University of Toledo emeritus professor donates memorabilia to community library

Bruce Campbell, an emeritus law professor at the University of Toledo, recently donated a treasure trove of historical artifacts to the Delaware District County Library in Delaware, Ohio.

Just before Christmas, Campbell called George Needham, the director of the library at his office in the Delaware District County.

“He said he had some artifacts that had belonged to his grandfather who had lived in Delaware,” Needham said.

Needham said Campbell’s grandfather passed away around 1958 and his grandmother passed away around 1962. When Campbell’s grandmother died, Campbell was a teenager and he accompanied his father to clean out the house, according to Needham.

“[Campbell] held onto these artifacts that otherwise might have been thrown away,” Needham said.

Among the artifacts were two big family bibles.

“These are the really old-fashioned kind of bibles that are probably 13 inches high by 12 inches wide and probably 5 or 6 inches thick. One family bible had a whole family genealogy in it,” Needham said. “[Campbell] also said there were some artifacts from the Grand Army of the Republic, which was sort of like Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion after the Civil War. These things belonged to Bruce Campbell’s great-great-grandfather.”

Campbell’s great-great-grandfather lived in Delaware from the middle of the 18th century until he died.

“Bruce was getting ready to downsize and clean up his old attic and thought these things should be brought back to Delaware where they really were rooted. So he brought us the donation and we’ve been working with it ever since,” Needham said.

Needham said that the items from the donation will be put into the library’s historical room where they collect materials that are relative to the history and genealogy of Delaware county.

“We have a lot of people who do genealogical research in our library either because they had family who lived here or because they live here now and they know they can get access to materials from all over the country using our library through interlibrary loan and with what’s available through online sources and things like that,” Needham said.

Campbell’s donation will become a part of the Delaware District County Library’s historical collection, said Needham.

“It’s historical to Delaware County; it’s a little piece of Americana, a little piece of American history. There were also some really interesting things tucked into the bible. There were Christmas cards from the turn of the century, last century, from the 1800s to the 1900s. There were newspaper clippings of family events. All of these things help establish genealogical relationships. They also kind of give you a picture of what life was like for Victorian Americans,” Needham said.

Needham encourages anyone who may have important family history, important history about the community you live in or things that tie your family to the community to contact their local library or historical society if they don’t know what else to do with them.

“We live in a really disposable society right now and I think it’s important for people to understand that if future generations are going to understand us, they need to have something to look at, to touch, that’s important to us too. So consider the library when you’re looking at what you’re maybe thinking of getting rid of,” Needham said.

Needham wanted to extend his gratitude to Campbell for thinking of the library when wondering what to do with the memorabilia. Campbell was not available to be reached for comment.

“I really appreciate that Dr. Campbell — or professor I should say — thought of us. He talked about wanting this material to come home and I think that was a nice way of looking at it. So I really appreciate his way of looking at that,” Needham said.