Regional 6 Meeting Held in Whitehall
Regional 6 Meeting Held in Whitehall
By Leslie Blankenship
Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Knox, Licking, Madison, Perry, Pickaway and Union counties
More than 45 attendees representing 16 Region 6 Alliance organizations gathered at the Whitehall Community Center in Whitehall, Ohio, on March 22. Steve McLaughlin, president of the Whitehall Historical Society, introduced Mayor Kim Maggard who welcomed the assembly with a brief history of the city.
The first session of the day, “Setting Boundaries for Museum Collections,” was a panel featuring four experts. Americorps Members of the Ohio Historical Society Jessica Mayercin and Carolyn Wavrin addressed problems in conserving textiles, documents and photographs. Jessica Cyders of the Athens County Historical Society and Museum offered a presentation on the do’s and do-not’s of preserving and storing three-dimensional objects. She brought a plethora of hands-on objects to pass around and explained the use of acid-free bagging and tagging, boxes and custom-made four-flap folders for nonstandard-size items. Sue Whittaker from the Worthington Historical Society reiterated the importance of using your organization’s mission statement when making difficult decisions about what to keep.
Whitehall Historical Society offered a delicious luncheon of Greek food that segued into the business meeting. Next Andrea Brookover, Director of the Fairfield Heritage Association, shared her thoughts on “Attracting and Empowering Volunteers.” She acknowledged the difficulty of finding new volunteers these days, particularly parents with 40+-hour work weeks and family obligations, as well as the increasing challenges of relying on the traditional volunteer pool of retired persons.
In the afternoon, the planning committee asked attendees to share a 1950s artifact, event or memory from their community. This idea was in keeping with Whitehall’s history as the location of the nation’s first suburban shopping center–Town and Country, “The Miracle Mile”–and its manufacturing hub for the 1950s Lustron homes. At the end of the day, attendees walked over to the Society’s crown jewel, a blue Lustron House, for a tour and a presentation including images of the Herculean effort involved in moving and restoring the Society’s lovely Lustron.
Leslie Blankenship is a a Region 6 representative of the Ohio Local History Alliance and a Trustee of of the Franklinton Historical Society in Columbus, Ohio.