Details:
Land Hunger: Ohio and the Western Frontiers
In his talk, Mansel G. Blackford will explore how notions and realities of land use were central to the experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, and Euro Americans living in the Ohio Country over several centuries. Moreover, Blackford will examine how Ohioans (and others) sought to transfer knowledge gained in the Midwest to two other regions, the Oregon Country and the Great Plains–with only partial success. Throughout, the talk’s emphasis will be on men and women coming to grips with environments new to them by looking at how they lived in frontier times. The talk will, thus, address questions of importance to anyone interested in relationships between people and their environments: Above all, how did ideas about the environment, especially conceptions about water and land, shape actions; and what have been the consequences of those actions down to the present day? Questions like these are relevant to us today, as we grapple with the many environmental challenges resulting from climate changes.
Mansel G. Blackford is a professor emeritus of history at the Ohio State University, where he worked in the fields of business history and frontier history for forty years. He is the author or coauthor of a dozen books, several of which deal specifically with Ohio and midwestern history—most recently Land Hunger: Ohio and the Western Frontiers (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2025).
Blackford’s talk will be based on his just-published book Land Hunger: Ohio and the Western Frontiers (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2025), which is available for sale in our Museum Gift Shop.
This event is sponsored by the Washington County Public Library, and is FREE and open to the public.
