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These Young Americans
"When Japanese Americans were willing to wash dishes and stock shelves, the University of Michigan opened its doors. When they applied as students, the doors closed." A new Heritage Project article tells the story.
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In 1957, the University of Michigan campus sported a fully functional nuclear reactor, complete with a 55,000-gallon glowing reactor pool. Bentley collections help tell the story of why the reactor was built—and what happened to it.
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What people imagine it’s like to visit the archives vs. what it’s actually like!
We’re kicking off American Archives Month with some archival myth busting.
✉️ What people think: “The archives are only for people with five letters of recommendation, sealed in wax, right?”
The truth: Everyone is welcome!
You don’t need recommendations, you don’t need to be an academic, you don’t even have to have a solid idea of what you’re here to research.
If you want, you can tell us “I’d like to find every historical photo of puppies in Michigan that I possibly can,” and we will help you try to do that.
📖 What people think: “I can’t touch that old book! What if I drop it? You can’t trust me with that!”
The truth: We promise, you’re more capable than you think. You will be fine, and so will the book.
Just make sure you’re using clean, dry hands to handle the materials. We genuinely want these things to be used!
📚 What people think: “Imagine hunting for clues in piles of dusty books. You must feel like Indiana Jones!”
The truth: Well, let’s take that one assumption at a time!
It is fun to research, but it’s not all books! We also have a lot of boxed collections, microfilm, maps, digital materials, and more.
We have a great custodian, so dust isn’t the problem you might assume.
Also, there are less traps in the archives than there are in Indiana Jones, we’re pretty sure.
Do you have any questions about visiting the Historical Library? Let us know in the comments!
#Archives #LibraryMyths #HistoricalLibrary #LibraryLife #AmericanArchivesMonth
What people imagine it’s like to visit the archives vs. what it’s actually like!
We’re kicking off American Archives Month with some archival myth busting.
✉️ What people think: “The archives are only for people with five letters of recommendation, sealed in wax, right?”
The truth: Everyone is welcome!
You don’t need recommendations, you don’t need to be an academic, you don’t even have to have a solid idea of what you’re here to research.
If you want, you can tell us “I’d like to find every historical photo of puppies in Michigan that I possibly can,” and we will help you try to do that.
📖 What people think: “I can’t touch that old book! What if I drop it? You can’t trust me with that!”
The truth: We promise, you’re more capable than you think. You will be fine, and so will the book.
Just make sure you’re using clean, dry hands to handle the materials. We genuinely want these things to be used!
📚 What people think: “Imagine hunting for clues in piles of dusty books. You must feel like Indiana Jones!”
The truth: Well, let’s take that one assumption at a time!
It is fun to research, but it’s not all books! We also have a lot of boxed collections, microfilm, maps, digital materials, and more.
We have a great custodian, so dust isn’t the problem you might assume.
Also, there are less traps in the archives than there are in Indiana Jones, we’re pretty sure.
Do you have any questions about visiting the Historical Library? Let us know in the comments!
#Archives #LibraryMyths #HistoricalLibrary #LibraryLife #AmericanArchivesMonth
60 seconds of context about the United Auto Workers “Stand Up” strike’s historical background!
Did you know that the 1936-1937 “Sit-Down” strike in Flint, Michigan, is what led to that title in the first place?
It’s worth noting that there were a lot of women working behind the scenes of the Flint strike that don’t always get shown in media coverage. They marched, advocated, brought food to the strikers, and drew attention to UAW.
The Paul Blanshard papers include newsprint photos of the Women’s Auxiliary in Flint, and articles about their work, if you’re curious to learn more.
Of course, the history is more complex than just 60 seconds will allow. You can find further details in collections like the Josephine Gomon papers, the Paul Blanshard papers, and the Michigan Daily Digital Archives!
You can also find actual interviews with historical auto workers in the “Unionism in the Automobile Industry Project” records.
#UAWStrike #StrikeHistory #LaborMovement #MichiganHistory #Flint
60 seconds of context about the United Auto Workers “Stand Up” strike’s historical background!
Did you know that the 1936-1937 “Sit-Down” strike in Flint, Michigan, is what led to that title in the first place?
It’s worth noting that there were a lot of women working behind the scenes of the Flint strike that don’t always get shown in media coverage. They marched, advocated, brought food to the strikers, and drew attention to UAW.
The Paul Blanshard papers include newsprint photos of the Women’s Auxiliary in Flint, and articles about their work, if you’re curious to learn more.
Of course, the history is more complex than just 60 seconds will allow. You can find further details in collections like the Josephine Gomon papers, the Paul Blanshard papers, and the Michigan Daily Digital Archives!
You can also find actual interviews with historical auto workers in the “Unionism in the Automobile Industry Project” records.
#UAWStrike #StrikeHistory #LaborMovement #MichiganHistory #Flint
“Boy, I wish Tom would have a birthday every day.”
Those were the words of U-M football captain Evashevski in 1940, who was feeling cheerful after they trounced the California Golden Bears with a score of 41 to 0.
He was talking, of course, about Tom Harmon: star football player for the Wolverines from 1938 to 1940. 🏈
That Michigan vs. California game had in fact been played on Tom’s birthday, and was made especially memorable when Tom had to dodge a tackle by a fan. 😱
That didn’t dampen his spirits, though; “It was wonderful,” he later told the Michigan Daily, as the other Wolverines chattered excitedly about the plane they’d taken to the California game.
Plane travel wasn’t as common at the time, so even though a number of them had become “woozy” in the air, they were still “deliriously happy” with the trip.
Tom Harmon was born exactly 104 years ago today!
Click through to see even more photos of him, and the other Wolverines, from the 1940 football season that won him U-M’s very first Heisman Trophy.
📸: Ivory Photograph Collection
1: Tom Harmon at football practice.
2: Tom Harmon and the Wolverines in the Ohio State game.
3: Tom Harmon clutching a football as he ran during the Pennsylvania game.
4: Tom Harmon and the Wolverines against Illinois.
#TBT #TomHarmon #Wolverines #GoBlue #UMich
“Boy, I wish Tom would have a birthday every day.”
Those were the words of U-M football captain Evashevski in 1940, who was feeling cheerful after they trounced the California Golden Bears with a score of 41 to 0.
He was talking, of course, about Tom Harmon: star football player for the Wolverines from 1938 to 1940. 🏈
That Michigan vs. California game had in fact been played on Tom’s birthday, and was made especially memorable when Tom had to dodge a tackle by a fan. 😱
That didn’t dampen his spirits, though; “It was wonderful,” he later told the Michigan Daily, as the other Wolverines chattered excitedly about the plane they’d taken to the California game.
Plane travel wasn’t as common at the time, so even though a number of them had become “woozy” in the air, they were still “deliriously happy” with the trip.
Tom Harmon was born exactly 104 years ago today!
Click through to see even more photos of him, and the other Wolverines, from the 1940 football season that won him U-M’s very first Heisman Trophy.
📸: Ivory Photograph Collection
1: Tom Harmon at football practice.
2: Tom Harmon and the Wolverines in the Ohio State game.
3: Tom Harmon clutching a football as he ran during the Pennsylvania game.
4: Tom Harmon and the Wolverines against Illinois.
#TBT #TomHarmon #Wolverines #GoBlue #UMich
One Michigan Daily writer in 1912 was convinced that the true cure for gloominess was the beauty of an Ann Arbor fall.
So convinced, in fact, that they wrote an article about it!
Titled “Fall Tonic,” that article recommends all kinds of fall activities to cure sadness, including:
🐤 Bird-spotting, because birds like “mallard and teal and mud-hens” are just waiting for anyone who knows the “secret of stealth.”
(And if you’re really bad at bird-spotting, don’t worry:
“For the man who cannot gain the confidence of the wilder wild life,” there are “black-birds and winter birds in new plumage.”)
🐿️ Squirrel-watching! After all, they have "long hours of harvesting" to do, stocking up on acorns.
📷 Photography walks: autumn’s the perfect time to take pictures of the river “peeking out of its framework of exquisitely-tinted foliage.”
Fall color is just starting to fill the trees today, but we have it on good authority from this anonymous 1912 article that it’s going to be spectacular.
“The color-work of the frost,” they wrote, “Has given the hickory a dress of yellow, the sumac a crimson gown, and the maples, splashes of both.”
Happy fall, Wolverines! 🍁🍂
📸: Students on the Central Campus diagonal walk on a crisp autumn day, News & Information Photographs, 1947
📸: Students walking through fall leaves on the Ann Arbor campus, Ivory Photo collection, ca. 1930
#FallActivities #ThingsToDo #AnnArbor #UMich #MichiganDaily #MichiganHistory #Autumn
One Michigan Daily writer in 1912 was convinced that the true cure for gloominess was the beauty of an Ann Arbor fall.
So convinced, in fact, that they wrote an article about it!
Titled “Fall Tonic,” that article recommends all kinds of fall activities to cure sadness, including:
🐤 Bird-spotting, because birds like “mallard and teal and mud-hens” are just waiting for anyone who knows the “secret of stealth.”
(And if you’re really bad at bird-spotting, don’t worry:
“For the man who cannot gain the confidence of the wilder wild life,” there are “black-birds and winter birds in new plumage.”)
🐿️ Squirrel-watching! After all, they have "long hours of harvesting" to do, stocking up on acorns.
📷 Photography walks: autumn’s the perfect time to take pictures of the river “peeking out of its framework of exquisitely-tinted foliage.”
Fall color is just starting to fill the trees today, but we have it on good authority from this anonymous 1912 article that it’s going to be spectacular.
“The color-work of the frost,” they wrote, “Has given the hickory a dress of yellow, the sumac a crimson gown, and the maples, splashes of both.”
Happy fall, Wolverines! 🍁🍂
📸: Students on the Central Campus diagonal walk on a crisp autumn day, News & Information Photographs, 1947
📸: Students walking through fall leaves on the Ann Arbor campus, Ivory Photo collection, ca. 1930
#FallActivities #ThingsToDo #AnnArbor #UMich #MichiganDaily #MichiganHistory #Autumn