Permanent Collection

The Lillian E. Jones Museum is fortunate to have a wide array of archival materials for viewing and study. Perhaps the largest collection is from Miss Jones herself. These items were gathered throughout her life and four different trips around the world. Among those pieces are 19th-century coins from 12 different countries;  porcelain from England, Japan, Italy, China, Denmark, and France; pewter; bone china; crystal stemware and sterling silver sets; framed prints of silk, parchment, and photographs; antique furniture and clothing.

The Jones Museum’s Permanent Collection also includes other specific collections:

Fletcher Benton Collection

donated by the artist August 2012

Benton (1931-2019) was born in Jackson and graduated from Jackson High School in 1949. Miss Jones was a friend of Benton’s father and mother, Fletcher, and Nelle Cavett Benton. As a child, young Fletcher would visit with Miss Jones and chat about her world travels and interest in art. Benton moved to San Francisco in the 1960s where he lives and works currently but kept in touch with Miss Jones up until her death in 1991.

The Fletcher Benton Collection at the Jones Museum contains 21 metal maquettes from a variety of series, along with six paper studies from the Alphabet series and 12 framed watercolor and charcoal prints. Also included are nine DVDs, six hardcover coffee table books, assorted catalogs, the 1966 Time Magazine featuring Benton as the only American involved in the Kinetics Movement of art, personal photographs, and copies of letters sent to Miss Jones, beginning in 1961.

Jackson County Newspapers

donated in 1999

This remarkable collection is the history of Jackson County from the late 1890s through the 1990s. The more than 200 bound volumes were donated by the Jackson County Commissioners and the Jackson Times-Journal.

Newspapers include the Jackson Sun, Jackson Sun Journal, News Advertiser, Semi-Weekly Sun, Standard Journal, The Daily Sentinel, The Jackson Herald, and the Journal Herald.

Globe Iron Co. Memorabilia

bequeathed by Miss Jones and donated by numerous individuals and ongoing

Fascination continues over Globe Iron Co., the one-time world leader in iron production, headquartered in Jackson and run by four generations of the Jones family. Thomas T. Jones, the great, grandfather of Lillian E. Jones, emigrated from Wales and started the Jefferson Furnace (1854-1916) in Oak Hill. Jefferson Furnace eventually became Globe Iron Co. in 1872. Globe was featured in a 1939 issue Fortune Magazine and was a remarkable business employing hundreds in Jackson County. Globe produced through the Civil War, World War I, and World War II, but the run ended with an explosion in September 1960 that permanently damaged the furnace and so production never returned to Jackson for Globe.

The collection of portraits (formerly displayed at the Globe Headquarters), photographs, books, papers, materials, and memorabilia is extensive primarily because of the family connection.

A subset of the Globe Iron Co. collection is the Pig Iron Days plaques. Since 1993, Jackson has celebrated Pig Iron Day on the first Saturday of August as a way of recognizing and remembering the importance of pig iron in the history of the region. Each year, OSCO Industries make a number of iron plaques that are auctioned with the first of each plaque going to the Jones Museum to recognize the Jones family’s role in the important industry.

The Wonder of Camp Arrowhead 1949-1964

donated by numerous individuals and ongoing

Camp Arrowhead was a premier summer camp for boys ages 10-17 at what is now Ohio’s Lake Katharine State Nature Preserve.

The Camp was developed and financed by industrialist Edwin A. Jones, then President of Globe Iron who was a first cousin to Lillian Jones.  Lake Katharine was a man-made lake created on property owned by Jones and James McKitterick and was named after Jones’ wife, Katharine.

The permanent collection contains all-camp photographs from each of the 15 summers along with five different promotional catalogs, postcards, merit awards, and personal recollections. The full collection was exhibited in 2014 but acquisitions continue to join the collection.

The exhibit, the Wonder of Camp Arrowhead, won the 2015 History Outreach Award from the Ohio Local History Alliance.

Jackson High School Osky Wows

donated by numerous individuals and ongoing

Jackson High School printed its first yearbook, the Osky Wow, in 1912 and the book with its unique name continues today. The Jones Museum has a large collection of the physical yearbooks ranging from 1912 to 1995 plus the complete set of digitized yearbooks, 1912-2016, done through a cooperative venture of the Jackson City Schools, Jackson Library, and the Jones Museum. Now, 104 years of local, teen-age history can be easily paged through using the museum’s new touchscreen computer, provided by the J.Floyd Dixon grant from the Columbus Foundation. Learn what your descendants did in at Jackson High School!

Now we also have four years of Coalton High School’s Saga yearbook (1946, 1947, 1950, 1951).

Hours

The Jones Museum is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday from 10 am – 3 pm or by appointment.

Admission is FREE but voluntary donations are always welcome.

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