Current History: Spring 2003

Award-Winning Historical Collection Now Available Online

The Oral History Digital Collection at Youngstown State University was named a finalist for a 2002 Award of Achievement by Northern Ohio Live! magazine in the IT/Internet Resource category. The Oral History Program at YSU began in 1974 by Professor Hugh G. Earnhart. In its 28 year existence, the program has collected over 2000 interviews with northeastern Ohioans on topics ranging from education to the steel industry to politics. In 2001, the staff of YSU’s Maag Library digitized the transcripts and placed them on-line, making them available on the internet.

Anyone wishing to examine these materials can access the collection at http://www.maag.ysu.edu/oralhistory/oral_hist.html.

Upcoming Events

Ohio and the World Lecture Series
March 20-June 12, 2003, Ohio State University

To commemorate the Ohio Bicentennial, The Ohio State University will sponsor an Ohio Bicentennial Distinguished Lecture Series entitled  “Ohio and the World” featuring distinguished scholars and thinkers, both from around the nation and from within Ohio, who will present their lectures in the spring of 2003. The series begins with Ohio before statehood, followed by seven lectures that highlight the major themes that substantially define the State’s history at different dates: Ohio and the world circa 1753, circa 1803, circa 1853, circa 1903, circa 1953, circa 2003, and circa 2053. It concludes with a “retrospective” lecture looking at Ohio’s future in the light of its past, with a special focus upon education generally and higher education in particular. The lectures will be made available to Ohio and the world by simulcast on the web; all but the first and last lecture will be presented twice, once in Columbus and once in an appropriate venue elsewhere in Ohio.

Inaugural Lecture: R. W. Apple, Associate Editor, The New York Times
Title: Views and Themes from Ohio’s Past
Venue: The Atrium, The Statehouse
Date: March 20, 2003, 3:30 PM

Circa 1753: R. David Edmunds, Watson Professor of American History University of Texas – Dallas
Title: Native Ohioans and European Conflict: Society and Culture Before European Settlement
Venue: Sullivant Hall Theater, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Date: April 2, 2003, 7:30 PM
Second Venue: April 3, Newark, OSU-Newark

Circa 1803: James O. Horton, Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History, The George Washington University
Title: Statehood and After: Settlement, Culture, and Social Change
Venue: Schoenbaum Hall Auditorium, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Date: April 9, 2003, 7:30 PM
Second Venue: April 10, Cincinnati, Cincinnati Museum Center/University of Cincinnati

Circa 1853: Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History Columbia University
Title: Prologue to War: Slavery, Social Conflict, and the Civil War
Venue:  Sullivant Hall, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Date: April 14, 2003, 3:30 PM
Second Venue: April 13, Toledo University

Circa 1903: Kathryn Kish Sklar, Distinguished Professor of History and Co-Director, Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender, SUNY Binghamton
Title: Ohio, The Heartland of Progressive Reform
Venue: Sullivant Hall Theater, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Date: May 7, 2003, 7:30 PM
Second Venue: May 8, Dayton, Sinclair Community College

Circa 1953: James T. Patterson, Ford Foundation Professor of History Brown University
Title: Beyond Main Street: The Passing of Agrarian Society, War, and Civil Rights
Venue: Sullivant Hall Theater, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Date: May 14, 2003, 7:30 PM
Second Venue: May 15, Cleveland, Case Western Reserve/Western Reserve Historical Society

Circa 2003: Herbert B. Asher, Professor of Political Science Emeritus The Ohio State University
Title: A Changing Society: The New World Economy, Energy, Globalization, and the Environment
Venue: Sullivant Hall Theater, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Date: May 21, 2003, 7:30 PM
Second Venue: May 22, Athens, Ohio University

Circa 2053: William E. Kirwan, Chancellor, University System of Maryland
Title: A Retrospective on Ohio’s Quality of Life: A Consideration of “Roads Taken and Roads not Taken” for the 21st Century
Venue: Sullivant Hall Theater, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Date: June 12, 2003, 3:30 PM

For more information, please visit the following websites:
The Ohio Bicentennial Commission
The Ohio Humanities Council

W.E.B. Du Bois Traveling Exhibit
April 28-May 11, 2003, African American Museum, Cleveland

The African American Museum, Cleveland is featuring a W.E.B. Du Bois Traveling Exhibit, which has been provided by the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  The Exhibit is part of Cleveland State University’s “The Soul of W.E.B. Du Bois: Celebrating the Genius of An American Scholar” that runs from February to May 2003.  The exhibit is free with museum admission.