REMEMBERING THE CARD CATALOG — Mike Gray, director of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County, looked over newly rebound books in the library’s local history department at the Schiappa Branch.
— Contributed
STEUBENVILLE — Forty years ago, the local library system had approximately 150 books in its local history collection. Today, that collection houses more than 8,000 volumes, as well as 120,000 digitized pages of local history and 3,000 photos of local history.
Collecting local history is different from the general collections of a public library. While some new books can be purchased for local history by the library, more often books are donated, as they are found in garage sales or from one’s personal collection. Other “books” are created by the local history librarian, who edits, assembles and indexes materials to provide information within a specific subject.
Erika Grubbs is the librarian who assembles and often creates new things for the collection housed at the Schiappa Branch. I do cataloging as a volunteer for the collection. This year, we have added more than 50 new items — all digitized online in the Digital Shoebox. The paper copies have now returned from the bindery and are in the collection.
Many yearbooks have been donated, which brings our collection to more than 225 yearbooks from past and present schools within Jefferson County. In addition to the graduates’ photos, school yearbooks contain information on these schools’ local villages and cities.
One of my favorite additions is the Dillonvale Scrapbook, donated by the Dolfi family. It is full of photographs and information about the Dillonvale area, gathered by the late Steve Dolfi throughout the years. Grubbs did some gentle editing and indexed the entire book, which is available in hardcover and online. The history of the Steubenville volunteer fire department was collected by Carol Weber. It covers the city’s history of firefighting during the 19th century.
The Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. application cards for the United Steelworkers of America have been assembled for research purposes, covering 1952 through the 1970s. Much of the steel giant’s records are archived in Charleston. This small collection helps trace the employment history, locally.
One who often donates to our collection is Peter Bates, who found an “1883 Wiggins Directory” for Jefferson County. The unique directory covers the county’s people who resided here that year. City directories date back to 1856, and were available until publication ended a decade ago. David McCann also has donated a lot of materials throughout the years. His “Diary of Elizabeth Goucher,” is now in the collection. Jerry Green has donated many materials, including the “Diary of Estella Hutton.”
The “Richmond, Ohio Cemetery” book is now online and has been bound for the collection. The book can be researched for burials in the Richmond cemetery.
Of interest to me, is the 1935 industrial survey of Steubenville and Jefferson County. Some would consider this to be outdated. However, it is local history which provides a look at industry 90 years ago.
“Steubenville Riverboat Captains” was developed by Jerry Green, who used many sources to provide Ohio River history based on a list of men who were riverboat captains during the 19th century.
The Junior Federated Women’s Club of Wintersville scrapbook for 1969-70 has been “select edited” and indexed for the collection, providing local history from 50 years ago.
How about the “final impact statement” for a new Ohio River bridge, today called the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge? In 1978, research ended and plans for the bridge were published.
“Taxpayer Talks,” is a series of articles produced in the newspaper between 1978-91 by the late Geraldine Cohen of the Jefferson County Taxpayers Association. These were found in an abandoned office, and will provide a great deal of local history about government agencies and institutions in that time period.
The 1900 atlas of Steubenville has been digitized, allowing pages to be enlarged online for better viewing.
I thought it odd Grubbs was excited at the donation of a book entitled, “Beaver County, Pennsylvania Trolley.” Until I realized our local streetcar service which operated until 1938 was part of Beaver County — called the Steubenville, East Liverpool and Beaver system. Information regarding our streetcar system was difficult to locate until the addition of this resource.
Questions often arise regarding the history of area railroads. Grubbs has assembled clippings of that history in a 40-page book, now bound.
Area church history has been covered, including Holy Name parish and St. Joseph Church in Amsterdam.
Military history is the subject of a new book, “Spanish-American War Veterans of Southeast Ohio.”
The U.S. Census is utilized to create the book, “African-Americans in the 1900 Census.” Census information is now released through 1950, as materials are held in restriction for 70 years after being gathered.
Several family histories are in these new materials, including Sherrards, Barlows, Gouchers, Crew and Ellysons, to name a few. Today, searching by way of a computer is common. Yet, researching through books remains a tool for genealogists.
“Talk Through Time” has been added to the collection. We assembled interviews done in 1996, with Katherine Sinclair Minor, Jack Boyde and John Flenniken, who talked about the reconstruction of Fort Steuben between the 1970s up until 1996. The advantage of adding these items to the online Digital Shoebox, is that one can search documents by using a keyword and not having to read pages and pages of material.
Do you have any local history hiding in your home? Something a grandparent tucked away or something your family wishes you would clean from your house? Perhaps it is something for local history. Allow a librarian to decide if it would be a great addition to our collection. The library will photocopy and digitize relevant materials if you wish to retain the originals.
