Did you know The Dawes Arboretum, located in Newark, Ohio, hosts an annual History Center exhibit? This year, The Arboretum’s exhibit is Fueling a Legacy: The Pure Oil Company and Beman Dawes.

It focuses on the history of The Pure Oil Company, its local impact and how Beman’s funds from The Pure Oil Company were used to create and sustain The Dawes Arboretum, a now nearly 2,000-acre property.

Every month until the exhibit closes, we will share a monthly feature about something fascinating within the exhibit. For the month of September, look at a cartoon that was published in September of 1923!

This is a cartoon from Pure Oil News about The Pure Oil Company’s annual picnic where Beman invited the “Pure Oil family” (Pure Oil employees and their families) to his Daweswood Farm every year for an annual picnic. A few hundred people attended at first, but by 1928, over 2,000 people were in attendance.

The cartoon depicts activities that happened annually such as games including horseshoe, tug of war, soft ball and races. Dancing was also available. Once, there was even a Charleston contest.

You can learn all of this and more by visiting The Arboretum’s annual exhibit, open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dawes is located at 7770 Jacksontown Road, Newark, Ohio.

[Linked Image from dawesarb.org]