By Jamal Dillman-Hasso. Buried within a small, leather-bound memorandum book in a half-foot but historiographically rich box of Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) materials at the William L. Clements Library lies a two-page map, charted circa 1779 by John Thomas of London. In...
In January 2024, Sierra Laddusaw joined the University of Michigan community as the Curator for Maps and Graphics at the Clements Library. Sierra comes to Michigan from University of Arkansas – Fort Smith where she was the Scholarly Communication Librarian....
The last time the general public had the opportunity to see the “Plan of the Fort at De Troit” was in 1967 when it was offered for sale at Sotheby’s. Now it will be part of the University of Michigan’s William L. Clements Library collection. Not knowing to whom the...
This image comprises all the engraved segments of a half-size facsimile copy of a medieval manuscript map known as The Peutinger Map. The engraved facsimile is found in later editions of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, edited and published by Abraham Ortelius (and often...
Guest post by Danny Zborover; 2020-2021 Mary G. Stange Fellow at the Clements Library; dazborov@gmail.com *** As the pirates disembarked their ship and prepared to attack, another group of black-attired characters formed a solid line behind the defensive wall. After a...
Mary Pedley, Assistant Map Curator at the Clements Library, is co-editor with Matthew H. Edney of The History of Cartography Volume 4: Cartography in the European Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press 2019). * * * The old adage about pictures and words has...
To create a digital archive is an expensive endeavor. The Clements Library is deeply committed to sharing its rich collections with an ever-wider audience, but the queue of material is long and resources limited. Pockets of the collection would not see cyber-light...
Clements Library Conservator Julie Fremuth provides a follow-up to our recent post about the arrival of 14 tightly-rolled sea charts and early conservation steps. The initial post Conservation Close-up: Sea Charts used in Whaling discusses Fremuth’s months-long...
While our team adheres to restrictions from the current public health crisis, this post replicates one of the Clements Library’s most popular Facebook posts ever. The post was shared 40 times and reached thousands of Facebook users when it was published on...