W. E. Smith Charitable Trust announces grants

Nearly $100,000 in grants from the W. E. Smith Charitable Trust has been awarded to groups across Southwest Ohio that focus on history-related projects for libraries, museums and historical societies, school programs and others.

The fall 2025 grants of $36,147 supported projects submitted for exhibits, display and storage materials for collections, computer equipment to manage collections, school and community outreach programs, historical guides and printing projects. Other events and programs were supported, as well.

The Smith Trust was established by the estate of Ophia Smith, a longtime resident of Oxford and wife of W. E. Smith, who chaired Miami University’s history department and was the first director of the William Homers McGuffey Museum. Both of them collaborated on the research and writing of the three-volume “History of Southwestern Ohio: The Miami Valleys.”

Grants this fall went to: 

• The Butler County Historical Society to support a spring 2026 exhibit and family workshop, as well as computing upgrades to manage collections
• The Cummins Local History Room in the Hamilton Lane Library to support digitization of newspaper holdings
• The Friends of White Water Shaker Village to support professionally conducted paint analysis in its dwelling house for restoration
• The Gorman Heritage Farm in Hamilton County for the preparation and exhibiting of farm tool collections and interpretive signage in the Bank Barn Museum
• The Great Miami Valley YMCA for the cost of an Ohio historical marker commemorating Camp Campbell Gard’s 100th anniversary
• The Historic Hamilton Inc. to acquire a historical marker to commemorate Alfred J. Anderson and Frederick Douglas’ 1858 Hamilton visit
• The Liberty Township Historical Society for the cost of a laptop and backup hard drive  to manage collections 
• The Middletown Historical Society for storage materials and related items to handle a large collection of Middfest International materials
• The Midpointe Library for a wireless system and drone to document historic structures and create a “then and now” video series
• Milford Township to update the mapping of Darrtown and Collinsville cemeteries
• The Monroe Historical Society for the archival framing of its 125-year-old United States flag from the Oglesby estate
• The Reily Township Historical Society for a preservation box and page sleeves for newspaper-sized pages   
• The Smith Library of Regional History for the Polk Hamilton-Fairfield directories digitization initiative
• Talawanda Middle School to help fund scholarships to assist deserving students with the opportunity to participate in the school’s planned visit to Washington, D.C. 
• The Veterans Memorial Museum to purchase one glass display cabinet to house Miami Military Institute relics
• West Chester – Union Township Historical Society to acquire archival presentation materials for slides and polypropylene sheets to protect the 12-page letter of Joseph Cox