Schools | The Sherman Room at MRCPL

According to NPR, the school yearbook can be traced back to George K. Warren (1832-1884). When technology had advanced to be able to make many copies of a photo from a single negative, Warren convinced college students to buy many images and share them with their friends at school. People would then bind these images together and make fancy albums. These would later evolve into the yearbook we know today.

Before this and, up until the early 1900s, autograph books were popular among high school and college students. The books would be filled with poems, drawings, and personal messages to the owner. There are a few of these books in the archives of the Sherman Room. One belonged to Charlotte Boyne Parker (b. 1823), the daughter of Judge Jacob Parker of Mansfield. Charlotte’s mother was Elizabeth Sherman, the sister of Charles R. Sherman. This made Charlotte a cousin to John Sherman.

Below are some of the images from this book. Included is the page signed by Lampson P. Sherman, who was one of the founders of De Moines, Iowa and John Sherman’s brother. Below the images is a list of the yearbooks available at the Sherman Room.

If you are looking for yearbooks outside of Richland County try the Ohio Genealogical Society (https://www.ogs.org/ogs_library/yearbook_collection.php) in Bellville. They have a collection of high school and university yearbooks from all across the state.

We are always looking for donations to fill in the gaps in our collection.

Yearbooks

High Schools

Mansfield High School
1908-1974, 1977, 1979-2017

Bellville High School
1939, 1941, 1942, 1946-1949, 1963

Butler High School
1959-1963

Clear Fork High School
1965-1967, 1969, 1971-1974, 1976-1988, 1990-2017

Crestview High School
1973, 1978-2017

Lexington High School
1938-1942, 1944-1967, 1971-2002, 2004-2016

Lucas High School
1943, 1946, 1949-1956, 1958, 1960-1964, 1967, 1975-2017

Madison High School
1928, 1930-1932, 1937-1939, 1943-1957, 1959-1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978-1988, 1990-2000, 2003-2017

Malabar High School
1964-1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1979-1982, 1984-1986, 1988, 1989

Mansfield Christian
1972, 1974-1979, 1982-2002, 2005-2017

Mansfield Senior High – Cline Ave. Campus
1991-1995

Mansfield School of Technology
1967-1969

Ontario High School
1965-1969, 1973-1975, 1977, 1978, 1980-1999, 2001-2016

Pioneer Career and Technology Center
1988, 1990, 1991, 2007-2017

Plymouth High School
1933, 1937-1939, 1941, 1943, 1947, 1949-1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1977-2000, 2005, 2007-2017

St. Peters High School
1941-1959, 1968-2000, 2002-2016

Shelby High School
1930, 1946-1964, 1966-1971, 1973-1979, 1982-2002, 2004-2017

Shiloh High School
1942, 1949, 1954

Springfield Township School (The Echo)
1932, 1935-1948, 1951-1961, 1963, 1966

Temple Christian
1978, 1982-1984, 1986, 1987, 1989-1995, 1997-1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007-2017

Union High School
1941, 1944, 1953, 1956

Elementary/Middle Schools

Discovery School
2000

Dowds Elementary
1964, 1966-1970, 1972, 1978

Eastern Elementary
1987

John Sherman Junior High
1965, 1966, 1968, 1971-1983, 1987-1989

John Simpson Junior High
1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2005

Lexington Junior High
1963, 1965-1967, 1970

Malabar Middle School
1990-1995, 2004-2010

Mansfield Middle School
2011

Ontario Junior High
1965, 1968, 1970, 1985

Woodville School
1962

Other

Mansfield School of Nursing
1947, 1950, 1957-1981

In 1908 A. J. Baughman wrote in his History of Richland County that “The first schoolhouse built in Mansfield was a frame building, paid for by subscription, and cost two hundred dollars. It was situate on East Fourth street near the big spring. This was in 1818. What a change between then and now. Mansfield now has ten school buildings, containing two hundred and ten rooms, with a valuation of $449,310” (pg. 10).

Adding that in 1908 the city had a “high school building costing $150,000 and eight modern ward school buildings, with a corps of one hundred and eight teachers and two thousand eight hundred and sixty-three pupils. The modern kindergarten building of the state. A model of this building was made by the Ohio commission for the Jamestown exposition, for exhibition at the exposition as the model of Ohio kindergarten buildings, and is now part of the permanent educational exhibit at the Ohio State University at Columbus” (pg. 77)