Historic artifacts find home in new Butler County library


GRAND OPENING EVENTS

The new Oxford Lane Library and Smith Library of Regional History will hold a grand opening from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26.

Events include:

1 p.m.: Ceremonial Ribbon Cutting and remarks (Main entrance)

1 to 6 p.m.: Facility tours: Visit the photo booth to create keepsakes (First floor) and view historic art and artifacts of the Oxford community. (Second floor)

1:30 to 2:30 p.m.: The Tom Walker Duo: Pianist Tom Walker and saxophonist Bill Perkins perform Jazz Standards and 1950s and 1960s rock (First floor)

2 to 3 p.m.: See a live penguin accompanied by a Newport Aquarium biologist who will talk about this animal (Havighurst Meeting Room)

3 to 4 p.m.: Meet and greet the penguin (Havighurst Meeting Room); The Wingwalkers Trio: Discover the improvisational style of folk, blues and jazz with Noah Cope, Doug Hamilton and Michael Kalter (First floor)

3:30 to 4:30 p.m.: Hardware Jewelry: Create unique jewelry made from stuff you find at the hardware store or even around your house (Teen Zone)

4:30 to 5:30 p.m.: Jim McCutcheon, The Guitar Man: An interactive program for children, showcasing the Fretted Instrument Family including guitars, lute, banjo and the charango (Helen Weinberger Activity Room)

Graeter’s ice cream and Carillon Catering cookies will be served while supplies last.

Smith Library of Regional History patrons will have a much-improved space in which to conduct their history research when the new Oxford Lane Library opens its doors Saturday, Sept. 26.

Located on the second floor of the new facility, the Smith Library will continue its mission of housing a huge collection of documents and other information relating to the history of Southwest Ohio while making them available to the public for research purposes.

The new facility has 3,490 square feet of space, which will allow for storage of more items as well as more space for patrons to conduct their research and staff to work on such needs as restoring and cataloguing old documents.

Valerie Elliott, manager of the Smith Library of Regional History, said it has been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait.

“We’ve needed more space for so long,” she said, adding that the behind-the-scenes work is not the only area benefiting from the move. “We have larger space for displays and exhibits.”

Patrons using microfilm files of newspapers will have more desk space and elbow room to be comfortable while they do their research and take notes on what they find. Computer desk space is also expanded as is table space for spreading out documents needed for research.

There is even a large bulletin board near the door for posting history-related events and programs for users to peruse.

The non-circulating research collection features books and magazines; cemetery and church records; city and township archives; club and organization records; school and business histories; maps and atlases; county histories; regional biographies; travel journals; area newspapers; historical fiction; manuscripts (letters, diaries, scrapbooks, family histories); historic photographs; and oral histories.

Elliott said some of the collection had to be stored off-site as it grew and space was limited in the former location, but she said it will all be brought into the new facility. Much of what was held off-site included large donations which had not yet been catalogued and recorded, but now the expanded space for that purpose will allow that work to proceed and those items can be made available.

“We’re unique in the system. Close to 90 percent of the items we acquire are donated,” she said. “Four major photo collections have been donated—the George Hoxie, Gilson P. Wright, Robert E. White and Frank R. Snyder collections.”

The Smith Library also includes some framed photos and art, which can now be stored in cabinets created for that purpose, she added.

The archive and work area is climate controlled to protect the old items from deteriorating further and the facility has a waterless fire suppression system so that in case of a fire, damage to the collection would be limited and the possibility of water damage would be eliminated.

Longtime Oxford residents will remember the Miami University and Western College murals on the walls of the old Miami-Western Theater. In 1988 the theatre closed and its new owner sold the murals to the Miami University Alumni Association. They were stored in various locations until 2015, when Miami donated them for permanent display by the Smith Library of Regional History. The murals were cleaned, repaired and hung by Charles Grund Decorative Arts of Cincinnati, courtesy of a grant to Smith History Library from the Robert E. White Irrevocable Trust.

They were offered to the library which will now have them on display in a raised area in the ceiling on the second floor in front of the Smith History Library.

Elliott said the murals illustrate 1930s college life in Oxford as imagined by the artists. They showcase allegorical figures with the school seal at the center of each painting.

“The Miami-Western murals do not show any diversity,” she said. “There is no representation of people of color.”

Two other pieces of art will help to offset that situation with works showing Cephas Burns and a chief of the Miami Tribe to be displayed outside the Smith Library.

The copy of a drawing by an unknown artist depicts Cephas A. Burns, a master mason whose early 20th century artistry in stone continues to distinguish the Oxford landscape today. The original drawing was rescued from the former home of Burns’ father before its 1995 demolition and later reproduced by Smith History Library.

The artist James Otto Lewis was commissioned in 1823 by the U. S. Congress to paint Indians in Indiana and Wisconsin, and did so for 15 years. The image of Mi-a-qu-a was selected by Smith History Library to illustrate the indigenous population of this region in the early 19th century.

Memories of the old Miami-Western Theater will also be stirred for many with deco furniture pieces from the “Ladies’ Powder Rooms and Gentlemen’s Lounge” of the theater as well as an ash tray stand which will be used as a planter. Those pieces were donated by Joanne McQueen.

The first Oxford Lane Library opened in 1958 on East Park Place and later moved to the College Avenue site now being closed with the move to the new South Locust Street site.

Elliott said use of the new expanded space will allow them do what they have been doing only better. Patrons will be able to do their research in more comfort with more space to move. For her, however, it will mean being able to more effectively do what she can to help answer questions or fulfill requests.

She tells the story of a man who came here from Georgia to see a Stewart High School class composite.

“We do not have a full set, but we were able to pull out the class he wanted,” Elliott said. “He came from Georgia to see the picture of his father, who had died when he was young. He had never seen a photo of his father that young.”

About the Author