New Finding Aids: December 2018 to January 2019
The Clements Library is pleased to announce that the following collections are now described online and may be requested for use in the reading room. James Buchanan Letters, 1866-1869 – Processed by Cari Griffin This collection contains 10 letters written by...
Recent Acquisition: A U.S. Government Official’s Description of a Mixed-Race Lead Actress on the Baltimore Stage, 1796
Research projects can begin in a variety of different ways. On one end of the spectrum, a query about some aspect of the past may prompt the scholar to seek out and identify relevant primary sources that help answer their question. On the opposite end, a scholar may...
Women’s Voices from the Starry Family Correspondence
As one of the Clements Library’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) interns, I was tasked with conserving and providing descriptions of manuscript collections that feature historically underrepresented perspectives and subject matter. The collections...
Printing and Painting Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie
Nestled in the Clements Library’s Oliver Hazard Perry Papers are remarkable documents detailing the commodore’s naval career, with some 200 pieces highlighting his service in the War of 1812. In September of 1813 he famously won the Battle of Lake Erie, a...
What’s in Your Attic? Treasures Big and Small
The William L. Clements Library invited members of the public to join us on Sunday, September 30, 2018, for an event we called “What’s in Your Attic?” We encouraged attendees to bring their own paper treasures, such as letters, journals,...
Announcing the Illustrated Manuscripts Project
One of the great joys about working at the William L. Clements Library is that while we preserve historical records and make them accessible for research, we also get to explore and discover the human experience across time. Stories of heartbreak and joy, historical...
In Celebration of Bad Poetry Day
No commemoration of Bad Poetry Day would be complete without a nod to the (in)famous poet (and native Michigander) Julia A. Moore. The Clements Library is the proud owner of several editions of her collected poems. Born in Plainfield, Michigan, in 1847, Julia Moore...
One Hundred Selections from the D. N. Diedrich Collection of Manuscript Americana, 17th-20th Century
Dr. Duane Norman Diedrich provided generous gifts-in-kind, funding, and counsel to amass 1,100 individual letters, documents, and other manuscripts, plus nearly 110 bound volumes and archival collections. The entries in this catalog will give readers a cursory view of the prominent public individuals represented in the Diedrich Collection, from John Winthrop to Susan B. Anthony to U.S. President Harry Truman. This pamphlet was produced in conjunction with an exhibition of the Diedrich Collection at the William L. Clements Library, May 25-October 26, 2018.