Love Letters in the Samuel Latham Mitchill Papers
Samuel Latham Mitchill was a man of many interests. He held a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh, studied law, taught chemistry and botany at Columbia University, and served in both state and national legislatures. Even with so much on his mind, his wife, Catherine, was still never far from his thoughts.The Clements Library's Samuel Latham Mitchill Papers include detailed letters he wrote to Catherine while he was serving in Congress. Discussions of politics and Washington society...
Digital Images from the Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York
The old halfway house at the junction of Broadway, 8th Ave. & 59th St. "If any one among us may calculate surely on a sublunary immortality, Mr. VALENTINE is the man. He has linked his name indissolubly with one of the greatest cities in the world in a manner which time shall strengthen not efface." These were the accolades heaped on David Thomas Valentine (1801-1869) by The New York Times in 1863. Valentine, who served as Deputy Clerk to the Common Council for 37 years (apparently...
Learning Through Maps
Americans in general—and younger people in particular—are often criticized for being woefully deficient in a geographical understanding of their country, continent, hemisphere, and world. In many ways such criticism is justified, and the noticeable reduction in geography instruction in schools has done nothing to improve the situation. This is unfortunate because regular use of maps can fill the gaps in understanding of the form of our world, and atlases, whether printed or...
Civil War Snowball Fights
A snowball fight from A Book of Winter Sports: An Attempt to Catch the Spirit of the Keen Joys of the Winter Season (New York, 1912).The arrival of the winter solstice often coincides with the first significant snowfall of the season. As adults we mostly view snowfall with dread, knowing that our morning commute to work the next day will be slower and more dangerous than usual. In those moments we tend to forget that snow in the form of snowmen or snowballs can be a tremendous source of...
Clements Library SAA Archives Blitz
Image credit: Claire MilldrumPost by Noa Kasman, Joyce Bonk Library AssistantOn the mornings of November 14th and November 18th, the University of Michigan’s Society of American Archivists (SAA) Student Chapter and the William L. Clements Library organized a two-part Archives Blitz. These events are held by the Student Chapter once or twice a semester. Since the fall of 2014, Student Chapter Archives Blitzes have ranged from several hours to week-long engagements with organizations....
Norton Strange Townshend Fellowship Now Offered for 2017
In keeping with the Clements Library’s commitment to the University of Michigan’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiative, we are pleased to announce a new post-doctoral fellowship. The Norton Strange Townshend Fellowship is named for the nineteenth-century physician and educator (1815-1895) and funded by the Library’s Townshend Fund.The Norton Strange Townshend Fellowship offers $10,000 in support of scholarly research on diversity, equity and inclusion in American history during...
Join us online and on campus – Our exciting events on Giving Blueday
We are excited to announce our mission and the festivities that we will be holding for Giving Blueday, November 29, 2016. Please join us in supporting the Clements Library's long lasting mission to collect and preserve primary source materials, to make them available for research, and to support and encourage scholarly investigation of our nation’s past.What is Giving Blueday? Giving Blueday (GBD) is the University of Michigan's Day of Giving, and it is a day for everyone who loves...
From the Stacks: Accusation of Witchcraft, 1665/66
Perhaps no image is more synonymous with Halloween than that of the witch, a woman dressed in black with a pointy hat and a broomstick. But this seemingly innocent costume has roots stretching back to the colonial period when being called a witch was a serious, often deadly, accusation. While some historians like Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum focused on geographic and economic factors in such accusations, the important connection between gender and witchcraft in America has since been...
Politics Past: Political Prints and Social Satires in the Graphics Division
As our nation cycles through a particularly contentious political year, the collections of the Clements Library remind us that this is not the first time. Evidence of political pyrotechnics from past elections can be found across all divisions of the Clements Library. Smoldering in the print collection are examples of the political broadsides that were popular in the 19th century. These entertaining lithographs and engravings were sold mostly in urban areas at booksellers, stationery stores,...
Clements Library Acquires Previously Unknown Plan of 1790 Detroit
It seems as if the Director and curators of the Clements Library are always searching—searching for new documentation to make accessible to scholars; searching for collections or parts of collections that they know or hope are still “out there” in the hands of descendants, local and national Americana dealers, or private collectors. To this end the curators carefully examine dozens of catalogs each month and make recommendations to the Director, who then decides what we can afford....