With NEH funding, Ohio History Connection is digitizing the state’s World War I history. Image courtesy of Ohio History Connection.
Since 1967, the NEH has helped the Ohio History Connection (formerly known as the Ohio Historical Society) preserve the state’s history and make it accessible to the public. NEH-funded professional development programs for educators have brought teachers from across the United States to Ohio, where they studied the War of 1812 and American Indian cultures of the Ohio Valley. Recently, NEH funding has helped digitize Ohio’s history, preserving the state’s history for future generations and making it accessible today. Additionally, in 2020, the NEH awarded Ohio History Connection a CARES grant to help it manage the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These NEH-funded projects are helping tell the stories of Ohioans and their roles in shaping our country. We’re pushing these stories out to a larger public and making sure they are heard.”
–Jillian Ramage, Ohio History Connection
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The National Digital Newspaper Program in Ohio, part of the NEH and Library of Congress’s Chronicling America initiative, has made more than 415,000 pages of historical Ohio newspapers published between 1834 and the 1960s accessible online. Established in 2008, the project initially focused on digitizing newspapers that represented the state’s geographical diversity. It has since expanded and is now also representing Ohio’s diverse communities by digitizing foreign language newspapers as well as newspapers produced by labor organizations and religious groups. The project spurred additional partnerships between Ohio History Connection and institutions from around the state. These partnerships have made an additional 400,000 pages of local newspapers available on Ohio Memory, the organization’s online research database.
NEH funding has supported the National Digital Newspaper Program in Ohio, through which the Ohio History Connection has made more than 415,000 pages of Ohio newspapers accessible online. Image courtesy of Ohio History Connection.
Additional funding from the NEH established and supported the Ohio History Connection’s digital archive of Ohio-related artifacts from World War I. In partnership with 14 other Ohio institutions, Ohio History Connection has digitized more than 9,000 items representing the homefront and battlefields of WWI. Now, photographs and objects owned by soldiers, letters home, propaganda materials, war bonds, and other materials are accessible online. Through the project, Ohio History Connection has also supported other cultural heritage institutions in digitizing their collections and developed curricula that draw on the archive for classrooms across the state and beyond.
An NEH Common Heritage grant helped Ohio History Connection digitize the history of Columbus’s LGBTQ community. Image courtesy of Ohio History Connection.
In addition to helping Ohio History Connection preserve its collections, the NEH is helping the organization build new ones. With an NEH Common Heritage Grant, the organization hosted public digitization days dedicated to documenting the history of the state’s LGBTQ community. Participants brought a range of materials and many stayed for more than an hour discussing the items they had brought in.
