By Miriam Intrator, Head of Archives & Special Collections and Rare Book Librarian

Every Founders Day, which is February 18th, University Archivist Bill Kimok curates an exhibit highlighting a specific theme or moment in the university’s history. Beginning last year, in 2025, we began planning a large-scale event to open the exhibit and to provide the many student employees and interns working in Archives & Special Collections and Digital Initiatives to share their projects and developing expertise. This February 18th marked our 2nd Annual Founders Day Spring Student Showcase. It marked the opening of the physical and digital exhibit, “OHIO Student Life in the Postwar Years: Rediscovering the Grace Fleischer Diary, 1949-1953,” curated by archives assistants Taylor Connelly, MA ’26 and Olivia Ondrik, BFA ’27, with Bill Kimok.

The exhibit centers around the Grace Fleischer Diary. The diary itself has quite an interesting story. It was mailed to Associate Professor of Anthropology Matt Rosen, who brought it to Bill. The diary was unsigned and contained no indication of who had written it. Based on the contents it was clear that it had belonged to a student at Ohio University from 1949 to 1953. Bill began comparing diary entries against other items in University Archives, such as Yearbooks and The Post newspaper until he was able to ascertain the author: Grace Fleischer.

At that point Bill began searching for Grace, who was still living under her married name, Grace Neumann. And while she had no memory of writing the diary, as Bill read entries aloud to her, she remembered detail upon detail of her time at Ohio University. The diary was then digitized and transcribed (with thanks to students Sarah Campbell, Greta DeLapp, Disha Hoque, Adrian Kautz, Lilyana Mays, and Alexis Reynolds) and the project to create the exhibit began.

For the Showcase, in addition to Taylor and Olivia presenting the exhibit, fifteen students from archives & special collections and digital initiatives participated. The other participating students each had a station, either at a table or monitor, where they selected some materials or images from their current or recent projects to present to visitors. Light refreshments were served and visitors were invited to make buttons or magnets using images from the collections.

Student Participants

Molly Spehar

My major is History and I have two minors, one in Art History and the other in French. I’m expected to graduate at the end of this semester as a Junior. 

For this showcase, I had the pleasure to present on the Baker Peace Studies Program, a program funded by former OU president John C. Baker and his wife Elizabeth Baker. Through this program, them and other esteemed scholars/faculty were able to put on seminars that brought together many great minds to brainstorm how to bring about peace in a post-Cold War world.

Avery Kumes

Classics and Religious Studies HTC major, minors in history and Latin 2027.

I talked about the history and previous work that has been done on the pftp collection, and then shared what recent discoveries I have made about the pftp collections held by other institutions.  I pulled out three leaves to display, one in Latin, one in Greek, and one in Biblical Hebrew, because I am learning all three languages this semester and I wanted to show visitors with just a small sampling how diverse the leaves are.

Sophia McCauley 

Major: English, Creative Writing, Literature and Culture

Minor: History 

Year of Graduation: 2026

What I presented: I presented the President Roderick McDavis collection. I worked on this collection over the 2025 fall semester as a Mahn Center intern.

Maddy Feerick

Majors: Anthropology and Classical Civilizations

Minor: Religious Studies

Expected Graduation Year: Spring 2027

I presented some things from the James Bertolino Collection. I wanted to show the evolution of his career as a poet and the usefulness of the collection. So, I displayed some newspaper clippings from various times in his life and three drafts of one poem to demonstrate his creative process, along with some other poems. 

Zach Bisselberg

History and Classical Civilization Majors; Religious Studies Minor, ’27.

I presented three leaves from the Farfel Collection, including both manuscripts and incunables in Persian, Greek, and French. My goal in selecting these was to show the diversity of the collection.

Owen Keller

Graduating in May ’26.

Film major, certificate in podcasting.

I showcased our top social media posts over the past academic year. I also showed my favorite video interviews and archival promotion Reels; video has become a core piece of our social media.

Taylor Connelly

Majoring in Journalism. Minors in History and English. War and Peace Certificate.

Graduating in 2026.

At the student showcase I was one of the two students presenting the Grace Fleisher Neuman Diary and Exhibit. It was an amazing artifact that was sent to the university and depicted what a female college student’s life looked like in the 1950s.

Olivia Ondrik

Studio Art BFA, Anthropology minor, and Museum Studies Certificate.

Expected grad year is 2027.

I presented the Founders Day exhibit at the student showcase! Featuring the diary of alumna Grace Fleischer, we created an exhibit that focused on post-WWII student life at OHIO. 

Danielle Rymer

Completing a BA in Art History with a minor in Communication Studies and a certificate in Museum Studies. 

On Founders Day, I presented a few pieces from the Multicultural Center Collection. The collection consists of six boxes with pamphlets, posters, photographs, correspondence, and planning materials, all related to events and holidays celebrated by the Multicultural Center. The center opened in Lindley Hall in 1975 as a resource for African American students on campus. In 2007, the center was moved to Baker and renamed the Multicultural Center, where it served as a space for students to build community and to learn about and celebrate different cultures. In 2025, after the passing of Senate Bill 1, the Multicultural Center closed alongside the Pride Center and the Women’s Center. 

Save the Date

Plan to join us next year, for the 3rd Annual Founders Day Student Showcase, February 18, 2027!