Knox County Historical Society President Mark Ramser told the Knox County Board of Commissioners on July 23 that they have gained a "roommate" at its Harcourt Road location with the Knox County Genealogical Society moving into space in the museum building,
"They've given us their collection, and they're going to have some research base there. Now we have to integrate their collections into ours. That's big, and they're going to continue as with their separate organization charter that they have. But there was a room in the back, which was more or less a storage room, and so we moved quite a few things from that room to our back building, and got them all set up," according to Ramser in a video recording of the board's meeting.
Ramser introduced Michael Sherfy as the new museum director who started late last year, succeeding Jim Gibson who had held the position for almost 27 years. Sherfy also works full time at the public library in adult services as a reference librarian. His immediate priority has been organizing the Historical Society's collection. Sherfy said his work at the library includes local history presentations and a reminiscence roundtable where people are invited to share memories from the area's past. As Sherfy's schedule at the library is flexible, he said that regular operating hours for the Historical Society were maintained: open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m., starting in early March until about Thanksgiving each year, according to a video recording.
Ramser said Gibson did many special projects while Sherfy's focus is on getting things better organized within the Historical Society's collections. Organizing will include deaccessioning items not related to Knox County history and improving documentation through this process, according to a video recording.
Sherfy said not much visible change can be seen yet at the museum since most work has been done behind the scenes. A grant was obtained for equipment to digitize photos in the collections. One main request made of the Historical Society is for photos of buildings in the area—often coming from local organizations such as the chamber of commerce. Digitizing these photos will make them accessible for public viewing. The museum holds many photographs including those by old downtown Mount Vernon photographers and Virgil Shirley’s archive of oversized negatives requiring special equipment for digitization, according to a video recording.
Sherfy also said an ongoing project with Kenyon College to digitize newspapers has slowed, but training is underway for him and a volunteer on using specialized equipment needed for this effort. The Historical Society maintains microfilm archives of Mount Vernon News while other county newspapers may be available through local libraries, according to a video recording.
