Ohio Summer 2: The Story of Col Charles Young

What do when you as a historian find an amazing story to tell and no one knows what you’re talking about? A subject so interesting you ask yourself, “Why hasn’t a movie been made about this?” This is what happened to me when after a few days of getting used to my small town Ohio surroundings I was approached with the story of Col Charles Young. When Ripley Heritage Inc president Betty Jo Campbell asked me if I knew who he was, I sadly had no clue who she was talking about, the worst part being that Col Young was from my own hometown, and I had never heard his name. After an amazing explanation of this prominent African American’s role in both military history, of specific interest to me being a veteran, as well as his amazing personal history, born into slavery, I was hooked!

                                               

Why had I never heard about this important cultural and military leader that broke so many color barriers in our nation's military history? There were two excellent biographies about Col Young written by Brian Shellum that I was quickly urged to pick up that were being held for me by the amazing team led by Alison Gibson at the Union Township Public Library in Ripley. All of this was leading up to the main question Betty had for me, would I be willing, able to do the research, and write up a proposal for RHI to send to the Ohio History Connection and get an official State of Ohio historical marker for the town of Ripley to celebrate this hometown hero? The answer was a resounding, if not apprehensive, Yes!

Delving into both the research previously taken up by Shellum, as well as conducting research on my own, I came up with a lengthy treatise including GPS coordinates where the marker would best be placed, facts about Young to justify the marker in the first place, and ideas about how RHI could fund their part of the project that would not be covered by the state. After meeting on multiple occasions with a group of concerned citizens that had taken up the initial idea of the project, the board of the John P.Parker House where  the marker’s location would eventually call home, and the village of Ripley’s administrator Pete Renshaw to see if they would be willing to help with the maintenance and upkeep of the marker, the only thing left was to write the text that would actually appear on it. I had assumed that RHI would ask someone like Shellum to do it, or entrust it with one of their own who had come up with the idea for the project, not so. When asked if I could write the text I was beyond honored.

On August 26th I received an email from Mrs. Campbell at RHI. The marker proposal had been approved, the state of Ohio was on board. Sometime in 2016 Col Charles Young will get the hometown monument he deserves. This however wasn't the only project I was undertaking at the time, there were plenty more. Stay tuned to read about how you explain that it’s really ok to ask complete strangers from money constantly, how to brainstorm with community leaders, and how dealing with people who don't regard historic preservation and tourism as a valid source of economic growth is fun!

For more information on Col Young, and his amazing life and career just follow the link!

        To see the fantastic books written by Brian Shellum go here!

Montgomery History & Heritage Day

This summer I was fortunate enough to intern with Montgomery History, formerly known as the Montgomery County Historical Society, in Maryland. My internship allowed me to see three different aspects of the organization. One day during the week I was at the newly opened Montgomery County Archives in Gaithersburg, another day I was at the Jane C. Sween Research Library on the Beall-Dawson campus, and the last day during the week I assisted Amanda Elliott the Education and Outreach Coordinator in the office or acted as docent at the Beall-Dawson House Museum and the Dr. Stonestreet Museum of Nineteenth Century Medicine.

Early on in my internship with the organization they were preparing for Heritage Day, a county wide event held in June. Primarily leading up to the event I assisted the research librarian, Pat Andersen, with preparing book donations for a book sale they would be holding as well as assisting Amanda with anything that she needed, such as cataloging and organizing the “Craft Closet.”

The research library occasionally receives a number of book donations throughout the year as people downsize their households or move away. Some of the books donated are deemed unfit if they were improperly stored. We had one box of book donations that were moldy enough that we could smell it. Those were immediately disposed of. Pat went through the other boxes of books and chose which ones would be sold at the book sale. For the high dollar books I used the internet to determine what a fair price would be.

I arrived at a rainy Beall-Dawson House early on Heritage Day to help set up. I was stationed in the “Old Kitchen” at one of the craft tables for children. I assisted them in painting cardboard flowerpots and planting basil seeds. This was meant to tie into the medicinal garden outside the house. We found out early in the day that a number of other events in the county were cancelled due to the rain. This was incredibly beneficial to us as more people than we expected came to the event. While I was assisting the kids paint their flower pots – and they were certainly more interested in painting than planting the basil seeds – I found that a lot of the kids had wanted to come to the event. They told me that history was their favorite subject in school so I was able to chat with them about what parts of history they enjoyed the most. 

Overall the day was a success and I was able to witness another aspect of public history. It was disheartening to see that they didn’t anticipate many people coming to the event, but small historical societies and house museums can definitely have difficulties with garnering interest as well as with finances and funds.  

Alicia Cooper - Sandy Spring Museum

Alicia Cooper

October 5, 2015
Dr. Blair
History Internship
                                                                                  Blog Post #1 

I don’t officially start my internship with Sandy Springs Museum until October 1st. However, I am very excited to beginning this process in enhancing my skills as a historian. I am truly interested to get out of the classroom and gain some hands on experience with documents and different types of artifacts. I will also get the change to archive different documents and perhaps conduct my own historical finds.

My internship will be at the Sandy Spring Museum is a locally open museum community based museum concentrated on community history. This museum has the convince of being about 10 mins from my house. Since the Sandy Spring Museum is a very small the mission is to develop meaningful connection with the residents of the area. Through these meaning connections they are able to explore community and local family history through artifacts, visual, literary and sometime performing arts.

A little bit of background on Sandy Spring Museum, it started when a group of residents noted the community’s history was being sold off with every passing of a long time resident. The organization was incorporated in 1981 by a group of volunteers. Their first location was in the basement of the Sandy Spring Bank. In the basement of the bank they had different exhibits show casing artifacts in hand made case. The volunteers also hosted different lectures and seminars about the local history of the area.  It wasn’t until 1986, when the museum moved to the residence Tall Timber, than again to its current location in 1997 on Bentley Road. The land in which the museum sits was donated by the Bentley Family, who’s ancestors moved to Sandy Spring in the late 1700s. The volunteers of the museum are proud to see the museum has expanded in size in 2007. Now the museum sits seven acres.

 

 

I will be working with Lydia Fraser who is the Collections Manager.  As a collection manager she is in charge of overseeing the proper care and preservation of objects within cultural at the Sandy Spring Museum.  One really interesting thing I was able to do after my interview. She showed me the collection. I have to say I was very impressed. The room had to be climate controlled and documents had to be handled with special gloves. You could say I was thrilled to go behind the magic rope. The only documents or artifacts I get to see are under glass at the museum. It was amazing to see them up close without a glass protecting them, of course I couldn’t touch the documents. It was also interesting to see the collection this small museum has. I was informed most of the things collected were donated to the museum from the local communities. Also, by families who found these things in there attic from the previous owners.

 

Since the museum is short staffed I will be also volunteering at programs that will be held on the weekend. The first program I will be helping at is the “Throw Back to High School with the Homecoming Gala”. Activities such as those are to help gain donations to keep the museum open. The event is suppose to recapture music from the decades, meeting community leaders, and celebrate the Sandy Spring Museum.

 

 

 

 

Catherine Raff- Reclaimed America Internship

Catherine Raff

October 5, 2015

Dr. Blair

Public History Internship

Blog Post One

            This Fall 2015 semester, I am interning with Reclaimed America in Mclean, Virginia. Douglas DeLuca, the founder of the company, has a vision of America through the lenses of historic architecture by using its key foundation of reclaiming wood to boost the country’s economy. In Doug Deluca’s own words, “I consider every piece of antique wood a piece of American History. So much of our products come from amazing buildings that were built with a level of craftsmanship and attention to detail that it is virtually to recreate. It’s these pieces that inspire me to save them and reuse them.”[1] This semester I will be working on a historic house and garden in Georgetown along with the remodeling of Robert E. Lee’s windows at the, Arlington House.

I have been working for Reclaimed America for about one month now. I have worked on a historic house project in Georgetown and have had to go on site and measure the rooms for new construction approval and measure their land (garden) for new stonework. This has been my favorite part of the internship so far. I have had to take the sketch drawings to get copies printed and helped type out all the measurements for both the house and garden construction. I love actually being in the building and I have searched for marketing items for Reclaimed America which include a American made clay mug with Reclaimed America’s design logo on it to give past clients and new ones to come. 

            I plan to go to Robert E. Lee’s, Arlington House to oversee the work on the windows that Reclaimed America is in charge of. There are still many opportunities that I believe I can do to help make Doug DeLuca’s historic American company better. I think that by the marketing idea of these mugs that I suggested would expose the company more so. I am also planning on gong with Doug on weekend to antique stores that he will use in the garden for reclaimed American use.

            I have been in contact with many antique stores around the Washington DC metropolitan area in search for wood that Doug restores into new furniture for his clients. The key is that it has to be all American made. I do feel that my help in assisting with the company is a great way to help get the company to be better known.

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[1] “reclaimedamerica.com” last modified October 5, 2015, http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

Ohio Summer Internship

When I was considering where to do my internship I immediately thought about my old hometown in Southern Ohio. About sixty miles from Cincinnati on the Ohio River, the town of Ripley has the distinction of being home of two of the most prominent abolitionists of the Underground Railroad movement in John P. Parker and Reverend John Rankin. After contacting Ripley Heritage Incorporated (RHI) I was offered a month long position, which turned into a two month project where I not only ended up working on a historical marker project with the state of Ohio, helped to restructure the way merchandise was sold and marketed, was asked to help the county chamber of commerce to brainstorm on ideas for bringing in more tourism, and ended up co-creating a new logo for the county’s in flux tourism bureau. Was it more than I bargained for? The answer was a resounding yes, but the chance to give back to the exact location where my love for history was born was worth it.

The Rankin House is on the National Register and recently gone over an extensive renovation putting it back to the condition of the 1840s through the 1860s when the Rankins were actively living and conducting escaped slaves that would cross the Ohio River on their way to Canada. Rankin, his wife Jean and their thirteen children became symbols for the abolitionist ideal and were often visited by other prominent leaders in the movement. Henry Ward Beecher and his daughter Harriet Beecher Stowe who based the character and the story of Eliza on a true story that Rankin had told them of one of his many passengers, were two of the families most frequent guests.

While RHI have done so much work in their forty years of existence, could I break through an older generation’s close knit group and be able to take them into a new direction in public history, get them to realize the advantages of the internet as a marketing tool, and how in the world would I get the state of Ohio to grant the town a State Historical Marker for a figure that the said had already had enough done for him in the past couple years? These are the challenges I would soon have to tackle head on in rural Southern Ohio.

Internship at the Priddy Library

          

My name is Leah Rufus and thanks to my advisor Dr. Melissa Blair, I have a unique internship that allows me to work in the library at the Universities at Shady Grove and with the Pleasant View Historical Site in Quince Orchard. Although they are separate components my internship is facilitating collaboration between the library and the historical site to see what kind of assistance the library can offer in the preservation of items belonging to the historical site. This internship will allow me to gain valuable knowledge about different aspects of public history and library sciences. Through his internship I hope to gain enough insight to decide if these are fields I would like to pursue a career in.

            My experiences thus far in the library have allowed me a brief glimpse at the difficult tasks that accompany the creation and promotion of exhibits. Projects can be time sensitive with time-consuming work. It is important to be able to multitask and manage your time effectively in order to complete everyday work while also working on projects. Lots of effort goes into making sure that the information or visuals being presented are not going to offend anyone, while still trying to get your point across. Recently the library put together an exhibit on regional gangs. With a sensitive subject such as this one lots of consideration was taken into account concerning how the information and images would be received. The goal was to include as many regional gangs as possible to show the diversity of gangs in the area. Lots of time was spent researching the history of gangs and putting together short biographies. I helped to edit these biographies and to select the images that would accompany the bios. I helped to brainstorm ideas about the design of the posters that would be used and how they would be arranged for the exhibit on Gang Indicia: Graffiti, Drawings and Tattoos. Accompanying the exhibit was a panel on gangs where experts in the subject matter gave presentations. Putting the posters together for the exhibit and organizing the panel may have taken lots of time and work but they were not the hard part. The hardest part about the exhibit process is promoting the event. The Universities at Shady Grove is a commuter school and from my experience that experience of those I am working with it is difficult to get a large portion of the student body to attend events. The event can be promoted all over the school but the difficulty is getting people to pay attention to the promotions and to get them to show up. The exhibit process has shown me that the content of what you are presenting is important but so is how it is presented and how it will be perceived. One of the biggest goals we have in the library is to connect with our Shady Grove community. This internship will allow me to explore that process with the people I am working with.