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• Photography During the Civil War

  • When
    Monday, October 20, 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    CRF Museum (203 E Main Street Loudonville OH)

  The American Civil War marked the first major conflict to be extensively documented through photography. For the first time, photographers left the confines of their studios and ventured into the field, hauling heavy equipment to capture scenes of camp life, soldiers, fortifications, and the aftermath of battle. These haunting images brought the reality of war into American homes, forever changing how the public perceived conflict. The Civil War also pushed photographic technology forward, sparking innovations that would influence the field for decades to come. This talk explores how photography shaped public opinion, preserved the faces of ordinary soldiers, and gave us some of the most iconic images in American history.

  
  

  About the Speaker

  Mark Holbrook is recently retired as the executive director of the Marion Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Prior to that, Mark served as marketing director at the Ohio History Connection for nine years, where he also served as Civil War Historian. He has been a consultant for tourism and history-based organizations for 20 years.

  Mark is a native Ohioan, graduate of The Ohio State University, and an avid student of history. He is the owner of History is Personal, a consulting firm that specializes in tourism and heritage destination development. He is the editor of The Buckeye Vanguard about the 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and the author of The Haven: A Light in the Darkness (2023).

  Mark also recently retired from a 28-year career as a Civil War reenactor, serving as a Union officer throughout the country at such places as Gettysburg, Chattanooga, Richmond, and Shiloh. He served as military coordinator for the film Light of Freedom (2013) and had a supporting role in Wings of the Wind (2015). His appearances include WOSU Television’s Columbus Neighborhoods series and Mysteries at the Museum on The Travel Channel. Mark also served on the Civil War Sesquicentennial Advisory Committee for the state of Ohio, coordinating the opening and closing events for the state’s commemoration of its participation in the war.

  
  

  Program Details

  This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the program begins at 7:00 PM. The lecture will be held in the CRF Museum Lecture Hall.

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• Hauntings of the Ohio Highlands

  • When
    Monday, November 17, 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    CRF Museum (203 E Main Street Loudonville OH)

  Join us for a spine-tingling evening as storyteller and historian Mark Sebastian Jordan unveils chilling tales from Ohio’s central highlands. In his book In These Haunted Hills: Ghosts of the Ohio Highlands, Jordan brings together personal, folkloric, and historical accounts of hauntings across Richland, Ashland, Holmes, Knox, Coshocton counties—and more.

  Drawing on decades of experience as a writer, playwright, and performer—Jordan has been a fixture on Ohio’s arts scene, creating sell-out dramas at Malabar Farm State Park and appearing on shows like Ghost Hunters, Mysteries at the Museum, and My Ghost Story. 

  In this talk, he’ll weave history, legend, and personal ghost-hunting adventures into a potent, haunting brew. Expect paranormal stories from locations like Malabar Farm, Ohio State Reformatory, Mary Jane’s Grave (Hastings), Sarah’s Grave (Greer), Susie’s Grave (Mount Vernon), Kenyon College, and other eerie sites around Mohican country. Illustrated by photos and rich storytelling, this promises to be a compelling journey through the mysteries buried in our backyards.

  Copies of In These Haunted Hills will be available for purchase at $20 (cash or check only).

  Program Details

  This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the program begins at 7:00 PM. The lecture will be held in the CRF Museum Lecture Hall.

  Show details
• Rebels in Corsets: The Embodied Rhetoric of the Women's Suffrage Movement

  • When
    Monday, February 09, 2026
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    CRF Museum (203 E Main Street Loudonville OH)

  The story of the women’s suffrage movement is often oversimplified as a peaceful transition in which male politicians willingly extended the right to vote to women. In reality, it was a 72-year battle that demanded extraordinary persistence, sacrifice, and creativity. This lecture explores what it was like to be a woman in the 19th century with little power to shape her own circumstances, how women in the 1840s came to believe it was time to fight for the ballot, and the rhetorical strategies they employed to win it. Though these strategies may not seem radical today, at the time they were dismissed as shocking and even “disgusting.” The struggle for suffrage was as much about changing minds and challenging cultural norms as it was about changing the law, and it reshaped American democracy in the process.

  
  

  About the Speaker

  Susan Trollinger is professor of English at the University of Dayton, where she teaches courses on writing and rhetoric. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Master’s and PhD in Rhetoric and Communication from the University of Pittsburgh.

  Her first book, Selling the Amish: The Tourism of Nostalgia (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), examines Amish Country tourism, particularly in eastern Ohio, and its broader cultural implications. Her second book, Righting America at the Creation Museum (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), co-authored with her husband William Vance Trollinger, Jr., provides a close reading of the arguments presented at the Creation Museum in Kentucky and situates them within the long history of Protestant fundamentalism in the U.S.

  She has been interviewed by numerous media outlets including C-Span2’s BookTV, RadioWest, the Washington Post, and GQ.

  
  

  Program Details

  This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the program begins at 7:00 PM. The lecture will be held in the CRF Museum Lecture Hall.

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• Conflict and Memory: Digging into the Copus Massacre

  • When
    Monday, March 16, 2026
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    CRF Museum (203 E Main Street Loudonville OH)

  In September 1812, during the War of 1812, tensions between settlers and Native Americans in north-central Ohio reached a violent climax at what came to be known as the Copus Massacre. Following the forced removal and destruction of the nearby Greentown Indian village, many Native residents were betrayed by the US Army and blamed their white neighbors, intensifying hostilities. Reverend James Copus, a settler who had been close friends with the Greentown residents, was targeted alongside soldiers stationed in the area. The resulting attack left several settlers, soldiers, and natives dead.

  The Copus Massacre of 1812 was one of the most significant and tragic events to occur in north-central Ohio during the War of 1812. This program explores the wider context of the war and the nearby Greentown Indian village, the events that led to the clash between local settlers and Native Americans, and the enduring legacy the conflict left behind. Finally, the program will highlight the results of the first phase of modern archaeological work at the historic site, shedding new light on the landscape and stories tied to this turbulent moment in Ohio’s past.

  
  

  About the Speaker

  Kenny Libben is the curator of the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum, where he has served since 2010. During his tenure, he has been recognized with multiple awards for his leadership in the museum field, including the Ohio Local History Alliance’s Outstanding Individual Achievement Award, the Small Museum Association’s Hunter-Burley Award, and the Ohio Museum Association's Best Exhibition Award.

  He serves as an officer of the International Committee for Regional Museums (ICOM-ICR) and as a representative for the Ohio Local History Alliance. He has previously been featured on American History TV.

  
  

  Program Details

  This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the program begins at 7:00 PM. The lecture will be held in the CRF Museum Lecture Hall.

  Show details