Ohio History Topics 2014 -2015
Leadership and Legacy in History
Topic
Date(s)
Description
Research
Category
Benjamin Lundy
1815
OHS: Collection.
Benjamin Lundy
Papers. 1821-1904
[MSS 112]; OVS 2560.
Lundy, Benjamin, n.d.
[OVS collection]
Abolition
Harriet Beecher Stowe
1830s
Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker, was of the first important figures in Ohio to oppose the actions
and beliefs of the Ohio Colonization Society which encouraged the return of African
Americans to Africa out of a racist fear. Lundy founded one of the first anti-slavery societies
in 1815 and went on to publish a small anti-slavery newspaper, Genius of Universal
Emancipatio . What qualities and actions made Lundy a leader in the anti-slavery
movement? What was his legacy?
In 1832, Harriet Beecher Stowe moved to Cinncinnatti, Ohio. She would later become
famous for publishing the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" based on her research with former
slaves during her time helping with the underground railroad. During the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787, slavery had been declared illegal north of the Ohio River. Stowe lived
just north of Kentucky where slavery was still legal and was instrumental in assisting slaves
who fled north for freedom. The stories she heard from slaves during her time in Ohio
contributed significantly to stories in her famous book "Uncle Tom's Cabin." How did
Stowe's actions and leadership affect the affect the istitution of slavery?
Harriett Beecher
Stowe House,
Cincinnati, Ohio
http://www.ohiohis
tory.org/museumsand-historicsites/museum-historic-sites-byname/harrietbeecher-stowehouse
Ohio History Center
Archives,
Columbus, Ohio:
Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollections-catalog/
; Ohio History
Central
Abolition
Underground Railroad mid 19th century Ohio boasted several prominent abolitionists who played a vital role in the Underground
in Ohio
Railroad. Once they arrived in Ohio, those runaway slaves who decided to remain in the
state, usually settled in neighborhoods with other African Americans. Due to the racism
that existed in Ohio, these people hoped that they would have some safety by residing in
neighborhoods separate from whites. Many runaway slaves continued on to Canada. At
least eight cities, including Ashtabula, Painesville, Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo, Huron,
Lorain, and Conneaut, along Lake Erie served as ferrying points to transport the former
slaves to true freedom in Canada.
Abolition
Paul Lawrence Dunbar
1888-1891
Paul Lawrence Dunbar was an African-American classmate of Orville Wright at Ohio Central
Dunbar House,
African American
High School in Dayton, Ohio. Paul got his big break after high school in 1892 when he was
Dayton, Ohio: Ohio
able to read his poetry for the Western Association of Writers. How did the publication of
History Center
Paul's pieces contribute to increased rights for African Americans? Is this his legacy?
Archives,
Columbus, Ohio:
Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollections-catalog/
Jesse Owens
1913-1980
Ohioan Jesse Owens was one of America's greatest participants in track and field athletic
Ohio State
competition. He won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic games. Adolf Hitler, the
University:
Chancellor of Germany, hoped to use the Olympics to prove that the "Aryan" race was
http://library.osu.e
superior to all others. If this was the case, Jesse Owens dashed his dreams. At the Olympics, du/projects/jesseOwens won four gold medals and set or helped to set four Olympic records. The events
owens/
were the one hundred-meter dash, the two hundred-meter dash, the broad jump, and the
four hundred-meter relay. Owens was the first American track and field athlete to win four
gold medals in a single Olympics. By the end of the competition, even German fans were
celebrating Owens's accomplishments. What was Owens' legacy in terms of African
American rights? Did his athleticism and popularity following the games make him a
leader?
Larry Doby
1923-2003
Larry Doby was the second African American to play professional baseball and the first
African American to play in the American League. Later he became the second African
American to manage a major league baseball team. How did his time on the field impact
the future of America's favorite past time?
African American
Ohio History Center African American
Archives,
Columbus, Ohio:
Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollections-catalog/
(newspapers)
Carl Stokes
1927-1996
Carl B. Stokes was born June 21, 1927. His father, Charles, died when Carl was less than
two years old. He grew up poor in Cleveland living with his mother, Louise, a domestic
worker, and his brother, Louis. He served honorably in the United States Army. He
graduated from the University of Minnesota and received a law degree from Cleveland
Marshall Law School. He was the first African American democrat elected to the Ohio
legislature. He was also elected Mayor of Cleveland, becoming the first African American
Mayor of a major American city. He was elected judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court
and was appointed by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to the Seychelles.
Ohio History
Central
African American
John Brown
1800-1859
John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. He spent most of his
Ohio History Cenral
youth in Ohio. Brown gained national attention in 1859. On October 16, Brown led a group
of twenty-one men on a raid of Harper's Ferry, Virginia. A detachment of United States
Marines arrived and stormed the arsenal on October 18, capturing seven men, including
Brown. On December 2, 1859, Brown was hanged. He became a martyr for many
Northerners. Many Southerners became convinced that all abolitionists shared Brown's
views and his willingness to utilize violence. John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid raised issues
for the presidential election of 1860. It also was one of the events that led to the eventual
dissolution of the United States and the civil war that followed.
African American
Levi Coffin
1798-1877
Levi Coffin was an important figure in the Underground Railroad network that helped
thousands of runaway slaves escape to freedom in the years before the American Civil War.
In 1847, Coffin moved to Cincinnati. With the aid of abolitionists in Indiana, he opened a
business that sold only goods produced by free laborers. He also became an active
participant in the Underground Railroad. He purportedly helped more than three thousand
slaves escape from their masters and gain their freedom in Canada. Levi Coffin helped
African Americans in other ways as well. In 1854, he helped found an African-American
orphanage in Cincinnati. He also pressured the federal government during the Civil War to
establish the Freedmen's Bureau.
Ohio History
Central, Ohio
Memory
African American
William Walker
20th century
Dr. William O. Walker was a prominent journalist, publisher and political leader in
Cleveland, Ohio for much of the mid to late twentieth century. In 1932, he became the
publisher and editor of the Cleveland Call and Post, one of the most influential AfricanAmerican newspapers in the United States. Walker used this weekly paper to educate the
community about racial injustices occurring in both Cleveland and across the United States.
He served as a Cleveland city councilman during the 1940s. In 1963, Walker became the
first African-American cabinet member in the history of Ohio when Governor James Rhodes
selected him to be Director of the Ohio Department of Industrial Relations
Ohio History
Central, Ohio
Memory
African American
Art Tatum
1909
George Bellows
1882-1925
Milton Caniff
1930's-1950's
Roy Lichtenstein
1940's-
Zane Grey
1910-1939
Neil Armstrong
1946-1975
John Glenn
1921-
Born in Toledo in 1909, Art Tatum made his mark as a jazz pianist despite being blind in one
Ohio History
eye and partially sighted in the other. He was an innovator in jazz music in the way he reCentral
invented harmonies and the use of dissonance in jazz.
Artist George Bellows was born and raised in Columbus and kept close ties with the city
Ohio History
throughout his life. He is known for his vivid portrayals of
Central
modern urban life, and became a leader among a group of artists nicknamed the "Ashcan
School," which advocated the depiction of American society in
all forms and all socio-economic contexts.
The impact Milton Caniff had on comics cannot be overestimated; he was the first
Ohio History
cartoonist who brought realism, suspense and sensuality into comics
Central, Ohio State
and he inspired many artists with his beautiful drawings, earning him his nickname, "the
Cartoon Library
Rembrandt of the comic strip."
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent twentieth-century American cubist artist. It was not until
Ohio History
the early 1960s that Lichtenstein adopted the abstract
Central
impressionistic and pop art styles that made him famous. His early works reflect American
comic strips and advertisments.
From Zanesville, Zane Grey penned over 90 novels. He is best known for his stories about
Ohio History
the west and is credited for creating the ideal "old west" that
Central, Zane
became prominent is other books and media, like the spaghetti westerns.
Grey's West Society
Arts and Music
Prior to becoming famous as an astronaut and the first man to walk on the moon; Neil
Ohio History
Armstrong earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical
Central, Ohio
Engineering from Purdue University in 1955. This background as well as some military
Memory
experience prepared him to work for the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). While with NACA, Armstrong
worked at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He contributed to NASA's flight
research as a test pilot, flying a number of different aircraft
including the high-speed X-15.
In 1958, Glenn became one of seven original astronauts chosen by the National Air and
John and Annie
Space Administration for the first American space missions.
Glenn Historic Site
Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962. The mission was
known as Friendship 7. In just under five hours, Glenn orbited
the Earth three times. The Friendship 7 mission made Glenn a household name, not only in
the United States but also in many other parts of the world.
John Glenn later became a U.S. Senator from Ohio and the oldest man to go into space.
Aviation
Arts and Music
Arts and Music
Arts and Music
Arts and Music
Aviation
Wright Brothers
19th-20th
century
Freedom Summer
1964
Ellen Walker CraigJones
1972-1975
Arthur S. Flemming
1970s
Wilbur and Orville Wright were continually looking for new challenges. They began making
bicycles in their own bicycle shop called Wright Flyers. The
Wright brothers had an interest in flight that had been sparked by a toy shaped like a
helicopter that their father had given them as children. As adults, the two men were
interested in gliders like those built by Otto Lilienthal. Wilbur and his brother began
experimenting with wing designs for an airplane. Their first successful flight of a powered
airplane occurred at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903.
In June 1964, the Freedom Summer organizers held an orientation session. The meeting
occurred in Oxford, Ohio, at the Western College for Women. 800 people attended the
orientation, mostly white college students. The participants received training in passive
(nonviolent) resistance. The Freedom Summer of 1964 succeeded in educating many
people about the difficulties African Americans faced in the South. How did the young
people who participated inspire and lead others in the effort for Civil Rights?
In 1972, Urbancrest's Ellen Walker Craig-Jones became the first African-American woman
to be elected mayor, by popular vote, of a United States municipality. During her term as
mayor, Craig-Jones oversaw the modernization of Urbancrest's various programs and the
village rebuilt three main streets, installed streetlights and street signs, and received
approval to start a $3 million housing project. Craig-Jones had many years of experience in
service to her community, serving twelve years on the Urbancrest Village Council.
Ohio History
Central
Aviation
Western College
Memorial Archives,
Miami University,
Oxford, Ohio
http://westernarchiv
es.lib.muohio.edu/
Civil Rights
Remarkable Ohio
Civil Rights
Arthur S. Flemming was Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare during the
Ohio History Cental
administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He also served on the Hoover
Commission and helped plan the reorganization of the federal government. In the 1970s,
Flemming became known for his commitment to civil rights and served as a member of the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1974 to 1981.
Civil Rights
NAACP in Ohio
1909-
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in
1909. Among those involved were prominent African Americans W.E.B. DuBois and Ida
Wells-Barnett. The organization was an outgrowth of DuBois's Niagara Movement, which
sought to improve African American rights at least partly through increased educational
opportunities for African Americans. The main goals of the NAACP were an end to
segregation, equal civil rights under the law, and the end of racial violence such as
lynchings. From its early years, the NAACP used the court system to challenge laws that
denied African Americans their civil rights. The NAACP was very active in Ohio from the
organization's early beginnings. The Cleveland chapter became the sixth largest in the
country by the end of World War II. Ohio NAACP chapters supported the national
organization's attempts to obtain passage of a federal anti-lynching law and to end
segregation in Ohio.
Ohio History Center
Archives,
Columbus, Ohio:
Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollectionscatalog/; Ohio
History Central
Civil Rights
Clement
Vallandingham
1820-1871
Clement Vallandigham was a leader of the Ohio Democratic Party and an opponent of the
American Civil War. In the years leading up to the American Civil War, Vallandigham was a
staunch opponent to war to settle the differences between the North and the South. He
believed that President Abraham Lincoln should let the South secede rather than use
violence to keep the nation together. Vallandigham was one of Lincoln's most outspoken
critics and the leading Peace Democrat in Ohio. He delivered speeches denouncing General
Order No. 38 which he believed was a violation of civil liberties. He was arrested and tried
and ultimately sentenced into exile in the Confederacy. Vallandigham did not stay there
and would later eturn to become a leader in the Ohio Democratic Party.
Ohio History Center
Archives,
Columbus, Ohio:
Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollections-catalog/
Civil War
Salmon Chase
1808-1873
Salmon Portland Chase was an Ohio governor and prominent political leader during the
mid nineteenth century. In the 1840s, he became involved in the creation of the Liberty
Party, a party dedicated to slavery's demise. In 1848, he helped organize the Free Soil Party
in Ohio. Chase was elected to the Senate in 1850. During Chase's term in the Senate, he
was actively involved in fighting against the expansion of slavery. He unsuccessfully
opposed the Fugitive Slave Law, which was one part of the Compromise of 1850. He also
spoke out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Because of his stance on these issues,
Chase participated in the founding of the new Fusion Party in Ohio. The new party soon
came to be known as the Republican Party. During the Civil War he was Lincoln's Secretary
of Treasury and was responsbile for finding ways to finance the war effort. In 1864, Chase
was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He presided over Andrew Johnson's
impeachment trial.
Ohio History Center
Archives,
Columbus, Ohio:
Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollections-catalog/
Civil War
Ohio Education
Association
1847-
In 1847, a group of teachers met at the Summit County, Ohio, courthouse and established
OEA website:
the Ohio State Teachers’ Association. The first members of this
http://www.ohea.o
organization were from the northern portion of Ohio, but the Ohio State Teachers’
rg/
Association quickly recruited teachers from across the state. The
group’s main goal was to improve public education in Ohio by lobbying local, state, and
federal government officials. How did the OEA help lead teachers? What is their role
today?
During the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, Ohioan Allen Ripley Foote
Ohio History
sought to educate others about public finance issues. Like many other reformers during the
Central
Progressive Era, Foote opposed monopolies and firmly believed that the federal
government and state governments should encourage competition among businesses. He
also believed that corporate taxes hindered business growth and the economy. What
reforms did he help eastablish and how to they relate to his legacy today?
Education
Alan R. Foote
1907
Samuel Galloway
1811-1872
In 1844, Galloway began a political career and became Ohio's Secretary of State. One of his
duties was to oversee public education in the state. The Ohio legislature passed two major
laws dealing with education. The first of these laws was the Akron School Law of 1847.
Before this legislation was enacted, local schools commonly functioned independently from
one another, with little attempt at uniformity. The citizens of Akron, influenced by their
New England roots, used the new law to organize their community's schools into a single
system with one school district encompassing the entire city. Property taxes paid for the
new school system. A school board, elected by the community, made decisions regarding
the system's management and hired the necessary professionals to run each school. In
1849, the Ohio legislature adopted the Akron School Law for the entire state.
Ohio History
Central
Education
William H. McGuffey
1836-1890
A professor at Miami University, William McGuffey is most known for the development of
textbooks that became standardized reading for school
children. Between 1836 and 1890, McGuffey's publisher printed and sold more than one
hundred million copies of McGuffey's Reader. Practically every American who attended
public schools during the second half of the nineteenth century learned moral and ethical
lessons from McGuffey's Reader.
Ohio History
Central, William
Holmes McGuffey
Museum, Miami
University, Oxford,
Ohio
http://www.units.
muohio.edu/mcguf
feymuseum/index.
html
Education
Education
Caleb Atwater
1778-1867
Caleb Atwater, one of Ohio's earliest historians and reformers, was born in North Adams,
Massachusetts on Christmas day in 1778. In 1821, the residents of Pickaway County elected
Atwater as their representative to the Ohio House of Representatives. Atwater's greatest
contribution to Ohio was his strong support for publicly funded education. In 1822, Atwater
successfully lobbied the legislature and Governor Allen Trimble to establish a commission
to study the feasibility of creating common schools in Ohio to be financed by the state.
Atwater wrote three pamphlets to educate Ohioans on the need for state-financed
education -- one on the condition of school buildings in Ohio, another on the type of public
school system Ohio should create, and a third on the value of common schools to Ohio's
future.
Ohio History
Central, Ohio
Memory
Education
Collinwood School Fire
1908
At the Collinwood school in suburban Clevleand, a fire began in the school's basement.
Because Lakeview School was built of wood, the entire building was quickly engulfed in
flames. All of the exits were blocked by fire and smoke. The result was one of the worst
tragedies in Ohio history. In all, 173 children, two teachers, and one rescuer died in the
fire. The Collinwood School Fire inspired local, state, and national governments to pass
new building codes to prevent future disasters of this magnitude. The community of
Collinwood raised funds to rebuild the school, making the new building a model for safety
standards in that era.
Cleveland Historical Education; Safety
Society:
codes
http://clevelandhist
orical.org/items/sh
ow/394
The New Deal in Ohio
19302-1940s
Each community and city was effected by the Great Depression. While this is a very broad
topic, by examining it from a communities point of view, a project can show how national
events have local and personal consequences. For example: Toledo experienced 89%
unemployment. WHat leaders emerged in Ohio to deal with the Great Depression? What
organizations were leaders in Ohio for New Deal projects? What legacy has the New Deal
left in Ohio?
Ohio History Center
Archives,
Columbus, Ohio:
Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollectionscatalog/; Ohio
History Central
Government
Ohio Presidents
Various
"Mother of Presidents" is sometimes used to refer to Ohio. Seven United States Presidents Ohio History Center
were born in Ohio. They are Ulysses Simpson Grant (Point Pleasant), Rutherford Bichard
Archives,
Hayes (Delaware), James Abram Garfield (near Orange), Benjamin Harrison (North Bend),
Columbus, Ohio:
William McKinley (Niles), William Howard Taft (Cincinnati), and Warren Gamaliel Harding
Online Catalog(Corsica, now Blooming Grove). William Henry Harrison, born in Virginia but settled in Ohio, http://www.ohiohis
is also claimed as one of Ohio's own. A History Day project could explore one of the
tory.org/collectionspresidents from Ohio and the leadership they displayed as the executive of the US
-archives/onlinegovernment and the legacy their administration left behind.
collectionscatalog/;various
Ohio presidental
museums and
libraries around the
state!
Government
Charles Kettering
1909-1947
Charles Kettering and Edward Deeds founded Delco (the Dayton Engineering Laboratories
Company) in 1909. Kettering was credited with many
innovations for automobiles like the electric ignition system, which eliminated the need for
cranking a car before starting. When Delco was bought by General Motors, Kettering was
hired as head of the research division and eventually became Vice President at GM.
Ohio History
Central
Industrialization &
Invention
Garrett Morgan
1910's-1920's
Garrett Morgan started as a sewing machine repairman. He later owned a sewing machine
repair company. He witnessed a car and carriage crash and
eventually invented the first traffic signal. He was able to sell his invention to General
Electric. He later patented a gas mask used by U.S. troops.
Ohio History
Central
Industrialization &
Invention
John P. Parker
1827-1900
In 1850 John Parker purchased his own freedom and settled in Ripley, Ohio, along the Ohio
Ohio History
Industrialization &
River where he opened his own iron foundry business. In
Central, Ohio
Invention
1884, Parker obtained a patent for a screw for tobacco presses and a year later patented a
Memory:
type of harrow called the Parker Pulverizer. Both items were
www.ohiomemory.
produced in his foundry. These patents were issued at a time when patents were rarely
org
awarded to black inventors. Parker's foundry remained in
operation until 1918, well after his death.
Thomas Edison
19th century
John Patterson and
NCR
1844-1922
Firestone Tires and
Rubber Company
1900-1930
Proctor & Gamble
1837-
Edison's inventions forever changed people's lives. Electric lights allowed people to remain
active at night, whether it be reading, dancing, or listening to Edison's phonograph. His
improvements to the telegraph and telephone also helped make communication easier
around the entire world.
With hopes of reducing accounting errors in his business, John Patterson purchased the
patent rights to the mechanical cash register from James Ritty in 1884. Located in Dayton,
Ohio, the National Cash Register Company made cash registers. In 1906, the company
manufactured the first electric cash register. John Patterson, the owner of the National
Cash Register Company, was well known for his compassion for his employees. Patterson
implemented a ventilation system to provide clean air to his workers. He also maintained a
doctor's office in his factory to assist injured workers as quickly as possible
Ohio History
Central
Industrialization &
Invention
Ohio History
Central
Industrialization &
Invention
In 1900, Harvey S. Firestone established the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio History Center Industrialization &
Ohio. In its first year of operation, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company grossed more
Archives,
Invention
than 100,000 dollars in profit. In 1905, Henry Ford placed his first order for tires from
Columbus, Ohio:
Firestone. How did the company lead the industry? What is the legacy of the Firestone and
Online CatalogRubber Company today?
http://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollectionscatalog/; Ohio
Memory:
www.ohiomemory.
org
In 1837, William Procter, a candle maker, and James Gamble, a soap maker, formed the
company known as Procter & Gamble. The two men, immigrants
from England and Ireland respectively, had settled earlier in Cincinnati and had married
sisters. They decided to pool their resources to form their own
company. The company prospered during the nineteenth century. In the 1878, Procter &
Gamble began to market a new soap product. This new soap
was inexpensive but of a high quality. Originally James Gamble wanted to call the soap
"P&G White Soap," but eventually the company chose the name
"Ivory." In the decades that followed Ivory's development, Procter & Gamble continued to
develop new products, but Ivory Soap remains in production
today and is, perhaps, the company's most well-known product. How were Proctor and
GAmble leaders in their time? What legacy did they leave behind?
P&G website:
Industrialization &
http://www.pg.co
Invention
m/en_US/company
/index.shtml
American Federation
of Labor
1886-
Labor strikes
Established in 1886, the American Federation of Labor is an umbrella organization for other Ohio History Center
unions. In 1881, Samuel Gompers took the lead in organizing the Federation of Organized
Archives,
Trades and Labor Unions of the United States of America and Canada. This organization
Columbus, Ohio:
became the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886, in Columbus, Ohio. How did the
Online CatalogAFL become a leader for labor unions? What role do they play? What is their legacy?
http://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/online :
Labor
Workers' strikes became a common theme in American History as factories spread across Ohio History Center
the country. There are many became a theme in American history as factories spread
Archives,
across the country. There are many strikes that students can explore, in Ohio, one could
Columbus, Ohio:
research the Great Hocking Valley Coal Strike in 1884, Great Railroad Strike of 1887, Akron
Online CatalogRubber Strike of 1936, or the Little Steel Strike of 1937. Who were the leaders on either
http://www.ohiohis
side of the strikes? What were their goals? What legacy did the labor strikes leave behind? tory.org/collections-archives/online :
Ohio Memory:
www.ohiomemory.
org
Labor
Taft-Hartley Labor
Management Act
1947
In 1947, the United States Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Labor Management Act.
Ohio History Center
Representative Fred Allan Hartley and Ohio Senator Robert Alphonso Taft sponsored this
Archives,
legislation. The Taft-Hartley Labor Management Act dramatically amended the Wagner Act Columbus, Ohio:
of 1935, which had legalized unions and increased the rights of laborers. The Taft-Hartley
Online CatalogLabor Management Act weakened laborers' rights. Under this legislation, before going on http://www.ohiohis
strike, unions had to notify the federal government.
tory.org/collections-archives/online
Labor
Albert Sabin and the
Polio Vaccine
1957
Poliomyelitis (polio) is an illness caused by the poliovirus. It spreads when an infected
Albert Sabin Digital
person comes in contact with someone else or when a person comes into contact with the Archives, University
feces of an infected person. Upon becoming infected with the virus, symptoms of the
of Cincinnati:
illness develop in five to thirty-five days. From circa 1840 to 1979, polio epidemics
http://sabin.uc.edu
commonly struck United States citizens, including Ohioans. Jonas Salk had developed a
/
"killed" vaccine earlier, but by 1957, Sabin had developed a live vaccine. Sabin's live
vaccine eliminated the possibility that someone could remain immune from polio but still
transmit the virus. Patients also took the vaccine orally, since it entered the system through
the digestive tract. An oral vaccine made distribution of the vaccine much easier. What did
Sabin's vaccine mean for future epidemics?
Medicine
George Crile
1864-1943
A pioneering surgeon and medical researcher of the early twentieth century, Dr. George
Washington Crile graduated from Wooster University Medical School in 1887 and joined
the college as a professor, a teaching role he continued throughout his life. He served in
the Spanish-American War as an Army surgeon and brought clinical advances to the
battlefields of World War I. An innovator in the field of surgery, he contributed greatly to
the understanding of the role of shock in surgical physiology, including novel techniques in
nerve-block anesthesia and blood transfusion. In 1921 he co-founded the Cleveland Clinic,
serving as chief surgeon and president of the internationally acclaimed medical facility to
the end of his career.
Remarkable Ohio
Medicine
John Harris
1827-
John Harris was a doctor in Bainbridge, Ohio, who specialized in dentistry. In 1827, Harris
began to teach students the basics of medicine to prepare them for medical school. He
emphasized dentistry in his lessons, a topic that most medical schools failed to cover in any
detail. Modern dentists view Harris as the father of dental education in the United States.
Today, John Harris's home in Bainbridge is a dental museum.
Ohio History
Cenrtal
Medicine
Ernest H. Volwiler
19th century
Ernest H. Volwiler invented Pentothal, an anesthetic used in surgery. His greatest
contribution to medicine was the development of Pentothal. Pentothal is also sometimes
used in interrogations, because, when applied to a person, it tends to make the subject
more truthful. Because of this discovery, Volwiler was eventually inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio.
Ohio History
Central
Medicine
James Preston
Poindexter
1804-1859
Ohio Pix
Medicine
Charles Richter
1900-1985
James Poindexter was an abolitionist, pastor and politician. Poindexter served as pastor of
Second Baptist Church; assisted escaping slaves to travel
through Columbus; founded the Colored Soldiers Relief Society during the Civil War and
served in political positions at the state and municipal level.
Charles Francis Richter was born on April 26, 1900, near Hamilton, Ohio. In 1935, while at
the Seismological Laboratory, Richter worked with Beno Gutenberg to develop a rating
scale for earthquakes. The scale has become known as the Richter Scale.
Ohio History
Central
Medicine
Roy J. Plunkett
1910-1994
Ohio History
Central
Medicine
Roy J. Plunkett was born on June 26, 1910, in New Carlisle, Ohio. Upon graduation, Plunkett
accepted a position with DuPont in Deepwater, New Jersey. One of his first assignments
was to find a non-toxic, non-flammable coolant to be used in refrigerators. One of his
attempts led to the creation of a slippery powder now called Teflon. Teflon's scientific
name is Polytetrafluoroethylene. The powder proved capable of withstanding
temperatures as cold as minus four hundred degrees Fahrenheit and as warm as five
hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
William Awl
1799-1876
William Awl was born on May 24, 1799, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He studied medicine at
the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and, in 1825, established a practice in
Lancaster, Ohio. As a physician, Awl sought to improve medical care for the imprisoned, the
blind, and the mentally ill. In 1833, the Ohio legislature appointed Awl as the physician of
the Ohio Penitentiary. Two years later, Awl helped organize the Ohio Medical Association.
This organization lobbied the Ohio legislature to establish a state hospital for the mentally
ill and a school for the blind. Awl lobbied the legislators to assist the mentally ill, and in
1837, they succeeded in convincing the legislature to establish the Ohio Lunatic Asylum.
Before creation of this institution, most mentally-ill Ohioans received no formal treatment
for their illnesses.
Ohio History
Central
Alan Freed and Rock
and Roll
1950s-1960s
Tecumseh
1768-1812
Tecumseh was born in 1768, probably at Old Piqua, along the Mad River in Ohio. He was a
Shawnee Indian and eventually became one of their greatest leaders. By the early 1800s,
Tecumseh decided that the best way to stop white advancement was to form a
confederacy of Indian tribes west of the Appalachian Mountains. Tecumseh believed that
no single tribe owned the land and that only all tribes together could turn land over to the
whites. He also believed that, if the Indians united together, they would have a better
chance militarily against the Americans. What was the legacy of Tecumseh's leadership?
Ohio History Center
Archives, Columbus,
Ohio: Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohist
ory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollections-catalog/
Native American
Dr. Jared Kirtland
1793-1877
A state legislator, Dr. Kirtland was interested in natural science and helped found the
Cleveland Academy of Natural Sciences. He participated in the
US. Geological survey and was part of several other biological discoveries.
Ohio History (The
Scholarly Journal of
the Ohio Historical
Society)
Naturalists &
Environment
Freed was a radio personality and creator of the term "Rock and Roll". In 1951, Freed
Rock and Roll Hall
began hosting a rhythm and blues program on WJW radio in Cleveland. It was during this
of Fame:
period that Freed referred to the music he played as "rock & roll" for the first time. At first, http://www.rockhal
much of his audience was African-American. Soon many other Americans began listening to
l.com/
this new style of music. Freed is credited with hosting the first live rock & roll concert in
1952. Freed moved to WINS radio in New York City in 1954, and "rock & roll" became a
common term across the nation. Many adults were critical of this form of music. How did
rock and roll affect the teenager population? How did rock and roll help change the
attitude toward African Americans?
Medicine
Music
Dorthy Dandridge
1923-1965
Dandridge first appeared in a motion picture in 1937 in A Day at the Races . She had
difficulty finding work in the motion picture industry and typically played stereotypical
African-American roles. Unhappy with the limited acting opportunities in Hollywood,
Dandridge began a musical career. Dandridge accepted additional movie roles during the
1940s, but she did not focus her attention on acting until the 1950s. Among her
memorable appearances were starring roles in Porgy and Bess, Island in the Sun, and
Carmen Jones . For her performance in Carmen Jones , Dandridge received an Academy
Award nomination for best actress. She was the first African-American woman to receive
this nomination.
Ohio History
Central
Other
Louis Brom Field
1986-1956
Bromfield studied at the Cornell Agricultural College before transferring to Columbia
University and graduating with a degree in journalism. After a career writng fiction and
living in Europe, Bromfield returned to Ohio in 1939 and purchased Malabar Farm, near
Mansfield. Bromfield dedicated his life to agriculture and sought to create a farm that
promoted soil conservation. He became famous for his conservation efforts and was
posthumously elected to the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame. Bromfield continued to write
books and articles. His later books, including Pleasant Valley, focused on soil conservation
and other farming issues.
Ohio History
Central
Other
Dectective Martin J
McFadden
1963
On October 31, 1963, the actions of Cleveland Police Detective Martin J. McFadden led to a
new legal standard allowing police officers in the United States to stop and frisk suspicious
persons prior to committing a crime.The law at the time allowed officers to stop a suspect
only after a crime was committed. In a landmark decision on June 10, 1968, Chief Justice
Earl Warren delivered the court's opinion that McFadden's action, called a "Terry Stop"
after one of the suspects, was justifiable.
Remarkable Ohio
Other
Lucy (Webb) Hayes
1831-1889
Before the American Civil War, Lucy Hayes supported the abolition and women's rights
movements. Following the Civil War, voters in Ohio elected Rutherford Hayes governor of
the state (1868 to 1872). Lucy Hayes played an active role in her husband's administration
and lobbied the state legislature to provide more funding to schools, orphanages, and
insane asylums. Lucy Hayes was a strong supporter of the temperance movement, but it
was her husband who prohibited the serving of alcohol. She believed in education and
allowed White House servants to take time off from their duties to attend school. Lucy
Hayes wanted women to have greater access to education. She believed that women
needed to be educated before receiving the right to vote.
Ohio History
Central
Other
Thomas Worthington
1773-1827
As governor, Worthington advocated numerous social reforms, including the regulation of
bars and taverns, state assistance to paupers, and prison reform. He also became one of
the earliest advocates for a canal system and supported free public education in the state.
Unfortunately for Worthington, the Ohio legislature refused to enact most of his proposals.
However, by the mid to late 1820s, many of Worthington's ideas, such as canals and public
education, had become realities in Ohio.
Ohio History
Central
Early Ohio
Branch Rickey
1881-1965
Rickey is credited with developing the farm system that still exists today in professional
baseball. Players who were not ready to play for a major league team played for farm
teams, perfected their skills, and proved that they were prepared to play for a major league
team. He also introduced protective helmets for batters, pitching machines, and batting
cages. In 1947, Rickey made history when he signed African-American Jackie Robinson to
play in the major leagues. Prior to the integration of professional baseball, AfricanAmerican players played in their own separate league.
Ohio History
Central
Sports
William Ellsworth
"Dummy" Hoy
Anti-Saloon League
1862-1961
As a deaf player, Dummy Hoy played a role in implementing hand signals in baseball.
dummyhoy.com
Sports
1890s-1930s
Starting in 1893 in Oberlin Ohio, the Anti-Saloon League felt alcohol consumption was a
Anti-Saloon League
cause of the moral decline in America at the time. The group's focus was to enact new and
Museum:
enforce existing law restricting the sale or use of alcohol. How did the organization's
http://www.wester
leadership lead to a constitutional amendment? What legacy did prohibition leave behind? villelibrary.org/Anti
Saloon/; Ohio
History Center
Archives,
Columbus, Ohio:
Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollections-catalog/
;
Temperance
Movement
Eliza Jane Trimble
"Mother" Thompson
1870s-1900s
Eliza Jane Trimble Thompson lived in the community of Hillsboro, Ohio. Hillsboro had about
twenty saloons, and Thompson and her supporters became determined to stop alcohol
consumption in their town. Thompson had attended a speech given by Dr. Diocletian Lewis
in 1873. Dr. Lewis had suggested that women should organize to protest against saloons
and to pray for the bars' closing. Thompson took Lewis's advice. She and seventy-five other
women in the community marched on the saloons, demanding that they pledge to no
longer serve alcohol. Ultimately, Thompson and her followers were successful in closing the
town's saloons. As a result of their success, women in more than one hundred other Ohio
towns held their own protest marches. Many of these women later became involved in the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Ohio History
Central, OhioPix
Temperance
Movement
Women's Christian
Temperance Union
1874
This organization pressured the Ohio and federal governments to implement Prohibition.
Prohibition would outlaw the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol. From the mid
1870s to the early 1890s, the Women's Christian Temperance Union was the major
organization within the United States seeking Prohibition. Its members utilized rather
extreme tactics to convince Americans to abstain from alcohol. Members picketed bars and
saloons. They prayed for the souls of the bar patrons. They also tried to block the
entryways of establishments that sold liquor. How did the WCTU serve as leaders for the
temperance movement and also for women's rights? What is their role today?
Ohio History Center
Archives, Columbus,
Ohio: Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohist
ory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollections-catalog/
Temperance
Movement;
Women's Rights
Ernest J. Bohn
1901-1975
He was a nationally known expert on public housing. Born in Hungary, the son of Frank J.
Cleveland Memory
and Juliana (Kiry) Bohn, he came to Cleveland with his father in 1911, graduating from
Project
Adelbert College in 1924 and Western Reserve Law School in 1926. In 1929 he was elected
to the Ohio House as a Republican, then served as city councilman until 1940. Active in
housing reform, he authored the first state housing legislation, passed in 1933. As
president and organizer of the Natl. Assoc. for Housing & Redevelopment Officials, Bohn
helped pass the U.S. Housing Act of 1937. Bohn directed the Cleveland Metropolitan
Housing Authority from its founding in 1933 until 1968, and chaired the City Planning
Commission from its founding in 1942 until 1966. His work included slum clearance and
redevelopment. Following World War II he focused on housing for the elderly, building the
Golden Age Ctr. at E. 30th St. and Central Ave., the first such housing development in the
U.S. Deterioration of central-city housing in the mid-1960s led to charges that Bohn
neglected meeting the needs of poorer people and promoted racial discrimination in filling
CMHA units.
Urban Planning
Gloria Steinem
1934-present
Florence E Allen
1884-1966
Amelia J. Bloomer
1818-1894
Ohio History Center
Archives, Columbus,
Ohio: Online Cataloghttp://www.ohiohist
ory.org/collections-archives/online
Women's Rights
Florence E. Allen was nicknamed "first lady of the law" for her many firsts as a woman in
the legal profession. After graduating from Western Reserve College for Women, she
taught at Laurel School from 1906 to 1909. She then became a crusader for women's
rights, and in 1913 received a law degree from New York University. Allen was appointed as
an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor in 1919, the first woman in the country to hold
such a position. In 1920, she was elected to Cleveland's Court of Common Pleas, advancing,
in 1922, to the Ohio Supreme Court, where she served two terms. In 1934, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Allen to the nation's second highest tribunal, the United
States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, where she became its first female member. In 1958,
she was elevated to Chief Justice of that body and retired in 1965.
Remarkable Ohio
Women's Rights
Amelia J. Bloomer was a women's rights advoacte. In 1851, Amelia Bloomer began to wear
a style of clothing that would become known as bloomers. Bloomers consisted of a loosefitting blouse, a knee-length skirt, and baggy pants. Women during this time period were
expected to have a figure that resembled the number eight. Most women had to strap
themselves into tight-fitting corsets to attain this figure. These corsets sometimes caused
health problems and could even lead to physical deformities. By 1860, Bloomer stopped
wearing bloomers. Women's clothing had changed. New and cooler fabrics also began to
appear, Bloomer found the new style of women's clothing more comfortable and
reasonable to wear. She may also have begun wearing more accepted clothing to men to
draw attention away from the clothing she wore to the issues about which she wrote and
lectured, especially suffrage for women and temperance.
Ohio History
Central
Women's Rights
Gloria Steinem is an author, journalist and well-known advocate of women's rights.
Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. Steinem co-founded the National
Women's Political Caucus, the Women's Action Alliance, the Coalition of Labor Union
Women, and Ms. magazine. How did she work to gain more rights for women? Did her
leadership leave a legacy on the women's rights movement?
Olympia Brown
1835-1926
Olympia Brown was a woman's rights advocate during the late nineteenth and the early
twentieth centuries. Brown went to Kansas and encouraged men to grant women the right
to vote. She failed to convince many men, but Brown emerged from this summer as a
prominent women's rights activist. She became a member of the Woman's Party and
lectured across the United States on the need for equal rights for women with men. She
also co-founded the New England Woman Suffrage Association and served as the president
of the Federal Suffrage Association and as the vice president of the National Woman
Suffrage Association.
Ohio History
Central
Women's Rights
Betsy Mix Cowles
1820s-1850s
Betsey Mix Cowles is known for her contributions to education, abolitionism, and women's
rights in Ohio. As early as the late 1820s and early 1830s, she and her sister began opening
infant schools in northeastern Ohio. Infant schools were a predecessor to kindergartens.
Like many women who participated in the abolitionist cause, Cowles became interested in
women's rights as well. In the late 1850s, Cowles's attention turned to higher education
for women teachers.
Remarkable Ohio
Women's Rights
Ohio Women's
Suffrage Association
1885-1912
Christy Girl
It was not until May 1885 that the Ohio Womans Suffrage Association (OSWA) was formed Ohio History Center Women's Rights
in Painesville. Its members chose not to affiliate the organization with any of the national
Archives,
womens suffrage groups of this era, because they wanted to avoid partisan politics. How
Columbus, Ohio:
did the OSWA play a leadership role in the fight for suffrage in Ohio? What legacy did they
Online Catalogleave behind?
http://www.ohiohis
tory.org/collections-archives/onlinecollectionscatalog/; Ohio
History Central
Late 19th-Early Howard Chandler Christy was a prominent American artist in the late nineteenth and early
20th C.
twentieth centuries. Christy became famous for his artwork depicting a young woman. She
became known as the "Christy girl," and Christy used her image in books, magazines,
calendars, and even patriotic posters. Christy once stated that the "Christy girl" was "Highbred, aristocratic and dainty though not always silken-skirted; a woman with tremendous
self-respect." One critic echoed these sentiments, proclaiming that the "Christy girl:
...represented the awakening female, no longer content to preside over the kitchen, to be
forbidden the golf course or the vote. The way Christy drew her, she was popular with the
males because of her charm, while the young women liked her because she embodied their
dreams of emancipation."
Ohio History
Central
Women's Rights
Mary Hartwell
Catherwood
1847-1902
Mary Hartwell was born in Luray, Ohio, and at the age of nine her family moved to Milford,
Illinois. Catherwood taught at small country schools until she was able to enter Granville
Female College in Ohio. She managed to put herself through the four-year course in only
three years, finishing in 1868. During this time her work began to be published, and she
was able to support herself with her writing.
Our Land,
OurLiterature
Women's Rights
Equal Rights
Amendment
1972-1983
On March 22, 1972, the federal government sent the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Ohio History Center Women's Rights
individual states for ratification. The ERA sought to make gender discrimination a violation
Archives,
of the United States Constitution. For a constitutional amendment to go into effect, threeColumbus, Ohio:
fourths of the states must ratify it. The ratification effort brought many women into politics Online Catalogand shined light on women's rights. Many in Ohio objected to the amendment and at first it http://www.ohiohis
failed to pass. Ohio ratified the ERA in 1974 but the amendment failed to gain the 38 states tory.org/collectionsneeded to become a part of the US constitution. Who were the leaders in the fight for the
-archives/onlineERA in Ohio? What was the reaction to the ERA by the leading legislators in Ohio?
collectionscatalog/;
Victoria Clafin
Woodhull: First
Woman to Run for
President
1838-1927
Victoria Claflin Woodhull is a little-known pioneer for women's rights and the first woman Ohio History Center Women's Rights
in the United States to run for president. Born in Homer, Ohio, Woodhull worked as a
Archives,
spiritual medium and fortune teller before her run for office as a representative of the
Columbus, Ohio:
Equal Rights Party. Her platform included issues like the 8-our workday, graduated income
Online Catalogtax, social welfare programs, and new divorce laws. She was not well-liked by other
http://www.ohiohis
suffragists of her time because of her extremism which they believed would not help the
tory.org/collectionsmovement. Her shifting platform from issues of free love to eugenics frightened most
-archives/onlinereformers of the time. What legacy did Woodhull's efforts leave on the women's rights
collectionsmovement?
catalog/;
4H Club
1902-
The 4-H Club originated in 1902, in Clark County, Ohio. That year, Albert Belmont Graham
began a program for local farming youths to better prepare
them for their lives as farmers. In 1914, the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) established its Cooperative Extension Service, which
incorporated clubs, like the one that Graham created. How did the 4-H club show
leadership in youth development? HOw does it help promote leadership in young people
today?
4-H website:
Youth, Agriculture
http://www.4h.org/; Ohio History
Center Archives:
Online Catalong:
http://collections.o
hiohistory.org/star
web/l.skcacatalog/servlet.star
web?path=l.skcacatalog/skcacatalog
.web