Find out more about our Funeral Procession for Ohio History at Comfest on Sunday, June 28, in Columbus, Ohio.
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Thank you to everyone who has shown your support of the Ohio Historical Society’s outreach programs and sites by contacting your state Representatives and Senators about funding!
Here’s the situation:
Following years of state disinvestment in history and preservation, the Ohio Senate and Gov. Strickland have proposed drastic budget cuts for the Ohio Historical Society. Under the latest proposal from Gov. Strickland, the Society’s state budget could be reduced to as little as $7.5 million, down 45 percent from the $13.8 million just two years ago. This would represent the lowest allocation of state funding for the Society since 1986! Every area of the Ohio Historical Society is threatened:
- Dramatic cuts to the state’s 58 historic sites in every region of Ohio – funds necessary to maintain summer access and provide basic support for local site managers.
- Successful statewide outreach initiatives such as teacher training, the
- Society’s Local History Office, National History Day in Ohio and coordination of the Civil War 150 anniversary are in jeopardy.
- The Ohio Historic Preservation Office’s ability to obtain federal dollars and meet review deadlines would be affected, potentially impacting thestate’s economic development.
- The programs at the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce would be endangered.
- Programs and services at the Ohio Historical Center would be greatly diminished.
These funding cuts can be restored, but only with your help. Grab your bullhorn, telephone, or whatever you can and contact Gov. Strickland (614-466-3555) and your state legislators today and tell them to restore funding to the Ohio Historical Society.
Tomorrow may be too late, so please TAKE ACTION NOW! An e-mail or letter is good, a phone call is better. A personal visit is best.
For more details, please contact Todd Kleismit, OHS Director of Government Relations, at (614) 297-2355 or at tkleismit@ohiohistory.org.
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I am so upset to hear that the Ohio Historical Society might be closing our historical sites. Those sites do more to teach history in Ohio than all the schoolrooms in the state. We have many important historical sites when you think about all the presidents from Ohio, the Neil Armstrong Museum and the list goes on and on…Our state is rich in history and tourists are looking for places to visit with their families.
I see our adjacent states advertising in newspapers, magazines and handouts to attract tourists but Ohio seems to always be a
“pass-thru” state.
In Allen County we have a wonderful county museum that attracts thousands, yes thousands, of children every year and these children learn about Ohio history from our docents and exhibits.. It’s history that our schools do not teach and there is no where else for our children to learn the value of our ancestory…..
We had visitors from England that had read about Ohio Village and were quite disappointed they could not visit the site…
Please, please do not take away the funding needed by the Ohio Historical Society…. don’t let our citizens down and, especially, don’t let our kids down who care about our state and our country….