A Murder in Amish Ohio
Thursday, Feb. 10 | 6:30-8 p.m.
Authors David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker will discuss their new book chronicling the 1957 murder of a young Holmes County man. The so-called “Amish murder” opened a window into the private lives of the young man, his family and his community.

African American Genealogy: The Benefaction of You with Nicka Sewell-Smith
Thursday, Feb. 24 | 6:30-8 p.m.
Discover ways you can identify your free or enslaved ancestors and learn how DNA is helping families torn apart by slavery.

Fire in the Big House: America’s Deadliest Prison Disaster
Thursday, April 21 | 6:30-8 p.m.
Register at crowdcast.io/columbuslibrary closer to the event date
April 30 marks the 90th anniversary of the Ohio Penitentiary fire that killed over 300 inmates and brought international attention to the overcrowded conditions in America’s prisons. Author Mitchel P. Roth will join us to discuss his book.

Click here to see the full winter/spring schedule.

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A History of Hate in Ohio: Then and Now
Thursday, Sept. 9 | 6:30-8 p.m.
Authors Michael E. Brooks and Marilyn Howard will discuss their book, which issues a timely challenge to all Ohioans to acknowledge, understand and repudiate hate.

Green Lawn Cemetery Research Project, Part 1
Thursday, Sept. 16 | 6:30-8 p.m.
Green Lawn Cemetery Research Project, Part 2
Thursday, Sept. 30 | 6:30-8 p.m.
Learn more about – and how you can get involved in – a project underway to identify and document African American burials at Green Lawn Cemetery. Panelists: Nettie Ferguson, Doreen Uhas Sauer, Angela O’Neal

Ghost Towns of Franklin County
Thursday, Sept. 23 | 6:30-8 p.m.
Join Columbus Landmarks Foundation member Doreen Uhas Sauer and CML Special Collections Supervisor Aaron O’Donovan as they explore the ghost towns of Franklin County.

Click here to see the full fall schedule, including information about Family History Day in October.

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In honor of Black History Month, the 100,000th scanned item chronicles the proceedings from the Ohio State Christian Anti-Slavery Convention, a two-day forum held at Columbus’ First Congregational Church (444 E. Broad St.) in August 1859, just two years before the outbreak of the Civil War. In his opening address, organization president A.A. Guthrie assailed Christian embrace of slavery:

“Let Slavery be dragged from the altars of God and driven forth to fare as it may in the open field, where an outraged and indignant humanity may vindicate itself by consigning the whole system to an early and ignominious grave.”

The full document can be viewed in CML’s My History digital collection, which includes photographs, postcards, newspaper articles and other documents that help tell the story of central Ohio. It is free to access at columbuslibrary.org. CML remains closed for public browsing. However, Curbside Pickup and Walk-Up Services are available at most locations.

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