Our Staff
Jennifer Lorenzetti
Museum Administrator and Curator
lorenzj8@MiamiOH.edu
513-529-8381
Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti graduated from Miami in 1991 with a B.A. in History and in 1993 with an M.S. in College Student Personnel Services. She also holds an M.A. in History from Southern New Hampshire University. She has taught History of Design in Miami's Communication Design program. She has also taught design history, history of photography, history of advertising, art history, and western civilization for universities, including Wittenberg University and Sinclair College.
Jennifer's research focuses on cultural formation and expression in small towns. She actively studies both Oxford and Key West as a part of this investigation, but she is also passionate about Medieval European history and the history of Christianity.
Jennifer currently lives in Huber Heights (Dayton), Ohio, with her husband Daniel and their two dogs, Shinnosuke and Eva.
John Clover
Docent Chair
John Clover is a retired local educator who brings his love of nature and community involvement to the McGuffey House and Museum. John taught elementary grades 4 and 5 at Lincoln Heights Elementary School, and later became a guidance counselor at Talawanda High School, where he retired as Head of the Guidance Office. He also served as the YMCA Camp Director at Camp Campbell Gard, where he developed their Environmental Education Program and ran the summer camp program. For more than 40 years, he has been part of Alpha Phi Omega, the national service fraternity.
I grew up in Lancaster, Ohio and attended public schools in Lancaster.
I was named for my uncle, John Fenwick Ewing. Uncle Jack was the great grandson of Thomas Ewing. Thomas Ewing was one of the first two graduates of Ohio University. After studying law in Lancaster, he had a long and quite illustrious career. He was in the Ohio Senate, the United States Senate, served as a Secretary of the Treasury, and became the first Secretary of the Interior in the Tyler administration. When in Washington the family lived in the Blair House.
During the Civil War he was an advisor for Lincoln. His three sons all became Civil War Generals. Possibly his greatest contribution to the Civil War, however, was through his foster son and later his son-in-law, William Tecumseh Sherman.
In 1966 I enrolled as a freshman at Miami University, graduating in 1970 with a BS in Elementary Education. I subsequently completed a MEd in counseling in 1974 and a PhD in school administration in 1990. All three degrees were from Miami. While at MU my primary outside activities were with the Alpha Phi Omega national service fraternity, now coed; and The Miami Men’s Glee Club, where I held several offices including president my senior year.
After graduation, I taught fourth and fifth grades at the Lincoln Heights Elementary school in the Princeton District. In 1973 I left Lincoln Heights to become the resident Camp Director and later Camp Director of Camp Campbell Gard. While at Camp Gard I created their Environmental Education program. My next move was back to Oxford while I worked on my PhD. During that time, I became a guidance counselor at Talawanda High School, eventually directing that program.
In 1978 Dr. Ken McDiffett asked me if I would become an advisor with the A Phi O chapter. That continues to this day. The duties of the advisors are to allow them to succeed and allow them to fail (greater learning comes from the latter), and stay out of their way. The chapter belongs to the active members, not the advisors.
I have also remained active with the Men’s Glee Club by being a founding member of the Club’s Advisory Board.
My greatest joy comes from working with students, through the A Phi O chapter, Men’s Glee Club and our church’s host family program. Student work helps me to maintain a younger outlook on life and on those around me.
October 2020
William Holmes McGuffey House and Museum
We aim to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit materials relating to the life of William Holmes McGuffey, the McGuffey Eclectic Reader series, the history of Miami University, and 19th-century domestic life and architecture of southwest Ohio.
Hours of Operation
Thursday - Saturday
1:00pm - 5:00pm
McGuffey House and Museum observes Miami University closings and other special events.
Summer Hours 2024
Thursday - Saturday 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Closed
Saturday, May 25 for Memorial Day
Thursday-Saturday July 4-6 Independence Day
