Past Stories

As a student and Michigan Daily photographer, Jay Cassidy captured the turbulent, defiant, electric period of the late 1960s. Now a Hollywood film editor, Cassidy recently gave 5,000 of his photos to the Bentley.

The Great War was over, the armistice signed. But for one group of soldiers, the battles continued when they were sent to the far eastern front, to the frozen climes of Northern Russia.

At 89 years old, famed architect Gunnar Birkerts shows no signs of retiring. His collections at the Bentley showcase his architectural thought processes, leading to the recent opening of his National Library of Latvia.

Before Power Point presentations or Flickr, the best way for a group to see a single image was through lantern slides. The Bentley has hundreds of these slides in its collections, providing a new old way to see U-M.

In 1903, campus hazing rituals included students shearing each other's heads before the annual Freshman Banquet. A scrapbook at the Bentley documents the hair-removing adventures with actual locks.

A trio of exhibits at the University of Michigan Museum of art has put a bright spotlight on the Bentley's modern architectural archives of three famous architects.