History Archives - State Library of Ohio

Shoot for the moon: the space race and the extraordinary voyage of Apollo 11

by James Donovan

When the alarm went off forty thousand feet above the moon’s surface, both astronauts looked down at me computer to see 1202 flashing on the […]

Rebels and underdogs: the story of Ohio rock and roll

by Garin Pirnia

From Cleveland to Cincinnati and everywhere in between, Ohio rocks. Rebels and Underdogs: The Story of Ohio Rock and Roll takes readers behind the scenes […]

Mr. President, how long must we wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the fight for the right to vote

by Tina Cassidy

An eye-opening, inspiring, and timely account of the complex relationship between leading suffragist Alice Paul and President Woodrow Wilson in the fight for women’s equality. […]

Girl in black and white: the story of Mary Mildred Williams and the abolition movement

by Jessie Morgan-Owens

The riveting, little-known story of Mary Mildred Williams–a slave girl who looked “white”–whose photograph transformed the abolitionist movement. When a decades-long court battle resulted in […]

Small town, big music: the outsized influence of Kent, Ohio, on the history of rock and roll

by Jason Prufer; foreword by Joe Walsh

Relying on oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, and original music reviews, this book explores the countercultural fringes of Kent, Ohio, over four decades. Firsthand […]

Frontier rebels: the fight for independence in the American West, 1765-1776

by Patrick Spero

The untold story of the “Black Boys,” a rebellion on the American frontier in 1765 that sparked the American Revolution. In Frontier Rebels, historian Patrick […]

The war before the war: fugitive slaves and the struggle for America’s soul from the Revolution to the Civil War

by Andrew Delbanco

Explains how fugitive slaves escaping from the South to the northern states awakened northerners to the true nature of slavery and how the Compromise of […]

Becoming

by Michelle Obama

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States. When she was a little girl, Michelle Robinson’s world was […]

Barracoon: the story of the last “black cargo”

by Zora Neale Hurston; edited by Deborah G. Plant; foreword by Alice Walker

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children […]

Why old places matter: how historic places affect our identity and well-being

by Thompson M. Mayes

The book reveals the fundamentally important yet under-recognized role old places play in our lives. While many people feel a deep-seated connection to old places […]