The Ashland County Historical Society was honored by the Ohio Local History Alliance during the alliance's 2026 annual meeting, where the society accepted an Outstanding History Outreach Award. The award cited the society's third annual Juneteenth Celebration of Freedom, held June 19, 2026.
Executive Director Sara Fisher described the recognition as humbling and said the society's role is to amplify stories of people who have lived in, worked in or visited Ashland County, adding that many of those accounts have been missing from written local histories for generations. Event Coordinator Eparaima Wild called the Juneteenth program the society's most ambitious attempt to tie local experience to national history and credited community partners and volunteers.
According to the society, more than 110 participants attended. Programming included researched living history vignettes, a preview of the America 250 exhibit "Moments that Made Us: Ashland County," story time with the Ashland Public Library, discussion of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, a community picnic and a jazz performance. A documentary about the 1858 Oberlin-Wellington Rescue screened at The Ashland Theatre.
Partners listed by the society included the Richland County Historical Society, the Oberlin Heritage Center, the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum and the Undertold Stories Committee of the America 250-Ohio Commission, along with the Mohican Theatre Company.
A 2027 Juneteenth event is planned for Friday, June 18, 2027. The society, a nonprofit founded in 1951, is headquartered at 420 Center Street in Ashland.