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I belong to several genealogical societies and a bit more than a couple of historical
societies. For a bit more than a year I have been given by the pass-it-on method, a
publication of the Ohio Association of Historical Societies & Museums called The
Local Historian.
In a recent issue, among many things, I read about History Museums were about collections.
Further, that these collections need to be accessible and interpreted. The "stories" that
relate to the articles in the collections need to be told.
In telling the stories of the articles History Museums help develop understandings of the
past.
In the past museums collected things, primarily for the sake of preserving them. The new
look of museums looks at their collections and extracts the best information from them in
order to provide learning experiences or opportunities. To help make these "stories"
meaningful links and information between the time period of the artifacts and today are
analyzed and told in ways that make them relate to people and relevant to lives. We see
an influx of "hands on" displays as an example.
The publication informed me that there were more than eleven hundred Ohio Historical Markers
in the state. These markers identify, commemorate, and honor important people, places,
and events that have contributed to our state's history. There are a few of them illustrated
on the world wide web, but I was thinking that it would be wonderful to have an on-line
"museum" illustrating them all.
In March [2006], a year long celebration of the 200th birthday of the National Road began at
the National Road-Zane Gray Museum. The celebration will include road rallys of vintage
automobiles, and a 700 mile long yard sale.
The Ohio Historical Society has sponsored three new Ohio Historical Markers. One in the
village of Tadmor in Montgomery County. Another at Norwich, in Muskingum County where in
August of 1835, the first traffic fatality occured. The victum, a librarian for the
American Antiqauarian Society of Worcester, MA, is interred in a small cemetery on the
west end of the town. In Springfield, the Pennsylvania House will also sport a new
historical marker.
The October Timeline magazine, another publication of the Ohio Historical
Society will feature about the National Road.
How many of your ancestral families traveled the National Road which was authorized by
Congress in 1806? Have you realized that this was the FIRST federally funded interstate
highway? This was the first road which really opened Ohio's products to the eastern markets.
"History for History's Sake is History" is a headline phrase which speaks volumes. The next
time you visit a museum look for items which tell "stories" that you can use for "meat" on the
"bones" of you family histories.
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