Author Archives: Emily Gainer

Ohio Archivist: Call for News & Notes, Fall 2025

News editor, Jessica Heys, is now collecting submissions of News and Notes for the Fall 2025 issue of the Society of Ohio Archivists’ newsletter Ohio Archivist.

You do not have to be a member of SOA to submit your news – all Ohio archives, records, and special collections news is welcome!

Think you don’t have anything to share? Think again!

  • Upcoming events: Did you create a great new exhibit or host an interesting conference or program?
  • Institutional news: Did you receive an important collection or write a successful grant? Did you embark on a digitization project or do something cool with social media?
  • Personal news: Did you change jobs? Did you earn a promotion or award? Did you speak at a major conference or have an article published?

These are just a few examples, but you get the idea! You can check the News section of previous issues of the Ohio Archivist to get ideas of the kinds of things we are looking for.

Make sure to include who, what, when, where, and why, as well as how readers can access more information. Please see the Ohio Archivist Submission Guidelines.

Also, the more photos to illustrate your news, the better! Please send images in high resolution of at least 300dpi.

Submissions should be under 250 words and are due to news editor Jessica Heys, [email protected], no later than Friday, July 11, 2025.

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Celebrating 150th Anniversary

by Collette McDonough, Advocacy and Outreach Committee member.

This year, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden are celebrating their 150th anniversary.  Since June is National Zoo and Aquarium Month, it seems the perfect time to shine a light on the history of this amazing zoo in our state. They were created in 1873, but the zoo itself did not open until September 1875.  It started with only a handful of animals including, two grizzly bears, three deer, six raccoons, two elk, a buffalo, a tiger, an elephant, eight monkeys plus a few other animals. In this 150-year period, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has risen to be one of the top-rated zoos in the country.

Historical poster promoting the Cincinnati Zoological Garden. A lion with a large mane is featured in the center with small images of various animals around it.

Cincinnati Zoological Garden poster. Courtesy of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.

The Cincinnati Zoo was first known as the Cincinnati Zoological Garden and was founded by German immigrants that longed for the beauty of the gardens in their homeland.  The main person behind the creation of the zoo was Andrew Erkenbrecher, whose family moved to the Cincinnati area in the 1830s. He then went on to become a wealthy merchant. Mr. Erkenbrecher and other well-off German families wanted to have a zoological park like they had in Germany that would be like the zoos of Berlin and Cologne.

Continue reading →

SOA Election Results 2025

During the recent Annual Meeting at the University of Toledo, new council members were elected.

SOA would like to welcome the following new leaders:

  • Jennifer Long Morehart, Bowling Green State University, President (2025-2026)
  • Kristen Newby, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Vice President/President-Elect (2025-2026)
  • Shelby Beatty, Sinclair Community College, re-elected Secretary (2025-2027)
  • Darrell Blevins Jr., recent Public History graduate, Wright State University, Council Member (2025-2027)
  • Michelle Ganz, Dominican Sisters of Peace, Justice, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (JEDAI) Committee Co-Chair with voting rights (2025-2027)
  • Hannah Kemp-Severence, University of Akron Archives and Special Collections, Justice, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (JEDAI) Committee Co-Chair with voting rights (2025-2026)

A big thanks to the Nominating Committee. Also, thank you to everyone who participated!

Officer Transitions:

  • Jennifer Long Morehart, Bowling Green State University, transitions from Vice President to President. Thanks to Jennifer for her commitment to SOA.
  • Matt Francis, Ohio Northern University, transitions from President to Past-President. Thanks to Matt for his continued leadership.
  • Melissa Dalton, Preserve It, LLC, completed her term as Past-President. Thanks to Melissa for her work on Council.
  • Kristen Newby completed her term as Council Member. Thanks to Kristen for her continued service to SOA as she moves to Vice President/President-Elect.

For more information see the Officer and Council Member roster, Committees & Task Forces page, and the Nominating Committee page.

Spring 2025 Election of Council and Officers

SOA’s 2025 elections are now open!

Voting is open from May 1 through noon on May 16, 2025. Voting has now closed. Please click here to access the ballot for the spring election. Candidate statements are included in the spring issue of the Ohio Archivist (starting on page 12) and online.

In order to verify that you are an eligible voter, we are asking that you provide the email address associated with your SOA membership. If you would like to change your email preference, please send an email to [email protected]. Please include the original email address and the one you’d like to change to.

Questions? Contact the Nominating Committee chair, Melissa Dalton.

Ohio Archivist Spring 2025 Issue Available

The spring 2025 issue of Ohio Archivist, SOA’s biannual publication, is now available to download as a PDF!

In this issue you will find a information about the Spring meeting to be held at the University of Toledo and online, 2025 candidate biographies, a feature on the archivist as collector, an article on archival trauma, and much more!

Contents:Screen capture of the front page of the SOA Newsletter.
– Annual Spring Meeting Preview
– President’s Message
– Fall Meeting Recap
– Feature:  Archivist as Collector by Emily Ahlin
– DEIA: Archival Trauma by Michelle Ganz
– Meet the 2025 Officer & Council Election Candidates
– News & Notes

See all past Ohio Archivist issues on the publication’s page.

Questions? Contact Ohio Archivist Editor-in-Chief Jessica Heys.

Council Meeting Minutes from March 28, 2025

The Society of Ohio Archivists most recent leadership meeting minutes from March 28, 2025, can now be found on the Council Meeting Minutes page.

Interested in SOA over time? Also on that page are minutes dating back to 1997. In addition to documenting actions from the leadership meeting, minutes include reports from the treasurer as well as from committees and task forces.

Questions about minutes? Contact SOA Secretary Shelby Beatty.

Ohio Archives Month Poster 2025 – Voting Open

Help select the images used for the 2025 Ohio Archives Month Poster!

This year, the annual Society of Ohio Archivists’ October Archives Month poster theme will highlight Ohio-born companies.

The submitted images from around the state include internationally, nationally, and locally known companies that were born in Ohio. Thank you to all our submitters for sharing these pieces of history!  We had great submissions this year from many wonderful Ohio institutions.

Now YOU can help us narrow down the field for the final poster! Please look through the images and their descriptions and vote for up to 10 images. The top 10 images to receive the most votes will be sent on to the designer for consideration in the final poster design.

Use the Google form to vote between April 22 and May 6, 2025. Please only vote once.

On behalf of the SOA Advocacy and Outreach Committee, we thank you for participating!

Questions? Contact the Advocacy & Outreach Committee cochairs Sarah Aisenbrey and Jim McKinnon.

Council Meeting Minutes from Feb. 28, 2025

The Society of Ohio Archivists most recent leadership meeting minutes from February 28, 2025, can now be found on the Council Meeting Minutes page.

Interested in SOA over time? Also on that page are minutes dating back to 1997. In addition to documenting actions from the leadership meeting, minutes include reports from the treasurer as well as from committees and task forces.

Questions about minutes? Contact SOA Secretary Shelby Beatty.

Annual Meeting 2025 Registration Now Open

Registration is now open for the 2025 Annual Meeting: Show Me the Money: Sustaining Archives and Archival Programs, May 15-16! Register online or mail-in in this form (PDF).

This May, the Society of Ohio Archivists Annual Meeting will be traveling to Toledo, Ohio! Join us on Thursday, May 15 (virtual), and on Friday, May 16 (hybrid) at the University of Toledo. Day one (Thursday) is comprised of all virtual sessions, available to all registrants. Day two (Friday) is a full day of in-person sessions with one session in each time block live streamed for virtual attendees.

Photograph of a woman against a red background. She is wearing glasses and a black jacket.Keynotes: We are excited to announce Patricia Hswe as our morning keynote speaker. Patricia Hswe is the program director for Public Knowledge at The Mellon Foundation. As the Foundation’s program area that supports libraries and archives, Public Knowledge makes grants that strive to increase equitable access to—and activation of—recorded knowledge that helps to build an informed, heterogeneous, and civically engaged society. Patricia is currently a member of the board of trustees for the Metropolitan New York Library Council and sits in the advisory team for LibraryPAC. Continue reading →

Archives Month Poster: Call for Images 2025

For this year’s annual Society of Ohio Archivists’ October Archives Month, the theme will be “Ohio-Born Companies.” Ohio has a rich history of entrepreneurship, industry, and ingenuity, which we want to highlight through this poster.

We are looking for archival images related to Ohio-born companies that have impacted locally, statewide, or nationally; they can relate to corporations, small businesses, or other Ohio-based businesses. Some examples include construction workers building the company’s headquarters, workers working in an office or other environment, showcases of products made by the company, etc. If your institution has archival images with an intriguing backstory, please submit them for a chance to be featured in the poster this year.

We are hoping to receive submissions from across the state of Ohio. If you are interested in participating, please submit your related images to Nina Herzog at [email protected] by Monday, April 7, 2025.

Institutions or individuals can submit a maximum of three (3) images. Please ensure that the image quality is a minimum of 300 dpi; higher quality is encouraged. With your submission, please include a description of the image that explains its importance AND a brief one-sentence caption that can be used on the poster if the image is selected.

SOA members can vote on their favorite entries between Monday, April 21, and Friday, May 4, 2025. Entrants do NOT need to be members to submit images. If you know of organizations with archival materials that fit this year’s theme, please share this information with them!

We look forward to your participation!  View previous Ohio Archives Month posters.

Questions? Contact the Advocacy & Outreach Committee cochairs Sarah Aisenbrey and Jim McKinnon.