Bowling Green State University, Educational Memorabilia Center collection
Collection Overview
Abstract
The Educational Memorabilia Center collection honors Bowling Green State University’s beginnings as a state normal college or teacher training school. It features many educational artifacts, period books, photographs, and manuscript materials dating from circa 1876-1940 and documenting one-room schoolhouses in and around the Northwest Ohio region, as well as documentation dating from circa 1969-2004 relating to the creation and operation of the Educational Memorabilia Center at BGSU.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1876-2004
Extent
21.42 Cubic Feet (14 letter archive boxes, 1 legal archive box, 9 record cartons, 9 flat boxes, 2 card boxes, 1 artifact box, 1 oversize flat file, 1 loose oversize item)
Creator
Scope and Contents
This collection is comprised of two main series, the first being the records series that contains minutes, correspondence, files, literary productions, articles, news clippings, and photographs dating mostly from 1969-2004 and documenting the development of a one-room schoolhouse museum and education center (eventually named the Educational Memorabilia Center) on the campus of Bowling Green State University. Documentation features information about the schoolhouse's use, tours, classes, fundraising, donations, and future development. Additional basic research materials and primary sources relating to one-room schoolhouses in Wood County, Northwest Ohio, and other parts of the state that were collected in connection with the establishment of the Educational Memorabilia Center are also included in this series. These latter materials date from circa 1900-1999.
The second series of the collection contains educational artifacts arranged into four sub-series based on the provenance and/or historical function of the artifacts, including (1) donated or purchased artifacts, (2) teaching and testing artifacts, (3) writing artifacts, and (4) other school-related artifacts. Objects within these sub-series include penmanship booklets, textbooks, reference works, grade cards, teaching certificates, diplomas, slates, inkwells, bells, lunch pails, and various period teaching instruments, many of which were in use from 1876-1940, the approximate years the university's one-room schoolhouse operated as District School # 6, Norwalk, Ohio. Also included are over 3,000 representative volumes spanning both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Biographical / Historical
According to a brief 1996 history appearing in the program for the 20th anniversary of the Educational Memorabilia Center (EMC), President Dr. William T. Jerome and Dr. David G. Elsass, then associate dean of the College of Education and Allied Professions, proposed in 1969 to obtain and move a one-room schoolhouse to the BGSU campus to house the College of Education’s large collection of educational artifacts: maps, globes, textbooks and the like. An Advisory Committee was established to help oversee the project.
Once District #6 Schoolhouse near Norwalk, Ohio, was donated to the university by the Linder family, faculty member Daniel Heisler and his sons, Dan, Barry, and Terry (all BGSU students) volunteered to dismantle and move the building to BGSU. The schoolhouse, in operation in Huron County from 1875 until the late 1930s, was reassembled brick by brick just south of the Education Building by Rudolph Libbe and dedicated in the fall of 1976.
Fundraising efforts were initiated for the schoolhouse project. Efforts to promote the project to the community included a traveling model of the school, built by graduate art student Glen Felch. Approximately $15,000 was raised through the campaign but fell short of the projected $65,000 total. Ohio Representative, Toledoan Arthur Wilkowski, heard about the need and authored a resolution allocating $50,000 to the university's one-room schoolhouse project. This funding came from proceeds of the Ohio Lottery.
The schoolhouse is operated by the College of Education and Human Development as the Educational Memorabilia Center. The building is a popular site for visitors and includes guided tours and meeting space for school groups, seniors, civic and educational organizations, and BGSU students and their families. In 1991, the University Board of Trustees named the EMC collection for Dr. Elsass, who directed the center since its inception. Subsequently the position has been filled by a professor emeritus from the College of Education. Most recently Dr. Malcolm Campbell served as director until his death in 2008.
Since 1969 an Advisory Committee has assisted with the planning, fundraising, promotion, and enhancement of the EMC.
Conditions Governing Access
No known access restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
This collection is arranged into the following series and sub-series:
- Series: Records, circa 1900-2004 (bulk 1969-2004)
- Series: Artifacts, circa 1876-1940
- Sub-series: Donated or purchased artifacts
- Sub-series: Teaching and testing artifacts
- Sub-series: Writing artifacts
- Sub-series: Other school-related artifacts
Processing Information
This collection was initially processed and the finding aid prepared by CAC staff, circa 1980s/1990s; however, the entirety of the collection was not adequately represented in the original version of the finding aid. The collection was further processed, with the finding aid being refined and expanded and arranged into series to represent a larger segment of the collection, by CAC Head Librarian Michelle Sweetser in 2022-2023. As of June 2025, some of the artifacts within the collection remain unprocessed and are therefore not yet represented in this finding aid. Further revisions will be incorporated into the finding aid to represent these artifacts as they are processed. Researchers interested in viewing a listing of or obtaining access to artifacts not represented in this finding aid should place an inquiry with CAC staff.
Subject
- Title
- Guide to the Bowling Green State University, Educational Memorabilia Center collection
- Author
- CAC staff, Michelle Sweetser, Nick Pavlik
- Date
- circa 1980s/90s, 2022-2023, June 2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin