Ohio County Public Library Receives $1,000 for Preserving Hospital Artifacts
Emma Delk Trending
The Ohio County Public Library received a $1,000 donation from the Alumni Association of the Ohio Valley General Hospital School of Nursing as a "thank you" for archiving and preserving artifacts from Ohio Valley General Hospital/Ohio Valley Medical Center.
Graduates of the nursing school and former employees of OVGH/OVMC have been working alongside library employees for the past five years to preserve the hospital and nursing school's history. Buildings on the hospital's campus are being razed to construct a new regional cancer center by WVU Medicine on the site.
While the alumni association wrote the check, the OVGH History Group, which consists of many alumni association members, has been working closely with library staff to collect, preserve and catalog items from the hospital and nursing school.
Mary McKinley, a member of the alumni association and the OVGH History Group, noted that this has been no small task. Library employees have been sifting through nearly 100 boxes of material collected from the hospital's campus.
Library Assistant Director Laura Carroll has been knee-deep in archiving efforts alongside the OVGH History Group and Wheeling Heritage since the first cart of hospital materials arrived at the library.
Carroll said the library has been focused on organizing the materials. When nursing school alumni or former hospital employees visit looking for information or a photograph, library staff need to know "what box to pull."
The organizing work conducted by the library includes digitizing photographs. Carroll said the library has a Flickr account at flickr.com/photos/ohiocountypubliclibrary, where people can view photographs saved from the hospital and nursing school as they are digitized.
Artifacts from OVGH can be seen in the library in rotating displays. Carroll said there is "always something" related to the hospital or the nursing school in the library, as "people love to see it."
Karen Haloszka, treasurer of the alumni association, said the hospital's closing was "devastating."
"I grew up in Center Wheeling, went to nursing school there and spent my 45-year career there," Haloszka said. "I pulled into a parking spot one day and watched as the building was razed and cried. It's just still devastating that it's gone."
Betty Jo Sproull, a member of the alumni association and the OVGH History Group, said stories like Haloszka's affirm the importance of doing "everything" to ensure the hospital and nursing school are remembered and preserved in a "respectful and permanent way."
This Christmas, the alumni association plans to donate to Wheeling Health Right, the Soup Kitchen of Greater Wheeling, the House of the Carpenter and the Salvation Army.