Lecture by Wes Cowan: “Collecting Americana,” September 30, 2010
4:00 p.m., September 30, 2010 Main Room, Clements Library 909 S. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI Wes Cowan is a familiar face on History Detectives and Antiques Roadshow. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan and owns Cowan's Auctions, an auction house that specializes in historical Americana. Wes will give a talk on collecting Americana, based on his vast knowledge of items from our national past, including furniture, folk art, political ephemera, Native American...
New Clements Library Fellowships Announced
Details and application instructions and forms for all Clements Library fellowships are now available on our website. For further information contact: [email protected] or call 734-764-2347. Announcement excerpted from the Quarto, no. 33 (Spring-Summer 2010): It is a pleasure to announce the establishment of four new research fellowships intended to attract top-level scholars to the Clements Library. These complement the Jacob M. Price Visiting Research Fellowships that have been...
In the News: “Businessmen with a Passion for Books”
Michael F. Carmichael of Corp! recently interviewed Clements Library Director J. Kevin Graffagnino. His article based on the interview, "Businessmen with a Passion for Books," appears as a cover story in the online version of Corp! Magazine. Check out the article to learn more about the Clements Library, its founder William Lawrence Clements, and some of the great treasures in the Library's collections. To find out about the Clements Library's current fundraising program and how you can help,...
Help Us to Meet the Copley Challenge!
We have already raised more than half the match for the Copley Challenge. One of the nation's greatest private collections of Americana is being auctioned over the next year and we have an anonymous benefactor who has offered $150,000 as a one-to-one challenge match to purchase rare items for our library. We have raised half the funds in a short time and need only $75,000 to fully match this gift. When completed, we will have $300,000 available for the October 2010 auction.Please consider...
Clements Library open for Art Fair, July 21-22
For the first two days of the Ann Arbor Art Fair, the Clements Library will have a tent in front of the building at 909 S. University to provide information about the Library. We're also extending our exhibit hours: the Main Room will be open for visitors to view the exhibits from 10 am to 5pm on Wednesday and Thursday. Please come by and see us! While you're here, you can drop your name in the basket for our raffle. The prizes are a copy of 101 Treasures from the Collections of the William L....
From the Stacks: Gone Fishin’
"The whole purpose of summer fishing, the Old Man said, is not to worry about catching fish, but just to get out of the house and set and think a little." --Robert C. Ruark, The Old Man and the Boy Fishing, a popular American pastime, is well-represented in the collections of the Clements Library. Once exclusively a subsistence activity, fishing became a leisure sport for the upper and middle classes in 19th century America. In the post-Civil War era, publishers began to...
The Latest Quarto: Researching the Civil War
The latest issue of the Quarto is now available. The Quarto is a semi-annual newsletter published by the William L. Clements Library and sent to members of the Clements Library Associates. In addition to news and announcements about the Clements Library, this issue features several essays about the Civil War collections of the Library, including manuscripts, sheet music, culinary history, and maps. The next issue of the Quarto will focus on the Civil War as well. Contents of the Spring-Summer...
Current Exhibit: “Fine-Tuning a Great Collection: The How and Why of Recent Acquisitions,” June 14 – October 8, 2010
A new exhibit at the Clements Library showcases some of the best of its recent acquisitions and uses these rare books, manuscripts, maps, and graphic materials to explain the Library’s policies for adding to its outstanding holdings. "Fine Tuning a Great Collection: The How and Why of Recent Acquisitions" opened to the public on June 14 and will be on display through October 8.The Clements Library opened its doors in 1923 as the first rare books and special collections library at an American...
$150,000 Challenge Grant Announced
Help us to purchase important documents of the early history of the United States by doubling the value of your donation.A generous anonymous donor presented a remarkable opportunity that will benefit the Clements Library in many ways for years to come. One of the nation's greatest private collections of Americana is being auctioned off over the next year and we have an anonymous benefactor who has offered $150,000 as a one-to-one challenge match to purchase rare items for our library.We need...
Highlights from the Culinary Archive on Display in the Audubon Room
From the University of Michigan Record Update for Wednesday, June 9, 2010: Jan Longone and Provost Theresa Sullivan at a reception to honor the Longones' donation of their culinary collection to the William L. Clements Library. Materials donated by Daniel and Janice Longone form the core of the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive, a collection of primary sources devoted to the subject of food history in America. At the reception sponsored by the Provost at the Hatcher Graduate Library on...