By Erin Wilson, Digital Imaging Specialist & Project Manager, Digital Initiatives
This news update is part of a semi-regular series highlighting recent additions, exhibits, and projects of Ohio University Libraries Digital Initiatives. Read on for a sample of newly digitized materials that are publicly available in our Digital Archives. See previous updates in the unit’s newsletter archive.
Special Collections
This album of exquisitely mounted and preserved marine algae specimens bears the signatures of W. Mary Eustis and Eliza Coleman of Salem, Massachusetts. Flowers of the Deep, as the book’s gold-stamped cover reads, is a recent acquisition and a valuable historical record of women engaged in natural science.
Herbarium portfolio, 1936-1937
Another fine example of botanical preservation, most specimens were collected around Crystal Lake and Vandalia, Ohio near Dayton. Assembled by an unknown creator, the 45 mounted wildflowers include four examples of trillium among other local species.
University Archives
Department of African American Studies ephemera
Primarily dating from the 1970s, these documents include event flyers, student resources, and community announcements collected in the Department of African American Studies. They complement an existing digital collection of newsletters published by Black campus and student organizations around the same time period.
Kano, Nigeria Advanced Teachers’ College (ATC)
Materials documenting the establishment and early years of a USAID sponsored teaching school in Kano, Nigeria which Ohio University helped found in the 1960s. Digitized by request to support architectural history research, the materials include maps, blueprints, and photos of the ATC campus and students.
Documentary Photography Archive
Lynn Johnson Collection – New Additions
China, 1980 – Contact sheets of full film rolls featuring evocative scenes of daily life, with a focus on children. These photos were captured during an accompanying research visit with Dr. Ann Taylor, head of the Carnegie-Mellon Children’s School in Pittsburgh.
March for Women’s Lives, 1986 & 2004 – Johnson’s multi-year documentation of these historic demonstrations includes images of organizers working behind-the-scenes, counter-protests, and iconic women’s rights advocates such as Gloria Steinem and Whoopi Goldberg.
Manuscript Collections
Containing original art from the imagination of choreographer Alwin Nikolais, this series exposes the creative process behind his work. The sketches include designs for costumes, sets, light projection, and props as well as storyboards and abstract compositions–many in a raw, unpolished state. Nikolais employed a range of media while drafting these visions, including watercolors and oil pastels on varying types and qualities of paper.
The diary of Sergeant Hiram C. Holt documents his time in Company G of the first Regiment of Ohio Artillery as he moved from Ohio to Kentucky to Tennessee and back to Ohio. Passed down through generations, the diary was recently donated to the Libraries with an annotated transcript and a map of Holt’s Civil War route traced by relatives.
The O’Bleness family name is well-known in Athens, Ohio where a local hospital is named after its original benefactor, Charles G. O’Bleness. This collection of photographs imparts a more intimate view of the O’Bleness family legacy, primarily documenting the lives of Charles, his siblings, their relatives, and family friends. Images include group portraits of Ohio University’s earliest football teams, scenes of Athens, and candid views of social activity at the turn of the century. More information can be found in blog posts written by Anna Denman (History, ‘22), former Manuscripts Archives Intern, who researched and processed the collection.
J. P. Weethee journal, 1872-1882
Jonathan Perkins Weethee, an Athens County resident, utilized this journal over the course of a decade for two very distinct purposes. The first part contains copied letters from General Thomas Ewing for whom Weethee investigated and purchased land believed to be rich in coal and iron. The second part includes a daily log of Weethee’s activities and his reflections on various topics including religion, history, and geology.
Columbus & Hocking Coal & Iron Company store books
Part of a much larger collection, this series of digitized records features store books and inventories from company towns and mining operations once supported by the Columbus & Hocking Coal & Iron Company. The content of these sparse ledgers which date from 1895 to 1905 includes dry goods, livestock, tools, and various accounting notes.
Help transcribe handwritten text in the J. P. Weethee journal and Company store books! Click below to get started.