Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/16/2026
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Location
Campus Martius Museum
Southeastern Ohio’s History is America’s History
This is an official America 250-OH Partner Event.
Many stories of local history in Appalachian Ohio reach well beyond the margins of its hilly landscape. While stories may involve individuals from or visitors to the region the impact of their actions help write the history of the nation, in some cases, the history of the world. From the era of constructing world heritage earthworks to the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope Appalachian Ohio has made a significant mark in history.
Tom O’Grady sailed as a deck worker on the Great Lakes aboard the ore carrier, S.S. Middletown, a sister-ship of the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald. O’Grady served two years in the armed forces with a tour in South Korea. He surveyed for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. In 1984 he was instrumental in the launch of the first comprehensive curbside recycling program in the state of Ohio in Athens County. Tom has been promoting waste reduction and a sustainable economy for more than forty years. He has been a voice for the preservation of the historic Athens Asylum and historic buildings and ruins in Southeast Ohio. O’Grady has also been an instructor of Observational Astronomy in the evenings at Ohio University for more than forty years. He has spent the past twenty-five years as a student of Ohio history researching the state’s natural and cultural geography, the mound builders, the barnbuilders and regional settlement, Ohio canals, iron furnaces, and several of Ohio’s interesting characters and their stories. O’Grady is a founding board member of Friends of Ohio Barns and serves on the board of Ohio’s Hill Country Heritage Area. Tom has been working with the leadership of the Athens County Historical Society, now the Southeast Ohio History Center, for more than 25 years.
The Discovering History Series is sponsored by the Washington County Library, and is FREE and open to the public.