Past Stories

A rare and surprising cache of sixty new letters makes its way to the Bentley to supplement an existing collection.

A paid internship program gave students hands-on experience with archives that included studying the history of intolerance in Michigan and parallels between the past and today.

Elizabeth Chandler and Dr. Nathan Thomas fought for the abolition of slavery at a time when many people in Michigan opposed slavery but far fewer took a stand.

Gertrude Buck earned U-M's first rhetoric Ph.D. The archives reveal how she used writing & teaching to break barriers for women, laying groundwork for today's feminist rhetoric.

In the mid-1800s, U-M's medical faculty revolted when the state government tried to force homeopathy into the curriculum. Archives reveal the war between medical fact and fiction.

Jeep Holland's passion for music helped shape the 1960s Michigan scene. His collection at the Bentley Historical Library illuminates a tumultuous rock-and-roll journey.

U-M’s Mandolin Club records tell the story how this unlikely instrument took the campus and the nation by storm in the early 1900s, sold out concerts, then faded just as quickly.

Typhoid, dysentery, tuberculosis–in the early 1900s, they could all be spread by flies. That’s why one woman launched a crusade to rid the city of Cleveland of its flying pests.

Meet Thomas Hyry of the Houghton Library at Harvard University. He’s part of our new series about archivists who trained at the Bentley, and are doing important work in the field.

Fifty years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald freighter sank in Lake Superior. Ric Mixter’s research into the wreck is archived at the Bentley, ready to help future shipwreck researchers.