Our Historic Campus Tour now has a new look! The same great information can be found about the BGSU campus, all with a smart new appearance. Follow the links under Digital Exhibits to see what we mean
From the 1890s to the early decades of the 20th Century, electric railroads provided fast, efficient inter-city transportation throughout much of Ohio. The Archival Chronicle features information and photographs about this gone-but-not-forgotten aspect of travel.
At left, President William T. Jerome makes a point during an interview in his office. Jerome was BGSU’s sixth president, serving from 1963-1970.
William Travers Jerome, III was a 1941 magna cum laude graduate of Colgate University. He earned his master’s and doctorate degree from Harvard University and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Middlebury College, Vermont.
Dr. Jerome served as teacher, administrator, research associate, lecturer, writer and consultant to both business and government.
His career as an educational administrator began at Middlebury, Vermont, where he was assistant to the President and instructor in economics (1946-1950). In 1953 he was appointed Associate Professor of Business Administration at Syracuse University where, in 1958, he became Dean of the College of Business Administration.
In 1963, Dr. Jerome became the sixth president of Bowling Green State University. During his seven years here, he guided the University through a period of rapid physical and academic growth, as evidenced by the addition of ten buildings, including the library, by a major jump in enrollment, and by the establishment of programs such as the Center for the Study of Social Behavior. Library growth during this time included the establishment of the University Archives, the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, and the Browne Popular Culture Library.
It fell to Dr. Jerome to guide the campus during the turbulent years of the Vietnam era. Thanks to his leadership, BGSU remained open during the days following the May 1970 Kent State shootings, the only Ohio state university to do so.
Dr. Jerome left BGSU in 1970 to accept a position as special consultant to the President of Florida International University. He later became Distinguished University Professor of Management at FIU.
In 1982, the Bowling Green State University Board of Trustees passed a resolution naming the University Library in honor of President-Emeritus Dr. William Travers Jerome, III. A rededication and naming ceremony was held on September 23, 1983. Dr. Jerome passed away on March 10, 2008.
January 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the Blizzard of ‘78. Sixty mile per hour winds and an accumulation of a foot of snow cut electrical power to much of northwest Ohio. The National Guard was called up to help with the disaster response.
CAC staff member Ann Bowers documented the event in The Blizzard of ‘78 (A Photo Album) and our collections include the photographs used in this publication, as well as many others taken at the time. The December 2002 Archival Chronicle Gallery highlights this and other weather disasters. Still more information about the blizzard can be seen in WBGU-TV’s documentary, presented this month on PBS.
The December 2007 issue of the Archival Chronicle features holiday celebrations.
Our 19th century ancestors had their own special ways to celebrate the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Drawing on the photograph and manuscript collections of the CAC and University Archives, we can glimpse these special days.
The Center for Archival Collections and the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes will be sporting a new look for 2008.
In keeping with BGSU’s web guidelines, the sites have been reorganized and re-designed. They will now share more information in common, and we hope that our patrons will find the information they are looking for more easily. Although the look is different, the information remains the same.
A new feature has been added: A Digital Exhibits page will lead users to the many photographs we have available through the Archival Chronicle and other web resources.
Because the website is such a large one, the remaining pages will gradually be converted over the course of the next few months.
We hope our patrons will let us know about what features of the new site they like as well as any problems they might encounter while visiting.
Thanks to Ken Burns’ documentary The War, seen this month on PBS, Americans are taking a greater interest in the experiences of servicemen and the homefront during the Second World War.
The Center for Archival Collections takes pride in our collection of wartime correspondence, diaries, and memoirs, many of which have been transcribed and are available online. Visit our bibliography, The U.S. in Wartime to see descriptions of these collections.
The CAC welcomes the donation of correspondence, diaries, photographs, and other records of individuals and organizations that preserve the record of our nation during those turbulent times. For more information about donating records like these, please contact Marilyn Levinson, Curator of Manuscripts, or telephone the CAC at (419) 372-2411.
Letters from Civil War soldiers published in two Lorain County newspapers have been added to the CAC’s Civil War Newspaper Index. As with our other Civil War newspaper indexes, letters can be found by date of publication, or by unit, or by individual soldier’s name.
A brief biography of most of the correspondents (along with available photographs) can be found on our webiste under Northwest Ohio in the Civil War. Check it out!
The August 2007 issue of the Archival Chronicle is now online. Drawing from the CAC’s manuscript and photograph holdings, it features some of the resources available to researchers interested in the rich history of live theater in this part of the state.
The Gallery features photographs, posters, playbills, and other memorabilia from a variety of CAC collections relating to theater.
MS 1057 Diehl Incorporated (Defiance, Ohio). Records, 1922-2006
Corporate registers, photographs, blueprints, reports, certificates, and statements of a northwest Ohio business variously involved in brewing, soft drinks, and milk products.
MS 1064 Deshler Land Company (Deshler, Ohio). Records, 1872-1876. Correspondence written between land agents, prospective property purchasers and members of a land company established to found Deshler, Ohio. The focus of the collection, however, is on improving and “building up” the budding speculative town.
MMS 1024 Haskins Alumni Association. Records, 1908-1999. Material added to collection
