Bibliography and Links
- Oberlin History Bibliography
- Links to resources about Oberlin history, museums, preservation, and more
Oberlin History Bibliography
Oberlin and Women's History
Oberlin and Religion
Oberlin College & Conservatory History
General Oberlin History
Essays & Sketches, Oberlin, 1904-1934, by Kemper Fullerton (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1938).
Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to its Social History, by Geoffrey Blodgett (Oberlin: Oberlin College, 1985).
Contains brief entries about many of the buildings in Oberlin, both the college and the town: when they were built, their architectural style, who lived in them, and their siginificance in Oberlin's history.
Oberlin College Archives: Digital Resources.
Includes popular images, views of Oberlin College campus, historic portraits, study collections, a John Frederick Oberlin feature, and more.
Oberlin: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow..., edited by Jan DeMarinis, Jean Ebosh, and Gail Wood (Oberlin School District, 1996).
This workbook was written to be a part of the Oberlin Public Schools' third grade curriculum. It includes information and activities about local geography, the pioneers of Oberlin, the Underground Railroad, transportation, women in Oberlin, Oberlin's connection to the rest of the world, and the future.
Oberlin: The Colony and College 1833-1883, by James Fairchild (Oberlin: E.J., 1883).
History of the first fifty years of the college as written by James Fairchild, the College's third president.
The Oberlin Colony: The Story of a Century, by Wilbur H. Phillips (Oberlin: Press of Oberlin, 1933).
This book is a chronicle of Oberlin's first hundred years. Phillips narrates the most important events of each year.
Oberlin Community History, edited by Allan Patterson (State College, PA: Josten's Publications, 1981).
This brief volume was written to be a part of the Oberlin Public Schools' seventh grade curriculum. It includes chapters about the founding of Oberlin, history of African-Americans in Oberlin, businesses, transportation, utilities, government, and architecture in Oberlin.
The Oberlin Jubilee, edited by W. G. Ballantine (Oberlin: E. J. Goodrichm 1883). Includes a schedule of jubilee celebrations and miscellaneous essays related to Oberlin's early years.
Leadership in a Small Town, by Aaron Wildavsky (Totowa, NJ: Bedminster Press, 1964).
A history of the government of Oberlin, examining how the leaders of Oberlin dealt with the issues the small town faced. Wildavsky draws conclusions about leadership in small towns based on his case-study of Oberlin.
Pictorial Memories of Oberlin, by the Rotary Club of Oberlin (Oberlin, 1976).
This spiral-bound volume has many pictures of Oberlin throughout the years, from the first buildings of the pioneers up to war protests in the 1960s.
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Oberlin and African-American History
They Stopped in Oberlin: Black Residents and Visitors in the Nineteenth Century, by William E. Bigglestone (Scottsdale, Arizona: Innovation Group Inc., 1981).
Contains brief biographical sketches about African-Americans who traveled through or settled in Oberlin. This book is not only an interesting look at the town's population, but is also very useful for genealogists.
The Town that Started the Civil War, by Nat Brandt (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990).
The first few chapters of this book by popular historian Nat Brandt give a good overview of the early history of the College and the atmosphere of the town, and the remaining chapters tell the story of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue in great detail, focusing on the event's national significance.
John Mercer Langston and the Fight for Black Freedom, by William F. Cheek and Aimee Lee Cheek (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989).
This biography focuses on John Mercer Langston's life up to the Emancipation Proclamation, focusing on his efforts to abolish slavery.
From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capital, by John Mercer Langston (Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1894). Later reprint editions available.
An autobiography of John Mercer Langston, the son of a Virginia slave owner and a freed slave, one of Oberlin's first black graduates, Ohio's first black lawyer, and the first African-American elected to a public office. In addition to these achievements, he fought hard for abolition and the rights of African-Americans.
Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War Against Slavery, by Betram Wyatt-Brown (Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1969).
Fleet Walker's Divided Heart: The Life of Baseball's First Black Major Leaguer, by David W. Zang (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).
Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first African-American major league baseball player, graduated from Oberlin College in 1881. He struggled throughout his life to overcome the racism and bigotry that hindered his career.
Oberlin in the Civil War
Oberlin and Women's History
Soul Mates: The Oberlin Correspondence of Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown 1846-1850, edited by Carol Lasser and Marlene Deahl Merrill (Oberlin: Oberlin College, 1983).
Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown were two of Oberlin's most distinguished alumnae. Both were prominent advocates of women's rights. Antoinette Brown was the first woman to be an ordained Protestant minister in the United States. The two of them began a lifelong friendship in Oberlin, and wrote many eloquent letters to each other over the years.
Oberlin and Religion
Massacre in Shansi, by Nat Brandt (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1994).
Brandt tells the story of the Shansi Association, an Oberlin missionary organization, and the Oberlin missionaries who died in the Boxer Rebellion.
The Memoirs of Charles G. Finney, The Complete Restored Text, by Charles Grandison Finney, edited by Garth Rosell and Richard A. G. DuPuis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1989).
Finney's memoirs deal primarily with his religious and evangelistic activities, and do not tell the complete story of his life.
Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875, Revivalist and Reformer, by Keith J. Hardman (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987).
This definitive biography of Charles Grandison Finney, the second president of Oberlin College, tells the story of an important piece of Oberlin's history and the religious history of the United States. Finney was a nationally known revivalist and Christian perfectionist.
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Oberlin College & Conservatory History
Father Shipherd's Magna Charta: A Century of Coeducation in Oberlin College, by Frances Juliette Hosford (Boston: Marshall Jones Co., 1937).
Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to its Social History, by Geoffrey Blodgett (Oberlin: Oberlin College, 1985).
Contains brief entries about many of the buildings in Oberlin, both the college and the town: when they were built, their architectural style, who lived in them, and their significance in Oberlin's history.
Oberlin: The Colony and College 1833-1883, by James Fairchild (Oberlin: E.J., 1883).
History of the first fifty years of the college as written by James Fairchild, the College's third president.
A History of Oberlin College from its Foundation through the Civil War, by Robert Samuel Fletcher (Oberlin: Oberlin College, 1943; reprinted in 1971 by Arno Press of New York City.)
A thematic treatment of Oberlin's history, with many quotations and excerpts from primary documents, including letters, diaries, etc. Two volumes.
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