Teaching with Collections
To reach out about scheduling a class for Fall 2025 please email [email protected]
The staff of the William L. Clements Library are eager to collaborate with you on a variety of learning experiences available to both the University of Michigan and the wider educational community, including local colleges and schools. Whether by introducing students to archival collections, designing an exhibit, working with curated selections of materials, analyzing primary source documents, or integrating our collections with your classes, the Clements staff are here to support your instructional needs.
We look forward to helping you achieve your instructional objectives. To ensure the most productive experience for your students, please reach out in advance of your target class date.
Curious about how the Clements can support your instruction?
Maggie Vanderford, Librarian for Instruction and Engagement.
[email protected] | 734-764-2347
Class Sessions with the Clements
Class Calendar for Winter 2025 is currently full. To reach out about scheduling a class for Fall 2025 please email [email protected]
Welcome! We look forward to working with you to support your instructional needs.
Incorporating Clements Library collections into your course design provides students with the opportunity to conduct hands-on primary source research with world-class materials.
Opportunities available include:
- Tailored sessions with selected materials to introduce students to research with primary sources (available for groups of 25 students or fewer)
- Student-curated exhibits designed by a class and installed in the Clements Library Avenir Foundation Reading Room
- Hands-on training sessions in reading cursive manuscript handwriting
- Clements staff visits to larger lecture courses with facsimile materials (available for groups of 25 students or more)
- Digitization of select materials for virtual engagement in instruction sessions (available upon consultation with Clements Library staff)
- Coordination of individual student archival research in the Clements Library Reading Room for specific assignments
- Consultation on curricular materials for course design
- Introductory tours and field trips to introduce students to the concept of an archive
- Informational sessions for graduate students on applying for fellowship or archival research funding
- Designated seminar room space for classes that wish to utilize Clements Library collections on a regular basis
Creative ideas for incorporating primary source research and archival instruction into course designs are welcomed and encouraged. Please reach out [email protected] to discuss your project or for additional information about instructional possibilities.
We are happy to discuss how we can best meet your instruction needs. Visit our Digitized Collections, Online Publications, and Online Exhibits to explore material that is already at your disposal.
Examples of Previous Classes
English 313: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Transatlantic Literature to 1830 [Remote]
- Having previously read Robert Rogers’ play Ponteach (1766), this seminar visited the Clements to study primary sources to help place the literary work within its historical context. A pre-class Canvas assignment had students search the collections to identify items relevant to the text. During class, students studied some of those materials in small groups, including a manuscript source reflecting the historical events portrayed in the text, a printed visual piece that depicted a key figure from it, and a map of the location that served as the setting of the piece.
Clements staff can work with you to select materials that relate to the themes of your class in order to create a hands-on encounter with the histories you study.
Museum Studies 608: Cultures of Collecting [Remote]
- This graduate-level seminar, cross-listed with the German Department, focused on both theoretical aspects of collecting as well as the historical forces that shape how collections are assembled. For this session the Director of the Clements Library engaged with a curator from the University of Michigan Museum of Art about their respective collections. The conversation focused on a theoretical “exchange” of a single item between each institution: How would the receiving institution situate the new item in the context of its “new” collection home? What discussions and research approaches would it make possible? The session connected two distinct collecting units on campus to open up questions about how collections are formed, how the broader institutional context of a collection shapes the ways we view surrounding materials, and the different approaches institutions bring to both research and public engagement.
ARTDES 255.1: Introduction to Photography [In-Person]
- Introduction to Photography students from the Penny Stamps School of Art & Design reviewed a selection of important historical photographs to inspire their own creative endeavors. Included were some recognizable images from American history and some that were mysterious, eccentric, or unexpected. The sources were both famous photographers like Mathew Brady and Marion Post Wolcott as well as unknown amateurs. The students were assigned to choose an image, then in the following weeks, create an original photographic narrative that responded to or expanded on the theme of the image they chose.
AAS 230: Survey of Afro-American History 1 [In-Person]
- For this survey class, Clements staff gave an introduction to the Clements, using thematic materials to highlight the different types of sources relating to the class subjects in the collection. Students circulated to three tables focused on various material types — letters, documents, and visual sources– and worked through a primary source analysis worksheet. Students scheduled return visits to work with selected materials in the reading room to be used for a research paper. Staff who had facilitated the class were present in the reading room to help answer questions and provide continuity for students.
The Clements can work with you to scaffold student exposure to the archive, interpreting sources, and studying materials in the reading room as they work on class projects.