W.E. Smith Family Charitable Trust awards more than $60k in grants to local historical organizations
The Reily Township Historical Society, Oxford Museum Association and more received grants totaling $64,000 from a private trust this year. The grants are given to southwest Ohio organizations focused on historic preservation and education.
The W.E. Smith Family Charitable Trust approved $64,460 in grants to 20 local organizations in its most recent round of funding.
The trust provides funding to organizations for history-related projects twice a year. It was established by Ophia Smith, wife of W.E. Smith, a former history department chair at Miami University. The pair is the namesake of the Smith Library of Regional History.
Among the 20 organizations who received funding this year, the Reily Township Historical Society got a grant for cataloging museum records. The Oxford Museum Association also received a grant to fund restoration work on the Pioneer Farm House Museum, while Smith Library got funding to complete digitization of local high school yearbooks. A full list of grant recipients is below.
Since 2021, the trust has given out an average of $101,985 per year. Dick Sollman, chair of the trust’s advisory board, said the grants are intended for organizations in southwest Ohio doing historic preservation and education work. The trust does not publish individual grant amounts, he said.
Other grant recipients include Atrium Medical Center (Middletown), Butler County Historical Society, Friends of Chrisholm Historic Farmstead, Friends of Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Friends of White Water Shaker Village, The Cummins History Room at Lane Library Hamilton, Miami Historical Society of Whitewater Township, Middletown Historical Society, Monroe Historical Society, Nuxhall Foundation (with Smith Library), Over-the-Rhine Museum, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum for Fortified Hill, Veterans Memorial Museum Foundation and West Chester-Union Township Historical Society.
The trust’s next deadline for grant applications is Oct. 15. Applications can be picked up at the Smith Library of Regional History or the Cummins History Room in Hamilton Lane Library.
