Ohio has produced more presidents than any state except Virginia, but what does that presidential legacy reveal about the nation itself? Ohio Presidents and First Ladies is a week-long traveling professional development seminar that explores American political history through the lives, presidencies, families, and legacies of the men and women who shaped Ohio’s remarkable contribution to the White House.
Beginning in Cleveland, participants visit the James A. Garfield National Historic Site and the William McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, examining the Civil War generation and America’s emergence as an industrial and global power. At the Ohio First Ladies Library, the seminar considers how presidential spouses influenced political life and public culture.
The journey continues to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums and the Harding Presidential Sites in Marion, exploring Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the political upheavals of the early twentieth century. Participants then travel to Georgetown to examine Ulysses S. Grant’s formative years before turning to Cincinnati and the William Howard Taft National Historic Site.
The seminar also places Ohio’s presidents within the larger story of American democracy. Visits to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and William Henry Harrison’s tomb connect presidential history to slavery, freedom, westward expansion, and the nation’s evolving political ideals.
The journey concludes in Indianapolis at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, providing teachers with a broader understanding of how Ohio’s presidents, and the First Ladies who stood beside them, reflect the changing character of the American republic.
Speaker:
Arch Hunter, Public Historian and Retired Teacher
Teachers board a motorcoach for six days (Sunday – Friday) of visits to historic sites (such as national parks, state parks, and private sites) connected to a specific era of American history. Each travel seminar is escorted by a public historian whose lectures provide context for the historic sites to be visited. Local docents and guides provide breadth and depth in the historic stories they share. Local museums with subject appropriate materials are also included, many offering classroom resources for participating teachers.
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