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Adopt a Piece of History

Honor a loved one or commemorate a special event with a tribute through our Adopt a Piece of History program. Your gift will be acknowledged via a virtual bookplate. Digital bookplates are flexible and can bear the name of the individual being honored or remembered, as well as the name of the thoughtful donor. Your support strengthens our collections by helping with acquisitions, conservation, digitization and other priorities of the Clements Library.

Virtual Bookplates Gallery

This digital and commemorative program is a wonderful way to convey your personal commitment to the study of history and preservation of past knowledge and voices. Adoptions are an excellent way to commemorate an occasion, celebrate a milestone, or honor a great achievement.

Please explore the available tributes highlighted below!

Do you have something in particular in mind? We are always happy to help identify more historical materials needing support that are meaningful to yourself or a loved one. To discuss your ideas or if you have any other questions, please contact:

Anne Bennington-Helber, Assistant Director of Development
[email protected] / 734-649-3370

Portraits of the "spirit postmaster" James V. Mansfield, shown with his writing pen and paper, and his wife Mary Hopkinson Mansfield. Hand colored photographic prints on paper, reverse mounted on glass. Possibly done from photographs of the couple's 1847 wedding portraits. The portrait of James is signed and dated: Geo. Freeman, 1859.

Hand-colored Photographic Portraits of James V. and Mary Hopkinson Mansfield, ca. 1859.

$375 | Graphics, Manuscripts

Manuscript student atlas from a boy in Mexico, 1913

$400 | Maps

Ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War, the Clements is fundraising to greatly expand capacity to digitize our substantial manuscript collections from the era. Multiple new Object-level Targets will be a required tool for the digitization process across a total of four new scanning stations.

Object-level Target for Scanning Process

$425 | Digitization

Jonathan Bailey Condit, a pastor in Portland, Maine, wrote and delivered a lengthy memorial at the time of 11-year old George Sydenham Mighels' death in 1839. George's father Jesse Wedgwood Mighels transcribed the unpublished memorial into a bound volume in 1853, as a gift to his other son Henry Rust Mighels.

Jonathan B. Condit, “Memorial of the life and death of George Sydenham Mighels” Manuscript Transcription, 1853.

$450 | Manuscripts

In 1838, a group of women from South Trenton, New York, drafted a plan for an Independence Day celebration in which "female delicacy might with propriety participate." With an outline of sentiments and toasts by the women, this document highlights how women carved out space for their participation in partisan politics and patriotic commemorations.

Manuscript Draft, “For the Whig Novel Celebration of the 4th July,” (South Trenton, New York), 1838.

$450 | Manuscripts

This 12-page court document features judicial notes on the court case Spangler v. Packer. Job Packer was tried for the slander of Barbara Spangler by accusing her of bearing a mixed-race child and being a "lewd or abandoned woman." Providing remarkable detail on one community's investigation into sexuality, race, and child-bearing, this document uncovers oft-silenced aspects of women's lives and communal conflict in the early nineteenth century.

Spangler v. Packer Legal Document, (Pennsylvania), ca. July 1809.

$450 | Manuscripts

These two maps by Emanuel Bowen, prolific map engraver and geographer to the king in mid-18th century London, tell two parts of a similar story. One depicts oceanic trade winds, vital and predictable forces that made the extensive commerce between Europe and the Americas possible. The second map visualizes what historians now call the “Atlantic World” as a place of trade and commerce, linking four regions in the trade goods of mercantilism and slave economy.

A pair of maps by Emmanuel Bowen, Trade Winds and Atlantic World, 1740s

$500 | Maps

Charles Henry Eaton and Herbert Williams Eaton Horse Tour account book, 1893-1894

$500 | Manuscripts

Conservation of the Salomon Family Photograph Album

$500 | Conservation, Graphics