The OAHSM Region 6 meeting was hosted by the Whitehall Historical Society, just east of Columbus. Unlike 2008, it was a mild, slightly cloudy day. That’s two meetings without snow, one more and it’s officially a streak!The meeting began with a welcome from Senior OAHSM Region 6 Rep. Mike Ippoliti, of the Canal Winchester Area Historical Society, and Lenora Miller, president of the Whitehall Historical Society. Leo Knoblauch, vice-president of WHS, gave a fantastic presentation on the history of Whitehall using photographs from WHS’s audiovisual collections.
Next Georgeanne Reuter, Director of the Kelton House and Junior OAHSM Region 6 Rep., facilitated the Business Meeting at which Mike was reelected to a second term. Following Georgeanne, Beth Weinhardt, Coordinator of the Westerville Public Library’s Anti-Saloon League Museum and OAHSM Trustee-at-Large, presented OAHSM’s member report. Like most organizations OAHSM is feeling the effects of the economy; however it is in relatively good shape. OAHSM is on-budget and membership renewal is consistent with 2008.
I (Jody Blankenship, OHS’ Manager of Outreach & Field Services and OAHSM Executive Secretary) followed Beth with the OHS Local History Office report. Of note is the pending tax check-off initiative being presented to the Ohio General Assembly (Senate Bill 60). This initiative will place a tax check-off on Ohioan’s individual state income tax filing form. If owed a tax refund, Ohioans can elect to donate all or a portion of the refund to a local history fund. The fund will go to the Ohio Historical Society to establish a competitive matching grants program for local history and preservation projects across the state. Information on the bill can be found here. Information about how to lobby state legislators can be found here. Other items of note include:
- Ohio Historical Marker grant applications are due April 1
- OHS has released a Public Value Survey in association with the University of Toledo’s Urban Affairs Center. The Survey explores how Ohioans understand, use, and value our history.
- Finally, OHS has hired Jackie Barton to coordinate Ohio’s Civil War sesquicentennial commemorations. This initiative will work with local Civil War reactors and roundtables, as well as historical organizations, libraries, and local governments to develop a cohesive information and marketing effort so that Ohioans are aware of all the state’s activities.
Following a quick break, we began our first session, a panel on developing and nurturing community relationships.
Mike Ippoliti started. His focus was on developing close ties to elected officials in the community. He suggest setting up regular meetings with all of your elected officials, regular updates will keep your organization and its activities in the forefront of their minds and help you to understand what they are thinking. Don’t forget the bureaucrats either. These folks are instrumental in making local government work effectively. Rather than just talking with elected officials, spend time meeting with staff at government agencies to understand what they do, how it is done, and if you can help.
Next Mike suggests networking with local convention and visitors bureaus (CVB) and chamber of commerce. Mike demonstrated his surprising familiarity with the directors of all of the central Ohio CVBs – not just Canal Winchester. The CVBs collect bed taxes from local hotels and re-grant the resulting funds to local non-profits to be used for specific activities, such as advertizing. The chambers often host monthly networking sessions. Mike attends a couple of these events each month to stay in touch with the local businesses and make know the historical society’s activities and concerns.
Don’t forget your local newspapers! Mike showed off all three of Canal’s local rags. He’s built up relationships with reporters at each paper and calls at least once per week to let them know what he’s up to – I’m not sure Mike gets much sleep.
Mike’s final word of advice was to stay involved in your community – attend and volunteer at local events. People will get to know you and your organization, and being out there and available will attract visitors, volunteers, and donations.
The next panelist was Pat Williamsen of the Ohio Humanities Council. Pat astonished attendees with figures on Ohio’s tourism economy.
- Tourism in Ohio is a $38 billion industry
- 560,000 people are employed in the tourism industry, totalling $10 billion in salary
- 50% of the tourism industry is in Cleveland and Cincinnati, 18% in Columbus and the remaining 32% scattered throughout the state but heavily concentrated in areas like Sandusky and Mason (homes to Cedar Point and Kings Island
Pat went on to describe Civic Tourism. Civic tourism is appreciating tourism as a public good and a public art. It approaches tourism from the inside out, putting forth what is unique about our communities, and what we value – basically, why we love where we live. Civic tourism is built on the premise that if a community is a good place to live, then it is a good place to visit. And this type of tourism is showing results. For example, heritage tourists stay in a location two days longer than average tourists.
Next Pat talked about the Ohio Humanities Council’s grant program. OHC grants nearly $300,000 per year for humanities-related programs. Some of their best-know projects include the Ohio Chautauqua, and the Smithsonian’s Museums on Main Street traveling exhibitions. For more information on OHC grants visit their website at: http://www.ohiohumanities.org/, or contact program officers Jack Shortlidge and Frank Dunkle.
Finally, I described a collaborative project in which OHS partnered with the Columbus City Schools and the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The project, funded by the Ingram-White Castle Foundation provided sixty middle school and thirty elementary school students with training in conducting local history research at local institutions, training in developing questions and interviewing, and a opportunity to create a historical walking tour in one of Columbus’ most historic and culturally rich neighborhoods.
The project was a great success, winning awards from the Columbus Landmarks Foundation and the American Association for State and Local History. Most important, the students that participated came to appreciate the neighborhoods heritage and importance of history.
As with most regional meetings lunch was a highlight. Whitehall Historical Society had lunch catered by King Gyros on Hamilton Road (614-866-9008) – delicious! Things are happening in region 6, including: festivals, new exhibits, new and expanded facilities, and even a couple of new organizations have been formed since last year.
After lunch Kim Feinknopf, Curator at OHS, presented a workshop on basic preservation. Starting with definitions of conservation, restoration, and preservation, Kim quickly moved into the keys to creating a stable environment for your collections.
The first and most important key is consistency. Temperature should stay between 60-70 degrees and humidity below 50%, according to the American Institute of Conservators. Keep windows and doors closed, limit light (close shades and use a UV filter on windows and light bulbs), monitor the amount of dust coming in through vents (place cheesecloth on the vent and check it periodically), make sure items are on racks rather than placed directly on the floor, and be careful of what may be seeping in through your walls.
The second key is knowing what threatens your collection, what you are able to do in case of an emergency, and how you will do it. In other words, have a disaster plan ready. The following resources are available online:
- Historic House Museums: Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office
- Disaster Planning worksheet: Northwest Document Conservation Center
- Primer on Disaster Preparedness: National Park Service
Finally, Kim provided some great and practical tips.
- Use static dusters to clean objects, feathers can scratch
- Create micro-environments for specific types of objects/documents
- Use grated-metal shelving rather than wood
- Cover shelves and furniture with tyvek plastic sheeting
- Regularly rotate objects and documents off of display, and
- Make sure that you have enough people to properly move objects before you attempt to do so.
Jim’s first and most important tip was to make friends with someone that liquidates retail stores. Jim gets great displays from these places. He showed off the Timex watch display case (that still rotates) which he uses to display an arrowhead collection, an old RCA radio cabinet that he’s retrofitting with a CD player to play popular period music, a spinning pie case that he has filled with model airplanes, large old picture/art frames that he’s built into shadowboxes for displaying dresses.
Tip two, wheels (well, actually castors)! Jim puts castors on just about everything, it makes repurposing displays easy, keeps the museum floor looking fresh, and allows him to tackle a job single handed.
Tip three, Velcro! Jim carries a piece of Velcro in his pocket when visiting fabric stores with his wife so that he can test the material for adhesiveness. Jim puts Velcro on reproduction images so that he can swap in and out picture that best illustrate his exhibit’s message.
Tip four, color photocopies. Jim takes historic images and has them color photocopied at a local print shop. With copies Jim is able to blow up the images, or hang them in unusual locations without worrying out them getting harmed.
Tip five, college students. Ohio is blessed with colleges around every corner. Jim has partnered with students from Kenyon College to build displays, its win-win. Jim gets a quality display and the students get credit. If the college kids don’t want to work with you then team up with kids participating in National History Day.
Tip six, the final tip…make friends with local businesses, they will likely give you scraps or free services. In Jim’s case a local business makes acrylic cases for him out of scrap, for free!
The region 6 meeting ended with a tour of the Whitehall Historical Society’s recently renovated Lustron Home.
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