OXFORD — Grants totaling more than $64,000 from the W. E. Smith Family Charitable Trust have been approved for 23 history-related projects from libraries, museums, school programs, and other organizations across Southwestern Ohio, including a grant for the Preble County Historical Society.

Requests for support were submitted for display and storage materials for collections; computer equipment to manage collections; school and community outreach programs; publishing projects documenting historic events or early settlers in the area; materials for archival projects, technology-enhanced applications for virtual tours of facilities, and other events and programs.

Preble County Historical Society will receive funds to continue digitization of their collection inventory database.

The Smith Trust was established by the estate of Ophia Smith, longtime Oxford resident and wife of W. E. Smith, who chaired Miami University’s history department and was first Director of the William Holmes McGuffey Museum. Together, they collaborated on research and writing of a three-volume “History of Southwestern Ohio: The Miami Valleys,” and other published works, both together and separately.