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John H. Herrick Archives:
Documenting Structures at The Ohio State University
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About This Site
Historical Overview
John H. Herrick was associated with The Ohio State University as a student, faculty member, administrator, and retired administrator for 60 years. He came to the University in 1920, graduated with a Bachelor's degree in education in 1928, a Master's degree in 1936, and a Doctorate degree in 1944. John Herrick served as head administrator of University Campus and Facilities Planning after it was established by former OSU President Fawcett. He was considered by his peers to be of the leading professionals in campus and facilities planning in the United States.
After his retirement in 1972, Herrick continued to donate his time and efforts to Ohio State, without compensation, for another 18 years. According to one account he spent an estimated 5500 hours recording detailed information on over 1500 buildings. Herrick located and placed in the archives more than 300 historical maps showing campus development over the years and wrote a history of the Oval, Mirror Lake Hollow, and continued to engage in campus planning activities.
While doing research for one of his books, Herrick learned that the records of campus buildings were incomplete and unclear. Herrick resolved that he would try to determine the dates associated with each building as well as who built, planned, moved and destroyed every building that ever stood on campus. From 1970 to 1980, he voluntarily worked three hours a day, five days a week to pull this information together. Using an office provided him by the University; he studied old maps, minutes from past Board of Trustee's meetings, old telephone directories, old photographs and gathered accounts of "old timer’s memories and diaries." His resulting records consist of the indexed names of all the structures for which he found references, a brief report about each building including such specific information as location, type of construction, size, names of the architects involved, bid dates, contractors, completion date, and date of demolition. These records (what we now call the Herrick Archives) were typed and then complied into a set of three-ring binders. Copies of these can be found in various locations including: the Columbus Public Library, the Ohio State University Library, the Knowlton School of Architecture, the Ohio Historical Society, the Ohio State University Archives, and the Office of Facility Planning and Development. It is not easily accessible and, although it is a unique and unprecedented resource, it is relatively unknown.
The Herrick Archives, combined with the Photography Archive established by University Architect Joseph N. Bradford after he retired in 1933, present what is likely the most complete record of a university campus to be found anywhere in the world.
It is our intention to convert the Herrick Archives to an electronic format in order to permit users to search, browse, and access the over 2,000-record archives.
Expanding beyond the Herrick Archives
By making the Herrick Archives available online, our primary goal is to present Herrick’s work to a larger audience and make it accessible via the Web. We also intend to extend Herrick’s data to include structures added, modified or demolished from 1988 to the present. In addition, we will be adding pathways to related resources such as: the Knowlton School of Architecture Digital Library, the interactive, Historical Campus Map, the Current Campus Map, and Web sites related to particular structures. We also intend to add interface tools that will allow users to search, browse, and use the data. Examples include: browses by building name or building numbers, ability to search all data in any record, images or drawings of each structure viewable from the building record, and links to driving directions to existing structures.
This project was conceived of by Professor Emeritus Paul Young, Jr., a faculty member in Architecture for over 30 years. Professor Young was impressed and inspired by Herrick’s work, which lead him to seek funding and assemble a team of people interested in continuing and extending the valuable resource that Herrick had begun.
Principal Participants
The primary developers are currently both staff members at the Knowlton School of Architecture: Matt Bernhardt, IT staff member and Lorrie McAllister, Visual Resources Curator. Others that will advise or participate in program development are Paul Young, Professor Emeritus, Knowlton School of Architecture and Jill Morelli, University Architect. The Herrick Archives is in the process of being reformatted by students working under Lorrie McAllister’s guidance. All of the Herrick Archives records will be reformatted and added to the database over the next two years. Kent State University Library and Information Science students that have participated so far are Matt Ogborn and Jami Miller. OSU student Emilie Downing has also worked on this project.
Project Components and Use
This site is intended to provide a highly functional tool for continuing the work of Professor John H. Herrick. As much as possible, the spirit of that work is preserved, including preserving the simple presentation format, data structures, and indexes. Development will be approached modularly, further ensuring the sustainability and extensibility of the resource.
The project consists of four components:
1. A database built modularly to allow for future expansion
2. A straightforward, public interface for searching and exploring the data
3. A private, administrative interface that allows for easy records maintenance, and site administration
4. Auxiliary tools and pathways to complementary resources that will extend the usefulness of the site
This resource is accessible to the public. Any comments or questions can be directed to Lorrie McAllister or Matt Bernhardt.