by Sam Huck | Jan 29, 2026 | Publications
Jayne Ptolemy Associate Curator of Manuscripts Admit it. When going through your mail, besides a cursory glance, you don’t really pay much attention to the envelope. We rip it open to get to the good stuff (or the bill. These days it’s usually a bill.) Regardless, the...
by Sam Huck | Jan 29, 2026 | Publications
Emiko Hastings Curator of Books Earlier this year, the Clements Library Book Division made an exciting acquisition with the purchase of the Garrett Scott Collection of Vernacular Bindings. Scott, an antiquarian bookdealer in Ann Arbor, coined the term “vernaculopegy”...
by Sam Huck | Jan 29, 2026 | Publications
Paul J. Erickson Randolph G. Adams Director William L. Clements Library People ask me all the time what my job is like. Directing a rare book library and archive of early American history is not something that a lot of people realize is a thing that someone might get...
by Isaac Burgdorf | Jan 29, 2026 | Publications
These eight articles written by Clements staff members feature varying takes on the concept of “containers.” From framed portraits to envelopes bearing bad news, this edition of the Quarto touches on the wide variety of collections here at the William L. Clements Library.
by Sam Huck | Jul 7, 2025 | Publications
Reach for the stars: Look to Clements Angela Oonk Director of Development In October, the University of Michigan kicked off a new comprehensive fundraising campaign, “Look to Michigan.” I can’t help but envision something like the excitement and possibility pictured...
by Sam Huck | Jul 7, 2025 | Publications
Maggie Vanderford Librarian for Instruction and Engagement Over the past two-and-a-half years the Clements Library has been fortunate enough to welcome several visiting research fellows whose projects in some way or another involved early Americans’ relationship with...
by Sam Huck | Jul 7, 2025 | Publications
Jakob Dopp Graphics Cataloger In this daguerreotype view, famed photographer Thomas Martin Easterly (1809–1882) somehow captured the clouds above Niagara Falls in 1853. It remains unclear how he managed to expose the plates for the perfect amount of time with the...
by Sam Huck | Jul 7, 2025 | Publications
Cheney J. Schopieray Curator of Manuscripts The anonymous author of “Practical Mathematics” included a list of the signs of the zodiac along with their Greek symbols as part of extensive definitions and problem sets relating to algebra, geometry, trigonometry,...
by Sam Huck | Jul 7, 2025 | Publications
Mary Pedley Assistant Curator of Maps The cosmos, from the Greek word κοσμοσ, incorporates the universe of earth and the heavens. The study of the cosmos is cosmology; the depiction of the cosmos is cosmography. Illustrating the cosmos has been a human pursuit since...
