In preparation for the upcoming 2012 Columbus Bicentennial, the University District Organization Archives Committee is continuing to collect historical objects, photographs, maps and other memorabilia from around the University District.

Formed in 2006, the committee has been collecting memorabilia from neighborhoods and donating the items to the Ohio Historical Society to be preserved. The collection will be available for educational uses and displays.

The district covers the area from Glen Echo Ravine to the north, Conrail Railroad Tracks to the east, Fifth Avenue to the south and the Olentangy River to the west. The committee is focusing on information about the district from the year 1900 through the late 1980s, although there is no time limit to the archives.

“This is a neighborhood with a history, and this archive is aimed at preserving the memorabilia of those neighborhoods,” said Emily Foster, chair of the University District Organization Archives Committee.

Foster said the largest single donation to the archive yet is the sign from the former university district bar, Larry’s. Other contributions include a poster from Crazy Mama’s Night Club, a photograph of an Earth Shoe Store, a “Save Our Neighborhood” sign from the University Community Association and a map advertising Dutch Tavern and Dutch Chocolate Shops with the area around the campus highlighted. A menu from the Blue Danube and yearbooks from Scarleteer, a former OSU-sponsored K-12 school, were other contributions.

“This is a one of a kind collection,” Foster said. “No other neighborhood in Columbus is doing this.”

The committee has spent the past three years getting organized and getting the word out to surrounding university neighborhoods, Foster said. The committee has also sent out mailings to Ohio State alumni.

“We’ve been trying to get to people before they begin downsizing their homes and losing older materials from these times,” Foster said.

The committee is organizing an exhibition fundraiser to contribute to the upkeep of materials at the historical society.

Foster said that the committee has partnered with the folklore center at OSU to teach students oral history techniques through a class. The students were then sent out to speak to residents targeted by the committee to record their oral histories and memories of the university district.

“We trained students and got them engaged, and we found it very useful,” Foster said. “They were able to capture memories that would have otherwise been lost. They’re also able to educate others around them. They’ve learned that they live in real neighborhoods here.”

Although the classes have ended and the committee is now using an intern, Foster said that does not mean that every memory has been captured, and the committee plans to expand the oral memory collection to contact people who have moved out of the Columbus area.

The committee is continuously working to collect more memorabilia, and there is no endpoint set for the project. To donate items or get more information, call (614) 470-1006 or e-mail [email protected].

“Students should be interested that right around them is history, and an interesting historical development, and it’s largely still intact,” Foster said.