Primary Sources > Material Culture/Artifacts

The Ohio Historical Society holds a vast amount of objects in its material culture collections, ranging from historic furniture and paintings to antique quilts and automobiles. Like archival materials, these primary sources also have stories to tell.

Although the Society's material culture collections are not available for public use, a selected listing is available from the on-line collections catalog, and many of the artifacts that have been digitized appear on Ohio History Central. Others may be found in the Society's museums throughout the state, including the nationally known Adena Pipe, at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus, or Tecumseh's Ceremonial Pipe in the new Education and Visitor's Center at Adena.

Additional items from the Society's Education Collections, as well as artifacts that have been reproduced based on items in the Society's collections, are also available to teachers in the Education Loan Program.

The Education staff has assembled groups of collection items by theme to enhance classroom teaching of the Content Standards.