Collection Synopsis
Provenance: The Ohio Historical Society acquired the Boy Scouts of America. Central Ohio Council Photograph Collection as a gift of the council through the auspices of scout executive, Edward C. Jacobs in May 1974. Kathleen McIntyre processed the collection in November 1983.
Property rights: The Ohio Historical Society owns the property rights to this collection.
Copyrights: The council has dedicated such copyrights as it possesses in this collection to the public. Consideration of all other copyrights is the responsibility of the author and publisher.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Ohio Historical Society.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite collection name, collection number, and the Ohio Historical Society in all footnote and bibliographic references.
Historical sketch: The Boy Scouts, an organization that seeks to train boys in character and citizenship, was founded by Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell in South Africa in 1908, and brought to the U.S. by William D. Boyce in 1910, where it was incorporated on February 8, 1910. The Boy Scout national headquarters are in New York City and the country is divided into seven regions which are further divided into local councils. There are over five hundred local councils in the U.S. which govern the scouting activities in their areas. The Central Ohio Council, one of the earliest organized councils in the country, covers a nine county area. Among its many activities the local council maintains the Greenhills Reservation in Hocking County as a campground for scouts and sponsors the Scout-O-Rama, an annual gathering where Columbus area scouts exhibit their group's projects.
Source:
"Boy Scouts" - The Encyclopedia Americana
"Investment in Democracy" - Boy Scouts of America, Central Ohio Council, PA Box 479, no. 9.
Scope and content: The Boys Scouts of America. Central Ohio Council Photograph Collection consists of 114 black and white and nine color photographs spanning the years from the 1940s to 1970 and occupying one-quarter cubic foot. The photos are arranged alphabetically by subject, the majority being 8" x 10" publicity shots although there also are snapshots.
The camping photographs include color snapshots taken at Greenhills Reservation during the 1960s and depict typical scouting activities such as hiking, archery, and marksmanship. Governors Frank J. Lausche and James A. Rhodes appear in the photographs of ceremonies, none of which are identified. Annual Boy Scout jamborees, regional and national gatherings, are illustrated in folders three and four. Many of the photos are of a national jamboree at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in the late 1950s and includes pictures of Richard M. Nixon speaking at an evening ceremony at the jamboree.
The Scout-O-Rama is depicted in the photographs in folder five and scout participation in the Toys for Tots program and a field trip to the Whitehall Army Reserve Center, Columbus, Ohio, is illustrated in the pictures in folder six. The miscellaneous photographs in folder seven include shots of black scouts.
