African American Ohioans are represented in most collection categories at the Ohio History Connection such as business records, education, military papers, politics and religious organizations. The collections also include specific materials documenting the struggle for freedom rights and civil rights from the early 1800s, through the 1900s and today.
Ohio stands as one of the country’s great manufacturing centers and a leader in the world of business and enterprise. Even before statehood in 1803, businesses were established in the region. Such collections include White Castle Systems, Dominion East Ohio Gas Company, Youngstown Sheet & Tube, Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, Roseville Pottery and the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation.
The Gay Ohio History Initiative is a special initiative of Ohio History Connection. GOHI began in 2005 when Outlook Media donated a full run of Outlook periodicals to the Ohio History Connection. This project is designed to preserve Ohio’s LGBTQ+ history by building a collection of items that tell the story of the LGBTQ+ community in Ohio. GOHI works to collect, preserve and share the history and culture of LGBTQ+ Ohioans.
These collections range in time from the Revolutionary War to recent conflicts in the Gulf War and Iraq and contain everything from letters and diaries to maps, pictures and ledgers. The scope of Ohio History Connection's Civil War collections is unmatched in the state of Ohio.
Among the organizational and association records held by Ohio History Connection are the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, the Ohio Humanities Council, Ohio Alpha Delta Kappa, the Buckeye Trails Association, the Kit Kat Club and the Ohio Council of Churches.
Presidential and state elections and state and local politics have always attracted the interest of Ohioans. The Ohio History Connection captures that interest by collecting correspondence, diaries, and official papers of past and contemporary public officials, politicians, and political organizations.
A photojournalist, filmmaker, and environmental activist, the Joe Munroe archives include memorabilia and photographic negatives, reels of film, videotape, and audiotape, as well as prints and color transparencies relating to all aspects of his career.
Women’s political achievements are well represented in the Ohio History Connection's archival holdings. Diaries, wartime correspondence, speeches given at temperance and suffrage rallies, and records of clubs and professional associations are all represented in the collection.
Matthew Benz has a master's degree in library science from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor's degree in journalism from Ohio Wesleyan University. Since joining Ohio History Connection in 1994, he has held the positions of reference archivist, business collections archivist and manuscripts curator. Matt has worked on archival projects for White Castle Systems, Inc.; the Columbus School for Girls; Columbus City Schools; and the University District Organization.
Wendy Korwin has spent most of her days since college working in libraries. At the University of Virginia, she checked out undergraduate course reserves until 2 a.m. and learned that you needed to type “videorecording” into the library catalog to find the VHS tapes and LaserDiscs.
After completing a master's in Library Science at Simmons College and working for several years in youth services, Wendy returned to graduate school at the College of William & Mary. Thirteen short years later, she earned her doctorate in American Studies by writing about advertising and literacy in the early 1900s.
Wendy has processed archival collections for the College of William & Mary’s Special Collections Research Center, the Pembroke Center at Brown University, and the Providence, Rhode Island Public Library. She moved to Ohio in 2018 and began working at the Ohio History Connection the following year, holding positions as a Government Records Archivist and Project Archivist for the Warren G. Harding papers before joining the curatorial team in 2022.
Daniel Willis curates and manages the Ohio History Connection's photograph, sound and moving image collections. He has enjoyed visiting museums and historical sites his whole life. He continued to pursue his love of history in college and earned a bachelor's in history from Miami University in 2019 and a master's in public history from Wright State University in 2021. He first started working with the Ohio History Connection as an intern in the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center archives while pursuing his master’s degree. After graduating, he continued to work with OHC as part of the Ohio History Service Corps between 2021 and 2022. In his time off, Daniel enjoys playing board games and reading science fiction.