Ohio Society Sons of the American Revolution Collection (OSSAR) (MS-272)

The Ohio Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Collection consists of various records pertaining to the organization and its numerous chapters. It is arranged into ten series. Membership, meeting information, and financial records make up the bulk of the collection.

Series I, Applications for Membership, consists of 42 volumes of application records that date from 1889 to 2001, there are also lose membership applications that date from 2006 to 2018. There are also undated volumes in this series.

Series II, Yearbooks, contains OSSAR yearbooks dating from 1997 to 2012, with one from 1898. The information in these yearbooks includes officer lists, meeting minutes, reports, and chapter summaries.

Series III, Publications, consists of a variety of information published by OSSAR, including chapter newsletters and the state newsletter, The Bulletin, announcements, reports, articles, and handbooks. There are older hardbound volumes of SAR bulletins, yearbooks, and registers. There are eleven volumes of the national SAR bulletin, Minute Man, spanning the years 1920 – 1934. There are also national SAR yearbooks from 1895 and 1900. The information in this series spans 1895 - 2008.

Series IV, Meeting Minutes, is made up primarily of the minutes from The Board of Management (BOM) and Executive meetings held at conferences several times each year. The BOM is vested with the authority to conduct the affairs of the Society. The Executive Committee is comprised of OSSAR officers and has the authority to carry out BOM policies. There are a few chapter meeting minutes, as well, spanning 1977 to 2000. BOM and Executive meeting minutes can also be found in the annual yearbooks located in Series II. Overall, materials in this series date between 1969 and 2019.

Series V, Financial Records, consists of financial records for OSSAR that range from 1975-2019. The documents in this series include officer expense reports, annual financial reports, tax and investment information, invoices and paid bills.

Series VI, Membership, contains several volumes that list OSSAR members. This includes a lengthy, undated Historical Index by Member, several annual registers listing members, lists of officers, registrar’s reports, membership transfers and death records of members. These registers and indexes span 1951 – 2018.

Series VII, Correspondence, covers 1981 – 2019, with one letter from the society’s historian dated 1960. It contains official correspondence about membership, conferences, and chapter correspondence, and it includes e-mail correspondence with the French branch of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Series VIII, Photographs, consists of four photo albums containing color photographs ranging from 1987 – 2003. The images are of OSSAR events and members. There are handwritten notes on some of the album pages that put the images into context, provide names or the event that an image captures. This series also includes digital photographs dating from 2005-2006.

Series IX, Audio Visual, is a small series consisting of several audio cassette tapes from BOM and Executive meetings. Materials in this series date from 2007-2009.

Series X, Memorabilia, is the smallest series, containing a gavel presented to William Simmons Chapter Sons of the American Revolution by Waive B. Ripple, and several oversized certificates and recognition letters from the City of Cleveland, Ohio, as well as the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate. There is also a collection of awards granted to the Ohio Society by various granters. Materials in this series date between 1978 and 2017, with some undated.