Ohio Historical Society

Artifacts and Antiquarians: The Historical Society in Nineteenth-Century Ohio

by Thomas J. Rieder, from: Preview, vol. 5, no. 2 (Spring 1996): 14-17

The Ohio Historical Society traces its origins to the curiosity and unaffected patriotism of nineteenth-century Ohioans--men and women who took great delight in learning more about the mysterious world of the state's ancient Mound Builders and in remembering the exploits and accomplishments of its earliest American settlers; to the diligent efforts of many of Ohio's leading citizens in preserving and publishing a written record of their past; and to the vigorous community spirit shown by these same individuals, and others of like mind, in preparing for and celebrating the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The story of events leading to the founding of the Ohio Historical Society begins on February 1, 1822, when the state legislature passed an act incorporating the Historical Society of Ohio. The first--and only--meeting of this short-lived organization was held in Columbus in September of that year; unfortunately, the proceedings were not officially recorded. What has survived, however, is a later account by one of those participating in the meeting, Elisha Whittlesey, a prominent Ohio lawyer. In an address delivered before the Firelands Historical Society in June 1858, Whittlesey related the events of that evening more than thirty-five years earlier. Gathered together were Governor Jeremiah Morrow, General Duncan McArthur, and other weighty citizens, all full of conviviality and engrossed in historical reminiscences. Around twelve o'clock, Whittlesey asked the governor to call the meeting to order, but Morrow paid him no mind. The gentlemen gradually drifted away into the night, and sometime between two in the morning and dawn, by Whittlesey's recollection, the meeting broke up, its business unfinished. Thus ended Ohio's first attempt at establishing a state historical society.

The Ohio General Assembly, its enthusiasm undiminished, tried again in 1831, passing an act that called upon the influential Benjamin Tappan, one of the first settlers of Portage County, and twenty-nine others to form the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio. Holding regular meetings in Columbus, the new organization met with initial success, its members presenting papers on such diverse topics as the founding and settlement of Dayton, the prehistoric mounds of Butler County, and flooding on the Ohio River from 1772 to 1832. Beginning in 1838, however, the officers of the society found it increasingly difficult both to sustain membership and to carry on the affairs of their organization. After 1841, a year in which three meetings were held, activities came to a near standstill, with society members formally assembling only twice during the next seven years in 1844 and again in 1848.

Meeting on December 26, 1848, the remaining members of the organization made a significant decision. At the suggestion of Salmon P. Chase, the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio decided to change its meeting place from Columbus to the more populous and prosperous city of Cincinnati. And again at Chase's suggestion the members also moved to merge the organization's collections with those of the recently formed Cincinnati Historical Society. Focusing its attention on Cincinnati and the Miami Valley rather than on the state as a whole, the reconstituted Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio prospered and by 1874 had acquired an endowment of more than eight thousand dollars, a museum of prehistoric artifacts, and a library collection numbering some 17,600 books and pamphlets.

During the middle years of the nineteenth century, a number of small historical societies were founded throughout Ohio to collect materials documenting the history of a specific region, an individual county, or even a township. Evidently, no serious efforts were made at this time to form another statewide historical organization. The Firelands Historical Society appeared in 1857 and the Tallmadge Historical Society in 1858. Founded in 1841, the Marietta Historical Association thrived for more than thirty years before disbanding in 1875. The Ashtabula County Historical Society, also founded in 1841, operated until the early 1870s, when it too broke up, placing its collections with the newly formed Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland.

Clevelanders made what proved to be two ill-timed attempts at founding a local historical society. In 1857 the Cuyahoga County Historical Society was formed, holding "grand county picnics" in 1858 and 1860. Similar to county fairs, these events featured exhibits of relics instead of livestock. A picnic originally scheduled for June 1861 became a casualty of the Civil War, and the county historical society foundered soon after. Wartime conditions also thwarted an attempt in 1863 to form an historical society focusing on the city of Cleveland.

In 1867 a movement springing from within the Cleveland Library Association, which had been founded in 1848 to advance the study of the history of northeastern Ohio, led to the organization of the Western Reserve Historical Society, which first operated as a department within the library association. The new historical society's bylaws stated that its objectives were "to discover, procure and preserve whatever relates to the history, biography, genealogy, antiquities and statistics connected with the City of Cleveland and the Western Reserve." In 1870 the Western Reserve Historical Society began publishing papers reflecting the purposes outlined in its bylaws. It became independent of the library association in 1892 and prospers today as Ohio's second largest historical society.

By the 1870s Ohio was changing rapidly from an agrarian to an industrial state, and influential citizens once again began expressing an interest in establishing a broadly based organization that would preserve the state's recorded history and foster investigations into its amazingly rich archaeological heritage. It was clearly evident that the setting down of pioneer tales and various speculations on the lives of the Mound Builders, although exercises valuable in themselves, were activities insufficient for the larger task. A carefully organized, consistently funded, and professionally managed approach was needed and this went well beyond the capabilities of any one local or regional historical society.

Fortunately, the growing concern of these prominent Ohioans found practical expression in the year preceding America's centennial celebration of 1876, when the Ohio Archaeological Society was formed at the home of General Roeliff Brinkerhoff in Mansfield. Urged on by Brinkerhoff, the state legislature appropriated $2,500 for the new organization, with the funds used to prepare a display of archaeological specimens for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Under the direction of its secretary, John T. Short, professor of history at Ohio State University, the Ohio Archaeological Society continued to operate in the years after the centennial. Short's untimely death in 1883 brought the active work of the organization to an end; the underlying interest supporting its primary objectives, however, did not wane.

In 1885 George Hoadly, the governor of Ohio and an amateur historian and archaeologist, approached Albert Adams Graham, a compiler and publisher of local histories, and suggested that the Ohio Archaeological Society be revived. Graham agreed and promptly called for a meeting. A number of prominent individuals responded and gathered in Columbus in February. The group, recognizing the importance of its work, decided to expand the discussion, extending an invitation to all persons interested in forming a statewide society to meet in Columbus the following month. And thus on March 12 some sixty men from across Ohio convened in the Capitol. Guided by Allen G. Thurman, a former member of the United States Senate, they deliberated, bringing forth the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, forming it expressly "to promote a knowledge of Archaeology and History, especially of Ohio, by establishing and maintaining a library of books . . . a museum of prehistoric relics . . . by courses of lectures and publications of books, papers and documents. . . ."

The new archaeological and historical society, which is known today as the Ohio Historical Society, functioned as a purely private organization until 1888, when it began receiving a small state appropriation. The quasi-public nature of the institution was firmly established in 1891, when the Ohio General Assembly authorized the governor to appoint six members of the organization's board, then numbering fifteen trustees. That same year the state of Ohio vested in the society custodial responsibility for Fort Ancient, a prehistoric site in Warren County.

An ongoing pillage of the prehistoric treasures of Ohio the work of outsiders lay heavy on the minds of the first officers of the archaeological and historical society, and they expressed their concerns in a circular issued in June 1885.

No part of our country is so rich in pre-historic remains, so full of valuable, unpreserved history as Ohio. This is so apparent that Ohio has become the common hunting-ground for all other States as well as all foreign countries who have societies devoted to this purpose. While other States have preserved their own mementoes, Ohio has allowed her fields to be daily despoiled by the museums of Paris, London, Washington, Cambridge, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Madison. This is not creditable to the State, and ought not be allowed to continue. . . . We trust every one will endeavor to preserve to Ohio the valuable relics so properly her own, and decline to send or permit them to be taken from her borders.

Thus the society's earliest activities included much archaeological work; and Warren King Moorehead, its first curator of archaeology, began his investigations at Fort Ancient, surveying and excavating the site over a period of several years. The society published a report of Moorehead's fieldwork in the 1895 Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, with later volumes of the periodical describing the important excavations of Moorehead's successor, William C. Mills, at the Seip Earthworks complex and the Baum Prehistoric Village site, both in Ross County.

Until 1894 the Ohio State Archaeological Society housed its library and museum collections in a room in the Ohio Statehouse. That year, the society moved its official headquarters, along with the museum collections, to Orton Hall on the campus of Ohio State University, later occupying rooms in nearby Page Hall. During this time, it continued to maintain a small library in the Capitol.

In 1901 the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications included an interesting and revealing account by Emilius O. Randall, the society's secretary, describing his recent visit to several museums and historical libraries in the East and Midwest. Randall noted that while the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society surpassed similar state organizations in the scope of its archaeological fieldwork and the breadth of its collection of prehistoric artifacts, it lagged far behind the others in basic facilities and in the size of its library holdings. Randall then called on the state to assist the society in constructing a library and museum that would be suitable for housing its growing collections. Unfortunately, the legislature did not answer Randall's request until 1911, when it appropriated one hundred thousand dollars for the construction of a museum and library building on the university campus. The original structure was completed in 1913, with wings added in 1926, 1929, and 1950. The society occupied this building until 1970, when it moved to the Ohio Historical Center.

During the first decades of the twentieth century, the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society became a much more complex organization, gradually broadening the range of its educational activities and interpretative responsibilities and leaving behind the quiet and self-contained world of the antiquarian and nineteenth-century archaeologist. In 1920 the library and museum became separate divisions of the organization, joined in 1925 by a natural history department. In 1927 Charles B. Galbreath, formerly the state librarian of Ohio, took a similar position with the society and greatly strengthened its collection of newspapers, manuscripts, and genealogical research materials. That same year, the society began collecting government records the first step in establishing the State Archives of Ohio.

The leading citizens who tried unsuccessfully to give life to the Historical Society of Ohio would have little trouble understanding the philosophy guiding the Ohio Historical Society or appreciating its primary purpose, the essentials of which differ only in degree from the aims of those who met in Columbus in 1822 and not at all from the goals of those who gathered together in 1885. Today, the Ohio Historical Society continues to promote "a knowledge of Archaeology and History" much as it did in the past but in a variety of new and interesting ways, and often in a manner that could not have been anticipated or even imagined by the founders of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. Using sophisticated computer technology to facilitate access to key library collections; developing innovative museum displays and interpretative programs at historical sites; administering a public records program in cooperation with state, county, and municipal government agencies these are just several of the many activities that describe the work of a large, active, and multi-faceted historical society, one that has taken the simple antiquarian interests of the nineteenth century and melded them with the ever-increasing public responsibilities, educational opportunities, and technological developments of the twentieth.

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