Central (Region 1) in Defiance and Northeast (Region 4) in Sebring. Register by April 1. Get full meeting details and register at ohiolha. org. Questions? Call 614.297.2538.
CENTRAL OHIO CENTRAL OHIO
Region 6 History Day Contest SAT., MARCH 12 • 9 A.M.–5 P.M. Ohio Statehouse, Columbus 4 Registration Deadline: Feb. 22. Papers, Documentaries & Websites Deadline: March 2 | Counties: Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Knox, Licking, Madison, Perry, Pickaway and Union. 800.686.6124, 614.466.9335 or ohiohistoryday.org NORTHEAST OHIO
NORTHEAST OHIO EXHIBIT OPENING
The Wandering Years— The Early History of the Shaker Historical Society FRI., JAN. 7 • 6–8 P.M. Shaker Historical Museum, Shaker Heights 4 Join in kicking off Shaker Historical Society’s year-long 75th anniversary celebration with the opening of the special exhibit The Wandering Years—The Early History of the Shaker Historical Society. Free. 202.271.6703 or shakerhistory.org
Region 5 History Day Contest SAT., FEB. 26 • 9 A.M.–5 P.M. McKinley Museum & Presidential Library, Canton 4 Registration Deadline: Feb. 5. Papers, Documentaries & Websites Deadline: Feb. 12 | Counties: Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne. 800.686.6124, 330.455.7043 ext. 213 or ohiohistoryday.org
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“““
Regional History Day Contests
Statehood Day
STATEWIDE STARTING FEB. 26
STATEHOUSE, MARCH 1
Region 3 History Day Contest
Second Saturdays R 4 Kids
SAT., MARCH 5 • 9 A.M.–5 P.M. Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland 4 Registration Deadline: Feb. 4. Papers, Documentaries & Websites Deadline: Feb. 18 | Counties: Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Medina and Summit. 800.686.6124, 216.721.5722 ext. 1503 or ohiohistoryday.org
SAT., JAN. 8, FEB. 12 & MARCH 12 9:30–11:30 A.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Enjoy monthly activities for kids in grades K–3 inspired by the 200th birthday of President Rutherford B. Hayes, which is coming up in October. Each month features a different activity highlighting an important time in the president’s life. These events are openhouse-style, so kids can stop by any time between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Free. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org
FEATURED EXHIBITS • • •
The Wandering Years— The Early History of the Shaker Historical Society FRI., JAN. 7, THROUGH SUN., MAY 1 WEDS.–FRI. 11 A.M.–5 P.M., SAT. & SUN. NOON–5 P.M. Shaker Historical Museum, Shaker Heights 4 Featuring archival materials, objects from Shaker Historical Museum collections and stories from early trustees, this special exhibit will take you back in time to highlight the group of residents whose passion about collecting and preserving local history led them to form the Shaker Historical Society in 1947. 202.271.6703 or shakerhistory.org
Model Train Clinic
NORTHWEST OHIO NORTHWEST OHIO
SAT., JAN. 8 • 1–4 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Wrap up the holiday season by taking your train to the Model Train Clinic for some attention from experienced train hobbyists. They’ll assist you with advice related to maintenance and repair, and estimate the value of older model trains. You can also run your train on the Hayes Train Special track, which fits standard, O-gauge and G-gauge trains. $5, Free/ ages 5 & under. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org
Holiday Lights Display
Presidential History Book Club
THROUGH SUN., JAN. 2 NIGHTLY FROM DUSK UNTIL 10 P.M. Armstrong Air & Space Museum, Wapakoneta 4 See the space-themed lights and take pictures with out-ofthis-world displays at one of northwest Ohio’s largest free holiday light displays. 800.860.0142 or armstrongmuseum.org
WEDS., JAN. 26 & FEB. 23 • NOON–1 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Read and discuss books about the presidency at this free book club. Bring your lunch if you’d like. JAN. 26 & FEB. 23: Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org
February is Black History Month. Follow the Star J to Black History Month programs in this issue of Echoes Magazine.
The Presidential History Book Club meets in person and online. For information on joining virtually, contact Dustin McLochlin at dmclochlin@rbhayes.org.
Horse-Drawn Sleigh Rides in Spiegel Grove SAT., FEB. 19–MON., FEB. 21 TIMES TO BE ANNOUNCED Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Enjoy a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the wooded grounds of the 25-acre Hayes estate, just as President Hayes did when he lived there. Provided by South Creek Clydesdales, rides last about 10 minutes and take place whether there is snow or not. In event of thunderstorms or negative wind chills, rides may be canceled. Check rbhayes.org for updates. Rides canceled due to weather will be refunded; otherwise, there are no refunds. $5.50/rider, Free/age 2 & under. Get tickets online at rbhayes.org or in person on the day of the event, pending availability. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org
Presidents Day Celebration MON., FEB. 21 • 9 A.M.–5 P.M. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Celebrate Presidents Day with activities and fun at America’s first presidential library. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org
Attention snowbirds!
Show your Ohio History Connection membership card to enjoy discounts at any museum in the national Time Travelers network—10 in Arizona, 28 in Florida!
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Sign of the Times—The Great American Political Poster, 1844–2012 THROUGH WEDS., JAN. 19 • MON.– SAT. 9 A.M.–5 P.M., SUN. NOON–5 P.M. CLOSED NEW YEAR’S DAY Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 Follow the history of political campaign posters from 1844, when hand-colored lithographic portraits of presidential candidates were first printed for the race between Henry Clay and James K. Polk, to the 21st century. This special exhibit brings eye-popping political graphics to the forefront to show the great American political poster as art. Included with Hayes Museum admission. Ohio History Connection members enjoy free admission. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org
SOUTHEAST OHIO SOUTHEAST OHIO
Nitty Gritty Series
Region 7 History Day Contest SAT., MARCH 5 • 9 A.M.–5 P.M. Piqua Junior High School, Piqua 4 Registration Deadline: Feb. 16. Papers, Documentaries & Websites Deadline: Feb. 16 | Counties: Auglaize, Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Logan, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby. 800.752.2619, 937.773.2522 or ohiohistoryday.org FEATURED EXHIBITS • • •
Hayes Train Special Model Train Display THROUGH SUN., JAN. 9 MON.–SAT. 9 A.M.–5 P.M., SUN. NOON–5 P.M. CLOSED NEW YEAR’S DAY Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont 4 See operating model trains running through a Victorian holiday scene and use interactive buttons to control aspects of the trains’ movements along the winding, multi-level layout. Free. Donations accepted. 800.998.7737 or rbhayes.org
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SAT., JAN. 22 & FEB. 5 • 10 A.M.–NOON Campus Martius Museum, Marietta 4 These programs for adults explore finer aspects of chosen exhibits in Marietta’s Campus Martius and Ohio River museums. Presenters who have a special interest in their chosen topic will share their stories and expertise. Students ages 12–18 must have parental supervision. JAN. 22: Basic Traditional Gunsmithing Techniques of the 19th Century. FEB. 5: Quilling–Creating the Perfect Valentine. $25/person per program. Advance registration required. 740.373.3750 or mariettamuseums.org BROWN BAGGIN’ THROUGH HISTORY
World War I FRI., FEB. 4 • NOON–1 P.M. Campus Martius Museum, Marietta 4 Join us with your brown bag lunch to hear guest speaker Bill Miller discuss heirlooms of a West Virginia aviator who flew for the Lafayette Flying Corps of France before the U.S. entered World War I. Free with required advance registration. 800.860.0145 or mariettamuseums.org
Contemporary Gunmakers and Allied Artists Show SAT., FEB. 12 • 9:30 A.M.–4 P.M. Campus Martius Museum, Marietta 4 Meet traditional gunmakers from the Ohio Valley as well as other artisans who work in the manner of the 18th
Twirl, Jazzy! by Lauren Luna, Houston, Texas
“““ Art of Soul! NATIONAL AFRO-AMERICAN MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTER , WILBERFORCE, THROUGH FEB. 26
and 19th centuries. Many are nationally recognized, with work in museums and private collections around the country. Horn makers, hunting-bag makers and leather workers will be on hand, too, along with tinsmiths, cabinet makers and other traditional artisans. $7, $4/student, Free/ Ohio History Connection member or age 5 & under. 800.860.0145, 740.373.3750 or mariettamuseums.org RIVER & COUNTRY LECTURE SERIES
Blennerhassett Bonanza TUES., FEB. 22 • 7–8 P.M. Campus Martius Museum, Marietta 4 Hear Ray Swick, historian emeritus for West Virginia State Parks and Forests, share some of his most recent discoveries about Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. A wealthy and now-legendary couple, they settled the Ohio River’s Blennerhassett Island in 1789 and later became enmeshed in Aaron Burr’s treasonous plot to create a new country independent of the U.S. $10. 800.860.0145 or mariettamuseums.org
Region 9 History Day Contest SAT., MARCH 5 • 9 A.M.–5 P.M. University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande 4 Registration Deadline: Feb. 18. Papers, Documentaries & Websites Deadline: Feb. 25 | Counties: Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Pike, Ross and Scioto. 800.686.6124, 740.245.0593 or ohiohistoryday.org
SAT., FEB. 26 & SUN., FEB. 27 Members enjoy early admission at 6 p.m.
“““
Presidents Day Celebration HAYES PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUMS, FEB. 21 SOUTHWEST OHIO
SOUTHWEST OHIO
The History of Union Baptist Cemetery J SUN., FEB. 6 • 4–5 P.M. Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati 4 Learn about Cincinnati’s historic Union Baptist Cemetery. From the time it was established in the mid-19th century, through modern preservation efforts, this cemetery in the city’s Price Hill neighborhood has been a place of honor and memory for Cincinnati’s Black community. $7. In-person and online options may be available. Visit stowehousecincy.org for updates. 800.847.6507 or stowehousecincy.org SEMI-COLON CLUB
13th J SAT., FEB. 26 • NOON Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati 4 Join us to discuss the 2016 documentary 13th by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, exploring the history of race and the U.S. criminal justice system. The Semi-Colon Club was a literary discussion group Harriet Beecher Stowe joined while living in Cincinnati. Our SemiColon Club discusses the issues that make up Stowe’s legacy—from the 19th century to the present day. $5. Advance registration required at stowehousecincy. org/semi-colon-club.html. In-person and online options may be available. Visit stowehousecincy.org for updates. 800.847.6507 or stowehousecincy.org
See whether our exhibits really do come to life!
FEATURED EXHIBITS • • •
2021 Art of Soul! Juried Art Show J THROUGH SAT., FEB. 26 WEDS.–SAT. 9 A.M.–4 P.M. National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center, Wilberforce 4 See an annual juried exhibit featuring works created by artists from across the United States in response to this year’s theme, Black Future. Also on exhibit: African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory; Behind the Mask—Black Power in Comics; Queens of the Heartland; Rhythm of Revolution; and What’s in Your Attic? Selections from Our Permanent Collection, including a special mini-exhibit, Playing with Identity—Selections from the Lillian M. Bartok Black Doll Collection. Included with museum admission: $6, $5/senior, $3/ages 6–17, Free/ Ohio History Connection member or ages 5 & under. Masks and social distancing required. 800.752.2603 or ohiohistory.org/naamcc
February is Black History Month. Follow the Star J to Black History Month programs in this issue of Echoes Magazine.
ohiohistory.org/nightatmuseum Advance registration required.
CABIN FEVER? Many Ohio History Connection museums and attractions are open year ‘round!
Find a list with details at ohiohistory.org/winter
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In 1962, Ohioan John Glenn climbed aboard his Mercury capsule (the Friendship 7, seen above) and became the first American to orbit Earth. He had been selected as an astronaut for Project Mercury in 1959 after a distinguished military career.
NASA
“ Good Lord Ride All the Way” JOHN GLENN ORBITS THE EARTH IN 1962 BY ERIN ESMONT
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arolyn “Lyn” Glenn was 15 years old when her father, John, blasted into space Feb. 20, 1962, becoming the first American to circle the globe. For five hours, she and her brother, Dave, and mother, Annie—and the rest of the world—waited and hoped for his safe return.
Before the flight, John Glenn gave them a flight plan, a globe marked with the orbits and hours and minutes, and stopwatches to follow along. Back then, NASA didn’t allow families to be onsite at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to watch. In a phone interview ahead of the 60th anniversary of that history-making space flight, Lyn Glenn, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, recalled that momentous time. She says their parents prepared them in other ways, too. On a hike along the Potomac River in Great Falls, Virginia, they discussed the scenario that no one wanted to imagine—that their father wouldn’t return. “Dad wanted us to talk about the potential of his death. And that he didn’t want us to blame him or NASA or the government or God. That we all knew that this was something that he had wanted to do. And we all voted about it. And you know, sometimes people do put their lives on the line for their country. And this was his choice.” The Glenn children were the oldest of the Mercury 7 children and, as such, their dad wanted them to make sure they understood why pre-flight training took him away for weeks at a time, and what being the first astronauts meant to a country obsessed with besting the Soviet Union in the space race. It was a science lesson and history lesson all in one.
Library of Congress
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin during a news conference to announce the return to the space program of Sen. John Glenn, in a 1962 photo behind Goldin.
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During months of training, he’d carry around a tape recorder and document his days, and mail letters to his family detailing the latest news. Because Glenn had flown a greater variety of aircraft than the other astronauts, he took the lead on cockpit layout and instrumentation, spacecraft controls and simulation. He brought home a mock-up of the interior for Lyn and Dave to study.
ballistic missile, lift off—and then blow up a minute after takeoff. Glenn writes that they all stood in stunned silence. Alan Shepard was the first to speak: “Well, I’m glad they got that out of the way.” Soviet firsts just kept coming. They launched the first human into space on April 12, 1961, when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed one orbit of the Earth and returned safely home.
He gave them the assignment of coming up with a name for his spacecraft. Their pick: Friendship 7. “I was so proud of them,” he wrote in his 1999 memoir. “They had chosen perfectly.”
Earlier spaceflights by astronauts Shepard and Gus Grissom lasted mere minutes and demonstrated that a rocket could reach suborbital space and safely come back down.
THE SPACE AGE BEGINS
But, orbiting the Earth several times would be a real milestone.
It’s hard to overstate what the early space program meant to the nation’s psyche. The Cold War with the Soviet Union was real—and frightening. The Soviets stoked fear and suspicion when they launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, or “fellow traveler,” on Oct. 4, 1957. Next came Sputnik II on Nov. 3 with dog, Laika, on board. (She died mid-flight.) Meanwhile, American efforts to launch a missile weren’t going well. The astronauts went to Cape Canaveral on May 18, 1959, to watch an Atlas D rocket, the first United States intercontinental
BLAST OFF! The days leading up to the February 1962 launch consisted of hurry up and wait. The mission had been delayed 11 times, mostly for weather. Finally, it was “go” time. John and Annie Glenn had a good-luck ritual that hadn’t failed them yet, not through his earliest flying days, two wars and his record-setting transcontinental supersonic flight in 1957. No time to break with tradition now. Inside the unlaunched Mercury capsule, John said over the telephone line to Annie: “I’m just going down to the corner store to get a pack of gum.” Her reply: “Don’t be long.”
Library of Congress
Shortly after that exchange, the countdown began. It ended when aerospace engineer T.J. O’Malley made the sign of the cross and said, “Good Lord ride all the way” and fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter added, “Godspeed, John Glenn.”
Three astronauts in civvies—Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter—during a press conference. All three were chosen as part of the team of Mercury astronauts in 1959.
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Sixty-six feet below him, the rocket engines roared to life, and the Atlas’s 367,000 pounds of thrust lifted the 125-ton behemoth. In his memoir, Glenn described it as “ponderous and stately, as if the rocket were an
Even venerable newsman Walter Cronkite, during live coverage, coaxed it upward, “Go, baby, go.”
media throng outside their window. Astronaut Scott Carpenter had called to tell Annie that the heat shield may be loose, and if so, her husband might not survive.
At 48 seconds in, the capsule began to shake as it pushed through tremendous air resistance, passing the point in the flight when the rocket was most likely to blow up.
Still no communication from Friendship 7. She later told her husband: “I waited for you to come back on the radio. I know it was only five minutes. But it seemed like five years.”
“People have always asked if I was afraid,” Glenn wrote. “I wasn’t. Constructive apprehension is more like it. I was keyed up and alert to everything that was going on, and I had full knowledge of the situation—the best antidote to fear.”
His splashdown in the Atlantic and safe return unleashed jubilant celebrations: parades, presidential meetings, a congressional address and worldwide celebrity.
elephant trying to become a ballerina.”
Five minutes into the flight, the capsule hit orbital speed and Friendship 7 separated from the Atlas rocket. From his window, he spotted Earth. “Oh, that view is tremendous,” he reported to Mission Control.
17,500 MILES PER HOUR Twelve minutes after takeoff, he crossed the African coast and proceeded to take his blood pressure while biosensors sent back data about his heartbeat, pulse, respiration and temperature. He’d repeat these tests, along with vision tests, as doctors on the ground assessed how the human body was reacting to outer space. He’d insisted on taking a camera into space over NASA’s objections that it would distract him from his scientific tasks. He used a small Minolta camera to document all he was seeing, from pictures of clouds over the Canaries to massive dust storms in the Sahara Desert. He was traveling at 17,500 miles an hour. Day and night zoomed by quickly, and in the span of four hours and 56 minutes, he’d see three sunsets and three dawns. Things got dicey and tense when Mission Control suspected a heat shield might have come loose. But they kept that information from Glenn, advising him to continue operating the capsule manually for re-entry. During this critical time, he entered a communications blackout zone just as Friendship 7 was getting unbearably hot. Dead silence. Millions around the world waited, watched and prayed. At the Glenn home in Arlington, Virginia, Annie, Lyn and Dave were watching the events unfold on three television sets, with their curtains closed to the
Glenn lobbied hard for a return flight. He finally got his chance 36 years later in 1998. At age 77—and over his family’s initial objections—he became a crew member of Space Shuttle Discovery, tasked with studying the effects of space on aging. He hoped both of his voyages would inspire and blaze a trail for others to follow.
THE NEW SPACE AGE Space historian Jordan Bimm, a 2020–2021 Guggenheim Fellow at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., wonders what Glenn, who died in 2016 at age 95, would think about the space program today. It’s no longer the stronghold of NASA, but more fractured and increasingly the domain of private companies and billionaire titans. “Glenn’s preference was definitely for a robust government program that would be focused on science and exploration, the things we warmly associate with spaceflight, rather than wealthy elites holding the keys to space,” says Bimm, who teaches at the University of Chicago and is author of the forthcoming book, Anticipating the Astronaut. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Tesla’s Elon Musk are ponying up a fortune to take men and women into space. Of those venturing into space today, perhaps none was more symbolic than 82-year-old Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, who went up on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on July 20, 2021. She was one of the so-called “Mercury 13,” women who tested—and sometimes bested—the men training for Mercury 7, including Glenn. Funk broke Glenn’s record as the oldest person in space—a suborbital ride six decades in the making, thanks, in part, to Glenn’s testimony in 1962 against admitting women into the space program.
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Daughter Lyn says that at the time, combat training was required for astronauts and her father felt strongly that it was an essential skill for the early astronauts, and women couldn’t fight in wars back then. Bimm says Glenn became a strong supporter and mentor of women astronauts when they joined NASA in 1978. Funk’s record didn’t last long. On Oct. 13, 2021, actor William Shatner, Capt. Kirk of Star Trek fame, took a short, 10-minute hop to suborbital space and set a new age benchmark at 90. Bimm credits the pioneering work by Glenn, his fellow astronauts and NASA with paving the way for today’s space travelers, including the first all-civilian crew of Inspiration4 which spent three days orbiting the Earth in September 2021. “We are now comfortable with selecting somebody and putting them in a space capsule on a rocket in a matter of months and sending them to space,” he says. “Of course, now the systems are automated so there’s less of a role for the human.”
“And I didn’t say anything,” Lyn says. “And we just sat there for a while and it was quiet. He was getting ready to drive away, and I said, ‘Do you come here often, Dad? And he said, ‘Oh, just when I want to be reminded.’” She asked him what he meant. “And he said he wanted to remember when people working together for the country was good. And when people were putting their lives on the line for their country.” They started to drive away, and Lyn said: “Do you go someplace else?” And he said, ‘ just watch, just wait.’ “And we drove down to the Lincoln Memorial.”
Erin Esmont is a freelance writer and editor. An Ohio native, she’s worked at newspapers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. She lives in Columbus with her family. LEARN MORE
REMEMBERING THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME John Glenn’s long record of public service includes four terms in the U.S. Senate. Daughter Lyn remembers a drive they took after a late-night vote in the Senate. She realized he was driving to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where his Friendship 7 capsule still hung in the window. NASA
John Glenn’s Friendship 7 spacecraft launches on a Mercury-Atlas rocket on Feb. 20, 1962.
It was after midnight and no one was around.
Two recently released books tell the story of John Glenn’s orbital flight and his life and times. Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War, by historian Jeff Shesol, tells the story of the early days of NASA and the political backdrop of the space race. Lyn Glenn offers high praise: “He has captured that time and Dad’s role in it better than anything I’ve ever read.” She met the author in New Concord, Ohio, when he came for a book event. The Last American Hero: The Remarkable Life of John Glenn by journalist and historian Alice L. George begins by positing that America no longer has heroes, or a someone who thoroughly captures the public’s imagination and admiration the way Glenn did. After discussing why that matters today, she chronicles Glenn’s life story. Lyn Glenn says she hasn’t had a chance to read this one yet. Join us on Tues., Feb. 22, at 3 p.m. for The Collections Call of a Lifetime, an online webinar just for Ohio History Connection members, to get a look behind the scenes at how the Ohio History Connection acquired our extensive collection of John Glenn objects and photographs. History Curator Cliff Eckle will share his personal stories of working with the Glenn family, as well as photographs of some of his favorite items. Visit ohiohistory.org/glenn to register for this free webinar. Learn more about visiting the Ohio History Connection’s John & Annie Museum in New Concord, Ohio, at ohiohistory.org/glennmuseum.
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A CURATORS’ DREAM As work days go, this one was almost too good to be true for museum curators Cliff Eckle and Becky Odom of the Ohio History Connection. That’s the day a couple of years ago when they took a road trip to Potomac, Maryland, to collect more than 600 objects and thousands of photographs from the home of John and Annie Glenn. The opportunity presented itself after the Glenn siblings decided to donate hundreds of items from their parents’ home to the Ohio History Connection. Daughter Lyn Glenn was there to welcome them to the homestead. She generously gave them a tour and the chance to pick out other items of historical value, and she also served them lunch. It’s not often that curators are invited into a home of such historic importance to cull items for a collection, especially items with unquestionable provenance, or ownership.
BIG COLLECTION “It’s the largest single collection I’ve ever taken in,” Odom says. “And I anticipate that will be a record that’s difficult to break.” It was a particular thrill for Eckle. “John Glenn was a childhood hero of mine,” says Eckle, who has worked at the Ohio History Connection since 1987. He says the collected items will impressively expand the story of Glenn’s place in the larger history of Ohio’s role in aviation. Toward the end of the long day, Odom spotted a box labeled “Slides from Space” but figured it was mislabeled. “After asking if I could check out the box, I opened this case, and indeed they are glass slides. And I picked one up, and I looked through it. And it was a view of Earth. And I picked up another one, which we’ve started affectionately referring to as a space selfie.” It’s a slide showing Glenn with Earth visible through the capsule window. They also brought back items that Glenn carried to space aboard Friendship 7 on Feb. 20, 1962. “I’m particularly fond of a very creased piece of paper,” Odom says. “It has the same message written on it in five different languages that essentially identifies who he is and tells the person or people who have found him what to do and who to call if he were, you know, unconscious or, God forbid, worse.” Glenn took with him five small silk American flags—one each for the president, the commandant of the Marine Corps (his branch of the service), the Smithsonian Institution and his children, David and Lyn. Small gold pins that Glenn designed for family members are part of the collection, as are bound volumes of letters to him.
AN “AHA MOMENT” For Eckle, an “aha moment” came when he spotted some campaign scarves from Glenn’s 1984 presidential campaign. Lyn Glenn says Frankie Welch, a well-known fashion designer from Alexandria, Virginia, designed them. Her dad liked that they were something different. Another highlight was a book of Time-Life photographs compiled when Life magazine held exclusive rights to photograph the Glenn family and other Mercury 7 astronaut families. The book contains published and unpublished photos.
DADDY’S CHAIR The Ohio History Connection now possesses Glenn’s favorite red leather chair—known as “Daddy’s chair”— which he sat in for years and moved with them to different homes. It resides in his boyhood home in New Concord, Ohio, as part of the collection on display at the John & Annie Glenn Museum. The living-history museum tells the story of Glenn’s upbringing through the Depression, the war years and the Space Age. It recently added a special exhibit that focuses on Annie Glenn and her life until her death in 2020. Odom and Eckle also collected several pieces of Lenox china that Glenn purchased for his wife with the prize money he won on Name That Tune on Oct. 4, 1957. The Westwind pattern shows fall-colored leaves blowing across the plate. They used the dishes until John’s death in 2016. “I really love that story of John using his winnings to buy something for Annie and then treasuring it for the rest of their lives,” Odom says.
ETHEL KENNEDY’S VALENTINES Among quirkier finds: valentines made by Ethel Kennedy in the early 2000s and sent to close friends, including the Glenns. “They’re very clever,” Odom says. “Some of them are a little bit racy. They’re funny.” Lyn Glenn says it wasn’t hard to part with the items because she knows they’re going to a good home that will care for them and preserve them for the public. She and her brother, Dave, a physician who lives in Berkeley, California, have already laid claim to the items they cherish. For her, one is a small yellow frog that has turquoise eyes that her mother bought in El Centro, California, their home before she was born. “So, there are some keepsakes like that,” she says. What she really treasured were her parents. “They were the priceless part,” she says. “Not the things they lived with.” —Erin Esmont
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Estate of the Artist
“By the time I reached nine years old, I was deep, deep into transforming and recording the culture of my people into works of art. The magnitude of research and study of Afrikan-Amerikans is what I have dedicated my life to. My works are the missing pages of American history.” —Aminah Robinson, Journal, 2001–2006
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Raggin’ On THE AMINAH BRENDA LYNN ROBINSON LEGACY PROJECT BY CAROLE M. GENSHAFT
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hen Aminah Robinson passed away in 2015, she left almost her entire estate to the Columbus Museum of Art.
The museum subsequently established the Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Legacy Project to encompass the myriad aspects of preserving the artist’s life and work, expanding awareness of it and placing it in the pantheon of the most important 20thand 21st-century American artists, where it so deservedly belongs. MacArthur Award recipient Robinson used both traditional media and processes, and those that were totally uncommon, to create drawings, watercolors, button-beaded books and dolls, illustrated texts and journals, “hogmawg” sculpture, rag paintings and complex tapestries she called “RagGonNons” to celebrate cultural identities of African Americans and confirm human commonalities among all people. The artist’s work articulates childhood memories; the struggles and triumphs she knew as a single mother and Black, female artist; ancestral history from Africa to the present; her personal accounts of living in Columbus’s Poindexter Village; and her travels to Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia, Egypt, Israel, Chile, Peru and Italy. In 2010, she summarized the purpose of more than six decades of work: “To celebrate the everyday lives of Black people and their endurance through centuries of injustice.”
Estate of the Artist
Left: Self-Portrait, watercolor, 1948. Above: Themba’s Gift (from Poindexter Village as I Walk journal), 2001–2006. OHIOHIS TORY.ORG
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DOCUMENTATION, PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION The Legacy Project is a multifaceted effort to preserve and promote the artist’s legacy through: Z Documentation, preservation and conservation of her work, and digitalization of her writing and journals from her home studio; Z Raggin’ On: The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson’s House and Journals, a major 2020–2021 exhibit and accompanying award-winning book with new scholarship; Z Renovation of the artist’s home studio; Z Establishment of artist/scholar residencies in her home and fellowships for local artists to work in the home studio; Z Promulgation of the artist’s life and work beyond central Ohio through traveling exhibits, access to the Columbus Museum of Art database and updating and expansion of the Aminah’s World and museum websites. From 2015 to 2020, Columbus Museum of Art staff worked carefully to move the vast amount of art, archives, correspondence and books from the house to a secure, temperature- and humidity-controlled storage facility. A team of volunteer and paid staff photographed the work and entered it into a database. Others worked with the technology department of the Columbus Metropolitan Library to digitize examples of Robinson’s journals. The team scanned thousands of the artist’s slides and photographs. The Columbus Museum of Art enlisted McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory in Oberlin to conserve the artist’s carved and painted doors and an early oil, Self-Portrait with Rabbit, from 1959.
RAGGIN’ ON EXHIBIT AND BOOK Amid the rising concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic, Raggin’ On was organized by this writer and co-curated by Deidre Hamlar. The design of the exhibit provided a multifaceted encounter that encouraged visitors to examine the “missing pages” of history that Robinson presented in her work and marvel at her ingenious use of all types of manufactured and natural materials. Visitors experienced the ambiance of the artist’s home through art; furnishings; her collections of books, canes and art she traded with other artists; and photo enlargements of her living spaces and studios.
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Eleven of the artist’s journals were accessible to visitors on five monitors throughout the exhibit. Raggin’ On highlighted Robinson’s work in sections: Beginnings; Street Cries; Material Matters; Ancestral Voices: From Bondage to Freedom; and Art + Writing: Raggin’ On: Women, the Circus and Journeys. The final section of the exhibit invited visitors to “enter” Robinson’s home studio by way of a photo enlargement of her living room, and then examine examples of her drawings and art she traded with other artists. A monitor in this final section featured recollections of 30 friends, family and members of the arts community, who recounted stories about visits to Robinson’s home studio. Collaborations with Urban Strings, a youth orchestra; composer Dr. Mark Lomax II; and poet Scott Woods produced music and poetry inspired by Robinson and the exhibit. Community Days at the Museum (Aug. 13–15, 2021) involved teen ambassadors helping to welcome visitors to celebrate and enjoy the exhibit. In the accompanying publication, which won a 2021 Ohioana Book Award, scholars explored aspects of Robinson’s life and work: Robinson and the Museum (Columbus Museum of Art Executive Director Nannette V. Maciejunes); Aminah’s House (co-curator Deidre Hamlar; artist Debra Priestly); Aminah’s Journals (Carole Genshaft); and Aminah’s Art and Music (art historians Lisa Gail Collins, Lisa Farrington, Ramona Austin and musicologist William “Ted” McDaniel). More than 200 full-color illustrations document Robinson’s home studio and work in the book.
RENOVATION OF THE HOME STUDIO Every step of the renovation of Robinson’s home studio at 791 Sunbury Road in Columbus was undertaken with two goals in mind: the thoughtful preservation of the artist’s spirit and the realization of a workable and livable space for artist residents. With leadership from Columbus attorney Larry James and the Columbus Foundation, public and private funds to renovate the house were raised (and continue to be raised). Aaron McDaniel of real estate development company BluePrint Investments was responsible for the building project, with Mark and Mindy Corna as construction consultants. Brenda Parker of the Columbus Architectural Studio served as architect. Architectural fees were underwritten by architectural firm Moody Nolan, Columbus. Lindsay Jones and her team at Blind Eye Restoration restored the mosaic Robinson had created in the kitchen. In addition to the artist’s mosaic floor,
Nightmare o f Horrors, Th e Atlantic Sl Journey), m ave Trade (fr ixed media om Dad ’s cover and ha nd-colored lithograph, 1995.
Left: Amos Lynch, Sr. (Unwritten Love Letter), pen and ink with pastel and canceled stamps on Call and Post envelope, 1990. Right: Bryce Florist, mixed media on paper, 1982.
Above: Life in the Big Boat (Themba: A Life of Grace and Hope), date unknown, white ink on blue paper with thread and buttons. Below: Wings of Our Ancestors: Slaves Who Labored and Built the Nation’s Capital in Washington, DC (from Aminah Robinson’s Presidential Suite series), 2007–2010. Est ate of the Art ist
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Beginning section of Raggin’ On installation, Columbus Museum of Art, Nov. 18, 2020– Oct. 3, 2021. Columbus Museum of Art 34 Echoes | JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2022
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drawings on the kitchen cabinets, hand-written notes on the walls from guests, the paint-splattered studio floor and painted and carved exterior doors were carefully preserved. Working with the Ohio History Connection, an Ohio Historical Marker was dedicated in front of Robinson’s home studio on Sept. 25, 2021.
ARTIST RESIDENCY A committee of community advisors (David Barker, Queen Brooks, Sue Cooper, Carol James, Tom Katzenmeyer, Wayne Lawson, Michael Martz, Gene Smith, Toni Smith and Carol Wilkerson) chaired by Barbara Nicholson and Bettye Stull met in 2017 and 2018 to discuss the future of Robinson’s house. They voted unanimously to renovate the house and establish it as an artist/scholar residency with strong connections to the Shepard community, the Columbus neighborhood where the house is located. The committee met with Lisa Hoffman, executive director of the Alliance of Artists Communities, a national organization, to help them understand the numerous considerations and extensive planning necessary to create a successful residency program. Working with the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Columbus Museum of Art established the residency. This is one of the few, if not the only, residencies for African American artists in the former home studio of an African American artist. The Columbus Museum of
The Breadman, watercolor with thread, 1981. Estate of the Artist
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Art coordinated a national jury and accepted applications from across the country in 2019. Johnathan Payne became the inaugural artist resident in the summer of 2021. DonCee Coulter in 2020 and Wendy Kendrick in 2021 were the first local artists who enjoyed the opportunity to work in Robinson's studio on a daily basis.
FUTURE ENDEAVORS The Legacy Project involves efforts to make Robinson’s life and work available to an ever-growing audience. This will be achieved through traveling exhibits, placing her work in museums across the country and providing access to Robinson’s art, journals, library, letters and archives through online resources including the Columbus Museum of Art and Aminah’s World websites. Similarly, the museum will continue to seek placement in print and media to attract visitors. Robinson gained national prominence recently with major articles in The New York Times, Forbes.com, American Art Review and news.artnet.com as well as coverage by National Public Radio’s Susan Stamberg. The stewardship of Robinson’s legacy will continue to be a steadfast objective for the museum. Deidre Hamlar has been appointed director of the Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Legacy Project and is supervising these efforts. Robinson’s work will be a hallmark of the Columbus Museum of Art’s exhibited permanent collections with some pieces always on view. Similarly, Columbus Museum of Art will continue to be the foremost
destination where visitors can experience the life and work of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson in a profound way.
Carole M. Genshaft is curator-atlarge at the Columbus Museum of Art and enjoyed a close relationship with Aminah Robinson beginning in the late 1980s. In addition to contributing articles about Robinson to many publications, Genshaft has written Aminah’s World, a children’s book about Robinson’s life and art.
LEARN LEARN MORE MORE For more information about Aminah Robinson, including her own thoughts on various pieces of her art, visit aminahsworld.org.
Left: Self-Portrait with Rabbit, oil on canvas, 1959. Estate of the Artist
Robinson’s renovated kitchen with conserved mosaic floor and original painted cabinets and walls, 2020 Columbus Museum of Art OHIOHIS TORY.ORG
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This S.S. Frizzell print shows General Ulysses S. Grant standing in front of other soldiers and horses at the U.S. Capitol.
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Ulysses S. Grant at 200 A JOURNEY OF APPRECIATION BY STEPHEN GEORGE
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ear the dawn of my awareness of and interest in American history, my fifth grade teacher required each of her students to choose a president and write about him and his times.
I chose Thomas Jefferson, enamored, at the get-go, by all those fabulous natural history artifacts lodged at Monticello, his sublime house in Virginia with its mountaintop view. Completion of that report, a half century ago, marked the high-water mark for my own esteem for Jefferson (it has, mainly, ebbed since). My choice of Jefferson was an obvious one. But I still wonder, did anyone choose to delve into the life of Ohio’s Ulysses S. Grant? I doubt it. And I think that’s too bad. Because Grant was—and remains— complicated. In Grant, there are so many contradictions, so many surprises, so many things for us to wrestle with. Epithets, many of them ugly, have attached themselves to Grant. Critics (in both the South and the North) called him Butcher Grant, assigning him a callousness to suffering. Grant’s father, Jesse, ran a tanning yard opposite the family’s home in Georgetown, Ohio. This was a dirty and smelly business attendant to the slaughter of animals whereby their bloody hides were strung up and turned into leather. Grant loved animals. With horses, in particular, he had an innate understanding and sympathy. As a little boy, his room’s window overlooked the vile proceedings of that tanning yard. He hated all of it. It is said that for the remainder of his life he choked down meat, and when it was served to him it had to be well done so that no pink or red of the flesh could be seen. At West Point, his ability to commune with horses—so important to the Army in those days—became his strong suit. But Grant also excelled as an art student. Evidently he had an artist’s sensitive eye and something of a skillful hand.
EKING OUT AN EXISTENCE Famously, Grant washed out of his early military career and struggled to support his family, whom he deeply loved. Not long before the Civil War, which changed everything, Grant sold firewood on the street to eke out an existence. He seems to have been adrift in the world. The secession crisis gave him the purpose he needed and led Grant at his Cold Harbor, Virginia, headquarters.
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A depiction produced by McLoughlin Brothers of the birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
him to be the Union’s triumphant military leader and, as a national hero, to the presidency.
the future. Americans, by and large, saw the riches of the West as an opportunity for economic gain.
Grant’s father was a follower of the Whig Party. In the Jacksonian period, one great controversy was the matter of American Indians’ forced removal from the eastern United States. President Jackson and most of his Democratic Party backers were all for this cruel effort which stripped dignity and land from so many tribes.
Grant and his administration did nothing to stand in the way of this vast harvesting of timber and mineral resources—except for one monumental accomplishment that laid down a marker for the future. In 1872, Grant created Yellowstone National Park. Not only was this the first American national park, but the first park of its kind in the world.
The Whigs despised Jackson and did what they could to stand in his way. Some spoke out passionately against the removals. When Grant became president, he seemed to have genuinely wanted a better and more respectful relationship between the federal government and the American Indian tribes. He did an extraordinary thing appointing a member of the Seneca people, Ely Samuel Parker, to lead the Bureau of Indian Affairs. On the other hand, the Grant administration sought to exterminate the bison herds on the Great Plains as a means of subduing the American Indian tribes that depended upon them for food and sustenance. Grant himself favored a policy of assimilating Native people into the nation’s dominant culture.
TO THE WHITE HOUSE Grant’s time in the White House (1869–1877) came at a crucial time in the development of the country’s industrial economy and exploitation of the vast natural resources of the interior. The beginning of an American environmental movement was decades into
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Grant’s presidency, transitional in so many ways, is variously assigned to one or both of two American historical epochs. It probably was the start of the Gilded Age, when the economy took off in an astounding way, creating real growth in wages and income for many people. It also created wealth of unprecedented scale concentrated in the hands of celebrity industrialists and their families. The country was changing character, too, with industries soaking up the labor of vast numbers of immigrants from distant lands and diverse cultures. After the Civil War (which Grant had done so much to bring to a close), many Americans aimed to get on with building a larger and more powerful country— and a lot of them were willing to cut corners to make money while doing it. There was a lot of corruption in Grant’s day, both inside the government and in the world of business. Grant’s own family got in on an attempt to corner the price of gold. When President Grant found out that his wife and children were in on an attempt to manipulate the price of gold,
he ordered the Treasury to sell bullion, causing the scheme to collapse. I’ve often wondered what things were like that evening at the White House. The Grant years were also those of Reconstruction. President Lincoln is famously remembered for saying that he favored “letting them up easy,” referring to the defeated secessionists. Grant was warier of the intentions of his former Confederate adversaries. Hailing from an antislavery family, Grant aggressively advocated for the 15th Amendment and he used the Army to suppress the Ku Klux Klan. Grant was the last president for many decades to try so hard to do right by formerly enslaved African Americans. It was a real commitment that distinguishes him. President Barack Obama seems to have recognized this, having placed a large oil portrait of Grant in his private study at the White House.
AFTER HIS PRESIDENCY After Grant left, Reconstruction collapsed and with it the dreams and hopes for a fairer and better country. For a long while, Grant’s accomplishments were belittled by the narrative of the so-called Lost Cause. Grant was ridiculed—set against the image of a chivalrous Robert E. Lee—as louche and unkempt, a minor figure who had merely used the brutal power of the North’s abundance of human and material resources to crush the nobility of the Southern cause. Professional historians and biographers began to reassess this view many years ago, seeing nuance and purpose behind Grant’s strategies and tactics during the Civil War. Three biographers in particular—Jean Edward Smith, Ronald C. White and Ron Chernow— have done much to change how Grant is viewed. Still, some matters of record are hard to overlook. A low point in Grant’s career—one that he came to acknowledge and regret—was his issuance of a military order to expel, as a category, Jewish people living within his military district. This was in 1862 during the Vicksburg campaign, a long slog that eventually led to an important Union victory. President Lincoln, responding to the order’s bigotry and unfairness—made clear by the forceful arguments of Ohio Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise—intervened to quash the command. Later, when running for president, Grant claimed that General Order No. 11 had been drafted by a subordinate and that he had signed it without much thought. He also asserted he had no “prejudice against (any) sect or race, but want each individual to be judged by his own merit.”
As president, Grant stood out for his robust appointments of Jewish people to federal posts and for his foreign policy that pushed against antiSemitism in Europe. Grant became the first president to attend services inside a synagogue. While working on another project a few years ago, I stumbled upon a photograph of Grant taken as the Civil War raged. I remain struck by his soulful eyes captured in the image. There was something very humane and embracing in this man who struggled— like most of us—to find his calling and yet clung to some noble core beliefs. Grant will never tower to such heights as Washington, Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt. But, while often falling short, he aimed for a better America and we’re lucky to have had his service to our nation.
Stephen George is senior advisor at the Ohio History Connection. A native of Mount Vernon, Ohio, he directed the Ohio Bicentennial Commission and its statewide programs that marked the 200th year of Ohio statehood. LEARN MORE LEARN MORE The New York Times Book Review said of Ron Chernow’s biography, Grant, that “for all its scholarly and literary strengths, this book’s greatest service is to remind us of Grant’s significant achievements at the end of the war and after, which have too long been overlooked and are too important today to be left in the dark.” Of Jean Edward Smith’s biography, Grant, Publishers Weekly said, “Smith, until now best known for his work in 20th-century U.S. foreign policy (George Bush’s War), integrates Grant’s career and achievements in what is by far the best comprehensive biography to date of a man who remains in enigma.” Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson wrote of Ronald C. White’s American Ulysses, “In the generations after his death in 1885, Grant’s reputation as a general and president spiraled downward until a current generation of biographers and historians has persuasively resurrected it. American Ulysses represents a culmination of that process.”
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Playing Above the Rim
GEORGEANN WELLS MAKES BASKETBALL HISTORY BY BELLA CZAJKOWSKI
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eorgeann Wells became the first woman to dunk in a college basketball game on Dec. 21, 1984.
Asked to describe the former West Virginia University basketball center in three words, those who know her well chose a combination of sincere, courageous, outspoken and, of course, tall. The dunk made history, and Wells later was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee. But what she's most proud of isn't basketball-related; it's raising her kids and watching them thrive. Wells is a business owner and grandmother living in the Columbus area. When she reflects on her life of athletic achievement, international travel and motherhood, she says, “I’ve lived the best life ever. I did pretty much everything and anything I wanted to do, and it’s been a great outcome. To this day.”
EARLY LIFE Wells grew up in a family of nine children, attending Parkmoor Elementary School in north Columbus. Her brother Wesley recalls frequenting a nearby park to play basketball with Georgeann. While he generally looks back on their upbringing fondly, he says he wasn’t a big fan of playing basketball with his sister due to the advantage of her already-sprouting height.
A photograph of Georgeann Wells from her West Virginia University yearbook. WVU Athletics Communications
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WVU Athletics Communications
Wesley says the sisters of the Wells family got most of the athletic genes. Their athleticism was no secret—including to the coach of the women’s basketball team at Northland High School, Elaine Boltz, who says of her early scouting of Georgeann, “I saw her walking in the neighborhood and was licking my chops.”
I’ve lived the best life ever. I did pretty much everything and anything I wanted to do, and it’s been a great outcome. To this day.
Georgeann Wells, 2009
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Matt Eich
When Wells played on her team, Coach Boltz says she already stood 6 feet 6 inches, only one inch shorter than she would later top off at, 6 feet 7 inches. Boltz describes high school-aged Wells as motivated, setting goals and going on to achieve them. Off the court, she says Wells was goofy and had a great sense of humor—both being “able to dish it out and take it.” She also says Georgeann accepted her unusual height with grace, even using it to humorous advantage. “She’d take the ball and hold it up in the air. Nobody could get the ball from her. ‘Here, you want the ball? Come and get it,’” Boltz remembers with a laugh. As Wells matured on the team, Boltz says she took lessons from older teammates like Sharon CurdWatson, who was one year her senior. Curd-Watson taught Wells, who always had the team laughing, that there was a time to be funny and a time to be more serious. On the court, Wells had her sights set on dunking. Boltz says she knew Wells would do it someday, but warned against risking injury to accomplish the feat while in high school, especially on a team headed for high school glory. Matt Eich
“I thought, ‘No, you do that in college,’” Boltz says. “We want to win a state championship. We don’t want to break fingers and put you out of commission.” On the other hand, Curd-Watson remembers encouraging her to dunk back in high school. She says Georgeann was understandably a bit timid to try, since no woman had done it before.
MAKING HISTORY Wells went on to play basketball at West Virginia University from 1983 to 1986, where she achieved the landmark dunk at a game against the University of Charleston. She says she had practiced the move extensively and when it happened, everyone jumped off the Mountaineer bench. “It was just amazing,” Wells recalls with a sing-song pronunciation on the second “A,” reminiscent of the atmosphere on the court that day. Her West Virginia teammates were so exuberant that they received a technical foul for their celebratory commotion. The crowd—estimated at about 100 Top Left: Wells is still one of only six or seven women to slam dunk a basketball in college or the pros. She was the first to do so at the collegiate level. Bottom Left: In addition to being very tall, Wells also had what basketball devotees call “hops.” Here she’s pictured a couple of feet in the air in a game against Pitt.
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people—had also jumped to their feet. With all the excitement came a lapse of West Virginia’s defensive efforts, allowing a University of Charleston player relatively unobstructed access to score in the immediate aftermath.
Her kids, now grown, remain her greatest accomplishment. She also has two grandkids in the mix. The slam dunk and her catering business, she says, count as her second and third proudest accomplishments.
Wells’s high school teammate Curd-Watson remembers stepping onto her own team bus for the University of Dayton’s women’s basketball team when she caught wind that her protégé had successfully dunked.
Though a number of years have passed since their high school days, Curd-Watson says she and Wells still get together with Coach Boltz every four or five months. Between that lasting relationship and much of Wells’s family, including brother Wesley, remaining in Ohio and reuniting from time to time, it’s no wonder Wells feels such a sense of home in Columbus.
“It was all over the news,” Curd-Watson says. “I was very, very proud to hear that, you know, she had done that. And she was representing (all of) us.” Boltz says she knew the dunk was only a matter of time, but she was thrilled to learn that Wells had accomplished her goal and cemented her place in history. “When you see kids that, you know, you’ve coached, you’ve taught, you’ve had in class, you see them excel afterwards, that makes you feel proud. That you were part of grooming and shaping and molding and nurturing,” Boltz says. Though her legacy was made with the dunk, Wells shined on both offense and defense at West Virginia— managing 1,484 points, 1,075 rebounds and 436 blocks in her college career, and ultimately setting a school record for blocks, according to the West Virginia University athletics website. After college, Wells went on to play basketball overseas in Japan, Spain, Italy and France for seven years before returning to the United States. After a whirlwind basketball career, she says there was no question that she would eventually return to Columbus. She has the clear sense that it’s her home.
WHERE IS GEORGEANN NOW? Now living in the Columbus suburb of Gahanna, Wells has operated a catering business for the past seven years—Tall Chicks CMK Smokehouse, named in honor of her three kids: Curtis, Maddison and Kasey. She specializes in barbecue, smoked meats and Southernstyle sides, inspired by the type of cooking her dad did when she was growing up.
Sitting in her living room 37 years after her historic dunk, Wells says she wouldn’t change a thing about her life’s path. “I’ve lived my life and I’ve experienced a lot and I’ve gotten to explore and see a lot, when it comes to sports, my kids and everybody else.”
Bella Czajkowski is a fourth-year journalism student at The Ohio State University. She is the editor-in-chief of Ohio State’s independent student newspaper, The Lantern. LEARN MORE MORE LEARN
Visit the Women’s National Basketball Association website to learn more about the history of women’s basketball at ohiohistory.org/dunk1. The ThoughtCo.com website has a detailed timeline of women’s basketball spanning the years from 1892 through 2008 at ohiohistory.org/dunk2. Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball by Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford reaches “back over a century of struggle, liberations, and gutsy play” and offers “vivid portraits of forgotten heroes and contemporary stars.” The book explores “the history of the sport … and its close relationship to concepts of womanhood, race, and sexuality, and the efforts to expand women’s rights.”
“I’m a smoker,” Wells says. “We smoke all types of meat. It’s low and slow, it’s just tear-apart, melt-in-yourmouth great stuff.” She has her sights set on getting her food truck up and running, which she was preparing to open when COVID-19 hit.
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I Wish I’d Been There BOOMTOWN SPRINGFIELD—THE PIG-IRON NAPOLEON AND THE CHAMPION CIT Y BY TOM STAFFORD
The evening of June 21, 1887, the Springfield Daily Republic posed a question crucial not only to its community, but to the nation’s agricultural implements industry and the organized labor movement struggling to represent its workers: Will they arbitrate? The Knights of Labor had given brothers William and Amos Whiteley two days to answer on behalf of Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly, a Springfield company The New York Times reminded its readers was “the largest mower and reaper manufacturers of America.” Springfield, Ohio, had become known as the Champion City. William Whiteley, who had invented the Champion City’s Champion reaper, not only employed roughly 2,000 people in a town of 20,000+, but licensed other Springfield
companies to produce the Champion, dividing the world’s markets among them. In 1880—two years before the so-called Reaper King built the largest factory on the continent—Springfield’s $5.7 million of annual implements production more than doubled that of Chicago’s. Few were surprised, then, when the Republic printed a special edition the day of the Knights’ deadline. Fewer yet had suspected the swirling rumors were true: Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly was in receivership. KERSHAW AND WILSHIRE A week to the day earlier, the grain market at the Chicago Board of Trade had crashed because of what Thomas P. Kane’s The Romance and Tragedy of Banking calls “the greatest wheat speculation ever known.” After millions of bushels of wheat plunged 15 cents
One of the earliest versions of the Champion reaper.
apiece in value, bankrupting trading companies and untold individuals, the Associated Press immediately focused its coverage on two men: grains trader Eggleston Kershaw and Cincinnatian Joe Wilshire. The day after the crash, the two walked from an early meeting at Chicago’s Exchange Bank to Dearborn and Monroe streets in Chicago, where Kershaw met a young man from Cincinnati “whose pockets bulged,” the Associated Press reported. Thirty minutes later, “Kershaw had the money to pay his differences” he owed to the bank. In the Republic’s special edition, Wilshire is mentioned as the recipient of $948,000 of loans from the Fidelity National Bank of Cincinnati, the apparent source of Kershaw’s payment. The loans—unsecured and written in pencil—had been hidden from the bank’s board of directors. And because the wielder of the pencil, Fidelity Vice President E.L. Harper, had done business in Springfield, the Republic, which connected the dots, had a new crucial question of the day: “Will the failure of the Fidelity Bank … have any effect locally?” A “shrewd” local financier replied he thought not, but when pressed, added “I think
Employees gathered in front of Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly’s East Street Shops in Springfield. All images courtesy Clark County Historical Society
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the Whiteleys were the heaviest local depositors.” The Republic immediately focused its coverage on two men: Harper and Whiteley. BRILLIANT, COOL AND AUDACIOUS A Republic reporter who had known Harper provided a biography. Born in Pennsylvania, the man eventually thought of as “a brilliant, cool and audacious investor of money at big risks” had operated a skillet in Upper Michigan lumber camps before coming to Urbana in 1869 to market a patent washing machine that was “a dead rabbit from the very first.” After then failing to sell Singer sewing machines in Urbana, he moved to Cincinnati in 1872, where he failed to sell Domestic sewing machines. He did, however, win a $10,000 suit against the company for failure to supply them and in the process, met the “great iron broker” L.E. Hull. Investing his $10,000 into Hull’s iron business, Harper took it over when Hull died, and was christened “The Napoleon of Pig Iron” when a boom in the business made him a fortune selling “largely to Akron, Canton and to the Messrs. Whiteley of this city.” “Restless under the humdrum prospect of slowly but surely getting wealthy” and with “nerve and fearlessness amounting almost to desperation,” Harper became a grain speculator and in 1882 “squeezed a million dollars out of the pockets of the Chicago (speculators).” When fortune turned against him two years later, the account said, Whiteley “helped Harper out of a box by means of an accommodation paper” of credit. Eventually mired in his failing speculation of 1887 and knowing “a crash in his financial affairs was imminent,” Harper—“without Whiteley’s
Whitely (sic), Fassler & Kelly poster advertising Champion reapers and the company's vast East Street Shops in Springfield, said to be North America's largest factory when completed in 1882.
knowledge or consent”—again tapped a line of credit “as good as gold in the financial markets.” Said the same source: “I know that Whiteley was not in (the) Chicago wheat deal, and that he knew nothing of Harper’s being in it until he read of it in the Cincinnati papers.” Those same papers soon would report Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly had liabilities of $3.1 million and assets of $1 million. NAPOLEON AND THE KING Although other Springfield companies continued making Champion reapers, the course of history had been reset. In 1890, Chicago’s $11.8 million in implement sales more than doubled those of a weakened Champion City and its disgraced Reaper King. As for the Pig-Iron Napoleon? He was by then serving a 10-year term in the Ohio Penitentiary, put there, reported the Republic, because he had “simply overplayed his caliber.” Tom Stafford chose June 22, 1887, as his day in history because, as a veteran of the Springfield News-Sun,
he would have liked to have been in the Republic’s newsroom the day reporters unearthed the most consequential news in the history of his adopted hometown.
Tom Stafford spent 35 years as a reporter at the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, 20 of those writing more than 1,000 local history stories for weekly publication. He continues to write a Sunday column for the paper in retirement and does freelance reporting for WYSO in Yellow Springs. LEARN LEARN MORE MORE Visit the Heritage Center of the Clark County Historical Society at 117 S. Fountain Ave. in Springfield to see a restored Champion reaper and learn about Springfield’s manufacturing might in the 19th century. The center is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, call 937.324.0657.
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Close to Danger T H E 6 9 T H S I G N A L B AT TA L I O N I N E U RO P E YO U N G E Y E S O N T H E PA S T BY ANNALISSA HANKINSON
Gunfire boomed in the distance as a group of tired and war-weary men worked in the cold French countryside. The men tried to stay low and work as fast as their cold and tired hands could. They pushed a cart with a roll of wire on it, unrolling the wire as they went, fastening it to the ground. The sounds of gunfire got closer and closer. Soon they could hear the shouts of men, whether theirs or the enemy’s they couldn’t tell. Still, these men pushed on, knowing that when they stopped, the whole army stopped. Laying telephone and telegraph wires was essential for Gen. George Patton to keep up his march across France. It
was 1944, and the tide of World War II had finally turned in the Allies’ favor. Gen. Patton was well on his way to Germany. However, all that would end if this group of tired men could not do their job. If the wires weren’t laid, Patton couldn’t communicate with his fastmoving tanks and the whole army would grind to a stop, so they forged on in the bitter cold with the sounds of gunfire not far away. COMMUNICATION IN HISTORY As History Day approaches every year, I spend a lot of time trying to decide a topic for my project. This year was particularly special to me because it was my last year. I wanted my topic to be something unique. I finally decided on telling the story of my great-grandfather, Wayne Waser, and his service in the Signal Corps during World War II. My greatgrandfather was a master sergeant in the Signal Corps. His team was part of Gen. George Patton’s Third Army, which hit the shores of France two months after D-Day.
Library of Congress
Patton drove his men across France into Germany at a record pace. My great-grandfather’s
Detail of a U.S. Army Signal Corps recruiting poster.
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team traveled directly ahead of Gen. Patton, laying telephone and telegraph lines in the ground so that he could communicate with his officers. MAJOR MYER HAS AN IDEA Communication on the battlefield has always been used, but it wasn’t until the 1860s that the Signal Corps was created. In the Civil War, a man named Maj. Albert Myer created a system that would change the face of warfare communication. Maj. Myer realized that battlefield communication was vital to winning and tried to find ways to improve it. He developed a signaling system known as aerial telegraphy, or “wig wag.” This system was developed by waving flags in certain patterns to communicate during a battle. Aerial telegraphy was very successful in the Civil War and because of that success, members of the military learned that it was important to have a sector of the military devoted solely to communication. The Signal Corps was born. Over the years as communication technology was improved, the advancements were applied to battlefield communication. One by one, the telegraph, telephone, radio and eventually radar were adapted for use on the battlefield. By World War II, the Signal Corps was as essential as any other part of the army. My great-grandfather signed up for the reserves on March 8, 1942. He had worked at the Ohio Bell Telephone Company for years, which made him a perfect candidate for the Signal Corps. A CHRISTMAS WEDDING He was called up in December of the same year and spent about a year training. Before he went overseas, he
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was asked if there was anything he had wished he’d done before he went. He said that his only regret was that he hadn’t married his sweetheart, Betty. When asked if she would travel to New Jersey to marry Wayne, she agreed. On Christmas Day 1943, 12 minutes before my great-grandfather left for Europe, the two were married. First, he went to England, and then from there he and his team went to France to join the rest of the Third Army. When they began their march across France, my great-grandfather began the task of helping Gen. Patton communicate with his army. The main means of communications that my great-grandfather would have been using were telephone, telegraph and radio. They would have dug trenches and buried wires in the ground. Because Gen. Patton pushed his men so hard, the men in the Signal Corps who were in front of him were often forced into active combat and had to fight like infantry. Because of the men in the Signal Corps, Patton maintained his army’s pace. On March 22, 1945, the Third Army marched into Germany after capturing 10,000 square miles of territory in eight months. SURRENDER AT L AST The Germans surrendered to the Allies on May 7, 1945. The 69th Signal Battalion was decorated with the Croix de Guerre, the French Medal of Honor. If my great-grandfather had stayed in the military instead of returning home, he would have received his lieutenancy. He was honorably discharged on Oct. 24, 1945. It was men like my great-grandfather and his Signal Corps team laying lines in dangerous conditions that made it possible for battlefield communication to work the way it did. Their sacrifice and bravery were what made victory possible.
Members of the U.S. Army Signal Corps ready with a sextant, binoculars, a map and flags, the tools of their trade.
The Signal Corps remains an important part of the military, now using more advanced telecommunication systems and the internet to communicate. The Signal Corps is still changing the world.
Annalissa Hankinson graduated from Hankinson Home Academy in the spring of 2021 and entered into Ohio Christian University as a sophomore in the fall. She is a history major and works as a historic interpreter at Historic Roscoe Village. She looks forward to working as a curator or director one day. LEARN MORE LEARN MORE
For a thorough review of the history of the Signal Corps, visit the website of the Regimental Division, Office Chief of Signal, at ohiohistory.org/ signal1. The site includes all the basics, as well as interesting facts such as “The Signal Corps’ Project Diana,” which in 1946 successfully bounced radar signals off the moon, paving the way for space communications, and details of the Dec. 18, 1958, communications
satellite, Project SCORE. With Air Force assistance, Project SCORE demonstrated the feasibility of worldwide communications in delayed and real-time mode by means of relatively simple active satellite relays. Women soldiers played a significant role in the Signal Corps during World War II. View a National Archives and Records Administration United Newsreel doc from 1944 about the women at ohiohistory.org/signal2. Getting the Message Through by Rebecca Robbins Raines, published by the Defense Department, Army and the Center of Military History, “traces the history of the United States Signal Corps from its beginnings on the eve of the American Civil War through two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and up to its participation in the Persian Gulf conflict during the early 1990s. It includes information on today’s signal soldiers, where their branch has been, and where it is going.”
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Forgotten Landmarks of Columbus by Tom Betti and Doreen Uhas Sauer for the Columbus Landmarks Foundation Authors Tom Betti and Doreen Uhas shaped Columbus’s urban landscape. Sauer are good storytellers. Reading this Key is the public perception of the book, I was reminded of walking tours Statehouse, from its creation, through its that have become a regular feature of disregard and, ultimately, its recognition many downtowns across the country. as “Columbus’s most important Here a local guide explains how a specific landmark,” resulting in its restoration. building came to be and what it represents. A discussion follows of the local, state Property owners, financiers and architects and federal policies that produced are familiar players in these stories, but to a downtown sea of vacant lots and a large degree, Columbus’s history takes that led to establishing the Columbus center stage. Landmarks Foundation in 1977. The book features five chapters. The first tells the sad tale of the city’s initial—and spectacularly unsuccessful—preservation project: the 1830s Alfred Kelley Mansion. The next is a fascinating description of the forces and development pressures that
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regularly threatened with demolition until finally preserved in 2004. The authors strive to extract lessons from these tales, but an unspoken one is found in the tally: more than 60% of Columbus’s so-called landmarks are no longer standing. The concluding chapter is the book’s essential heart and could have been the introduction. Here the authors wrestle with fundamental terms like landmark, how to define buildings’ stories and determining what’s important to remember. Read it first in this absorbing testament to the value of historic preservation. David A. Simmons, Editor, Emeritus
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An important early example of Greek Revival-style architecture in Ohio, the Alfred Kelley Mansion was built in the 1830s and was completed before the Ohio Statehouse. The mansion was demolished in 1961.
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Writing room installation in the Columbus Museum of Art’s recent Aminah Robinson exhibit Raggin’ On. See page 30. OHIOHIS TORY.ORG
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