Burt Logan, CEO of the Ohio Historical Society, unveiled a "Conway" the Mastodon Ohio license plate at Statehood Day, a gathering at the Ohio Statehouse for Ohio's leading historians, genealogists, archaeologists, and more. It will look a lot prettier than the real one here on display at OHS in Columbus. This venture, spearheaded by Senator Bill Seitz, will provide funding (through license plate sales) for the History Fund, the same Fund on your Ohio income tax form donation checkoff box. We will begin seeing these at the Dept of Motor Vehicles in about a month. It is important to donate some of your tax refund to that fund. It must raise $150,000 each year for that tax form box to continue.
History Fund grant recipients for 2014 were announced at today's event. The Cuyahoga Co Planning Commission (Cleveland) got $16,500 to survey important dwellings from the 1945-1969 time period. Dayton History got $18,000 to digitize the William Preston/Marvin Christian photographs. The Dayton Society of Natural History received $16,000 to thatch a roof at SunWatch Indian Village. Historic New Richmond got $7,000 for their museum's window repair. The McKinley Presidential Library will use $3,700 to conserve two dresses that belonged to First Lady Ida McKinley. The Ross Co Historical Society (Chillicothe) got $10,000 for textile storage cabinets. Slavic Village Development in Cleveland received $18,000 for a new roof on the Viola Building. The Summit Co Historical Society, Akron, received $8,500 to begin working on Akrons Bicentennial in 2025. The Williams Co Records Center in Bryan got $3,800 to do an assessment of their holdings - great for genealogists! And the Worthington Historical society got $8,500 to replace the roof on the 1812 Orange Johnson House. Hopefully we will see OGS chapters apply to the History Fund for their historic projects in the future.
Statehood Day emphasized two themes with the legislators this year - we actually do speak to our Senators and Representatives. The group continues to promote the return of social studies in student testing in Ohio's schools, especially the passage of Senate Bill 96 which requires World History in high school instead of it being just an elective. Some years ago, history was dropped from the tests in certain grades and schools have gradually been dropping it from their curriculum. Second, the Statehood Day group will be making a real push toward extra funding for Ohio Tourism. It currently generates $36 billion in business sales in Ohio and the equivalent of 443,000 full-time jobs. The Ohio Genealogical Society is located in a tourist mecca at the exit for Mid-Ohio Raceway and Mohican State Park. Encourage your congressmen and women to support history because genealogy is an arm of history. Many of these projects help our cause!
