Clements Library Centennial Celebration
Centennial Exhibit
Timeline
Prince Souvanna Phouma, neutralist premier of Laos, gives speech sponsored by the South and Southeast Asia Center in the Clements. In what was his first speech in an American university, Prince Souvanna attacked communism and called for neutralism. The Laotian government were fighting the communist-dominated Pathet Lao rebellion at the
The preceding week had witnessed a strike against classes by the Black Action Movement, which also won support from some white students. On March 26 about two hundred occupied the Library. They were confined to the Main Room, where they held a meeting for half an hour. After their exit
By March 30 the strike was still on, and so the library had to decide whether to proceed or not with the annual Founder’s Day program. They feared that sight of guests entering the building would induce students to follow in and interrupt proceedings. Therefore for the first time since
In lieu of the annual gift book, in 1972 the library recorded a phonograph record—“A Concert of Eighteenth Century Music” performed mostly from the library’s Americana holdings. The university choir and a number of music faculty contributed to the recording.
Associates were invited to the usual Founder’s Day observance on April 1, when Professor LaMont Okey’s graduate students in interpretive reading gave lively excerpts from the Library’s etiquette books. The title of the program was “Gentle Manners and the Art of Politeness.” Okey made the selections and directed the presentation.
In April, the Clements put on a program on nineteenth-century American ballroom dancing. Pauline Norton coordinted the efforts of the orchestra from the University of Michigan and the dancers from Eastern Michigan University. Three performances were held, a grand performance for the Associates, one for the Sonneck Society, and one
An exhibition titled “Spiritual Song: The Meaning of African American Freedom in the Nineteenth Century” was held at the Clements, which represented the personal and public lives of free African Americans during the slavery era. It was put together by Rob Cox, the collection’s curator.
An exhibition focusing on the history of cookbooks and cookery opened at the Clements in the Summer of 1996. Jan Longone, owner of the Wine and Food Library in Ann Arbor, marked the 200th anniversary of the first American cookbook by Amelia Simmons (published 1796) with the display. It was
The Clements Library began a project to better describe its manuscript holdings that were created by women. The Women in History project was directed by Rachel Onuf, assisted by Carrie Bickner.