The Safe

Sorry - it's been a long while. Busy, busy and not much to say, I guess. Thanks to two history students prodding me, I've finally uncovered the story on the safe! (It's no longer a summer research project!). Thanks to Diebold company's 150th anniversary website (2009), the answer was easily found. According to their information, the company moved to Canton, Ohio and was named Diebold, Norris, and Co from 1874-1876. I finally had a manageable date to work from! Prior to this, I only knew it was purchased between 1864 and 1926 since the name on the safe was North-Western College.

I checked our newly transferred financial records from that time period and after skimming through everything from those years, found an entry in August 1876 for $200 for the purchase of a "new office safe". Since no more details than that are available, I'm making the leap that that is the one and same office safe that now lives in the archives reference room.

Fun photo

I ran across this fun picture in the online Chronicle from May 1959 and thought I'd share. I have no idea what the story is with it, but the picture made me smile.

On February 12 Oesterle Library hosted a party celebrating Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. The turnout was amazing and it received great local media coverage. While the majority of the items on display in the Archives Reference Room were from the special collections collection that Emily, our technical services coordinator oversees, I did find a few cool items in the College's Archives to add to the display. This was one of the items I pulled out.

One of the sons of the first president enlisted in an Ohio regiment and fought for the Union Army during the Civil War. He died of fever following the siege at Vicksburg in 1863. We have his diaries as well as some letters. This is one of the letters sent back to his family. I liked it particularly because of the stationery which says "But one flag from Ocean to Ocean."

The letter and diaries are part of our Smith Family Papers collection.