by Cheney Schopieray | Nov 12, 2026 | Acquisitions, Collections, Giving, Manuscripts
The William L. Clements Library would like to take an opportunity to celebrate donations and purchases that add new archival materials to existing collections. These are cases in which the library may have owned a set of papers for decades, but which have recently been expanded to include hitherto unknown or unresearched source materials. These acquisitions safely and happily unite formerly disparate personal and family papers under one roof for the benefit of all researchers.
by Clements Library | Nov 6, 2026 | Collections, Events, Fellowships, Giving, Graphics, Manuscripts, News
In collaboration with the School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD), we have launched the Center for American Band History Research, a new initiative bringing together historical collections, scholarship, teaching, and performance to advance the study of the music, musicians, and social resonance of the wind band in the cultural life of the United States.
by Clements Library | Oct 20, 2026 | Acquisitions, Collections, Library Work, Manuscripts
Thanks to the hard work of the Manuscripts Division, over a dozen manuscript collections were made available for research this month! Philadelphia (Pa.) Citizens petition to Andrew Jackson, 1836 This 28-foot scroll is a petition authored by a group of Philadelphians...
by Clements Library | Sep 24, 2026 | Acquisitions, Collections, Library Work, Manuscripts
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.
by Clements Library | Sep 9, 2026 | Collections, Library Work, Manuscripts
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.
by Kelsey Turgeon | Aug 31, 2026 | Day In The Life, Library Work, Manuscripts
Brynne Smith, an undergraduate student, has joined us today for a Q&A to share what her day is like as the George F. Hacker Intern at the Clements! Tell us about your background and how you came to work at the Clements Library. I am from Ann Arbor! I am going into...
by Clements Library | Aug 26, 2026 | Collections, Library Work, Manuscripts
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.
by Sam Huck | Aug 12, 2026 | Collections, Giving, Graphics, Manuscripts
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.
by Clements Library | Aug 5, 2026 | Acquisitions, Collections, Library Work, Manuscripts
Many manuscripts collections have been processed and made available for research, ranging from a Broadway Theaters scrapbook depicting a “School of Educated Dogs” to the papers of WWII veteran Robert S. Simpson, who helped establish a typhus hospital at the liberated Allach concentration camp. As always, all are welcome to visit the Clements to research these materials in person.
