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"Among the Northern states, Ohio was third behind New York and Pennsylvania in the number of men who served during the Civil War" (OHS 1995). Ohio's commitment to the war was indeed impressive. Ohio was home to some of the era's most powerful military and political leaders. Consider for example:
All number among Ohio's native sons. The fact that the Southern state of Virginia lay just across the Ohio River (until 1863 when the state of West Virginia was officially formed), added great urgency to Ohio's commitment of men, money and materials. Ohio sent an incredible 194 infantry units-numbering approximately 1,000 men each-to the Civil War (Dornbusch 1962), and suffered 35,475 deaths, second only to New York state (Lossing 1994). Included in General Sherman's March to the Sea were no fewer than 50 Ohio Infantry regiments (Cox 1882). In fact, a simplified summary of the war's conclusion reveals that General Sheridan's Cavalry succeed in getting around the flank of General Lee's army at Appomattox Court House, trapping it between Sheridan's army in the West and Grant's Army of the Potomac in the East. Just a few weeks later General Sherman captured Johnson's army at Durham Station, North Carolina, effectively ending the war. In effect, these three Ohio Generals, Grant, Sheridan and Sherman, were directly responsible for bringing the Civil War to a conclusion. Needless to say, this level of involvement has generated a correspondingly large body of literature about Ohio's role.
I plan for this library to be the primary source for Civil War Ohio research, and as such, it will need to hold a comprehensive collection. This collection could be identified by systematically cross-referencing the following Civil War Ohio bibliographies:
These books enumerate a detailed list of primary materials in all formats (except for realia, and these would be more in the scope of a museum holding). The list generated by the combination of these two bibliographies would need to be brought up to date by electronic database searches of Ohio Civil War materials limited by the years from 1962 to the present. This would identify all new primary and reference items relevant to my special collection. Another source for identifying contemporary journal articles is the Guide to Civil War Periodicals (Merideth 1991), which indexes all articles in seven contemporary Civil War journals. Once this bibliography is compiled, it will list the complete collected literature on the native sons (listed on page one of this report), as well as all the regimental histories of Ohio infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Also included would be all journal and newspaper articles, as well as addresses, sermons, and political speeches that pertain to the build-up and waging of the war, as well as reconstruction afterward. The context of the war is the key to understanding its historical perspective. Thus, for the Civil War researcher, accounts of life on the home front may prove to be as valuable as accounts of life on the front line.
While the Civil War era occurred a scant 140 years ago-an extremely short span as rare books go-this area has spawned quite a number of valuable rarities. The Confederate imprints are on the average more valuable than the Union ones for a variety of reasons: smaller initial printing runs, fewer copies have survived the tumultuous damage done to the South, and an apparent greater demand for the literature. All three of these elements have combined to increase the value of Confederate imprints.
It must be stated that, unlike many of the great works of history, many of the books we now covet in the literature of the Civil War were rather modest enterprises when originally written. This is especially true of the regimental histories, which were really written more in the tradition of a college yearbook, designed to be informally passed around at regimental reunions after the war. We now regard them for what they represent to us: colorful primary sources that offer glimpses of the war in the myopic view of the common soldier. They often make a fascinating supplement to the more scholarly histories of the era. In the Ohio Civil War literature, the following items constitute works that are both rare and historically valuable, and as such, represent highlights of my collection:
1. Sherman, William T., 1820-1886. Correspondence between General W.T. Sherman, U.S. Army and Major General W.S. Hancock, U.S. Army &c. &c. St. Paul, Minn :[s.n.]., 1871. 35 p. ; 25 cm. plain wrapper.
[OCLC: 7 holding libraries, OHS: stored in vault]
2. Pike, James, 1834-1867. Scout and Ranger; BEing the Personal Adventures of James Pike of the Texas Rangers in 1859-1860. Cincinnati & New York : J. R. Hawley & Co., 1865., first edition, first issue. cloth, 8 vo., xi, 19-394 p incl. 24 pl. front. (port.) plates. 22 cm; if port [a mounted photo] with hair parted on the left errata lf: $1000-3000; issue 2 no errata lf hair in port [not a mounted photo] parted on right: $600-1000.(Howes 1994); $850 (Bookman's Price Index 1987)
"...this account of a Federal Soldier's varied and unusual experiences contains many authenticated facts and much color" (Nevins 1967).
Note: James Pike was a scout and spy for the 4th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and served under Generals Mitchell, Rosecrans, Stanley, Lytle, Thomas, Crook, and Sherman.
[OCLC: 22 holding libraries, OHS: stored in vault, State Library: stored in rare book room]
3. Pepper, Capt. George Whitfield, 1833-1899. Personal Recollections of Sherman's Campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas. Zanesville, Ohio : Hugh Dunne, 1866. first edition. cloth. 8 vo. 522 p. 21cm. cover embossed with gold Victorian design, cover edges embossed with decorative Victorian design, inscribed by author.
"The highly revealing and reliable recollections of a journalist who served simultaneously as an officer in the 80th Ohio and a newspaper field correspondent" (Nevins 1967).
"One of the best narratives by a Union soldier" (Howes 1994)
[OCLC: 17 holding libraries, Value: $200-300 (Seagrave 1995)]
4. Barbiere, Joe, ( -1895). Scraps from the Prison Table, at Camp Chase and Johnson's Island. Doylestown. Pa.: W. W. Davis, 1868. cloth. 8 vo. vi p., 1 l., [9]- 397 p. front. with 8 full page illustrations, 22.5 cm. bios of other prisoners.
"...contains much on daily life, mainly at Johnson's Island" (Nevins 1967)
"The appendix contains the roster of prisoners confined at Johnson's Island, and exchanges in September 1862" (Ryan 1911)
[OCLC: 11 holding libraries, State Library: stored in rare book room, Value: $375-450 (Seagrave 1995)]
5. Hinman, Wilbur F. The Story of the Sherman Brigade. Alliance, Ohio : published by author, 1897. cloth. Large 8 vo. xxxii, 33-1104 p. illus. ports. (incl. front) 23.5 cm. gold embossed title on front cover with graphics of crossed swords, stacked muskets, & an artillery piece, embossed stars & bars top & bottom front cover, gold embossed titles on spine, hundreds of photographs of brigade members.
"...one of the top ten narratives by a Federal Soldier, a necessity for any study of the Western theater" (Nevins 1967)
"...The most elaborate, and one of the best literary productions relating to Ohio regiments." (Ryan 1911).
[OCLC: 16 holding libraries, Value: $250 (Seagrave)]
6. Herold, David E., (1844-1865), defendant. The Conspiracy Trial for the murder of the President. Poore, Edited with an introduction by Ben Perley Poore, 1865 [1866]. duodecimo. 3 v: 480; 552; 552., very rare.
"Only unexpurged transcript. Most copies of volume 3 destroyed by fire" (Howes 1994)
[Value: $1000-3000 (Howes 1994), State Library: stored in rare book room]
7. United States Sanitary Commission. Our Acre and its Harvest : Historical Sketch of the Soldier's Aid Society of Northern Ohio. Cleveland Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission. Cleveland : Fairbanks, Benedict & Co., 1869. cloth xiii p., 1l., 17-511 p. illus. (plan) plates map ; 24 cm.
"Every historical detail is given...A complete knowledge of what Ohio did in the war cannot be related until one has read the history of the work of the Cleveland Branch of the U. S. Sanitary Commission." (Ryan 1911)
[OCLC: 14 holding libraries, State library: stored in rare books room]
The list of important regimentals and other primary works essential to this collection is just too lengthy to be included here. The collection would of course include first editions of the personal memoirs of the great generals: Grant (1885-86), Sherman (1875), Sheridan (1888), and Cox (1900); and the politicians: Chase (1874) and Stanton (1905). The researcher is closest to the thoughts of the writer/historical figure when he examines first editions or manuscripts. Surprising enough, none of these memoirs are regarded as expensive rare books, even though their historical value is unquestioned.
Besides books, my collection will number primary source articles taken from journals published both in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Dornbusch (1962) bibliography conveniently lists all relevant books and journal articles that pertain to a given Ohio military organization. This book is the equivalent to a regiment by regiment bibliography. The most often cited historical periodicals for primary Ohio materials include: Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Ohio Historical Quarterly, Firelands Pioneer, Department of Ohio GAR, United States Service Magazine, Magazine of American History, Harper's Magazine, Magazine of History, National Tribune, Civil War History, Northwest Ohio Quarterly, Magazine of Western History, Century Magazine, North American Review, Blue and Gray, and Battles and Leaders. Contemporary publications that serve as public forums and excellent scholarly articles on all aspects of the Civil War include (Merideth 1991): America's Civil War, Civil War Magazine, Blue & Gray Magazine, Civil War Times, Illustrated, Gettysburg Magazine, Military History Magazine, and Morningside Notes. A comprehensive Ohio Civil War collection would have to include access to all of these publication, whether it be in bound periodical form, microform, or perhaps in the near future, through the National Digital Library. The challenge presented in collecting this large body of periodical literature will be addressed in the following section.
An annual list of desiderata distributed to the friends, collectors, donors, submitted via newsletter or Web page can be an effective method for building the collection. The primary Civil War collection for Ohio, the Ohio Historical Society Archives Library Division, has been built in part on donations of large Civil War book collections from private collectors (Arnold 1996). This type of collection building is self-propelling, and demonstrates that once a curator is successful in securing several large donations from collectors, "other benefactors follow suit in selecting the same institution as the favored repository for their own treasures" (Brewer 1961, 456). This type of gift from a donor is often the product of a long-term relationship between benefactor and curator. In fact, it behooves the curator of the special collection to make his collection known to each and every person who has an interest in its subject area.
A Web site designed to represent faithfully the breadth, spirit and style of the collection is a wonderful tool for promoting the use and awareness of the collection. The startling convenience and immediacy of this shared network of information is simply too compelling to be ignored:
If this statement is a little to the left of hyperbole for some, one can as least allow that the Web can now be considered a ubiquitous reference source. The type of two-way electronic communication it affords can serve many of the library's goals. These functions could include: lists of desiderata, hours of operation, access policies, invitations and forms to join the "friends of the library", collection scope descriptions, hyper-links to other institutions that may have more appropriate research materials, donation procedures, and e-mail addresses to directly communicate with a reference librarian, to name but a few. An active Friends organization can provide benefits that are practically unlimited (Brewer 1961). This is more work for the curator, but it is well worth the extra effort.
There are literally thousands of reference materials available for the Civil War collection. The specific list for the Ohio Civil War literature is relatively small but quite effective. The following short list will cover most reference questions quite nicely:
1. A Guide to the Microfiche edition of Civil War unit histories. Part 4, The Union--Midwest and West : regimental histories and personal narratives. compiled by Blair D. Hydrick, project editor Robert E. Lester. Bethesda, MD : University Publications of America, 1994.
2. Dornbusch, C. E. Regimental Publications & Personal Narratives of the Civil War., vol I Northern States, PART V Indiana and Ohio. New York : The New York Public Library, 1962.
3. Dyer, Frederick Henry, 1849-1917. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. New York : T. Yoseloff, 1908. 3 vol.
4. Guide to Civil War Periodicals, compiled by Lee W. Merideth. Twentynine Palms, CA : Historical Indexes, 1991.
5. Harper, Robert S. Ohio Handbook of the Civil War. Columbus, OH : Ohio Historical Society, 1961.
6. Nevins, Allan, and James I. Robertson, Jr., and Bell I Wiley. Civil War Books A Critical Bibliography. Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 1967. 2 vol.
7. Ohio Roster Commission. Official Roster of the Soldiers of the state of Ohio in the War on the Rebellion, 1861-1865, compiles under the direction of the Roster commission. Akron : Werner co., 1886-95. 12 vol.
8. Reid, Whitelaw. Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Her Generals, and Soldiers. Cincinnati : Moore, Wilstach, & Baldwin, 1868. 2 vol.
9. Ryan, Daniel Joseph. The Civil War Literature of Ohio, a bibliography with explanatory and historical notes. Cleveland : Burrow Brothers co., 1911.
10. United States War Department. The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War. by George B. Davis, Leslie J. Perry, Joseph W. Kirkley ; complied by Calvin D. Cowles. Washington DC : Government Printing Office, 1891-1895.
11. United States War Department. War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington DC : Government Printing Office, 1880- 1901. 70 vol.
However, special collections do sometimes "lend rare books, manuscripts, and other rarities for exhibitions throughout the country and abroad" (Dunlar 1990, 430). This type of collaboration between special collections libraries is essential in many areas of operations: cataloguing, microfilming of materials, the issuance of "alerts" on lost or stolen materials, and so on. In addition, the "favor" may have occasion to be returned in the form of an exhibition in the lender's library. Great precautions need to be adhered to when lending rare and valuable materials. The borrower must submit a request with lead time of six months, a cover letter that fully describes the exhibition's scope, and a full description of the facilities for the exhibition. Many issues need to be mapped out before the loan is made: insurance coverage, packing and shipping, levels of lighting that the objects will be exposed to, and atmospheric controls in the host exhibit.
A collection such as this will attract a very wide range of users with differing educational backgrounds. It is important that the organization of these materials be intellectually accessible to the least common-denominator in terms of researching skills-in this case probably the genealogist. Indeed, some historical research libraries have reported being "nearly overwhelmed by the needs of relatively unsophisticated adult users" (Keller 1983, 113). If this group is not accounted for, the sheer magnitude of reference questions regarding collection organization could completely monopolize the time of the reference staff.
Access to my special collection will be restricted from the balance of the library by a locked door. The user will be admitted by a staff member who will present the rules of the library: leave all personal belongings in a locker, sign name in the patron book, and examine only one item at a time. In the case of manuscripts, only one file folder or document box may be viewed at a time. At all times, at least one staff member must be present with the patron who is researching. With a little tact, I think most patrons can be convinced of the need for these types of restrictions. The rare book library does want to encourage patron use/research as much as possible, but collection preservation will necessarily take precedence over the convenience of the patron.
The decor of the special collection setting can greatly enhance the perception of the library's worth. One author notes that an appropriately stylized interior design can "evoke the cultural life and the intellectual world that surrounded an author or the subject of a collection" (Bidwell 1983, 104). I can personally attest to the profound impression created by the Elizabethan exhibit hall in the Folger Library, and can readily imagine the emotive power of Lincoln's desk in the Lilly, or the eighteenth-century decor and Reynolds reproductions in the Houghton Library. These etherial settings are not only effective for readers and staff, but serve as the ideal venue for entertaining friends of the library and donors. The stylized decor can be effective on a more modest level as well. My library may simply display regimental flags, Civil War swords, period maps, or the Union and Confederate flags to set the appropriate mood.
As with a book agent, the special collect curator has to establish a working and trusting relationship with the resident conservator (if he is lucky enough to have one on staff). The curator-conservation officer perspective is essentially different. The curator sees the collection as a whole and as such sees each item in it perspective, that is, the item is valuable because it is an essential element of a series or a collection. The conservation officer see each item individually without benefit of context. His job is to attend to the preservation needs of each discrete item. Therefore, the preservation work that is actually carried out will need to be a blend of the perspectives of both professionals.
The atmospheric conditions needed to best preserve rare books are well documented A temperature of between 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and a humidity of around 40% are generally agreed to be optimal. If the humidity is too high, paper tends to mold; if it's too low it becomes brittle and tends to fall apart.
Bidwell, John. 1983. Rare books for research: Separately housed collections. Wilson Library Bulletin 58 (October 1983) : 102-106.
Bookman's Price Index. 1987. edited by D. F. McGrath. Detroit : Gale Research co.
Brewer, Frances J. 1961. Friends of the library and other benefactors and donors. Library Trends 9 (April 1961) : 453-465.
Cox, Jacob D. 1882. The March to the Sea. New York : Scribner's Sons.
Dornbusch, C. E. 1962. Regimental Publication & Personal Narratives of the Civil War. vol. 1 Northern States, PART V Indiana and Ohio. New York : The New York Public Library.
Dunlar, Ellen S. 1990. Guidelines for borrowing special collection materials for exhibition. College and Research Libraries 51 (May 1990) : 430-434.
Howes, Wright. 1994. The final edition (of U.S.iana). edited by William E. Hartlet, III. Pine Mountain, GA : WHR books.
Keller, William. 1983. Special collections: The museum setting. Wilson Library Bulletin 58 (October 1983) : 111-114.
Lossing, Benson J. 1994. Mathew Brady's Illustrated History of the Civil War. New York, Avenel, NJ : Gramercy Books.
Merideth, Lee W. 1991. Guide to Civil War Periodicals. Twentynine Palms, CA : Historical Indexes.
Nevins, Allan, James I. Robertson, Jr., and Bell I. Wiley. 1967. Civil war books a critical bibliography. Baton Rouge, LA : Louisiana State University Press.
O'Donnell, James J. T. 1995. The new liberal arts. ARL Newsletter 183 (December 1995) : 1-4.
Ohio Historical Society Fact Sheet: Civil War Guide Project. March 22, 1995.
Ryan, Daniel J. 1911. The Civil War literature of Ohio. Cleveland : Burrow Brothers co.
Seagrave, Ronald Roy. 1995. Civil War books, Confederate and Union. Fredericksburg, Va. : Sergeant Kirkland's Museum and Historical Society.
