New Finding Aids: January – April 2020
The Clements Library is pleased to announce that the following collections are now described online. These materials may be requested for use in the reading room when we are able to resume library services. Before planning your research visit, please contact us to verify in advance if our normal open hours for researchers have resumed. * * * Mélange de Toutes les Couleurs Propres au Dessein du Plan manuscript ([1750-1800]) - Processed by Meghan Brody This 32-page manuscript notebook, dated to...
Whaling Voyage Logs Recently Acquired
Guest post by Ellen Gleason, Clements Library Student Intern As a student pursuing the Graduate Certification in Archival Administration at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, I completed a 135-hour practicum applying my classroom learning to work in the field. For my project, I had the pleasure of processing two 19th century whaling logbooks recently acquired by the William L. Clements Library in Ann Arbor. * * * The whale is a majestic figure in the human psyche. Long...
Latest Quarto: The Best of the West
The Winter-Spring 2020 Quarto is now available online. This issue is titled “The Best of the West,” inspired by an exhibition of the same name at the Clements Library. In the words of retiring Director Kevin Graffagnino, the exhibit “concentrates on printed books and pamphlets, but readers of this issue of The Quarto will learn that the Library has tremendous strength in western Americana manuscripts, prints, photographs, and maps as well.” "The Best of the West," Introduction by J. Kevin...
Conservation Close-up: Sea Charts used in Whaling
While our team adheres to restrictions from the current public health crisis, this post replicates one of the Clements Library's most popular Facebook posts ever. The post was shared 40 times and reached thousands of Facebook users when it was published on December 26, 2019. Connect with the Clements Library today on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! * * *Almost one year ago, a set of sea charts once used for whaling voyages was donated to the Clements Library by Frederick and...
Public commemorations honor pioneering figures from Clements archives
It can be easy to think of the archive as a self-contained space, where staff collect, conserve, and process collections while researchers come to quietly study them. But the historical figures whose papers fill the Clements Library stacks have far-reaching influence that reverberate across the centuries. Beyond the important scholarship that grows from the work done in our reading room, occasionally we catch wind of modern commemorations honoring the stories we help preserve. In recent...
A Q&A with Clements Library Director Paul Erickson
In January 2020, Paul Erickson joined the University of Michigan community as Randolph G. Adams Director of the Clements Library. Erickson’s five-year appointment was announced last September by the U-M Board of Regents. Following an undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, Paul received Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in American studies from the University of Texas at Austin. For more than a dozen years he was a program director for the American Antiquarian Society and the...
New Finding Aids: June – December 2019
The Clements Library is pleased to announce that the following collections are now described online and may be requested for use in the reading room. Moses Brown Diary in Memoirs of Major-General Heath, 1776-1777, 1798 - Processed by Theresa Dowker This volume is a manuscript copy of Captain Moses Brown's diary, August 9, 1776 to January 22, 1777, bound into the end of a copy of Major-General William Heath's published memoirs [Memoirs of Major-General Heath (Boston: I. Thomas and E. C....
Looks Can Be Deceiving: Issues Regarding 19th-Century Native American Photographs
Graphics Cataloger Jakob Dopp outlines his observations from researching and cataloging hundreds of photos from a collection recently acquired by the Clements Library. Learn more about this collection from the University of Michigan’s Press Release and Video. Some might say “the camera never lies.” However, when it comes to many 19th-century photographs of Native Americans, this statement can prove to be extremely problematic. The Richard Pohrt Jr. Collection of Native American Photography is...
Giving Blueday 2019
Support What You Love On December 3, 2019 the Clements Library joins the University of Michigan community in the annual Giving Blueday campaign, reminding everyone to "support what you love about U-M." If you are not sure where to begin, perhaps exploring the dynamic new Clements Library website will ignite your passion! You can also hear from the curators as they each explore a favorite item from the collection in this video. We hope that you agree that there is a lot...
Recap: Dental Health Contemporary Issues Discussion
Louis Miller, Curatorial Assistant at the Clements Library, summarizes our recent collaborative discussion program. The Clements Library hosted its second ever Contemporary Issues Discussion event on October 30, 2019, in collaboration with the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies and the Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Frank and Judy Wilhelme. The purpose of these Contemporary Issues Discussions is to consider how an issue relevant to us in today's...