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Our Donors Make History

Generous donors like you help preserve and share invaluable records that document the state of Michigan and the University of Michigan.

The open pages of a scrapbook show a dark background with many black and white photos pasted across the spread. Two hands hold the scrapbook open, and the arms are covered by dark blue sleeves.
A stack of partially bound books in the Conservation Lab at the Bentley Historical Library, featuring book blocks with sewn spines exposed to show threads, ribbon, and thin rope, awaiting book covers.

Support the Past, Give Today

Your gift will help more people engage with primary source materials to foster a connection to history. This means you’re helping the Bentley do more than collect papers—you’re helping us celebrate and share history! Thank you for supporting our work.

Unbox Your Support

Explore the many ways you can support 
the Bentley Historical Library!

A researcher with curly brown hair in the Bentley Historical Library's reading room peering into an open box full of historical mateirals.

The Director’s Priorities

You can help preserve Michigan history by giving to this fund, which supports initiatives such as repairing collections for future generations of researchers, and digitizing collections to make them available online.

A historical football photo featuring the University of Michigan football team competing in a game, running down the field, while a crowd looks on from the stands inside a stadium.

Michigan Sports History

Help us maintain and enrich U-M’s athletics history. This fund supports the historical archives of all men’s and women’s U-M varsity sports including photo galleries, digital recordings, sports programs, rosters, statistics and more.

Historical film reels stacked on white metal shelves in the Bentley Historical Library's Cold Room.

Digital Strategic Fund

In a Google world, library users want and need their materials to be accessible online, and the Bentley is working tirelessly toward this end. With your help, we can continue to digitize our collections and make our materials available 24/7.

The University of Michigan's Athletics History class listening to Archivist Greg Kinney talk about the history of athletics at U-M, featuring a crowd of students standing around a table where a historical scrapbook is displayed, while Greg Kinney talks about U-M history.

Public Outreach

The fund will support the Bentley Historical Library and the Detroit Observatory public outreach programs, including presentations, exhibits, classes, and any activity that is made available to the general public.

Two student researchers looking at historical papers sitting at a table in the Bentley Historical Library's reading room, while a standing archivist talks to them about the collection they are viewing.

Student Engagement

Support both undergraduate and graduate students who are interested the archival field by employing them in meaningful work that furthers their interests and pays a higher wage so they can pursue this line of work with less financial struggle.

The Judy & Stanley Frankel Detroit Observatory building, featuring a historical building with an observatory dome, and the newer addition with glass paneling, illuminated at night, on U-M's Central Campus in Ann Arbor.

Detroit Observatory

Help us preserve and update this campus treasure, which was built in 1854 and launched U-M as a premier research university. Gifts to this fund will increase access to the building and will expand its role as a teaching facility.

A large videocassette player stored on a white metal shelf alongside other machines used to play historical media like tapes.

Digital Technologies and New Media

Honor the legacy of founding Computing Center Director Dr. Robert Bartels with a gift to this endowment for the study & curation of digital technologies & new media.

Meet the Donors

Read stories about the generous Bentley supporters who have fallen in love with primary sources and fostered a connection to history.

A woman with brown hair wearing a white shirt sits at a desk and adjusts a piece of paper on top of a black scanner bed. Behind her is a computer monitor displaying the paper on the scanner.

Impact Story | July 2, 2026

A Grand Scan Plan

by Lara Zielin

Generous donors during the most recent Giving Blueday made it possible for the Bentley Library to purchase a new scanner for patrons in the reading room.

Learn more
A man with long dark hair holds open a gray box in the stacks of the Bentley Historical Library. He is surrounded by shelves filled with old books and brown archival boxes.

Impact Story | July 1, 2026

New Fund for Student Support

by Alexis Antracoli

Bentley Director Alexis Antracoli has launched a new fund supporting students who want to gain hands-on experience in the archival profession with less financial stress.

Learn more
A woman wearing tan pants and a flower-patterned shirt stands on a set of black stairs surrounded by brown archival boxes on shelves.

Impact Story | June 25, 2026

Equal Footing

by Katie Vloet

Once a top athlete whose options were limited in the time before gender equity in sports, Alyce Sigler now volunteers at the Bentley, where a bit of serendipity has her researching Title IX.

Learn more
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A side view of a row of historical books on a shelf inside the archives at the Bentley Historical Library, featuring book spines bound in red leather and tan suede with gilded lettering, with visible words on the spine reading: Trust, Receipt, Register.

Your Story Can Leave a Legacy

Learn more about the ways you can become part of an active, engaged archive that celebrates and shares its rich collections. Bentley archivists will work closely with you to discuss whether the Library is the right home for your papers.