About Us

The cornerstone of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building which houses the museum was laid in 1887 and the building opened to the public in 1889. The buildiong had two main purposes for being constructed. The first was to house the Mansfield/Richland County Library on the first floor and the second floor was occupied by the Grand Army of the Republic (Civil War Veterans). As a secondary note the third floor was to be used for a museum.

Behind the memorial building was Mansfield's Opera House, which became an income producer for the entire building. The Opera House changed its name in the mid 1920's to the Madison Theater. Unfortunately in early February of 1929 the theater burned down. The only modification to the building is that when the new Madison was being planned they needed to take 20 feet off the back of the Memorial Building to make the space larger for the new Madison Theater which stood until 1986 when it was raised. The museum stayed open to the public until September of 1955, when the Fire Marshall closed the museum as a fire hazard because there was no fire escape on the third floor where the museum was housed.

In 1996 I found the museum by accident, reopening the museum on the first and second floors of the Memorial Building on Memorial Day 1999.

The collections on display vary in a wide range of subjects from natural history to recent events. The animals on exhibit come from all over the world but mainly focus on North and South America and are represented in birds, mammals, sea life and reptiles. All of the animals were captured and mounted between 1867 and 1902. There are several oddities of animals exhibited especially the zoomorphic scenes on a "Duck Wedding", Gideon’s Band (frogs, mice, muskrats playing instruments), a total of 9 different scenes made between 1872 –1878 by the original Director Edward Wilkinson.

Our military collection is one of the finest early military exhibits in Ohio. Collections dating from the late 1700’s thru World War II. Native Americans are well represented with artifacts from prehistoric to late 1800’s reservation items. Richland County and Mansfield’s history is exhibited throughout the museum from the original survey equipment of 1806 used by James Hedges to modern appliances made by Westinghouse, Mansfield Tire and many other factories. A great deal of varied items displayed between the founding of Mansfield in 1808 and today. African and Slavery are also exhibited in several cases. The collections are in constant rotation.