Grab your favorite beverage and brouse more than a century of our amazing history.

Since our founding in 1920, we have been obtaining the autographs of our distinguished speakers. Those autographs were kept in a leather-bound blue Crichton Club Memory Book. A more complete effort to preserve our history was gleaned from club minutes, letters, programs, and newspaper clippings housed in the archives of the Ohio Historical Society (now the Ohio History Connection). In 2010 a special anniversary edition of our history was compiled and distributed to members at a gala 90th anniversary celebration. That edition included the signatures and biographies of each speaker.

To mark our 100th anniversary in 2020, the Club planned to create a significantly enhanced version of our history, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced a delay in plans. In 2023, those plans became a reality with the publication of The Crichton Chronicle. It is designed to serve as an educational and inspirational eBook for our members about our amazing history from 1920 to the present day. 

It can be viewed by clicking on the button below. The Chronicle is best viewed in full-screen mode. Use the magnifying slider widget over any material to enlarge it, or the search widget to locate text.

HOW CRICHTON CLUB GOT ITS NAME

Nope. He wasn’t an admiral! James Crichton (1560-1582) was said to be admired for the many accomplishments of his short life.
Born in Scotland in 1560, son of Robert, the Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Elizabeth Stewart of the House of Beith, Crichton received a B.A. at age 14 from the University of St. Andrews and an M.A. one year later. He was slain during a street quarrel in Mantua at the age of 22.

Aldus Manutius, the grandson and namesake of the famed Venetian printer (who invented italic type, among other accomplishments), dedicated his 1581 edition of Cicero’s Paradoxia to Crichton: “You have attained before your 21st year the knowledge of ten languages, of many dialects, of all sciences; and you have coupled the studies of swordsmanship, of jumping, of riding, and of all gymnastic exercises with such alertness of disposition, such humanity, mildness and easiness of temper that nothing could be more amiable or admirable.”

Crichton was given the sobriquet, The Admirable Crichton, by the 19th century authors William Thackeray and James Barrie.