OARDC: Traveling Back to the Past and Looking to the Future

By Laura Merrell, Revised by Rachel Tomei

Wooster’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) conducts modern, cutting-edge agricultural and environmental research, with origins that can be traced back to the 1860's. The OARDC was founded on discovering innovative solutions to agricultural problems specific to Ohio but has since shifted to include a global perspective. Since 1892, the OARDC's main campus has been in Wooster. 

Photo to the right: The first staff photo for the Ohio Agriculture Experiment Station's leading men and women, taken in 1895. The man in the middle of the front row is the first director of the OAES, Charles Thorne.