The Other Sherman

 

Ohioan John Sherman (1823-1900) may be less well-known to modern-day Americans than his brother, William T. Sherman, but this nineteenth-century lawyer and politician was extremely prominent in his own right. He served his state in the United States Senate for several terms, served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury (1877-1881) and Secretary of State (1897-1898), and ran for President (unsuccessfully) in 1880. He was also a major player in the growth of the Republican Party and, in 1890, while serving in the Senate for the second time in his career, wrote the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the oldest of all Federal antitrust laws in the United States.

In 1905, five years after his death, the State Library of Ohio acquired a select portion of Sherman’s papers as well as much of his collection of books. These papers were recently digitized and are available for viewing in Ohio Memory. Included in this collection are account ledgers, lists of cases tried, and a book of letters written by Sherman.

 

 

 

Ohio Memory is the home for a number of other items relating to John Sherman’s life and career. Contributed by various institutions, these items, together with the collection of the State Library of Ohio, give us a glimpse at the life of man with whom many people today are unfamiliar, but who played an important role in the history of our state and our nation. Please enjoy viewing these and other items in Ohio Memory!

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Thank you to Shannon Kupfer, Digital/Tangible Media Cataloger at the State Library of Ohio, for this week’s post!