Visions of Northwest Ohio

Although northwest Ohio is often associated with farms, Lake Erie, and flat landscapes, the region is also home to a rich history of social activism and educational practices and institutions. This collection of exhibits focuses on the visions and voices of northwest Ohio, considering how we can and do remember public performance, journalism, and education. In "James Balwin's Passages: Themes of Race, Oppression, and Alienation" Jonathan Brownlee and Ashley Doonan consider novelist, educator, social critic, public speaker, debater, and political activist James Baldwin, who taught and gave speeches at Bowling Green State University. In "Public Memories: The Lima Post," Tammie Southall and Timothy Snyder explore how The Lima Post provided voice and identity for an African American community. The Lima Post was the only African American newspaper in Lima, Ohio and provided the community with a perspective not represented in the mainstream newspapers from 1953-1956. In "Remembering Moseley: Eccentricity, Pedagogy, Philanthropy," Brandie Bohney questions how Edwin Lincoln Moseley, the first science instructor at Bowling Green Normal College and a well-known researcher in northwest Ohio in the early 20th century, should be remembered. Each exhibit focuses on elements of voice, vision, and public memory as they have been preserved—or not—within a specific geographic region, and how those memories continue to reverberate in the present.