Cataloging the Edward Surovell Collection of Native American Languages: A Love Story
When life-long book collector Ed Surovell lost his eyesight, he wanted to ensure that his books would be preserved and made accessible for research well into the future. In December 2021, Surovell generously gifted the Clements Library his carefully curated collection of Native American language materials. With over 300 items, this collection represents books printed in more than 20 different Native American languages from North America, with a particular interest in material from the Great Lakes region.
Digitizing Clements Materials
Digitization of Clements collections is an ongoing process, and one we spend a lot of time and energy on! In today’s blog, I’ll walk you through the steps of digitizing an item from our collections.
Turning Over a New Leaf: The Clements Library’s Native Plant Garden
The Clements Library is adding new leaves but not in the form of books. Planted during summer 2026, a native plant garden now sits on the eastern side of the century-old building. Beds of local wildflowers and grasses comprise the biodiverse plot, with some being directly cultivated from seeds gathered around U-M. These plants will contribute new sights and smells to the grounds once established, enhancing the library’s already impressive landscape.
New Manuscript Finding Aids, September 2026
The manuscript collections at the Clements Library include a wide variety of materials: personal correspondence, scrapbooks, inventories, and even some photographs and printed materials that accompanied collections of handwritten items. This month’s batch of manuscript finding aids are no exception! Read on to learn about the collections that have recently been made available for research.
U-M Clements Library Announces New Exhibit on Voting History in America
While the word “vote” appears in the United States Constitution 36 times, the meaning and practice of voting has undergone much transformation since the document’s writing. Changes over the course of the nineteenth century influenced how Americans voted and affected the material culture that surrounded voting. Our new exhibition, Who Counts? A History of Voting in America explores civic engagement, the evolution of the electorate, and the experiences of voters on election day throughout American history.
Collection Deep Dive: The Weld-Grimké Family Papers Pt. II
In a recent blog post, we began to explore the Weld-Grimké family correspondences which the digitization team at the Clements have been working for the last year to digitize and make accessible online. The correspondences represent the big, complicated, fascinating lives of Sarah, Angelina, Theodore and their family through the 19th century and vast political and personal changes. I had the honor of digitizing this collection, letter by letter, over the last year and getting to intimately know this family. Today, I want to continue with some of the themes which drew me into this collection and a bit about the process of digitizing this collection.
Collection Deep Dive: The Weld-Grimké Family Papers Pt. I
For the last year, the digitization team at the Clements Library has been hard at work on digitizing one of our cornerstone collections. Nearly 3,500 letters from the Weld-Grimké collection will shortly be digitally available, allowing remote access to these important documents. Stretching from 1740 to 1930, these letters document the lives of the Weld and Grimké families in South Carolina, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and Michigan. Centered around sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimké, these correspondences highlight the work of women as political actors, religious leaders, and medical practitioners. I had the honor of working through this collection page by page, taking over 13,000 images of these letters and in this blog I’d like to share a brief biographical sketch of the Grimké family and then I will be back to share a bit more about the digitizing process and my interest in this collection.
Donor Stories: Peggy Harrington
Clements Board Member Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Harrington’s introductory experience with the Clements was during her undergraduate years at the University of Michigan. She’d walked by the building and admired its beauty, but didn’t enter until she took a geography class that brought her inside the library. Years later, as a U-M Alum and someone who knew of the Clements’ vast Americana collection, she felt compelled to donate rare materials to the Clements collections.