local history research project

• Lesson Plans
• Teacher's Guides
• Media Resources

Investigating Local History

Vintage Saint Paul Minnesota Postcard, The High Bridge And Harriet Island, Printed In USA, circa 1910s.

Public Domain Images

Our Teacher's Guide provides compelling questions, links to humanities organizations and local projects, and research activity ideas for integrating local history into humanities courses using a collection of NEH and State Council funded digital encyclopedias about the history, politics, geography, and culture of many U.S. states and territories.  Note: Not every state and territory has produced an encyclopedia. Resources for  historical , humanities , and arts councils are available for all states and territories. 

Guiding Questions

Who lives in your state or territory?

How has the function and structure of your state or territorial government changed over time?  

What artistic and cultural contributions have individuals and groups made to your state or territory and the United States?

What technological innovations have been created in your state or territory and how have they affected the people, environment, and culture?

How are local history and culture related to what you are studying?

"It is important for all of us to appreciate where we come from and how that history has really shaped us in ways that we might not understand." — Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Since  April 2001 , the National Endowment for the Humanities has made grant funds available for all 50 states, all five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia to create comprehensive online encyclopedias. Included below with the state encyclopedias that have been created to date are links to state humanities councils, arts councils, and historical society websites in the interest of telling as full a story as possible about history and the humanities across the United States.  

• Alabama Encyclopedia
• Alabama Humanities Council
• Alabama Historical Marker Program
• Alabama Historical Commission
• Alabama State Council on the Arts
• Alaska Encyclopedia
• Alaska Humanities Forum
• Alaska Historical Society
• Alaska State Council on the Arts

American Samoa

• Amerika Samoa Humanities Council
• American Samoa Historic Preservation Office
• American Samoa Arts Council
• Arizona Humanities Council
• Arizona Historical Society
• Arizona Commission on the Arts
• Arkansas Encyclopedia
• Arkansas Humanities Council
• Arkansas Historical Marker Program
• Arkansas Historical Society
• Arkansas Arts Council
• California Humanities Council
• California Historical Resources
• California Historical Society
• California Arts Council
• Colorado Encyclopedia
• Colorado Humanities Council
• Colorado Historical Society
• Colorado Creative Industries

Connecticut

• Connecticut Encyclopedia
• Connecticut Humanities Council
• Connecticut Historical Society
• Connecticut Arts Alliance
• Delaware Humanities Council
• Delaware Historical Markers Program
• Delaware Historical Society
• Delaware Division of the Arts

District of Columbia

• Washington, D.C. Humanities Council
• Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
• D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities
• Florida Encyclopedia
• Florida Humanities Council
• Florida Historical Markers Program
• Florida Historical Society
• Florida Council on Arts and Culture
• Georgia Encyclopedia
• Georgia Humanities Council
• Georgia Historical Markers Program
• Georgia Historical Society
• Georgia Arts Council
• Guam Encyclopedia
• Guam Humanities Council
• Guam History
• Guam Council on the Arts
• Hawai'i Humanities Council
• Hawai'i Historical Society
• Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts
• Idaho Humanities Council
• Idaho Historical Markers Program
• Idaho State Historical Society
• Idaho Commission on the Arts
• Illinois Humanities Council
• Illinois Historical Markers Program
• Illinois State Historical Society
• Illinois Arts Council Agency
• Indiana Humanities Council
• Indiana Historical Markers Program
• Indiana Historical Society
• Indiana Arts Commission
• Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs
• Iowa Humanities Council
• State Historical Society of Iowa
• Iowa Arts Council
• Kansas Encyclopedia
• Kansas Humanities Council
• Kansas Historical Markers Program
• Kansas Historical Society
• Kentucky Humanities Council
• Kentucky Historical Marker Program
• Kentucky Historical Society
• Kentucky Arts Council
• Louisiana Encyclopedia
• Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
• Louisiana Historical Markers
• Louisiana Historical Society
• Louisiana Arts Council
• Maine Humanities Council
• Maine Historical Society
• Maine Arts Commission

Maryland Humanities Council

Maryland Historical Marker Program

Maryland Historical Society

Maryland State Arts Council

Massachusetts

• Massachusetts Encyclopedia
• Massachusetts Humanities Council
• Massachusetts Historical Society
• Massachusetts Cultural Council
• Michigan Humanities Council
• Michigan Historical Marker Program
• Historical Society of Michigan
• Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs
• Minnesota Encyclopedia
• Minnesota Humanities Center
• Minnesota Historical Society
• Minnesota Arts Board

Mississippi

• Mississippi Encyclopedia
• Mississippi Humanities Council
• Mississippi Historical Marker Program
• Mississippi Historical Society
• Mississippi Arts Commission
• Missouri Encyclopedia (beta)
• Missouri Humanities Council
• Missouri Historical Society
• Missouri Arts Council
• Montana Humanities Council
• Montana Historical Society
• Montana Arts Council
• Nebraska Encyclopedia
• Nebraska Humanities Council
• Nebraska Historical Marker Program
• Nebraska Historical Society
• Nebraska Arts Council
• Nevada Encyclopedia  
• Nevada Humanities Council
• Nevada Historical Marker Program
• Nevada Historical Society
• Nevada Arts Council

New Hampshire

• New Hampshire Humanities Council
• New Hampshire Historical Highway Markers Program
• New Hampshire Historical Society
• New Hampshire State Council on the Arts
• New Jersey Humanities Council
• New Jersey Historical Society
• New Jersey State Council on the Arts
• New Mexico Humanities Council
• New Mexico Scenic Historic Markers Program
• New Mexico Office of the State Historian
• New Mexico Arts Council
• New York Humanities Council
• New York Historical Markers
• New-York Historical Society
• New York State Council on the Arts

North Carolina

• North Carolina Encyclopedia
• North Carolina Humanities Council
• North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program
• North Carolina Historical Society
• North Carolina Arts Council

North Dakota

North Dakota Humanities Council

North Dakota Historic Markers Program

State Historical Society of North Dakota

North Dakota Council on the Arts

Northern Mariana Islands

• Northern Marianas Humanities Council
• Northern Mariana Islands Museum of History and Culture
• Northern Mariana Islands Arts Council
• Ohio Encyclopedia
• Ohio Humanities Council
• Ohio Historical Marker Program
• Ohio Historical Society
• Ohio Arts Council
• Oklahoma Encyclopedia
• Oklahoma Humanities Council
• Oklahoma Historical Marker Program
• Oklahoma Historical Society
• Oklahoma Arts Council
• Oregon Encyclopedia
• Oregon Humanities Council
• Oregon Historical Marker Program
• Oregon Historical Society
• Oregon Arts Commission

Pennsylvania

• Pennsylvania Encyclopedia
• Pennsylvania Humanities Council
• Pennsylvania Historical Marker Program
• Pennsylvania Historical Society
• Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

Puerto Rico

• Puerto Rico Encyclopedia  
• Puerto Rico Humanities Council
• National Museum of Arts and Culture

Rhode Island

• Rhode Island Humanities Council
• Rhode Island Historical Society
• Rhode Island State Council on the Arts

South Carolina

South Carolina Encyclopedia

• South Carolina Humanities Council
• South Carolina Historical Markers Program
• South Carolina Historical Society
• South Carolina Arts Commission

South Dakota

• South Dakota Humanities Council
• South Dakota Historical Marker Program
• South Dakota State Historical Society
• South Dakota Arts Council
• Tennessee Encyclopedia
• Tennessee Humanities Council
• Tennessee Historical Society
• Tennessee Arts Commission
• Texas Encyclopedia
• Texas Humanities Council
• Texas Historical Marker Program
• Texas Historical Association
• Texas Commission on the Arts

Utah Encyclopedia

• Utah Humanities Council
• Utah Historical Marker Program
• Utah Historical Society
• Utah Arts Council
• Vermont Humanities Council
• Vermont Roadside Historic Marker Program
• Vermont Historical Society
• Vermont Arts Council

Virgin Islands

• Virgin Islands Council on the Arts
• Virginia Encyclopedia
• Virginia Humanities Council
• Virginia Historical Highway Marker Program
• Virginia Historical Society
• Virginia Commission for the Arts
• Washington Encyclopedia
• Washington Humanities Council
• Washington Historical Highway Markers Program
• Washington Historical Society
• Washington Arts Commission

West Virginia 

• West Virginia Encyclopedia
• West Virginia Humanities Council
• West Virginia Highway Historical Marker Program
• West Virginia Historical Society
• West Virginia Arts Council
• Wisconsin Humanities Council
• Wisconsin Historical Markers Program
• Wisconsin Historical Society
• Wisconsin Arts Board
• Wyoming Encyclopedia
• Wyoming Humanities Council
• Wyoming Historical Marker Program
• Wyoming Historical Society
• Wyoming Arts Council

A place-responsive approach to teaching U.S. history and culture can bring lessons alive for students and help close gaps that emerge when looking to answer the question of relevancy and application in students's lives. The lesson ideas below blend concepts, content, and skill building for investigating change over time when studying time and place.

Designing Compelling Questions

Inquiry into the local begins with a question. Students can design their own question based on a topic or event of interest or being studied, or they can work with the following: How have events and individuals shaped the history and culture of this place?

Questions for teachers and students to consider when planning:

• What was the last topic studied that included connections to the local?
• What individuals, organizations, and other local resources can be included in this investigation?
• Does this project warrant an oral history component?
• Whose perspectives will be included when examining local history and culture?
• What monuments, markers, and other relevant identifiers of local history already exist?
• What is considered common knowledge and what has been mythologized within local history?
• Who can be part of an audience for students to present their work to during this project?
• How has the local changed over time due to innovation, economics, and movement of people?

• How did the states get their shapes? The above video offers a preview of the the series produced by the History Channel that explored the often quirky reasons for why state borders formed the outlines we know today.

Researching with Local Newspapers

Chronicling America provides access to local and national newspapers dating back to the 17th century. Use the "search by state" feature to find local newspapers that can be used to teach primary source research skills such as gathering and evaluating information, comparative analysis, critical thinking, and the use of archival technology. You will also find collections of newspaper articles related to significant events, people, and eras in U.S. history and can search for newspapers published for and by multiple ethnic groups in the United States.

Sample questions to investigate when using Chronicling America to teach local history:

• How did the local press report on the happenings of the civil war?
• How did the press in your state or territory respond to the outbreak of WWI?
• What did the editorials in your state or territory newspapers have to say about a landmark Supreme Court ruling?
• What does an analysis of advertisements included in newspapers tell you about culture and consumerism?
• How have changes in journalism and media affected how news is reported?

Suggestions for incorporating Chronicling America into your research and more activity ideas are available at our Chronicling America Teacher's Guide .

Researching with Digital Maps 

Living New Deal  is a crowdsourcing project launched by the University of California, Berkeley in 2007 to identify, map, and analyze the national effects of President Roosevelt’s New Deal. Since its inception, the project has digitally documented over 16,000 New Deal public works and art sites across the U.S. The national map contains plot-points that provide information and photographs about each site, making it possible for students to investigate how New Deal projects transformed their local and state communities. The project also includes maps and guides for prominent New Deal buildings and murals in Washington, D.C., New York City, and San Francisco. The crowdsourcing aspect of the project provides students the ability to learn how to research and document historic and cultural sites and their  guide for New Deal sleuths  explains how the public can contribute to the project. This interactive, crowdsourcing project pairs well with EDSITEment’s Landmarks of American History and Culture Teacher’s Guide for research projects on local and state history and culture.  

Digitally Documenting Local History

This  NEH-funded educational website and mobile application guides the public to thousands of historical and cultural sites throughout the United States. Users can contribute to a growing database of projects designed to tell the history of places using photographs, mobile technology, and research on historical sites and events.

Activity ideas for using CLIO

Students tend to observe a lot as they move between school and home, thus making the spaces between those locations educative. Place-based learning can help bridge past and present while also asking students to reflect on their experiences and the relevance of the local to their lives. By using CLIO , students have an opportunity to document the past, analyze change over time, and evaluate the processes and forces at work in relation to place-making and history.

Starting the Inquiry

The following questions are designed to catalyze student research projects on local history and draw upon personal experiences and observations in the places where they live, play, work, and go to school. Students are encouraged to design their own questions as they select topics, eras, events, and places to investigate.

• What events of significance occurred 10, 100, or even 250 years ago in your area?
• How has the local environment (natural and physical) changed over time?
• To what extent are the local developments and events you have highlighted tied to national events?
• Who are the schools in your area named after and why?
• Why were monuments or other historical markers erected in your area?
• What local traditions and events are still practiced by members of the community?

Researching Place and Time

After students have selected a topic (which might be a local place), they will need to conduct research to learn more before the final stage that includes capturing photos and digitally organizing their CLIO project. The following list offers sources of information and methods for collecting information.

Historical Societies and Libraries —State, county, and local historical societies, along with public and university libraries provide free access to historical archives. Working with archivists and librarians, students can ask questions of experts and search through primary sources that tell the story of the topics and places they are researching. If your state or territory is not listed above, you can access a complete list of State Historical and Preservation Organizations to learn more about what is offered in your area.

Oral History —Interviewing people who own or have owned long running businesses, served in public office, run an organization, or lived in your area for a long time is one approach to learning how places have changed over time. Contacting someone to speak with about the topic, drafting questions related to the topic and project, conducting the interview, and transcribing that interview in order to use excerpts in the final product takes students through the inquiry process. Our Oral History Toolkit provides tips, resources, and other information pertinent to conducting oral history projects. 

Historical Newspapers —The Chronicling America database provides access to millions of pages from digitized newspaper dating back to the 17th century. You can search by state and newspaper name to learn if and how what you are researching was covered by the press.

Mapping Place and Time

Using the information collected during the research process, students create a digital map or a hand drawn map of the area they are focusing on. Creating multiple maps, depending on the topic, to illustrate change over time will assist with organizing information and telling the story of the place and events they have chosen to focus on. Students should create a map that can then serve as a guide for the places they will need to go to capture photographs and plot out for the CLIO project they create.

Creating a Digital CLIO

Students may upload photographs taken during their research along with those they capture after they have completed their map(s) in the previous stage of the activity.  Using the models provided at the  CLIO  website, students will upload their photos, curate the collection with information gathered from multiple sources during their research, and provide their own evaluation of why and how the places they live in and interact with have changed over time. Have they uncovered an event, learned about a heretofore forgotten person, or discovered some other information that may warrant public attention?

Digital Mapping

The emergence of digital mapping as an educational tool offers students an engaging, creative, and accessible way to learn about history at a local, state, or national level. Integrating these visual histories provides students with a historical and geographic context for narratives, events, and trends that are being discussed in class. Through  Exploring Local History with Clio , students can learn how to investigate the history of their local community and contribute to the growing database of resources.  

Below is a collection of NEH funded digital maps that can be used in the classroom: 

Baltimore Traces

Baltimore Traces  is an interdisciplinary project that uses media to explore the stories of Baltimore residents and neighborhoods. The project’s  digital map  features a collection of sites, events, and work being conducted by students at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. 

Deaf New York City Spaces

The  Deaf New York City Spaces  StoryMap created by students of Gallaudet University identifies historic and contemporary Deaf spaces in New York City. Integrated within the StoryMap are maps that categorize the sites by clubs, schools, places of worship, social spaces, and service facilities. 

The Ethnic Layers of Detroit

The  Ethnic Layers of Detroit  digital humanities project created by Wayne State University uses technology and archival resources to teach students about the cultural, linguistic, and historical background of sites across Detroit. The places included in the  digital map  elucidate the untold history of the mid-west city. 

Mapping the Gay Guides

The  Mapping The Gay Guides  project, led by students at California State University Fullerton, digitized the findings of Bob Damron, a gay man who documented places across the country that served as sites of refuge for other gay men during the 1950s and 60s. He later transformed his lists into a gay travel guide that doubled as survival guides to help gay and queer travelers locate safe places to sleep, eat, and socialize. The  digital map  allows users to choose a state and examine what sites operated in that area. 

The Long Road to Freedom: Biddy Mason's Remarkable Journey

The Long Road to Freedom: Biddy Mason’s Remarkable Journey  project documents the journey of Biddy Mason from enslavement in Georgia to becoming a landowner and community organizer in Los Angeles. Students can use the interactive map to learn about the “Second Middle Passage.” The project also includes a Google map that highlights significant historic and cultural sites associated with Los Angeles’s early African American history. 

Below are some questions to encourage students to engage with the maps:  

• How can digital maps be used to learn about historical events and trends? 
• What does the map show you? 
• How does this map build upon what you are studying in class? 
• What does the map show you that other secondary sources cannot? 
• What topics, events, issues, or themes relevant to your local community could you map? 

One of the maps featured in the Deaf New York City Spaces project.

Mental Mapping

Mental mapping is another effective visual learning tool to help students examine their perceptions of their community. This activity entails asking students to create a mental image of their local community and translating those images into a drawing. Encourage them to think as broadly and creatively as possible. Through this process, students will recognize the differences between their objective knowledge and their subjective opinions about their local community.  

Once students are finished, have them compare their drawings and discuss what the differences inform us about our perceptions of place. The  Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation  conducted a mental mapping project titled  “Where We Are From”  that can serve as a form of inspiration. 

Below are questions for students to discuss after creating their mental maps: 

• How did your mental map compare with other students? 
• What memories did you use to help you create your map? 
• Did mental mapping change how you see your community? 

In this video , Erin Aoyama and Allison Mitchell discuss strategies for connecting the local past to the present and demonstrate the value of using place-based approaches to interpret history. They offer recommendations on locating and engaging primary sources and activities to support place-based learning. Both historians draw upon their own research to illustrate how studying local history can support students in making sense of their communities and contemporary challenges.

Historians Aoyama and Mitchell draw upon their research to offer perspectives on studying local history. Both Aoyama and Mitchell engage place-based approaches in their work. Erin Aoyama’s research examines Japanese incarceration camps in the South during World War II. She considers how Japanese American incarceration, particularly at the Rohwer and Jerome camps established by the federal government in Arkansas, fit into a larger story of the Jim Crow racial order. Allison Mitchell’s research considers the role of Black placemaking in the struggle for voting rights in the South. She looks at the independent Black town of Eatonville, Florida as a key site for understanding the connection between political and community autonomy for Black Southerners. You can learn more about Erin Aoyama’s research on the Rohwer and Jerome camps through our Heart Mountain Why Here? series. You can learn more about Allison’s work and Eatonville through our Zora Neale Hurston and Eatonville Why Here? series. 

Questions for teachers to consider when teaching place and memory

• How can you explore the connection between history and space in your local community? 
• What kind of primary sources can we use to support inquiry in local history? How might using poetry, music, and other art as primary sources enrich place-based learning? 
• Are there people or organizations locally who could offer oral histories or other perspectives on this history?  
• How might this local history shift how students interpret or respond to contemporary conditions or issues in the community? 
• What skills can this historical investigation offer students for navigating their present local community?  
• How might studying local case studies shift students’ perspectives on topics or themes in national American history? 
• What kind of technical tools and skills can students use or develop to investigate community histories? 

The National Endowment for the Humanities  continues to support high-quality projects and programs in the humanities and makes the humanities available to all Americans. So whether you are traveling for work or pleasure, visiting an area museum, or spending time with friends and family at home, you will find that the NEH is just around the corner (or already in your hands). NEH funded affiliates and collaborators on state and local history and culture projects, and how they connect to the national story of the United States, can be found through the resources below:

NEH Federal/State Partnership Office —The Office of Federal/State Partnership is the liaison between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the nonprofit network of 55 state and jurisdictional humanities councils.

NEH Division of Education Programs Grant for Landmarks of American Culture and History —This program supports a series of one-week workshops for K-12 educators across the nation that enhance and strengthen humanities teaching at the K-12 level.

NEH Division of Public Programs —The Division of Public Programs supports a wide range of public humanities programming that reaches large and diverse public audiences and make use of a variety of formats—interpretation at historic sites, television and radio productions, museum exhibitions, podcasts, short videos, digital games, websites, mobile apps, and other digital media. 

NEH Division of Preservation and Access —A substantial portion of the nation’s cultural heritage and intellectual legacy is held in libraries, archives, and museums. All of the Division of Preservation and Access’s programs focus on ensuring the long-term and wide availability of primary resources in the humanities.

State Humanities Councils —The State Humanities Councils are funded in part by the federal government through NEH's  Federal/State Partnership Office . They also receive funding from private donations, foundations, corporations, and, in some cases, state government.

National Humanities Alliance —The National Humanities Alliance is on top of all  NEH related  events, exhibits, and projects taking place around the country. 

NEH on the Road —Is there a NEH sponsored exhibit near you? Would you like there to be? NEH on the Road provides ready-to-go exhibits for organizations and classrooms. Learn if one is currently available near you and how to set one up on your own.

Related on EDSITEment

Landmarks of american history and culture, exploring local history with clio, doing oral history with vietnam war veterans, chronicling america: history's first draft, american utopia: the architecture and history of the suburb, mapping the past, backstory: saving american history, a landmark lesson: the united states capitol building.

Kathryn A. Martin Library

• Research & Collections
• News & Events

Inclusive Local History Project

• African Americans
• Anishinaabe
• Participating Institutions
• Additional readings

Getting Started

Finding and using primary sources to conduct local history research is often complicated and time-consuming. Finding primary sources created by people whose history is underrepresented or marginalized in most public archives and libraries can be even harder. This guide represents an ongoing collaboration of local history librarians and archivists in Northern Minnesota and Superior, WI, to make local history resources about underrepresented people more accessible.

In this guide you will find lists of local history resources created by or related to the history of people who have been traditionally underrepresented in libraries and archives. Resources are listed by institution, and contact information is provided for each institution.

This guide is the first step in an ongoing, evolving project. Resources, terminology, and participating institutions may change. We also recognize that the terminology and categorization used in traditional library cataloging can be problematic, and we acknowledge our own privilege as record keepers. We will make mistakes, and we welcome feedback when we do!

If you would like to contact us with feedback, questions, additional resources, or to participate in this project, please contact us .

Contact Us:

Email:  [email protected]

Phone:  (218) 726-8526

Location: Kathryn A. Martin Library Library Annex 202 ( see map )

• Next: African Americans >>
• Last Updated: Oct 22, 2021 8:39 AM
• URL: https://libguides.d.umn.edu/inclusivelocalhistory
• Give to the Library

• Skip to search box
• Skip to main content

Princeton University Library

History resources.

• For students
• For grad students
• American history

Local history research, step by step

Not sure where to start, secondary sources, primary sources, local records, state records, resources for genealogists, finding photographs, city directories, new jersey history.

• Librarian for History and African American Studies
• British history
• Modern European history
• World history
• History of science
• Ancient, medieval and early modern history
• General resources
• Cliodynamics

Starting a research project on US local history? Here are some questions to ask:

• Is there any scholarly work -- by historians or by researchers in other fields -- on the time and place you want to study? Is there a magazine or journal that covers the history of your place? Search America: History and Life and PAIS
• What newspapers were published in that time and place? How can you access them? What about radio or TV broadcasts?
• Are there local government documents that are relevant to your research? How can you access them?
• Are there photographs of that time and place? Maps?
• Are there personal memoirs, business records, or other types of primary sources available to you?

If you can't find useful material by googling, try any or all of these tools. 

Worldcat  

ArchiveGrid

Ar chive Finder

Use search strategies like "newark new jersey zoning" or "pittsburgh municipal records"

Encyclopedia of local history. Edited by Carol Kammen and Amy Wilson. 2nd ed. Lanham, Md.: AltaMira Press, 2012 History Reference (SH): E180 .K25 2012

Historical gazetteer of the United States . Paul T. Hellmann. New York : Routledge, 2005. Trustee Reading Room Reference (DR): E154 .H45 2005

• America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window Indexes books and journal articles on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. 1954+ more... less... Print predecessor Writings on American History covering 1904-1954 is in Firestone's General & Humanities Reference (DR) Z1236.L331.
• PAIS: Public Affairs Information Service This link opens in a new window Citations to articles, books, reports, and select government documents on U.S. and international public policy issue. Generally considered to be a comprehensive index to policy literature. 1915+ more... less... 1968-1971 of the foreign language component is only available in print. (Trustees Reading Room) Z7164.A2P8
• Princeton Library catalog Choose "New Catalog" tab. In the search box, type the place name + "history"
• Directory of Open Access Book Offers thousands of online books on various topics
• Images of America: a history of American life in images and texts Contains thousands of volumes of local history, with text and photos, detailing life in towns, cities, neighborhoods, and rural areas of the United States
• American County Histories
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers check the title page for coverage by city and dates
• America's Historical Newspapers see the database for coverage by city and dates
• Chronicling America Digitized newspapers hosted by Library of Congress. Also includes a directory of all newspapers published in the U.S.; from that directory, used Princeton catalog or WorldCat to identify holdings in microfilm
• Current newspapers at Princeton
• Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources, 1620-1970 This link opens in a new window Contains digitized and searchable copies of over 300 years of legal primary sources, such as early U.S. state codes, city charters, constitutional conventions and compilations, and other documents.
• Google Books may have local history materials before 1925
• HathiTrust This link opens in a new window Digital repository of materials from member libraries. more... less... From the Public Collections or My Collections tabs, login using your Princeton ID to see public PDFs.
• Princeton Library catalog find primary sources by entering your place name, plus "history" and "sources"

FINDING ARCHIVES

You may use secondary sources and examine their notes to see which archives other authors have used.

In addition, consult local public and academic libraries, as well as historical societies, to see what collections they hold.

Finally, these two databases may also point toward archives of interest.

• Archive Finder This link opens in a new window Contains the entire holdings in the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC). Current directory of thousands of repositories and over 220,000 collections of primary source materials across the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. 1959+
• ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window Index to finding aids and other descriptive information about the holdings of manuscript and archival collections in libraries and research institutions throughout the world.
• American County Histories Searchable collection of histories of individual American counties, that contain chapters with detailed coverage of local history, geology, geography, weather, transportation, lists of all local participants in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, government, the medical and legal professions, churches and ministers, industry and manufacturing, banking and insurance, schools and teachers, noted celebrations, fire departments and associations, cemeteries, family histories, health and vital statistics, roads and bridges, public officials and legislators, and many additional subject areas

In general, the primary sources for local history can be seen only in the place that they document. Municipal archives, public libraries, and local historical societies all may have material of interest. While local newspapers may be available online or in microform, the records of local government are unlikely to have been published and are unlikely to have been digitized. That said, for recent material, try:

Index to Current Urban Documents  (1989+) Note: Documents issued prior to August 2000 are available on microfiche in the Social Science Reference Center. As of August 2000, documents are available full text online. For 1972-1988 indexing, use the paper index (DR) Z7165.U5 I654. Access to full text PDF reports and documents generated by local government agencies, civic organizations, academic and research organizations, public libraries, and metropolitan and regional planning agencies in approximately 500 selected cities in the United States and Canada. Earlier documents are available on microfiche.

Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources, 1620-1970 Contains digitized and searchable copies of over 300 years of legal primary sources, such as early U.S. state codes, city charters, constitutional conventions and compilations, and other documents.

Gateway to North America: People, Places, and Organizations of 19th-Century New York Digital collection of directories, member lists, advertisements, travel guides and other sources, chronicling the people and organizations of New York City from the late 18th through the early 20th century.

Records of the States of the United States of America 1066.752 1824 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms Z1223.A1U47 This very large collection is the result of the 1940's State Records Microfilm Project, which located and reproduced state records from libraries, archives, and private collections. Includes legislative proceedings, statutory laws, constitutional records, administrative records, executive records, court records, and some local records. There is also material on Native American nations. The collection is arranged by state and covers the 18th and 19th centuries, plus parts of the 20th.

Territorial papers of the United States 1066.922 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms CD3026.A52 Material from the National Archives, Record Group 59.4.3 Territorial papers . Includes "correspondence, reports, and copies of journals of proceedings of legislative assemblies." We have Utah 1850-1902 (6 reels); Montana 1867-1889 (2 reels); Wyoming 1870-1890 (6 reels); Idaho, Montana, Wyoming 1789-1873 (1 reel); and Wyoming 1868-1873 (1 reel).

State legislatures: a bibliography . Robert U. Goehlert, Frederick W. Musto. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-Clio Information Services, c1985. Firestone Z7164.R4 G574 1985

State Statutes: A Historical Archive (Hein Online) This collection includes more than 1,600 volumes and nearly 2,000,000 pages of historical superseded state statutes.

We also have microform for material that is not included in the Hein online collections. Search the library catalog for "Heins superseded state statutes" to see if we have the set for your state.

Starting in the 1930's, the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administation compiled a series of guides to states and important cities in the U.S. They are known as the "American Guides Series" or as the "WPA guides." There is a complete list in Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Guide_Series ). Many if not all have been digitized and can be found at http://archive.org/details/federal_writers_project

For more information see also http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/WPAStateGuides.pdf and

The WPA guides: mapping America. Christine Bold. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, c1999. Firestone E175.4 .B65 1999

The dividing line between local history and genealogy can be very thin, and the local historian may find resources created for genealogists useful:

Ancestry Library Has approximately 4,000 databases including key collections such as U.S. Federal Census images & indexes from 1790 to 1930; the Map Center containing more than 1,000 historical maps; American Genealogical Biographical Index; Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage; The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1630; Social Security Death Index; WWI Draft Registration Cards; Federal Slave Narratives; and a strong Civil War collection.

HeritageQuest Online Includes all of the images, & extensive indexing, from the 1790 - 1930 U.S. federal censuses. Offers more than 20,000 book titles, including nearly 8,000 family histories & over 12,000 local histories. Additionally, there are more than 250 primary-source documents such as tax lists, city directories, probate records, and more.

Fold3 Online access to material from the National Archives documenting a wide range of topics in American history. Also includes genealogical material and a collection of small town newspapers. Formerly known as footnote.com

For access to U.S. census returns, see also: Historical U.S. census

Arcadia Press specializes in slim books of images with local interest. The series is called "Images of America" and their catalog can be searched by state. Princeton University Library does not hold many of them, but they are widely available through Borrow Direct or Interlibrary Loan.

• R.C. Maxwell Company Collection A uniquely comprehensive record of regional outdoor advertising over a period of nearly 80 years.
• Robert Langmuir African American Photograph Collection 12,000 photographs depicting African American life from as early as the 1840s through the 1970s
• National African American Photographic Archive

Digital Sanborn Maps  (1867-1970) Sanborn fire insurance maps contain detailed information on urban structures, property boundaries, and streets. Provides historical information on the history, growth, and development of American cities, towns, and neighborhoods.

Historic Map Works Digitized maps and atlases, plus associated illustrations and city directories. Includes cadastral maps of the U.S. Covers the world from the 15th-20th centuries.

Historical Topographic Maps

To find maps in the library catalog, use "maps" as a keyword, e.g. princeton new jersey maps

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

The Rand McNally Commercial Atlas series and the  Rand McNally Road Atlas series begin in soon after 1900, continue until the late 20th century, and are very useful for looking at regional change over time.

Mapping Inequality

Digitized maps of the Home Owners Loan Corporation made between 1935 and 1940, showing "redlining" practices used to perpetuate segregation in housing.

Old Maps Online

Historical maps, including Geological Survey maps

• Fire Insurance Maps Online Complete collection of high-definition, full-color fire insurance maps from Sanborn and other publishers, real estate atlases, plat books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information.

City directories of the United States through 1860; a collection on microfiche Microfiche 70 6295 microfiches Printed guide: Firestone Microforms Z5771.S7 Reproduces city directories from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society and elsewhere.

United States city directories, 1861-1881 [microform] United States city directories, 1882-1901 [microform] Microfilm S00559 Microfilm S00560 372 and 746 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms Z5771.2 .C58 1984 See above.

In Archives Unbound

• Discover New Jersey History Links to electronic resources on New Jersey history
• New Jersey Digital Highway Primary sources keyed to curriculum materials
• Princeton and Slavery
• The Trenton Project Documentaries on 20th century life in Trenton, made by Princeton University students
• << Previous: American history
• Next: British history >>
• Last Updated: Feb 19, 2024 3:30 PM
• URL: https://libguides.princeton.edu/history

Research Methods in Local History

Local history, like public history, is peculiar among other fields of historical inquiry in that its central focus is not topical. After all, one could do local labor history, local women’s history, local business history, and, as we will, local religious history. Rather, what sets local history apart from other parts of the historical profession is a set of professional and ethical concerns. Who is local history for? And where does one go to find it? How does a historian work with the community they study when members of that community may be a neighbor as much as objects of study? What can local history do? And how can historians build the kind of relationships that not only yield obscure or overlooked sources, but also ensures their work has impact? We will try and work through all of these questions throughout the course of this semester. Rather than consider local history from a conceptual standpoint, we will actually do the work of local history by launching a new project focused on the history of Milwaukee’s churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, and other houses of worship. Throughout this semester, each of you will work with a religious community in Milwaukee to write its history. The process will involve archival research, one-on-one interviews, and ethnographic analysis. These histories will then be published online to create a living resource of Milwaukee’s religious diversity.

This syllabus was created for the Young Scholars in American Religion program.

Christopher D. Cantwell Author

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Institution

Public College or University Institution Type

Syllabus Resource Type

Graduate Course Class Type

2019 Date Published

Anthropology, Area Studies, History, Other Discipline

General Comparative Traditions Religous Tradition

Pluralism/Secularism/Culture Wars Topics

• Pitch Us an Idea
• Latest Articles
• Bernards Township
• Bernardsville
• Bridgewater
• Peapack Gladstone
• Warren (Somerset County)
• Rev War Series
• Sir Francis Bernard Series
• Maps – Interactive & Historic
• Dig In the Archives Photos
• Map Collections
• Wearing Local History Program
• Wooden Jersey Collectibles
• American Flag History
• Project Local History Ambassador
• Student History Makers
• Artists Who Love History
• Ghosts-Urban Legends
• Historic Village Collection
• Wear Local History Collection
• Bernards Township Flag
• The Basking Ridge Oak Tree Project Book
• Somerset Hills History Coloring Book
• 2024 MLH Spring Magazine Vol. 6 Issue 1
• Back Issues

Sharing Local History with Maps – How to Read Into Them

• by Mr. Local History Project

Researching Local History with Maps

As a historian, I believe maps are one of the greatest sources of information, capturing a time and place. We use these maps to research history and find buildings, families, farms, or streets. We often compare those historic maps to current maps. Then, we go on a journey to find that actual location today. Once in a while, we take our research and create maps to give perspective. #readytoremember.

Want a Historic Map of one of 5 towns in the Somerset Hills? Click one of the maps below to find out how to get one.

Mr Local History Google Research Maps

Digital maps – new jersey, digital paper maps – somerset county, digital maps – basking ridge/bernards township/ bernardsville, digital maps – bedminster, additional map sites.

• LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAPS
• NJ RAILROAD RETROSPECTIVE
• MAP GEEKS NEW JERSEY MAPS
• HISTORICAL FOREST MAPS
• HISTORICAL STATE FOREST & STATE PARK MAPS
• UNITED STATES – 1873
• WASHINGTON ROCHAMBEAU MAPS 1781
• RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SOMERSET COUNTY MAPS

Have a map you’d like to share? Let us know.

Retrospective: Somerset Hills Cartographer John Smith Maps Local History

Mapping Historic Icons in Warren Township, New Jersey

Garden State’s Top Historic Gardens and Estates

Distilling and Brewing in Somerset County- Ah the History

Additional Stories:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

[ arbor : tree ] + [ borealis : northern ]

Local history studies & research projects

• Index of local history studies by place

Why study local history?

• Guidance for doing local history

The following list is an index of local history studies and research projects sorted by country (e.g, England, India, &c.) and organization (e,g., regimental histories).

• India and Burmah
• Regimental histories
• Summit County, Ohio, USA

Please note that many of the local history articles presented on Arborealis flow from the editor’s family history research interests. Thus the depth and breadth of topics will be delimited by certain periods of time and specific to certain local districts. — Republication of transcripts under the sub-menu items, above, is pending. (2020-12-18).

What is local history? One definition of this endeavour was given by Kammen and Wilson (2012), viz .:— 1

Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context and it often concentrates on the local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history. Local history is not merely national history writ small but a study of past events in a given geographical but one that is based on a wide variety of documentary evidence and placed in a comparative context that is both regional and national.

Family history without any concern for local history makes for dry reading material indeed. On other hand, aspects of local history can inject flavour, give people pause about the world in which their ancestors lived, and fill in contextual gaps where individual records are scarce or simply have not survived.

Traditionally, “reading history” at university focuses on the grand sweep of larger-than-life events: the words, art or trajectory, are often employed to describe this approach. Alternatively, local history can be viewed as the history of the people who lived more ordinary lives than not. This perspective will include the leaders and heroines, the arch-criminals and the wild-eyed miscreants, but only if they are discovered in the course of a local history project. Other ways to consider the place of local history within the broader subject is to consider it a slice of that larger history pie; as a concentric ring around the individual and family unit, like layers of an onion or more colourfully, one of the smaller matryoshka dolls. 2 However, these rings and layers are not static.

Local history studies also focuses on the interconnectedness between those layers and the social networks developed thereby. As with other kinds of networks, the social is fluid and changes over time. One small change can create a very different network, and these changes are continuous. Further, local history research borrows freely from a wide array of interdisciplinary subjects such as sociology, economics, politics, anthropology, geography, and, as has become apparent recently, epidemiology.

In reading and examining elements of local history, we can discover not only the context in which our ancestors lived and the temporal changes in those contexts, but also any advantages they enjoyed or constraints under which they laboured. We can identify societal norms, and changes in those norms, at the neighbourhood level. Most importantly, the local history of almost any specific area will differ from the overarching themes identified by traditional historical research. By “doing local history,” we find out how our neighbourhoods, villages and towns, townlands, or parishes differed from the average experience portrayed at the provincial, state, or national level. It is a study that focuses on the variances around the norm at the local level. If we ignore the history set into motion by the larger actors, our understanding of local history will suffer by that omission.

Guidance for doing local history :

Detailed local history resources are difficult to find for periods before 1700. However, the list of resources is almost endless for the modern era. A reading list for local history studies can be gleaned from the word art collage at the top of this page. A short list could include:

• the unit of study:—in Ireland, these can be townland studies, and in England and Scotland, parish studies. However, local history did not necessarily conform to official territorial divisions. Sometimes we have to look to other factors, for example, the landscape (a village lying between two hills in the Cranborne Chase), or part of a parish that gravitated towards the nearest market town (Glenkeen and Bohard townlands in the parish of Aghaloo to the town of Aughnacloy in the parish of Carnteel).
• important international and national events that shaped conditions, and how local units of government responded and reacted;
• the natural landscape and how both natural forces and human effort have changed its appearance and geography over time;
• trends in built architecture;
• maps, atlases, and gazetteers, and how these changed over time;
• academic research and analysis published in historical journals and periodicals;
• extant and changing legislation and regulations published by Acts of Parliament (or similar governing body) and in parliamentary papers, and again, how local governments interpreted and applied these laws;
• archival documents and manuscripts, and other documents, including provincial newspapers, which identify specific individuals and events otherwise lost to the national record, &c.

It is important to keep in mind the inevitable gaps in the records and even where the records were complete, we could not describe fully or in minutiae the lives of the inhabitants of a particular village during a specified period of time. On the other hand, for local history research of events from the early 1800s, the sheer number of available resources can be overwhelming. This is a point where academic research becomes invaluable, to consult historians’ literature review, analysis of the data, and interpretations. In turn, as a consumer of data and information, the reader should have an elementary grasp of research methods in order to assess the reliability of the data. The well read student of historical sources should be able to assess the reliability and relevance of those interpretations.

• Crawford, W.H. and R.H. Foy. Townlands in Ulster: Local History Studies . Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1998. (book)
• Federation for Ulster Local History Studies fuls.org.uk
• Federation of Local History Societies / Cónascadh na gCumann Staire Áitiúla. localhistory.ie
• M’Parlan, James et al. Statistical Survey of the County of Mayo . Dublin: Graisberry and Campbell, 1802. (book)
• Maynooth Research Guides for Irish Local History , for a reading list. fourcourtspress.ie/books/
• National Archives of Ireland (Dublin). Our sources for family & local history . nationalarchives.ie
• Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Belfast). Archives for family and local history . nidirect.gov.uk/articles/
• Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Belfast). Local history, land, and buildings . nidirect.gov.uk/articles/
• Sacco, Nick. “Bad Historical Thinking: ‘History is Written by the Victors.’ Published 15th February 2016 to Exploring the Pas t, online at pastexplore.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/ (accessed 16th Dec. 2020). ↩︎

End notes :

Source citation for this page: Kilpatrick, Alison. “Local history studies and research projects.” Published to Arborealis , arborealis.ca/local-history/, accessed [insert date].

All rights reserved . Alison Kilpatrick ©2020.

Updated 29th Dec. 2023.

• Society and Politics
• Art and Culture
• Biographies
• Publications

Grade 4 - Term 1: Local History

People learn and are influenced by the places and the people around them. In a country like South Africa, which has a rich diverse heritage, many people have learned from stories told to them by their proud elders and community members. These stories carry information and ideas about life and living as well as shared customs, traditions and memories passed from parents to children. In this lesson we will explore historical places and the natural environment that is part of our country’s heritage. This will assist learners to find out about the past and how to apply this knowledge to their local history. The lesson ends with a case study of Pretoria and includes information about how to create a museum display. Members of our communities can be asked about the past and we will learn about their stories by asking them questions.

Learners will collect information about their local areas by collecting information from various sources, namely through the use of pictures, research and writings, stories, interviews and objects. The local area examined as part of this section of the curriculum will differ from area to area and even from school to school.

Of importance is that learners will cultivate the skill of finding information using various sources. SAHO has used Pretoria as an example of a local history project, it being the capital of South Africa. The aim of this section is to show learners how  to access various resources that give information about the past and present.

Further reading - Oral history as a methodology presentation by Mrs FL Mrwebi at the finals of the Nkosi Albert Luthuli Oral History Competition - Oral history project presented by Ingred Persad at the finals of the Nkosi Albert Luthuli Oral History Competition

Collections in the Archives

Know something about this topic.

Towards a people's history

The Racist Covenants Research Project

The Racist Covenants Research Project (RCRP) is an inter-disciplinary working group at the University of Nevada, Reno, housed in the History Department and funded by grants, private donations and state appropriations. Our mission is to document and understand structural racism, beginning with investigating, mapping, interpreting and educating about racist restrictive covenants, provisions in property deeds that historically prevented people of color from owning or occupying homes in neighborhoods of their choice. Our scholarly work as historians, oral historians, geographers, journalists and educators contributes to the State of Nevada’s efforts to redact historically racist language from real estate documents while preserving the record that such racist provisions existed.

Racist covenants, laws against interracial marriage, formal and de-facto segregation in education, occupation, restaurants, lodging and casinos are part of Nevada’s history. Working with academic experts, volunteers and community partners, we seek to explore and interpret the implications of racist practices in the past and to investigate their impact on contemporary conditions, including zoning practices and the racial wealth gap.

The University of Nevada, Reno project is co-directed by Dr. Jake Dorman and Dr. Christopher von Nagy of the Department of History. Our sister project is housed at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Department of History. The RCRP Advisory Board is chaired by Caesar Andrews, Leonard Distinguished Chair in Media Ethics and Writing of the Reynolds School of Journalism.

Tens of thousands of property documents across Nevada still contain language prohibiting the sale of their homes to people of color. In 2019 the State of Nevada passed legislation allowing homeowners to renounce racist covenants in their own deeds. Subsequently, in 2023, the State of Nevada passed legislation, SB368, that allows homeowners or organizations to file a court petition to redact racist covenants from property deeds, whether or not the interested party owns the property in question. *For more details on the SB368 redaction process, consult your local County Recorder.*

SB368 provides funds for both the University of Nevada, Reno, through the RCRP project and to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas through its sister project to undertake and publish research related to historically racist covenants and the consequences of these covenants on Nevadans.

Mapping work

Working together with our colleagues at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, we are charged with identifying historically racist covenants across the state of Nevada. In the academic year 2023-2024, with funding from the State of Nevada SB368 and the University of Nevada, a team of student and faculty researchers documented and mapped more than 6,843 racist covenants in Washoe County alone. In the summer of 2024, our work will take us to neighboring northern Nevadan counties. We are committed to providing access to our research to all Nevadans through a publicly accessible database currently under development and underwritten by generous grant funding

Oral historical work

Oral history reveals personal histories and family legacies that provide personal and community perspectives on historical events. In collaboration with University of Nevada, Reno’s Shared History program, RCRP researchers are collecting oral histories related to experiences affected by the legacy of historically racist housing practices in Nevada. These oral histories are available to anybody interested in the historical legacy of housing and other discriminatory practices in Nevada through the Shared History Oral History archive and our Vimeo Showcase .

If you or someone you know is interested in participating in the oral history program, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected] or reach out to the Shared History program at [email protected] .

Volunteering and interning

Nevada’s history is our shared history. If you or someone you know is interested in contributing through participation as a voluntary researcher or transcriber, please let us know. We enjoy working with community members, and if this project interests you we would be more than happy to discuss opportunities for volunteering and how to get involved with the RCRP! 

High School Internships The RCRP project, in conjunction with the Shared History program, hosts youth interns of high school age who are interested in academic year or summer internships in history projects of public importance. There are opportunities to help with research, to learn to do oral histories, and to participate in the development of public history and educational materials such as documentary films, podcasts and museum exhibits.

For more information

For more information about the project, the availability of project members to present to your class or community organization, or to volunteer or request an application for a high school internship, please feel free to reach out to the project or drop by the Shared History office on the first floor or the University of Nevada, Reno’s historic Lincoln Hall (Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) Parking is available on the first floor of Brian J. Whalen Parking Complex.

Racist Covenants Research Project

• Mailstop: 0308
• Phone number: (775) 784-4098
• Email: [email protected]

Local historian celebrates release of his sixth book with May 30 event

A walk through Marion's history is available in book form and loaded with historic pictures.

Local historian and author Randy Winland gathered a plethora of historic images and details of Marion’s businesses, churches, government, industries, homes and more from the past 200 years.

"Marion, Ohio Then & Now – A Photographic Remembrance" is Winland's newest release and his sixth book. It's composed of more than 175 images of Marion buildings, dating as early as 1830, along with a brief history of each and a current view.

Information and background materials were obtained from research, including more than 2,000 newspaper clippings, maps and other publications.

The book release will include a presentation by Winland at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 30, in the Tri-Rivers Career Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. His book will be available for purchase. Proceeds from the book sales are designated for the programs and activities of the Marion County Historical Society.

Additional information may be obtained by contacting the Marion County Historical Society at 740-387-4255.

Project to replace historic grotesques on KU’s natural history museum building wins state’s top preservation award

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Sculptor Karl Ramberg, left, fits the grotesque to its base on Dyche Hall on Aug. 4, 2022.

A five-year project to re-create and reattach eight grotesques — stone statuettes of animals — to KU’s Dyche Hall has been awarded the state’s top historic preservation award.

The KU project won the Medallion Award from the Kansas Preservation Alliance earlier this month after a team of architects and stone carvers worked since 2017 on ways to replace the crumbling, intricately carved stone animals that long have been a prominent feature of Dyche Hall, which is home to KU’s Natural History Museum and the KU Biodiversity Institute.

The project involved a pair of local artists, Laura Ramberg and her brother Karl Ramberg, carving new grotesques from blocks of Cottonwood limestone, the type found in the Kansas Flint Hills. The task was to build near replicas of the originals. But that wasn’t an easy task, given that many of the grotesques had deteriorated to the point that key pieces were missing.

“Honoring the original stone carvers,” Laura Ramberg told the Journal-World in August 2022 when describing the hardest part of the project. “I had to imagine what had been there, or imagine the texture because the texture was gone, or the whole leg was gone or half the face was gone.”

Sculptors Karl and Laura Ramberg, have a last-minute discussion on Aug. 4, 2022 before a crane begins to raise the grotesque, which was covered as part of the lift.

The original grotesques were created by Joseph Roblado Frazee and his son Vitruvius, and were installed as part of Dyche Hall in 1903, according to previous information from KU Endowment. Originally, there were 12 grotesques on Dyche Hall; however, four of the stone animals were removed in 1963 as part of an expansion of the building.

The eight that remain are: a bat/winged dragon; a zebra; a dog; a cat; an ape; an elephant; a rhino; and a lion. Some of the grotesques have specific writing on their chests, with the elephant sporting the “Rock Chalk” phrase, and the rhino displaying the phrase “J Hawk ?” It has never been clear what was meant by the question mark, KU Endowment reported in a previous article several years ago.

The KU project to replace the grotesques involved a combination of modern computer technology and Stone Age craftsmanship. Keith Van de Riet and Amy Van de Riet, faculty members at KU’s architecture school, led students in using 3-D computer technology to create models of the original grotesques.

Once the modeling was complete, the Rambergs began carving. Karl Ramberg used a fenced-in area in front of Dyche Hall to turn large blocks of white limestone into the rough shapes of each animal. Members of the university community watched as Ramberg, with the help of some students in related degrees, spent about 40 to 50 hours on each carving, KU Endowment reported.

The grotesque installed on Aug. 4, 2022 atop the Dyche Hall on the KU campus was of an ape, shown here in storage before moved outside for installation.

A close up view of an ape grotesque moments before it was hoisted atop Dyche Hall on the KU campus on the Aug. 4, 2022. Notice the fossil in the grotesque’s right eyebrow.

Laura Ramberg then took over to do the intricate carving and shaping of the stone. Using an air hammer and blueprints, Laura Ramberg spent about 165 hours on each grotesque, reported KU Endowment , which wrote about the article as it was soliciting donations to fund the project.

By early August 2022, construction crews had begun lifting the 400-pound pieces of stone more than three stories in the air to reinstall the grotesques on Dyche Hall, the Journal-World reported.

That process involved lots of crane work and skilled masons to secure the grotesques atop their pedestals.

The Kansas Preservation Alliance recognized the years of work with its highest award at the Kansas State Preservation Conference on May 17 in Newton.

“Having the Medallion Award bestowed to the Grotesque Renewal Project is the perfect ending to an amazing project,” Amy Van de Riet said. “This award is a reflection of the stewardship of the KU Biodiversity Institute, the generosity of donors and the community of Lawrence to have retained such talented stone carvers.”

Construction workers await the arrival of the grotesque at Dyche Hall on the KU campus on Aug. 4, 2022.

Dyche Hall on the University of Kansas campus is pictured on Aug. 4, 2022 as construction crews install a grotesque on its new perch along east face of the historic building.

A member of the construction team pulls his tools up in a bucket as he prepares to install a grotesque atop Dyche Hall on Aug. 4, 2022.

KU wins $11M federal grant to create new center focusing on the key data behind women’s health

University of Georgia professor/administrator selected to be KU’s next vice chancellor for research

Girod describes balancing act KU undertook in response to campus protests, says camping created concerns

KU submits request to raise tuition, fees by 5%, on average, next school year; increase would be higher than most in the state

KU says faculty, staff underpaid by about $27M per year when compared to private sector, peer schools

• Subscribe today
• Public safety
• City government
• State government
• Town Talk column
• K-12 education
• County government
• Statewide news
• National news
• Old Hometown
• Sports columns
• KU men’s basketball
• KU women’s basketball
• KU football
• KU volleyball
• Lawrence High
• Letters to the editor
• National columns
• Local columns
• Lifestyle columns
• Home and Garden
• Arts and Entertainment
• Marriages, Divorces and Bankruptcies
• Couples Announcements
• Real Estate Transfers
• Phone and email
• Submit news
• Submit letters to the editor
• Submit obituaries and celebrations
• Statement of Values
• View e-Edition
• Submit a vacation hold
• Subscription Online Bill Pay
• Missed Paper Form
• News from The Chamber
• News from Lawrence Public Library
• Classifieds
• Customer Service FAQ

Named for a fire god, radioactive element at ORNL could now 'rewrite chemistry textbooks'

Nearly 80 years after scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered an extremely rare radioactive element called promethium, a team at the lab published a landmark study on the subject that ORNL said could " rewrite chemistry textbooks ."

Research published in Nature on May 22 marks the first time scientists have uncovered key characteristics of the element, though the study could have implications far beyond promethium (No. 61 on the periodic table).

One of the most critical discoveries from the research is the bond length between promethium and surrounding atoms, a previously unknown measurement that unlocks some of the element's properties.

At any given time, only about one pound of promethium exists on Earth. Promethium is used mostly for research, but also in nuclear batteries used for pacemakers and space exploration.

The new research could help scientists expand these applications and potentially discover new ones for an element that's still relatively unexplored.

ORNL is the only producer of promethium-147 in the U.S. Its unique capabilities come from the High Flux Isotope Reactor, one of the world's most powerful research nuclear reactors. The reactor bombards materials with a concentrated beam of neutrons to create unique materials.

Among those materials are plutonium-238 , produced for generators on NASA space missions. There's also californium-252 , used for starting up nuclear reactors.

The High Flux Isotope Reactor, operational for nearly 60 years, is one of the few facilities in the world that can create manmade elements heavier that uranium.

Promethium was kept an ORNL secret until after Manhattan Project

Promethium was first produced as a byproduct of uranium fission at the lab's Graphite Reactor in 1945 by Charles Coryell, Jacob A. Marinsky and Lawrence E. Glendenin.

The scientists named the new element for Prometheus, a Titan and the god of fire in Greek mythology who disobeyed the gods of Olympus by bringing fire to humans. The scientists kept the discovery of promethium secret until years after World War II ended and Oak Ridge's scientific mission moved beyond the Manhattan Project .

Their discovery of promethium filled a gap in the periodic table. Every other element in the group known as lanthanides had already been discovered and studied.

Lanthanides are the 15 elements from No. 57 lanthanum to No. 71 lutetium. They are rare earth elements that are essential to modern technologies such as smartphones, laptops, car batteries, lasers and some cancer treatments.

ORNL research increases efficiency with hard-to-study promethium

For years, studies on lanthanides have not included promethium, in part because of how rare and unstable it is.

The isotope produced by ORNL researchers, promethium-147, has a half life of just 2.6 years. That means by the time scientists have actually produced the radioactive material, it has already started to decay into a different element.

"It is quite an undertaking to prepare to make a reasonable amount of promethium, especially in a chemically pure form," Ilja Popovs, a staff scientist who co-led the study, told Knox News. "Producing and handling sufficient quantities of any isotope of promethium is fairly challenging and requires special facilities and definitely expertise."

It took scientists using multiple world-leading facilities four months to isolate and purify the sample of promethium.

Popovs, along with Alex Ivanov and Santa Jansone-Popova, led a team of 18 authors on the study. The group used ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor and hot cells to protect them from radiation. The lab's Summit supercomputer, one of the top 10 fastest computers in the world, also was used in the research.

New promethium discoveries spill into tech

The scientists made new discoveries about lanthanide contraction, a phenomenon in which the elements' atoms get smaller as their atomic number increases, changing their properties.

The team uncovered that the shrinking slows down considerably along the lanthanide series after promethium.

This new discovery could increase efficiency in separating lanthanides, a critical process for using the elements in modern devices.

"Figuring out new and better ways that allow more efficient separation of lanthanides is extremely important, and quite a few scientists and research groups are working in that field," Popovs said. "We hope that we're gonna add an additional piece of information that will allow us to design better processes."

ORNL has legacy of discovering elements

ORNL is credited with the discovery of three elements : promethium in 1945, moscovium in 2003 and tennessine in 2010. Moscovium and tennessine, developed in partnership with a Russian lab, were verified as new elements by the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry in 2015.

Overall, the lab has played a critical role in the discovery of nine elements . The other six are rutherfordium, dubnium, seaborgium, flerovium, livermorium and oganesson, the last chemical on the current periodic table.

For Ivanov, one of the scientists who led the study, carrying on the lab's long legacy as a leader in scientific innovation is among the most rewarding parts of the research. ORNL, managed by UT-Battelle, is the Department of Energy's largest science and technology lab.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email  [email protected] .

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at  knoxnews.com/subscribe .   

How can buildings resist tornado damage? Proposed Iowa State facilities could find solutions

Iowa State University hopes to fine-tune its tornado research by building a facility that can simulate 200 MPH wind speeds.

The university plans to construct the National Testing Facility for Enhancing Wind Resiliency for Infrastructure in Tornado-Downburst-Gust Front Events ( NEWRITE ) and a smaller-scale prototype to help study the impact of tornadoes and other severe levels of wind.

Though Iowa State does have a facility that simulates tornado winds, NEWRITE Director Partha Sarkar said the project would allow researchers to analyze tornados on a much larger scale.

"Until now, we were just studying the load, how the loads are produced in these kinds of storms," Sarkar said. "Now it will allow us to see how the loads interact with buildings and cause damage. That will then allow us to come up with materials that can resist storms, and we will be able to see what components fail and which is the weakest link."

The $83 million to $94 million project would be funded by National Science Foundation grants. Iowa State has already received the $14 million needed to complete phase one.

NEWRITE is seeking Iowa Board of Regents approval at its Feb. 28 meeting to hire a construction manager and proceed with the build.

Iowa State will use the $14 million over a four-year span to design and construct the prototype facility. The second phase would include construction of the larger NEWRITE facility, which will cost $69 to $80 million.

More: Iowa State University begins search to replace its longest-serving provost

Facilities would replace current laboratory

Iowa State's researchers use the Wind Simulation and Testing (WiST) Laboratory to study wind hazard needs. Constructed in 2005, the facility simulates straight-line gusts, thunderstorm winds and tornado-like vortices.

Researchers use model buildings less than 1/100th of the scale and simulate wind speeds less than 30 miles per hour. They then extrapolate what could happen to the building if it were to get hit by a much higher wind speed, like a real tornado.

"We have understood quite a bit of new things about how tornadoes interact with infrastructure of buildings and ground infrastructure," Sarkar said. "This new project is basically to construct a much bigger facility compared to what we have now and allow us to study a much larger scale structure of buildings."

A new facility would be large enough to test structures larger than a single-family home and scaled models of buildings with large footprints, such as retail buildings, shopping malls, or hospitals.

More: Ames seeks affordable housing in latest 5-year Community Development Block Grant plan

The new facility would allow researchers to study winds up to 225 miles per hour, Sakar said, allowing them to also study the serious effects of downbursts and gust fronts, at 125 and 100 miles per hour.

The prototype facility would be roughly 1/20th the size of the larger facility, built inside the west end of Howe Hall. Sarkar said it would be similar to the current WiST Laboratory but modified based on new designs.

"We're basically going to upgrade the current facility, disassembling the current one and build it in place of that," Sakar said. "We want to do that to make sure the new design is going to be working and doing things that we had planned."

More: A family connection: Wilsons gift $100K to Iowa State University museums

A long career in wind simulations

Sakar has been an Iowa State faculty member for the past 34 years.

Sakar spent eight years studying structural engineering at Texas Tech University before coming to Ames. He also participated in post-storm damage surveys of hurricanes and tornadoes.

Sakar established a research facility at Iowa State, which included tunnels for aerodynamic testing and a tornado simulator, now known as the WiST Laboratory.

His aspiration to design structures that could withstand high winds and tornadoes has inspired a career spanning more than three decades. Sakar's reputation allows him to generate funding from organizations like the National Science Foundation, furthering Iowa State's tornado research.

Sakar remembers when there weren't any provisions in building codes for tornadoes. He also remembers skepticism about his chosen field of study.

"When I started doing research at that time, my peers used to laugh at me because the probability (of a tornado damaging your home) is so low," Sakar said. "My argument was the probability of a car crash is also very low, but you have airbags in every car, right? It’s a question of safety."

More: Regents to consider NICU construction, vet medical center expansion, DEI directive changes

Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at [email protected].

More than 1,800 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation.

The washington post has compiled the first database of slaveholding members of congress by examining thousands of pages of census records and historical documents.

For the first seven decades of its existence, Congress returned again and again to one acrimonious topic: slavery. Many of the lawmakers arguing in Washington were participants in the brutal institution at home.

Here’s what that looked like on March 7, 1850. As Sen. Daniel Webster delivered a famous speech about slavery, more than 40 of the 106 congressmen listening owned human beings. Those slaveholders included Jefferson Davis, Andrew Johnson and Sam Houston.

From the founding of the United States until long after the Civil War, hundreds of the elected leaders writing the nation’s laws were current or former slaveowners.

More than 1,800 people who served in the U.S. Congress in the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries owned human beings at some point in their lives, according to a Washington Post investigation of censuses and other historical records.

Jump to our interactive database

The country is still grappling with the legacy of their embrace of slavery. The link between race and political power in early America echoes in complicated ways, from the racial inequities that persist to this day to the polarizing fights over voting rights and the way history is taught in schools .

The Washington Post created a database that shows enslavers in Congress represented 39 states, including not just the South but every state but Maine in New England, much of the Midwest, and many Western states.

Some were owners of enormous plantations, like Sen. Edward Lloyd V of Maryland, who enslaved 468 people in 1832 on the same estate where abolitionist Frederick Douglass was enslaved as a child. Many exerted great influence on the issue of slavery, like Sen. Elias Kent Kane, who enslaved five people in Illinois in 1820, and tried to formally legalize slavery in the state.

How the share of lawmakers who enslaved Black people changed over Congress’s first 130 years

For the first 30 years of American lawmaking, from 1789 to 1819, more than half the men elected to Congress each session were slaveholders.

As Northern states outlawed slavery, the proportion of congressmen who were slaveowners declined. But some congressmen in New England continued to enslave people until at least 1820, and some representatives of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states continued to enslave people for at least a decade longer.

When 11 Southern states seceded in 1860 and 1861, their lawmakers left Congress, and the number of slaveholders dropped accordingly. Still, more than 10 percent of the members who remained in Congress as the country fought the Civil War over slavery were current or former slaveholders.

After Reconstruction, the proportion of congressmen who had been slaveholders dropped as some Northerners moved south and then represented Southern states in Congress. But other Southerners who had been enslavers were also elected.

People who had been slaveholders continued to serve in Congress well into the 20th century.

William Richardson, for example, a Democrat who fought for the Confederacy, died in office in 1914 after representing Alabama for 14 years. Another Democrat, Rebecca Latimer Felton , a suffragist and a white supremacist, was appointed to fill a Senate vacancy in 1922 and briefly represented Georgia at age 87. The first woman ever to serve in the Senate was a former slaveholder.

[ The Senate’s first woman was also its last enslaver ]

Enslavers came from all parts of the political spectrum. The Post’s database includes lawmakers who were members of more than 60 political parties. Federalists, Whigs, Unionists, Populists, Progressives, Prohibitionists and dozens more: All those parties included slaveholders.

By the eve of the Civil War, there were almost equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans in the 36th Congress, which met in Washington from 1859 to 1861. The Democrats, including those who belonged to Democratic splinter groups, counted nearly 100 slaveholders among their ranks, a Post analysis found. The Republicans, which had emerged as the party of abolition, had just one slaveholder.

This database helps provide a clearer understanding of the ways in which slaveholding influenced early America, as congressmen’s own interests as enslavers shaped their decisions on the laws that they crafted.

One example: When Congress voted on the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which prohibited the expansion of slavery in the northern half of the country, the House and Senate contained a nearly equal number of slaveholders and non-slaveholders, a Post analysis found. Almost twice as many slaveholders, 44 percent, voted against the agreement, compared with 25 percent of non-slaveholders. The law was crafted by a slaveholder, Henry Clay, who is so renowned as one of America’s greatest statesmen that 16 counties across the country are named for him.

When Congress voted during the Civil War on the 13th Amendment, which added a ban on slavery to the U.S. Constitution, nine men who had been slaveholders remained in the Senate. Just three of them voted to approve the amendment, while 35 out of 40 non-slaveholders voted yes.

How the share of lawmakers who enslaved Black people changed by state

Historian Loren Schweninger, who spent years driving to more than 200 courthouses across the South to collect records on slavery, notes the importance of lawmakers’ personal stake in slavery as they passed laws codifying the practice. “They were protective of the institution, that’s for sure,” Schweninger said of state and federal lawmakers’ relationship with slavery. “There was brutality and there was all kinds of exploitation of slaves — but still there were laws.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he thinks about that history in the halls of Congress, from the portraits on the walls to the votes once taken there.

“I’m very conscious of this as only the fourth Black person popularly elected to the United States Senate. … The very monuments you walk past: There’s very little acknowledgment of the degree that slavery, that wretched institution, shaped the Capitol,” Booker said in an interview. He added, “All around you, the very Capitol itself, was shaped by this legacy that we don’t fully know or don’t fully acknowledge.”

The same is true of the White House. Of the first 18 U.S. presidents, 12 were enslavers , including eight during their presidencies.

To Booker, those stories about his predecessors in Congress call for action from their counterparts today — namely, a bill he has championed that would commission the first national study on reparations for the descendants of enslaved people.

Without acknowledging the harm and trauma caused by slavery, both for the enslaved and their descendants, “it’s very hard to heal and move on,” Booker said. “We have never really tried, in any grand way as a country, to take full responsibility for the evil institution of slavery and what it has done.”

America’s atrocity was carried out not in shadow, but with extensive documentation, in carefully recorded censuses and court cases and wills. To create this database, The Washington Post researched all of the 5,558 men and one woman, Felton, who served in the U.S. Congress and were born before 1840, meaning they came of age before the Civil War. The verdicts on who enslaved people and who did not are based on journal articles, books, newspapers and many other texts, with the vast majority of the information coming from the 1790 through 1860 decennial censuses.

Today, as America struggles with how to understand its history and which historical figures to honor , many of these lawmakers’ statues stand in town squares across the country, and their names adorn streets and public schools, with almost no public acknowledgment that they were enslavers.

The men, women and children they enslaved are less recognized still, often recorded in a census by just their age and gender, without even a name.

The nation’s capital, like many cities, is dotted with reminders of these members of Congress. Rep. John Peter Van Ness of New York, an enslaver, has a D.C. elementary school, a street and a Metro station named in his honor. Sen. Francis Preston Blair Jr. of Missouri, who has a statue in the Capitol and a homeless shelter named after him in Northeast Washington, was an enslaver who opposed allowing Black citizens to vote after the Civil War. (The guesthouse across from the White House is named for the senator’s father, who was not a lawmaker but also was a slaveowner.)

Cities, towns, universities and other institutions across the country have started commissions to reconsider whose names should be on buildings and streets, and many institutions have removed statues and portraits because the people they honored enslaved others. But until now, there has never been a comprehensive list of slaveholding members of Congress.

Explore the database of slaveholders in Congress

To create this database, Washington Post reporter Julie Zauzmer Weil started with a list of every person elected to Congress who was born before 1840 – meaning he had reached 21 by the time the last census before the Civil War was conducted in 1860. Weil then researched each person on that list, examining a variety of sources.

This database helps reveal the glaring holes in many of the stories that Americans tell about the country’s history.

[ Help us identify members of Congress who enslaved people ]

Rep. John Floyd, for instance, who ran for president in 1832, is described in historical accounts as an opponent of slavery who went so far as to raise the possibility of turning Virginia into a free state while he was its governor. Left unmentioned: Floyd was a slaveholder. The 1810 Census shows he kept four people in bondage in Christiansburg, Va.

History remembers Rep. John McLean, an Ohio congressman and then a longtime Supreme Court justice, as one of two jurists who dissented in the notorious 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that Black Americans were not citizens under the Constitution. Yet a historic deed and letter indicate that McLean also enslaved people in the 1820s.

Determining who was an enslaver can be complicated. As recent revelations about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and hospital and university namesake Johns Hopkins make clear, making a judgment about whether someone was a slaveholder based on the handwritten records of the 18th and 19th centuries is painstaking and imprecise work.

The Post initially concluded that 1,715 members of Congress were enslavers at some point in their adult lives, including at least one lawmaker who held Native Americans in bondage . Evidence suggested that another 3,166 congressmen did not enslave anyone. The Post could not find enough evidence to reach a conclusion about 677 congressmen when the article was first published online.

Since the publication of the database, readers have provided conclusive new information on more than 150 additional congressmen, in the form of documents ranging from enslaved people’s handwritten birth certificates, to newspaper advertisements placed by congressmen seeking people who had fled their plantations, to a letter one reader’s great-great-great-grandfather wrote home from a Civil War battlefield. As more information comes to light, The Post will continue to update the database.

Determining whether a lawmaker enslaved others does not reveal everything about his role in maintaining or questioning the institution of slavery. Some members of Congress who once enslaved people later freed them. Or take, for example, Sen. John A. Logan, whose statue sits on horseback in Washington’s Logan Circle for his exploits leading Union troops during the Civil War.

An Illinois senator and defender of the Union who was not a slaveowner, Logan worked as a state lawmaker to ban Black people from the state of Illinois and voted in Congress for the divisive Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made the federal government responsible for finding and returning those trying to escape bondage, even if they were caught in free states. But after the Civil War, the Democrat turned Republican changed direction , advocating as a senator for Black Americans’ civil rights.

[ Slavery and survival: Angela’s arrival in 1619 marked the beginning of the subjugation of millions ]

The institution of slavery in America predated the first Congress by 170 years and was deeply rooted among the wealthy families most likely to send someone to Washington.

Multiple members of Congress were among the last slaveholding Northerners.

Delaware elected two senators, Willard Saulsbury Sr. and George Read Riddle, who were both among the dwindling number of enslavers in the state in 1860. Riddle was one of just two slaveholders left in his county that year. Both of Delaware’s senators went on to vote against the 13th Amendment ending slavery.

Locally, more than 80 percent of the men Maryland and Virginia sent to Congress between 1789 and 1859 were slaveholders.

Rep. John T.H. Worthington was listed as the enslaver of 29 people in the 1840 Census while he was representing the Baltimore area in the House. He sold his own enslaved daughter for $1,800 to a man who wanted her to bear more enslaved children, according to an account written by James Watkins, who managed to escape slavery.

Worthington’s daughter, whose name is not recorded but whose pious faith Watkins remembered, refused to consent to sex with her new enslaver. As punishment, she was beaten to death. Watkins writes that he sat beside her as she died: “She left behind her a bright testimony that she was going to that Saviour from whom it is impossible for all the American laws, and opinions, and prejudices combined, to keep back the soul.”

[ Missouri v. Celia, a Slave: She killed the white master raping her, then claimed self-defense ]

Many members of Congress played a role in such harrowing stories. Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved,” a cultural flash point in Virginia’s election this fall, is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, who made the wrenching decision to kill her toddler rather than allow her to grow up in chains. One of Garner’s enslavers was Rep. John P. Gaines, a Whig who represented Kentucky in Congress from 1847 to 1849.

Knowing which members of Congress were enslavers could lead to changes in how American history is told.

Sen. Rufus King, a signer of the Constitution and an 1816 presidential nominee, gets a section of his Wikipedia page devoted to his anti-slavery activism. Yet until now, it was nearly impossible for a curious student — or perhaps someone who walks past the New York City plaque honoring him — to search the Internet and find that in 1810, King also owned a human being.

Or take the case of Celia , a 19-year-old enslaved woman who killed the septuagenarian man who owned her after five years of sexual abuse. She went to trial in Missouri in 1855 claiming self-defense. Judge William Augustus Hall instructed the jury that Missouri’s laws protecting women who resist sexual assault did not apply to Celia. Six years later, he was elected to Congress.

An acclaimed book on the case says that “Hall’s views about slavery are unknown.” It changes the story to note that in the 1850 Census, Hall reported enslaving four people, including a woman not much older than Celia.

For Crystal Feimster, a historian at Yale University, a full accounting of these stories from American history is essential to understanding America today.

“There is a way in which people want to disconnect and say, ‘I didn’t own slaves. My family didn’t own slaves. So let’s keep moving,’ ” she said. “We have to tell them why it’s important and why it matters and what it tells about where we are in this present moment.”

She pointed to voting rights, the vast racial wealth gap and the disproportionate impact of violence on people of color as examples of current-day struggles that spring directly from the history of slavery. “What’s happening politically has deep roots in our political leaders’ investment in slavery and how they wielded that power for their own personal benefit,” she said. “People who don’t know that longer history can’t draw those connections.”

The following Washington Post readers contributed research used to update the database of slaveholders in Congress: Luke Voyles in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Nick Arjomand, Melinda Buterbaugh and Vincent Johnson in Los Angeles; Carol Bannes in St. Charles, Mo.; Joshua Benton in Arlington, Mass.; Karla Benton in Milwaukee; Ned Benton in Larchmont, N.Y.; John Browne in Warrenton, Va.; Paul Carnahan in Barre, Vt.; Vera Cecelski in Durham, N.C.; Lisa C. Childs in Fayetteville, Ark.; Gloria Clarke in Bridgeton, N.J.; Michelle Dwyer Cohen in Poulsbo, Wash.; Lyndon Comstock in Bolinas, Calif.; Beth Danesco in Mansfield, Mass.; Donna W. Dzierlenga in Houston; Matthew Edwards in Atlanta; P. Ekman in Media, Pa.; Susan Erickson in Signal Hill, Calif.; Viva Fisher in Belmont, Mass.; Candace Jackson Gray in Land O’ Lakes, Fla.; Christopher Handy in Santa Barbara, Calif.; Alexandra Kennedy and David B. Mattern in Charlottesville; Karen Krug in Jonesboro, Ark.; Jennie Leichtling in Cambridge, Md.; Kecia Lifton in Plymouth, Mass.; Christy Melick in Eaton, Ohio; David McGee in Lynchburg, Va.; Susana Moore in New York; Kathy Nitsch in Sarasota, Fla.; Beth O’Malley and Kelly L. Schmidt in St. Louis; Patricia Paakkonen in Espoo, Finland; Charles Perkins in Enfield, N.H.; Timothy M. Phelps and Dustin Renwick in Washington; Courtney Pinkard in Montgomery, Ala.; Chris Pupke in Centreville, Md.; Abby Raskin in Brooklyn; Gordon Rose in Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Gwen Runion in Leonardtown, Md.; Randall K. Stagner in Raleigh, N.C.; Mary Louisa Bacon Sturges in El Cerrito, Calif.; Darlene Walsh in Columbia, Md.; Ruette M. Watson in Princeton, N.J.; Abby Westgate in Little Silver, N.J.; Kim Curlin Wettroth in Cary, N.C.; Paula L. Wiegand in Indian Head, Md.; Allen J. Wiener in Clearwater Beach, Fla.; Bridgett Williams-Searle in Albany, N.Y.

Since the initial publication of this article in January 2022, we have found some new information and made some corrections. We have corrected the breakdown of Democratic and Republican slaveholders, which initially was based on data in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Though the directory isthe official source of information on every member of the House and Senate, historians say it includes inconsistencies on party designations. This article has been corrected with a tally of Democratic and Republican slaveholders who served in the 36th Congress on the eve of the Civil War. In addition, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Rep. Charles Miner (Pa.) was a slaveholder in 1810 based on digitized census records on Ancestry.com that mislabeled the members of his household. Miner was not a slaveholder in 1810. A previous version also incorrectly said that Delaware residents elected senators who voted against the 13th Amendment. Before the 20th century, senators were selected by state legislatures, not directly by state residents. The article has been corrected. And, finally, we removed and then added back references to Rep. John McLean (Ohio) as a slaveholder, as well as a portrait of him. After publication, a contributor provided information about the 1820 census in Ohio that raised questions about whether McLean was in fact an enslaver. We removed the references to him and the portrait before confirming our original information and restoring them.

About this story

Editing by Lynda Robinson and Debbi Wilgoren. Graphics editing by Kevin Uhrmacher. Data editing by Meghan Hoyer. Design editing by Matthew Callahan and Brian Gross. Copy editing by Anne Kenderdine and Laura Michalski. Photo editing by Mark Miller. Reader submissions managed by Teddy Amenabar.

Ohio Village to close for two-year renovation project

Ohio Village, the recreated 19th century community on 17th Avenue, opened its doors for the summer season on Saturday. But its season will be cut short in August so the village can begin a renovation project that is expected to last until 2026. 

“We're planning for the next 50 years of storytelling in this living history community because we want to make this relevant now for generations to come,” said Neil Thompson, spokesman for the Ohio History Connection, the nonprofit that oversees the village and Ohio History Center.

The Ohio History Connection has 57 sites throughout the state, Thompson said. But the Ohio Village at 800 E. 17th Ave. is particularly important due to its location on its Columbus campus, which is home to the organization’s headquarters, alongside the Ohio History Center. 

The Ohio Village opened half a century ago on July 27, 1974.

The renovation project will include the addition of a nature-based play space, new experiences for visitors, and expanded food and beverage offerings, according to the Ohio History Connection. There will also be a stronger physical connection between the Ohio History Center, infrastructure upgrades and a safer experience (walkways, lights, connectivity, hardscape streets) for visitors.

As part of the accessibility upgrades, an elevated boardwalk will be removed.

“It's going to be more of one level,” Thompson said. “So, you don't have to get up on the boardwalk in order to access some of these buildings that currently require it.” 

To top the project off, the town center will be expanded with a public square featuring increased performance space, Thompson said. This will also create a more accurate representation of a 19th century Ohio town center.

The Ohio History Connection couldn't provide a cost estimate for the project.

The Ohio Village will be open every Wednesday to Sunday, and host six special events including its 50 th anniversary celebration on July 27, before closing for renovations on Aug. 4. (after the end of the Ohio State Fair).

Thompson said the renovation is part of a larger project that includes the June 6 opening of a $17 million Collections Care Center facility adjacent to the Ohio History Center, which will contain about half of the 1.8 million items in the group's care, and a new exhibit at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fair’s Ohio Showcase building.

Plans are also underway for a renovation to the Ohio History Center, which was built in 1970.

[email protected]