New Manuscript Finding Aids, September 2025
The staff of the Manuscripts Division spent the summer dutifully arranging and describing new collections, which are now available for research!
“Whiskers of National Reputation”: Recognizing the Beard of Moses Purnell Handy
By Cheney J. Schopieray for his friend David Johnson, who was a hairsbreadth away from trekking to Alaska for the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships. On this World Beard Day, the Clements Library would like to doff its cap in recognition of the beard of...
National Nonprofit Day: Philanthropy in the Clements Collections
Happy National Nonprofit Day! Here at Clements, we are proud of the work that we do on a daily basis and are honored by the support that we get from our community. Let’s look back in time through some examples of early philanthropic endeavors.
New Manuscript Finding Aids, August 2025
The Manuscripts Division, including grad student intern Naomi Yu, have processed many archival collections that have recently been made discoverable online. The detailed finding aids they have created for each collection will be vital for future researchers utilizing our digital search tools.
New Manuscripts Finding Aids, June 2025
The staff of the Clements Library’s Manuscripts Division have been organizing and describing a wide variety of collections these past few months, making materials ranging from a teenage boy’s sketchbook to the treatment records of horse surgeons available...
U-M Clements Library announces a new exhibit on the Battles of Lexington & Concord coinciding with the 250th anniversary
The William L. Clements Library’s new exhibition, Bloody Work: Lexington and Concord 1775 features historic handwritten letters, documents, and artwork. Opening on April 18, 2025, it commemorates the 250th anniversary of the military hostilities that began the...
Thomas Gage Descendant Deborah Gage visits Clements Library
The Thomas Gage papers, which have been housed at the Clements Library since William L. Clements himself purchased and donated them in 1937, give unique insight into the Revolutionary War from the British perspective. However, they also greatly inform the reader about everyday life in the colonies prior to the revolution. It is this aspect of the Gage story that Deborah Gage, a descendant of General Gage, focused on during A Conflict of Emotions: Thomas and Margaret Gage and the American Revolution on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.
New Manuscripts Finding Aids, February 2025
From the diary of a member of the Midland Baseball Club of Oxford to the papers of British Consul-General James Colquhoun, the Manuscripts Department has made a wide variety of collections available for research this month.
New Manuscripts Finding Aids, December 2024
The Manuscripts Department has been hard at work making historic hand-written materials available for research. Check out sixteen new finding aids published this past December!