There is a new digital archives website available from The Sherman Room at the Mansfield Richland County Public Library. There are postcard images, photographs, school newspapers, Civil War Letters and, for the first time, digital copies of school yearbooks. This is just the beginning. In the future, we will be adding many more materials from our collection to the archive. There is also a feature where you can contribute your own items to the “Digital Community Scrapbook” and share items through many social media platforms.
Along with coin and stamp collecting, Deltiology, or postcard collecting, is one of the largest collectible hobbies in the world. Postcards are popular because of the wide range of subjects, from historical buildings, famous people, art, holidays and more. These images can be used to help trace the history of a place and show what buildings and people were important to a community at that time. This collection shows various scenes from Mansfield and Richland County, Ohio, the dates ranging primarily from 1890-1920. There are currently almost 300 images, with more to come.
North Main Street, 1913 flood–near intersection with 5th Street. Second Hand store, (left) was located at 178 N. Main.
This collection of Mansfield and Richland County images represents photographs dating back to the late nineteenth century. Included are historic views of Mansfield, including downtown and industrial areas. This collection is small and still growing and there are more images available on our page on the Cleveland Memory Project. These, along with many others, will be on the new site in the future.
This collection currently contains yearbooks for Mansfield Senior High School up to the year 1961. Thanks to the Mansfield local schools, we have been given permission to digitize up to the year 2000 and will also include digital versions of Malabar High School. St. Peter’s High School has also agreed to allow digital versions of their yearbooks to be available.
Currently St. Peter’s High School’s newspaper, The Key, from 1963-1970 is available online. This covers the years when the school did not produce a yearbook. Later newspapers from John Simpson, Johnny Appleseed, Malabar High School and Mansfield Senior High will be added.
This collection contains the Civil War Letters of the Cummins Brothers. George and Abraham Cummins were no different than the hundreds of thousands of other young men who answered the call of the President to restore the Union that had been torn apart by the American Civil War. Both brothers were members of Co. I of the 15th Ohio Volunteer Infantry–a group organized by their father, William, and made up primarily of young men from the Shelby area. Happily, both men survived the war and returned to Richland County to continue their lives.
Finally, we have recently added a feature were you are able to submit your own images. After they are approved by our administrator, the images will be available for anyone to see through the website. Not only can images be submitted, you can also share a story or memory you have of Mansfield from the past. Help us share the story of our community.
The site is searchable:
In order to search the yearbooks, select Advanced Search by selecting the three dots next to the search bar at the top right of the page. Enter the name of the person you are searching in the Search for Keywords field and select Mansfield High School Annual – 1907-1923 or The Manhigan 1924-present under Search by Collection. This will display a list of annuals that person appears in. After you click on the desired yearbook you can search again, at the top right of the screen, to find the exact page where they are listed. As of today on up to 1942 is searchable, but the other volumes will be added shortly.
In order to search the St. Peter’s Newspapers, select Advanced Search by selecting the three dots next to the search bar at the top right of the page. Enter the name of the person you are searching in the Search for Keywords field and select The Key News – St. Peter’s High School under Search by Collection. This will display a list of issues that person appears in. After you click on the desired issue you can view the entire issue by clicking on the image of the front page.
I hope you enjoy this new resource.
The Sherman Room at MRCPL 