Memorials:
Researching monuments in Oberlin
The Memorial Arch (early 1900s)
The Underground Railroad sculpture (1970s)
The World War II Memorial (1990s)
Researching a memorial requires a firm grasp of the object and how it expresses the ideals and ideas of those who brought it into being. Monument creation is often a very public group process that reveals the goals and unspoken assumptions of a time and place. Memorials generally pass through three stages; the more you can find about each stage the better your understanding of your memorial:
1) Planning and decision-making
2) Creation / construction
3) Reactions of contemporaries; later reactions
Throughout your research be careful to note useful search terms and their variants. It is especially important to note the individuals, committees, groups, and organizations that were involved in its development, creation and reception.
Listed below are resources specifically chosen for your projects, but my help doesn't stop here. Let me or a member of the Main Library Reference Department walk with you through your research process; we love this stuff!
Barbara Prior
Art Librarian
Primary Sources
Archives and Historical Societies:
American Memory (Library of Congress) provides information on, and access to, the digitized version of the Library's primary-source collections on American history and culture, including photographs, documents, sound recordings, and motion pictures. The site offers more than seven million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.
American Social History Online (Digital Library Federation) has 19th and 20th century primary resources from unique historical digital collections.
The EOG (Electronic Oberlin Group) is a local volunteer organization that has digitized a "wide range of materials and resources about the town of Oberlin, Ohio, its diverse population, and its remarkable history."
Oberlin College Archives houses primary sources relating to the history of the college including materials on monuments. For most of the material in archives you will need to make an appointment. Do this early in the semester; they have a limited staff and appointments filll up quickly.
Browse their Finding Guides (for brief descriptions of their collections), and their several digital collections noting which "Record Groups" appear promising.
Then make and appointment to review their contents. Select "Contact Us" from the Archives web site or email Ken Grossi, the College Archivist, directly (ken.grossi@oberlin.edu).
The Oberlin Heritage Center is Oberlin's local history organization. They are actively documenting the history of Oberlin, making much of their work available on their Research and Learn resources page. They also have a Research Center which can be used by appointment.
The Ohio Historical Society's Ohio History Online Portal includes web content from the Ohio Historical Society, site partners, and more than 300 member institutions from the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums. Search for "Oberlin" to find links to related web sites. Use their Ohio Memory database to search 75,000 primary sources from 330 Ohio archives, historical societies, libraries and museums.
Maps:
Sanborn Digital Maps, 1867-1970.
Large-scale street plans of Ohio communities produced by the Sanborn Fire Insurance company. There are plans for Oberlin for 1884, 1888, 1893, 1897, 1904, 1911, 1922, 1933, and 1942. Plans are also available for other Lorain County communities, including Amherst, Elyria, Grafton, Lorain, and Wellington.
Newspapers:
1700s-present.
Contains tens of millions of searchable historical newspaper pages. Use “Browse Available Newspapers” to find papers from a specific place. Lorain County locales include Elyria and Lorain; other northeast Ohio cities include Akron, Canton, Norwalk, and Sandusky.
Guide to finding Oberlin Newspapers describes where local newspapers are housed, how far back our holding go, and their format (microform, digital or print). Available indexes are also noted.
Popular opinion:
Covers 1975-present; some titles indexed for earlier years
Indexes 2,400+ general, mass market, and consumer-oriented magazines covering nearly all subjects; around 70% include full text.
Oberlin Alumni Magazine. Oberlin, Ohio, Oberlin College for the Alumni Association.
1904 - present.
Shelved in Main Periodicals, 2nd floor south side, Mudd
Two card file indexes are available in the Goodrich Room on the 4th floor: 1904-1957 and 1958 - ~1994? (through at least vol. 90, no. 2, Summer 1994)
Contains articles about college events, activities, and initiatives, as well as human interest stories about individual alumnae, faculty, and staff.
The Hi-O-Hi. Oberlin, Ohio, 1890–2005/2006
Main Oversize LD 4177 .H5, 2nd copy in Special Collections
Oberlin College yearbook; includes class-year photographs, clubs, academic departments, significant events, etc. Primarily photographs. Earlier years may include indexes.
Surveys of public monuments
The Ohio Outdoor Sculpture Inventory, managed by the Sculpture Center in Cleveland, is documenting public sculpture across the state. Use this site to find memorials both on and off campus.
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has several projects that document sculpture, architecture, or historic sites that also include memorials. Search their Art Inventories with the "owner" of "Oberlin" for sites in the town and on campus. Memorials may be searched individually or simultaneously via their Cross Catalog Searching Center.
Historical Context
America: History and Life indexes US & Canadian history journals. Start with the keyword "Oberlin" and narrow results from there.
Barnard, John. From evangelicalism to progressivism at Oberlin College, 1866-1917. [Columbus] Ohio State University Press [1969]
Main Library & Main Reference: LD 4168.3 .B3
Blodgett, Geoffrey. Oberlin History: Essays and Impressions. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006.
Main Reference LD 4168 .B56 2006
Encyclopedia of Ohio. New York: c1994
Main Reference F 489 .E5 1994
Oberlin History Bibliography: A Partial Listing of Published Titles Bearing on the History of the College and Community Covering the Period 1833 to 1992 (Baumann). Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 1992.
Main Reference Z5816.O23B38 1992 (html copy at Archives website under “Published Resources”)
Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to its Social History (Blodgett). Oberlin College, 1985.
Main Reference NA 735 .O3 B56 1985 (check OBIS for additional copies)
Ohio biographical dictionary: people of all times and all places who have been important to the history and life of the state. American Historical Publications, c1986
Main Library CT 254 .O35 1986
For background information on the use and meaning of monuments or the specific events being commemorated try Oxford Reference Online, an aggragation of Reference titles (ex: dictionaries and encyclopedias) published by Oxford University.
Pictorial memories of Oberlin. [Oberlin] Rotary Club of Oberlin, 1976
Main Oversize F 499 .O2 P43
OBIS and OhioLINK
OBIS is the Oberlin College Library’s online catalog; it lists most library materials, both print and digital and many websites as well.
The OhioLINK Library Catalog is the combined catalogs of ~90 college and university libraries across Ohio.
Borrow OhioLINK materials by selecting “Request this item” and follow the instructions. (Your “Barcode” number is on the back of your OCID.)
OhioLINK materials are delivered to the Main Library and usually arrive in less than a week.
Searching OBIS and the OhioLINK Catalog
Author or Title searches for a specific author or work
Subject searches only the Subject field of an OBIS record
Keyword searches anywhere in an OBIS record, including author, title, publisher, table of contents, as well as subjects.
Oberlin: Subject = Oberlin (Ohio) [Town of Oberlin]
Subject = Oberlin College [Oberlin College]
Keyword = "Oberlin Ohio" and [your search terms here]
Keyword = "Oberlin College" and [your search terms here]
Keyword = Oberlin and [your search terms here]
Useful search terms
Use the search terms below to locate for titles related to your project. Add Oberlin as a keyword to restrict results to the college or town. Use parentheses to group similar terms. For example:
Keyword = "underground railroad" and (monuments or memorials or sculpture or art)
Memorials:
Keyword = Memorials and [your term here]
Keyword = Monuments and [your term here]
Keyword = Monuments and ("world war ii" or wwii or "second world war")
Boxer Rebellion:
Subject = China -- History -- Boxer Rebellion ("Limit/Sort Search" to restrict results to English)
Keyword = boxer rebellion and shansi
Keyword = boxer rebellion and oberlin
Underground Railroad:
Subject = Fugitive slaves -- United States
Subject = Underground Railroad
Subject = Underground Railroad -- Ohio
Keyword = "underground railroad" and oberlin
World War II:
Keyword = Memorials and "World War, 1939-1945"
Subject = World War, 1939-1945--Monuments
Thanks to Cynthia Comer, Main Library Reference
for use of her Oberlin History bibliographies - BQP