Media contacts: Kim Schuette: 614.297.2314 or kschuette@ohiohistory.org

For Immediate Release

Ohio Association of Historical Societies & Museums Presents Annual History Honors Eighteen Individuals
Organizations From Around the State Recognized

(COLUMBUS, OHIO) - The Ohio Association of Historical Societies & Museums (OAHSM), in partnership with the Ohio Historical Society, presented its 2009 Outstanding Achievement Awards during its annual meeting and conference October 3 at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus. Each year, OAHSM recognizes exceptional work of local historians who dedicate their time to preserve and share their community history.

Eighteen recipients from around the state, representing four individuals and 14 history organizations, were honored. Awards were presented in two categories: Individual Achievement and History Outreach.

“Through its annual awards program, the Ohio Association of Historical Societies & Museums recognizes and encourages the efforts of individuals and organizations that collect, preserve, interpret and promote local history,” said Greg Myers, OAHSM president. “This year’s recipients helped to enrich Ohio’s heritage by producing outstanding projects about their own community’s history.”

Individual Achievement Awards
For individual achievement, OAHSM recognizes people who have contributed greatly to Ohio’s historical societies or history museums or to understanding and appreciation of state or local history. This year’s recipients were:

• Henry Burke of the Belpre Historical Society in Belpre, Ohio, who contributed to the research and understanding of the Underground Railroad in the Mid-Ohio Valley, through 35 years of work. Among his achievements, he has researched and written four books and hundreds of articles, done presentations, created a Web site and raised funds to install history markers and an exhibit.
• Ruth Wright Clinefelter of the Summit County Historical Society in Akron, a retired professor of bibliography/social sciences and humanities librarian at the University of Akron, was honored for half century of service to local history in the Akron area. Clinefelter has authored History of Middlebury Cemetery and has also contributed to many local history projects, including Progress Through Preservation, The Cascade Locks Park Association and The Akron Women’s History Program.
• Geoffrey G. Gorsuch of the Franklin Area Historical Society in Franklin, Ohio, for furthering the knowledge of the city’s history. He contributed to many projects, including creating one driving and two walking tours and a guide to Franklin’s historic cemeteries. He also wrote a five-volume history of Franklin Township in the Civil War plus researched and wrote a two-volume history on his home, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Dr. Ned Lodwick, vice president of the U.S. Grant Homestead Association in Georgetown, Ohio, not only researches and writes about Brown County history in the mid-19th century, but has worked tirelessly to promote “The Land of Grant Sites.” Grant Boyhood Home and Schoolhouse in Georgetown and Grant’s Birthplace in Point Pleasant, Ohio—all three Ohio Historical Society sites—have benefited from it.

History Outreach Awards
OAHSM also recognizes organizations for outstanding projects, including public programs, exhibits, media and publications, that have contributed to the promotion and understanding of local and state history and have an impact on the community. Awards were presented to organizations with a budget below $25,000 and to those with a budget above $25,000.

For organizations with a budget below $25,000, 2009 award recipients include:

• Auglaize County Historical Society in Wapakoneta, Ohio, for the organizing the Wapakoneta 175th Anniversary. The historical society was honored for its work in celebrating the county seat’s milestone with lectures, tours, exhibits, book discussions, a homecoming weekend, newspaper columns and more.
• Chester Shade Historical Society in Chester, Ohio, for their work to preserve the Chester Academy. Along with the Daughters of America, the historical society worked to stabilize and rehabilitate the schoolhouse by donating more than 3,600 volunteer hours and raising more than $417,000 for the project.
• Evendale Historical Commission in Evendale, Ohio, in a cooperative effort with the Gorman Heritage Farm, for the event “Gen. John Hunt Morgan Returns to Evendale.” The event includes a battle reenactment and other interpretative activities to increase understanding of this important event and period in Hamilton County history.
• Monclova Historical Foundation in Monclova, in Lucas County, Ohio, for saving the Monclova Post Office by relocating and reconstructing it in a new location. The amount of effort to accomplish the undertaking and attention to historical detail in the reconstruction was cited by the OAHSM awards committee.
• North Canton Heritage Society in North Canton, Ohio, for a biography project which brought senior citizens, who worked at the now-closed Hoover Company factory in North Canton, for taped oral-history interviews with high-school juniors in AP English in the North Canton schools. Students then wrote biographies of the seniors from the interviews. Both the interview recordings and finished biographies are archived at the North Canton Heritage Society and are available to future researchers.
• Warren County Historical Society in Lebanon, Ohio, for publishing a 2009 calendar featuring people, places and events of historical importance to Lebanon along with current events and advertisements. This innovative promotional and educational publication was cited as a model for other historical organizations could successfully adopt.

For organization with a budget over $25,000, 2009 award recipients include:

• Akron-Summit County Public Library in Akron, Ohio, for the Summit County Memory Project Web site (www.summitmemory.org) that brings together in one place the collections from 15 historical societies, libraries and community organizations and two individuals. The collections span Summit County history and include special collections, such as Oral History Series of the American Chemical Society’s Rubber Division, Civil War Collection from the Summit County Historical Society and the Trucking History Collection from Pioneer Motor Traffic Club and Akron-Summit County Public Library.
• The Betts House in Cincinnati for the two-part exhibit Great Cincinnati Families at Home. The exhibits, which are designed to tour venues, help viewers understand the historical context in which Cincinnati’s great families built their homes and then what happened to the houses as the families move on and the neighborhoods changed. A lecture series also is a part of the exhibits.
• Oberlin Heritage Center in Oberlin, Ohio, for the Rescue, Restore, Reuse project in which railings from the 1880-era Morgan Street Bridge were salvaged by volunteers from the Oberlin Heritage Center. The railings were repaired and refurbished and now serve as an attractive new fence around the grounds of the Oberlin Heritage Center.
• Pioneer & Historical Society of Muskingum County in Zanesville, Ohio, for the 200th anniversary observance of the Stone Academy in Putnam Historic District, which houses the society’s office and archives. The society planned a series of activities to celebrate the bicentennial of the school building and promote their organization. Activities included a dedication of an Ohio Historical Marker on the Underground Railroad, talks by local historians and walking tours of the historic district, Woodlawn Cemetery and “Haunted Putnam.”
• Sandusky Library/Follett House Museum in Sandusky, Ohio, for sponsoring a brown bag lunch series to meet the needs of life-long learners in Sandusky. According to the awards committee, the key to the programs success since the monthly program started in 2006 is the variety of topics being featured, such as base ball on Johnson’s Island, commercial boatbuilding in Sandusky, German immigration to Ohio and the Underground Railroad.
• The Shelby Historical Society, in Sidney, Ohio, for its experiential Civil War Day eighth-grade school program. The program, which started in 2006, evolved from eighth-grade teachers wanting their students to have overview of the Civil War and its causes to prepare students for state-mandated proficiency tests. The Shelby County Historical Society meets teacher’s need by giving students hands-on learning experiences with Civil War re-enactors.
• The Wood County Historical Museum, in Bowling Green, Ohio, for Terrific Teens, which consisted of an oral history collection project, short documentary film and an exhibit, involving 40 Bowling Green High School sophomores, Owens Community College and the Wood County Historical Center & Museum. The subject of the project was life as a teenager in Wood County from the 1930s to the 1970s. The award committee recognized that the students who made Terrific Teens connected with history in a new way because they met with the people who lived it and understood their shared experiences as teens.

The Ohio Association of Historical Societies & Museums, organized in 1960 under the sponsorship of the Ohio Historical Society, is composed of local historical societies, historic preservation groups, history museums, archives, libraries and genealogical societies throughout the state involved in collecting, preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history.

Thank you for your interest in the Ohio Historical Society!