Autumn 2009 pg. 1 The Ohio Archivist Autumn 2009, Volume 40 Number 2 In This Issue President’s Message — pg 2 2009 Spring Conference Recap — pg 3 Conference Committee and Sponsors — pg 4 Session Listings — pg 5 Merit Awards — pg 7 Election Results — pg 8 Amendment Passed — pg 9 News from Around the State and Beyond— pg 10 The National Archives at Chicago Improves Access to the Buckeye States’ Maritime History — pg 13 SOA Council — pg 17 An Important Message … from our President appears on page 2 of this issue. It is regarding an open Council meeting that will take place on October 26th at 10:00 am at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio. At this meeting Council will consider and vote upon the proposed agreement between the Ohio Historical Society and SOA that was originally presented and discussed at our Spring 2009 business meeting. Council wants your input, so check out our President’s message to see how you can participate. This issue also contains a feature article by Stephanie Phillips and Glenn Longacre of The National Archives at Chicago on a new database of maritime-related federal court records that they have created. These records date from the mid-19 th Century to the recent past and include cases that relate to the inland waterways of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. We’re always looking for articles and news submissions for the newsletter, so if you’ve got a collection or exhibit you’d like to promote, write it up and send it to me at [email protected]. Happy Autumn! --Beth A. Kattelman, editor Unfortunately, due to low registration the Autumn Workshop had to be cancelled. We do hope to have another opportunity to offer Mary Cannon’s workshop on Volunteer Management in the future, as we know it will be informative and worthwhile.
The newsletter of the Society of Ohio Archivists. ARTICLES: "The National Archives at Chicago Improves Access to the Buckeye States' Maritime History" by Stephanie Phillips and Glenn Longacre | Ohio Archives News | SOA News: Annual Meeting Recap | Bylaws Amendment | Open Council Meeting | Merit Awards: Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation and OhioLINK EAD Task Force | President's Message | MORE INFO: http://ohioarchivists.org
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Autumn 2009 pg. 1
The Ohio Archivist Autumn 2009, Volume 40 Number 2
— pg 9 News from Around the State and Beyond— pg 10 The National Archives at Chicago Improves Access to the Buckeye States’ Maritime History — pg 13 SOA Council — pg 17
An Important Message
… from our President appears on page 2 of this issue. It
is regarding an open Council meeting that will take
place on October 26th at 10:00 am at OCLC in Dublin,
Ohio. At this meeting Council will consider and vote
upon the proposed agreement between the Ohio
Historical Society and SOA that was originally
presented and discussed at our Spring 2009 business
meeting. Council wants your input, so check out our
President’s message to see how you can participate.
This issue also contains a feature article by Stephanie
Phillips and Glenn Longacre of The National Archives
at Chicago on a new database of maritime-related
federal court records that they have created. These
records date from the mid-19th
Century to the recent
past and include cases that relate to the inland
waterways of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
We’re always looking for articles and news
submissions for the newsletter, so if you’ve got a
collection or exhibit you’d like to promote, write it up
The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation of Hudson, Ohio was one of the recipients of
the MAC Presidents’ Award given at the MAC meeting in St. Louis in May. One of
the primary focus areas of the Foundation is supporting the mental health field. Since
2003, the Foundation has contributed $2.5 million to support the Archives of the
History of American Psychology [AHAP] (http://www.uakron.edu/ahap) at the
University of Akron. The Foundation has provided stipends for the archives to hire
graduate assistants to arrange, describe, and make available unprocessed manuscript
collections involving the history of mental health research and practice. It also
provided the archives with funding for a web developer to maintain and update
databases and the AHAP website. Its grants to AHAP include funds to establish the
Endowed Directorship for the Archives of the History of American Psychology.
MAC’s citation hailed the “partnership being forged by The Margaret Clark Morgan
Foundation, The University of Akron and its Archives of the History of American
Psychology” saying it will have “a profound and positive impact on the field of
mental and behavioral health and will continue to benefit the field of psychology and
the preservation of the history of the field.” The MAC Presidents’ Award recognizes
“significant contributions to the archival profession by individuals, institutions, and
organizations not directly involved in archival work but knowledgeable about its
purpose and value.”
Autumn 2009 pg. 13
The National Archives at Chicago Improves Access to the
Buckeye States' Maritime History
Stephanie Phillips
Glenn Longacre
The National Archives at Chicago
Last Spring, archives staff at the National Archives at Chicago created a database for its
maritime-related federal court records. The records, held in Record Group 21, Records of
District Courts of the United States, date from the mid-19th Century to the recent past.
The database will include federal court cases that primarily relate to the Great Lakes, but
will also include those admiralty and other maritime-related cases that relate to the inland
waterways to include the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Staff members, along with archives intern, Stephanie Phillips, working on a MLIS at the
University of Illinois, began the initial database population with admiralty case files from
the U.S. District Court in Cleveland. The archives holds over 90 cubic feet of admiralty
case files containing thousands of maritime cases heard between 1855 and 1966 in
Cleveland’s federal court. Upon its completion, the database will provide access for
researchers to the largest body of federal maritime cases in the United States documenting
the Great Lakes region.
The database compiles such case information as record group, court, case number, case
title, type of case (admiralty, civil, criminal, or bankruptcy), case year, plaintiff,
defendant, name of vessel, state, specific waterway if applicable, and any significant
remarks.
Two of the more significant maritime-related cases heard by the U.S. District Court in
Cleveland and destined for inclusion in the database include the 1965 collision and
sinking on Lake Huron of the SS Cedarville, and the 1967 tragic northern Ohio skydiving
disaster when 18 skydivers took off from Ortner Airfield near Oberlin and were
accidentally dropped into Lake Erie. Sixteen of the parachutists tragically drowned in the
accident.
Autumn 2009 pg. 14
In her early work on the database, Stephanie Phillips, has seen significant patterns and
stories emerge from the records. U.S. Revenue Cutters, predecessors to the modern day
Coast Guard vessels, patrolled the Great Lakes to enforce revenue laws and to provide
assistance to vessels in distress as early as the 1820's. By 1857, growth in population and
trade along the coasts of the Great Lakes led to an increased demand for additional
revenue cutters, and six new cutters were commissioned in Cleveland. In an ironic twist,
the construction of Revenue Cutters No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 resulted in over ninety-six
civil suits being filed for nonpayment of services.
2. Exhibit 2, Case File 128, Robert R. Fox & Others vs. Revenue Cutter No. 1; Admiralty Case Files; United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division (Cleveland); Records
of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives and Records Administration--Great Lakes Region (Chicago).
Autumn 2009 pg. 15
In 1857, milliners Fox & Pohlemus filed suit against shipbuilders Merry & Gay of Milan,
Ohio for the initial amount of $825.50 due against "4,200 yards of Flax [sail] canvas as
used in the Navy." Much to the chagrin of Merry & Gay as many as fifteen vendors came
forward to lay claim to unpaid services following public notice of the case. The new
claims were for non-payment of services rendered, encompassing both labor and supplies.
Pending resolution of these numerous cases, all six of the government ships were seized
by court authorities.
Cleveland’s federal court admiralty case files offer a detailed glimpse into the processes
and materials necessary for maritime vessel construction, as well as an understanding of
the complex nature of long-distance business transactions in the mid-nineteenth century.
Specifically, the Revenue Cutter cases are extensively documented with invoices, early
examples of banking slips akin to contemporary personal checks, and an unusual amount
of testimony ranging from that of the shipbuilders and crew, to the government-appointed
Captain Pease, Superintendent, in charge of the construction process. Admiralty case files
offer a plethora of information on a variety of other maritime events, including information
pertaining to collisions and their aftermath, details regarding everyday life on ships such as
invoices for crew supplies and foodstuffs, and issues surrounding wages for sailors and
laborers.
While the early admiralty cases are still in their original tri-folded condition, some basic
preservation work such as re-boxing in archives boxes is done. To date, information on
nearly three hundred admiralty cases from the U.S. District Court in Cleveland, from 1855
through 1865, were entered into the database. Archivists in Chicago hope to complete
Cleveland’s admiralty case files in early 2010. Once the database is complete it will be
made available to researchers through a variety of ways including the National Archives’
Archival Research Catalog (ARC).
The National Archives at Chicago holds over 87,000 cubic feet of historically valuable
records created by federal agencies in Ohio and five other Great Lakes states (Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). Our holdings for Ohio date from 1800 to
the recent past.
Autumn 2009 pg. 16
To learn more about records that document the Buckeye State at the National Archives at
Chicago, you can visit our web site at http://www.archives.gov/great-lakes/ , send an e-
1. excerpt of Deposition of W. C. Pease, Case File 154, Fearing & Hinckley vs. Revenue
Cutter No. 1; Admiralty Case Files; United States District Court for the Northern District of
Ohio, Eastern Division (Cleveland); Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives and Records Administration--Great Lakes Region (Chicago).