Ohio History Center


The Ohio History Center is a history museum in Columbus, Ohio. It is the primary museum for Ohio's history, operated by the Ohio History Connection.

Attributes and history

The Ohio History Connection operates dozens of state historic sites across Ohio. Its headquarters is the 250,000-square-foot Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, a Brutalist concrete structure. Extensive exhibits cover Ohio's history from the Ice Age to the present. The Center includes state archives and library spaces, a gift shop, and administrative and educational facilities. The 1989 Smithsonian Guide to Historic America described the Center as "probably the finest museum in America devoted to pre-European history."
The society's first permanent home was in Sullivant Hall on the Ohio State University campus. The society operated a museum and library there. Later, the archives moved to the Old Governor's Mansion on Broad Street. In 1965, voters approved a bond for a new structure to be built. W. Byron Ireland designed a Brutalist building with post-tensioned concrete structures, allowing for a cantilevered design. The building remains mostly as built, including its exterior use of silo tiles made in Ohio.

Curators

The Ohio History Connection has appointed a Curator of Archaeology to oversee the museum's archaeological collection since 1894: