This exhibit examines the history of balloon flight in the United States from Blanchard’s first ascension to the early twentieth century.

The William L. Clements Library holds 58 editions of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America. Upon the 250th anniversary of its January 1776 publication, one might ask: Why so many?

The exhibition For All Ages, on view October 3-December 23, highlights familiar and unique toys and board games throughout American history.

“Bloody Work: Lexington and Concord 1775” explores the early months of 1775 in Massachusetts, the battles of April 19, and their immediate aftermath, giving an account of the events that ignited a nearly eight-year Revolutionary War between the British Empire and its American colonies.

Was early America as drab as it appears in prints of stoic figures or black-and-white photographs? This exhibit illuminates the brighter side of history, spotlighting all the color and vibrancy that are often concealed by the gray and sepia tones of pre-1900 American imagery. Come see the garish fab …

Political satire is not a gentle art—it is meant to leave a mark. Since the heyday of James Gillray and William Hogarth in 18th-century England, visual satirists have been able to “say” things about political leaders in their illustrations that would get writers censored (or worse). As such, it has …

Twenty-three students enrolled in Matthew Solomon’s Winter 2024 section of FTVM 352 (Film History: Origins to the New Wave) were tasked with exploring these collections and creating this exhibition, which also serves as the capstone assignment for the course. Produced by a class dedicated to “hands- …

This exhibit addresses the theme of the LSA Fall 2023 semester at the University of Michigan: “Arts & Resistance.” The items on display in this exhibit will show how people in the nation’s past shaped America into what it is today.

Celebrating 100 years at the Clements.

This student-curated exhibit focuses on the theme of secrecy and how it has shaped our inquiry into how the family, as an institution and an ideal at the heart of debates about American identity and national belonging, has changed over time.

This exhibit examines how 19th- and 20th-century African American artists and intellectuals expressed identity through portraiture, photography and literature.

This exhibit examines the photographic styles and practices that recorded the people, activities, stereotypes, and myths during the early development of photography, focusing on the Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes region and beyond.

A project to catalog, digitize, and present a selection of bird’s-eye prints of American cities held by the Clements Library.

American Encounters highlights the great range and depth of the Clements Library’s collections related to Native American history. The exhibit features items drawn from many areas of the collection, including books, maps, manuscripts, prints, and photographs, which document over four centuries of hi …

This online exhibit highlights the Clements Library’s best holdings related to the Barbary Wars. Featured items include manuscripts, books, maps, and engravings documenting the United States’ first interactions with the Arab world and the early development of the U.S. Navy.

The War of 1812 has sometimes been called a forgotten conflict. This second confrontation between the United States and Great Britain did, in fact, have a considerable influence on the future development of the country as well as its relations with Canada, Native Americans, and Europe.

In 2009 the Clements Library marked the 250th anniversary of the British victories of 1759 by presenting a few of the treasures from its collections that illustrate the events and participants in that momentous year. This online version has been enhanced by the addition of further materials.

An introduction to the diverse elements of the 18th century fortifications in America. This online exhibit features examples from the Library’s rich collection of plans and maps.

The exhibit aims to showcase the spy letters of the Sir Henry Clinton Papers and to situate them in an educational framework. During the war, a complex network of spies, double agents, and traitors emerged in an effort to learn the plans of the enemy before they were enacted. 

Norton Strange Townshend (1815-1895) had a long and multi-faceted career in politics, medicine, social reform, and agricultural education. This exhibit illuminates many aspects of his career and life through biographical information and materials from the Norton Strange Townshend Family Papers.

“Reframing the Color Line: Race and the Visual Culture of the Atlantic World” examines early constructions of race in visual culture and asks “what were the origins of racism’s visual vocabulary?”

Mortality is a useful lens through which we may view many aspects of early American society. This exhibit explores American practices and traditions for coping with death, from the early years of European exploration and discovery to the early 20th century and the burgeoning modern funeral industry.

Through an exploration of freedom, military service, executive power and visual representations, Proclaiming Emancipation pays tribute to a near-sacred document steeped in the logics of history and the imaginings of myth.

A recent acquisition of the largest existing archive of Henry Burbeck papers, dating primarily from the period of Henry Burbeck’s service as Chief of Artillery in the United States Army from 1802-1815.