Blog

Be sure to check out the Oberlin Heritage Center Blog for new and continued research by our staff, volunteers and interns!

History Features

Whet your appetite for history with these snippets of Oberlin's past.  Note: You will need Adobe Reader to view many of these documents.

• Oberlin Inventors
• Oberlin Buildings
• Women's History in Oberlin
• Community Celebrations
• 19th Century Oberlin
• 20th Century Oberlin
• Environment

Oberlin Inventors

• Moses Fleetwood Walker: A Depiction of His Notable and Innovative Inventions – Oberlin Heritage Center history feature, by intern and OC student Wesley Patterson
• Thaddeus Cahill: The Start of the Electronic Music Era – Oberlin Heritage Center history feature, by intern and OC student Wesley Patterson
• Oberlin Inventors – Oberlin Heritage Center history feature

Oberlin Buildings

• Historic Oberlin Today – Download this series from the Oberlin News-Tribune that highlights landmarks of Oberlin's history.
• Oberlin Then and Now database – View records of buildings that have dissappeared from the Oberlin streetscape.  This archive is a work in progress.  If you have stories or information about these buildings, we would love to add it to our records. 
• Online Oberlin Landmarks, Monuments, and Markers listings
• Parlor Project – Learn about the physical renovation of the Monroe House parlor to match the taste and receipts of Julia Finney Monroe.
• Burrell-King House – Explore the history of the families that lived in this building listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Women's History in Oberlin

• Women’s History in Oberlin – Oberlin Heritage Center history feature
• Oberlin Women in Medicine – History feature about women involved in health and medicine from the 19th century to today

Community Celebrations

• Juneteenth in Oberlin – Oberlin Heritage Center history feature
• Oberlin’s Independence Day – Oberlin Heritage Center history feature

19th Century Oberlin

• The Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes – Oberlin Heritage Center feature on the Civil War, by Richard Donegan
• The Capture of La Amistad – Oberlin Heritage Center history feature
• Charles Finney in Oberlin – Oberlin Heritage Center feature, by intern and OC student César Palacio
• Hiram Alonzo Pease: The Legend of a Principled Abolitionist – Oberlin Heritage Center feature on the Civil War, by Richard Donegan
• John Mercer Langston: Educator and Statesman – Oberlin Heritage Center feature 
• The Musical History of Oberlin – Oberlin Heritage Center feature, by intern and OC student César Palacio
• Oberlin Civil War Soldiers Database – Excel database of Civil War participants, by Richard Donegan
• The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue 1858 – Oberlin Heritage Center history feature on the famous rescue of freedom seeker John Price
• The 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at The Battle of Kernstown – Oberlin Heritage Center feature on the Civil War, by Richard Donegan
• The Squirrel Hunters: Citizen Soldiers and the Defense of Ohio in the Civil War – Oberlin Heritage Center feature on the Civil War, by Richard Donegan
• Sylvester Graham and his Influence on Daily Life in Oberlin – Oberlin Heritage Center feature on early diet reform in Oberlin, by intern and OC student Rebecca Posner

20th Century Oberlin

• Citizens vs. The City: Reexamining the Events of May 8, 1970 – Oberlin Heritage Center feature by 2016-2017 AmeriCorps Member Mary Manning, Ph.D.
• Discrimination at the Oberlin Bowling Alleys: Racial Discrimination through "Morality" Rhetoric in 1934 - Oberlin Heritage Center feature by Oberlin College Winter Term Intern Cal Ransom
• Liquor in Oberlin after Prohibition's Repeal - Oberlin Heritage Center feature by Cal Ransom (OC 2023)
• Memories of Oberlin College in the 1940s – Jim Sunshine (OC 1949) reflects on Oberlin of the 1940s
• Moon Memories – Eight memories shared in 2019 about the 1969 moon landing
• The Northern Ohio Telephone Company Picket of 1963 – Oberlin Heritage Center feature by volunteer Alex Shaver
• Racial Progress at Oberlin College, 1940-1946 – An article by Oberlin College Archivist Emeritus William Bigglestone discussing race relations at Oberlin College during the years 1940-1946
• Alcines Clair Siddall, M.D. – Oberlin Heritage Center feature, by Leadership Lorain County intern Michelle Myers
• The Siddall Family - Life in China (1923-1932) & Growing Up In Oberlin (1933-1953) – Family history and reminiscences by Lawrence B. Siddall, whose father was a medical missionary and later OB/GYN in Oberlin
• Wilkins, Ernest Hatch and World War II – "How Axis Expansionism and the Second World War Affected Oberlin College President Ernest Hatch Wilkins' Beliefs on Peace and How to Achieve It" paper by OC Student Jeremiah Slack-Welles, 2019
• World War I Soldiers – Published lists of participants in World War I

Environment

• Lorain County, Ohio Ecological History Guide – Overview of major shifts in agricultural and social changes that have impacted animal species of Ohio