Bicentennial Celebration, Groovy Director…

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American Revolution, Archives, Archives Bring Good Feelings, archivist, bicentennial, Canton, findyourquest, findyourwhy, History, McKinley Presidential Library and Museum, mckinleypresidentiallibrary, Museum, ohio, Ramsayer Research Library, Research, seekthethreads, Stark County, Thenandnow, volunteer, volunteers

Thank you to Gary Brown for his very interesting Monday After article: Remembering 1976 and the Bicentennial in Stark County! The article that appears in today’s Repository features longtime volunteer at the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, Tom Haas when he was the Director of the Canton American Revolution Bicentennial Commission. He went on to take the position of Education Director at the Stark County History Center before later going on to a longtime career at WHBC Studios. Tom is in his 7th year of being a volunteer researcher in the Ramsayer Research Library. Thank you Tom for your hard work and dedication to our community.

Meet Marylou Thompson…

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archivist, Canton, Chicago, Delta College, findyourquest, findyourwhy, History, Illinois, MAPS, mckinleypresidentiallibrary, Michigan, morethanamonument, North Canton, Nursing, ohio, Research, seekthethreads, Stark County, travel, volunteers, welcome, William McKinley

Podcast

We invite our followers to get to know Marylou Thompson, one of our Research volunteers at the Presidential Library!

Marylou taking a well deserved, but short break from her duties in the McKinley Presidential Library

Marylou was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but spent much of her childhood traveling with her family. Her father was in the service, her family moved all over the United States while she and her siblings grew up. She recalls memories of her past, particularly recalling 5th grade as being one of her favorite memories. At the time, she had moved back to Ohio and was attending St. Mary’s in Painesville, Ohio. She really enjoyed school, but also loved being able to spent lots of time with her loving grandparents. She continued to move with her family until she graduated high school and started her own career path.

After high school, she attended Central Michigan University, then attended nursing school at Delta College in Saginaw, Michigan. After graduating from nursing school, she received her Bachelor’s Degree, majoring in science and business, from the University of St. Francis in Illinois. Finally, she attended graduate school and received her MBA at the University in Chicago. During her time in school and out, she worked as a nurse for many years. She found that being a caretaker was her calling and it came naturally to her.

As a nurse, she worked primarily in the ICU department of the hospital, and she kept moving up to different roles in life. She enjoyed her work so much so that she ended up working in hospital administration for some years. She wanted to do more though, and soon moved to the long term care industry until retirement.

In 2016, she moved to North Canton to be closer to her sister. She had just retired and was looking for something to do to pass the time when she stumbled upon the McKinley National Memorial one day. She remembers walking around the parks and when she saw the monument, she had to go see what it was. After she visited the monument that day, she went to our museum and asked to become a volunteer at the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum. She found something else that she loved to do and her years of being a multi-tasker and nurse gave her very valuable skills that we honor here in our library. She has volunteered with us for three years and she is an incredible asset to our team, keeping us organized and taking care of our accessions and cataloguing items.

In her spare time, she also volunteers in the library at MAPS Air museum in Green, Ohio . She loves reading various types of military books, fictional or non-fictional, and she loves to travel. She is very big on history and all about learning as much as she can from her travels and from her own experience.

One of her favorite aspects of being a volunteer here is that she is actually able to see the results of our projects and requests in a short time. Being a nurse and working in the healthcare industry, quick results weren’t easily noticed because of the varying aspects of that field, but she loves being able to see the results of hers and everyone else’s hard work. She describes her time here as not being work, it is like hanging out with friends and working together as a team. She loves what she does here and is truly a valuable resource to all who know her.

We want to thank Marylou for letting us interview her and allowing us to share her story on our social media. Our team at the McKinley Presidential Library loves being able to share stories of our volunteers with people outside of the museum and we want you to be apart of that too!

If you would like information on how to become a volunteer, be sure to private message our page or call the museum at: (330) 455-7043

Diary of a Day…

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#Team, Allies, archivist, Canton, D-Day, Diary, findyourquest, findyourwhy, France, History, Honor, mckinleypresidentiallibrary, morethanamonument, Navy, Normandy, ohio, Research, seekthethreads, Servitude, Soldiers, Stark County, United States, volunteers, welcome, William McKinley

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In honor of D-Day and those who have served us, our team at the Presidential Library would like to show our followers something special.

One of our volunteers, Rosemary Shaheen, has allowed us to digitize her husband’s diary from his time in the navy. His name was Nicholas B. Shaheen and joined the navy in 1943 right after graduating high school. During his time in the navy, he kept a diary of what he and his fellow soldiers were doing as they served. One of these entries was written as the invasion was happening, 75 years ago today. The first photo we have from the diary comes from the beginning, and it details the different locations where Nicholas was stationed. Our second photo includes details from June 4, 1944 to June 6, 1944. Above the June 6 entry, Nicholas has written “We are making history.” and has written “Joke” underneath this. He had not known how important the actions of those serving and how they would be celebrated and honored greatly.

 

We want to thank Rosemary for bringing in her husband’s diary and allowing us to share her husband’s story with our followers. We also want to give thanks to Nicholas Shaheen for his dedication and servitude to his country, as well as the rest of the soldiers who served and those who continue to serve our country.

 

“African Americans of Canton, Ohio: Treasures of Black History”

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African Americans of Canton, Archives, Book, Canton, findyourquest, findyourwhy, Geraldine Radcliffe, HallOfFameCity, History, Interview, McKinley Presidential Library, McKinley Presidential Library and Museum, morethanamonument, Nadine McIlwain, ohio, Ohio: Treasures of Black History, Process, Project, Research, seekthethreads, Stark County, Story, Treasures of Canton, welcome, Writing

Podcast 

Our team at the McKinley Presidential Library invite you to read about Nadine McIlwain and Geraldine Radcliffe, authors of “African Americans of Canton, Ohio: Treasures of Black History” and members of our local community! Our volunteer Samantha Weaver spoke to them during their time here on Saturday, May 18th while they were at the museum to promote their book and share their story of how their book came to be.

Nadine McIlwain is a former teacher, that worked at Timken Senior High School for 25 years, she was also a principal. She is a writer herself and has published books before, mainly biographies. Geraldine Radcliffe, or Gerry, has worked in healthcare most of her life. She is a history buff and has had her work published in several medical journals.

Nadine and Gerry started this project in 2004 with the idea to writing about African-American history in Stark County. After some time, they decided that was too broad and chose to shorten the goal to just the history of Canton from 1805 to present day. They then formed a committee with some important people in Canton to see if the appeal was there. People were really interested and it started to take off with different stories and research. In the end, this book celebrates legends and prominent people who lived in Canton and Stark County and finally tells their stories through a historical narrative previously untold.

Nadine wrote the manuscript for the book and had to incorporate all of the personal stories into one big story to connect them. During this 5 year process, she chose to write about the positive events and people. As a historian herself, she knows that it is not fully authentic, but during a time where everything is publicized and made to be seen in a negative light, she wanted to take a different approach. The full process of completing the book took close to 15 years to complete and get published. There is a lot of research that went into this book, from authenticating family history and stories, to identifying the people in each of the photographs. It was not an easy process, but with the help of local organizations like ourselves and the Stark County District Library, they were able to find out about the local history and prove or disprove stories. When Nadine finished with the manuscript, they were able to find a publisher to look it over. The publisher agreed to publish the book, but Nadine had to shorten the manuscript from 800,000 words only 65,000 words and 84 photographs. She mentions that this was a hard process because she loved everything she wrote and wanted to include everything. She ended up shortening it, and the book “African Americans of Canton, Ohio: Treasures of Black History” was published on April 13, 2019.

The personal process of the book was a big commitment and wasn’t easy. Both women say that it is important to get people involved because the process cannot be done alone. There are long hours of research that go into writing an accurate history book, especially when every aspect has to be proven accurate. Most stories were only spoken and passed down through the family, but were never formally written down. Every story is connected somehow and that is how people will find their own connections when reading the book. Nadine explains it as a giant spider web where one story leads to another and another and so on. You can start with one person, find out about their parents and their family and how they impacted the city just through that one person.  

One aspect that surprised both women while researching was finding out just how much history died as the result of integration and the demolition of African American neighborhoods and buildings in Canton. Gerry emphasizes how much time erases history and before it is completely gone, it should be written down somewhere. The telling of history makes you take a hard look at yourself and your own history. She asks herself “What will I leave after I die?” While she is here, she wants to leave a piece of herself to prove her existence. This book is that piece of her time here in the world.

As for future projects, both women do not believe that they will be the ones to write a Vol. II because of other ongoing projects. Nadine is working on another book herself and plans to continue writing for the rest of her life. She would like to begin writing young adult books in the future because she wants to reach out to a younger audience. As for Gerry, she also has a book in the works. Her book is about African American history vanishing as a community in Stark County and she has been in this process for the last 12 years. As we can see, there is no stopping these women and there will always be more to come from them.

We thank both of these wonderful women for coming into our museum to sell their book and tell their story. We hope that more people will be inspired and find the dedication to do as these women did and write a Vol. II or begin researching their own history so it can be passed down. Their book “African Americans of Canton, Ohio: Treasures of Black History” can be found online and also in our museum shoppe for anyone who would like to purchase it.

 

Say Hello to Sarah…

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archivist, Canton, Chick fil A, Egypt, Environment, Family, findyourquest, findyourwhy, GlenOak, Hall of Fame, high school, History, Malone University, mckinleypresidentiallibrary, morethanamonument, ohio, parade, Requests, Research, seekthethreads, Stark County, Taggarts, travel, volunteers, welcome, William McKinley

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Sarah Buchtel – Research Coordinator

We invite our followers to get to know Sarah Buchtel, our Research Coordinator volunteer at the McKinley Presidential Library!

Sarah is a Stark County native. She grew up down the road from Taggarts and remembers going there all the time with her family. Some of her favorite memories as a kid was going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame parade. Her family would get up really early and go to Mary Ann Donuts for breakfast before setting up their seats to watch the parade. When she was about 6, her family moved to Plain Township, where she had a nice home with a big backyard to play in.

As for schooling, she went to Clarendon Elementary, moved to Frazer, and completed her elementary education at Taft Elementary school all in Canton, Ohio. She went to Glenoak High School and graduated in 2002. During high school, she worked at Chick-fil-A, and wanted to continue working there during college. She attended Malone University as a history major for a year, but found it hard to work while going to school. She worked at Chick-fil-A for 12 years and has been at her current job for the past 9 years. She works as a manager of a family owned business, Affordable Uniforms, near the Cuyahoga region.

When she is not working or volunteering, she loves to travel with her family and friends. Every 2 years, Sarah and her best friend plan a road trip to go places neither of them have visited. One of her favorite places to go when traveling is Walt Disney World Resort and she enjoys spending time riding the roller coasters and enjoying the Florida sun.

She loves to learn and enjoys reading about ancient Egyptian history. Sarah became interested in ancient Egyptian history, at a young age, and that continues to be one of her passions. Her grandmother used to read lots of books by the same author and many of the book covers included scenes or drawings of Egypt. In the future, she plans to hopefully travel with an archaeologist to Egypt and explore her passion.

Sarah started as a volunteer in the McKinley Presidential Library last September after one of her friends invited her to visit her while she was volunteering. She had always wanted to be a volunteer, but never had the time due to work constraints. After visiting her friend and seeing the Presidential Library for the first time, Sarah arranged her work schedule to make some time to volunteer.

Sarah loves how welcoming the environment in the library is. She finds learning about the other volunteers interesting because many of them have worked in different careers, but each found themselves in the same place because of their shared love of history and Stark County.

Sarah’s role in the Presidential Library is to go through all of the research requests that people submit to us using our online form. Occasionally she receives a written request through the regular mail that is difficult to answer.

She invites more people to become volunteers. The more people volunteering, the more projects can be completed and new projects can be started.

Sarah wants more people to understand how important history is and why it should be preserved. She finds it important for others to recognize the good and bad of history and how to learn from the past instead of romanticizing about how life used to be.

We want to thank Sarah for letting us interview her and allow us to share her story on our social media. Our team at the McKinley Presidential Library loves being able to share stories of our volunteers with people outside of the museum and we want you to be apart of that too!

If you would like information on how to become a volunteer, be sure to private message our page or call the museum at: (330) 455-7043

 

morethanamonument, mckinleypresidentiallibrary, William McKinley, high school, volunteers, archivist, ohio, canton, welcome, history, findyourwhy, findyourquest, seekthethreads, Malone University, Chick fil A, Stark County, Environment, Research, Requests, Egypt, travel, Taggarts, Hall of Fame, parade, family, GlenOak,

The day in the life…

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Canton, Genealogy, McKinley Presidential Library, President McKinley, Research

The Mckinley Presidential Library has been monumentally busy. We sometimes have three or four research parties at once! Some people are interested in visiting the Presidential Library, and others who are researching Stark County. Genealogy questions have been very busy lately. Many people are looking for a connection, or a link to President McKinley. The day starts out viewing the first picture, looking to the left, and then looking right reveals the monument to the man who called Canton, Ohio home.