The Bentley Historical Library’s Reading Room will be closed for the day on November 27, 2024. The Bentley Historical Library will be closed for the day on November 28 & 29, 2024.

Fall 2023

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  • Cold War, Warm Welcome

    In 1961, the Kennedy Administration sent the U-M Symphony Band to the Soviet Union in hopes of thawing relations between the two countries through the common language of music.

    Complete Story
  • Vaulting Fences, Chopping Wood, and Shocking Delicate Nerves

    One of U-M’s first female students defied gender norms and wrote a book about her experiences on campus.

    Complete Story
  • Vote Gun

    Patrick Charles’s new book, Vote Gun, explores the history of gun rights legislation in the United States and uses several Bentley collections.

    Complete Story
  • Altitude Problems

    She was hailed as a World War II hero, but the primary sources surrounding Elsie MacGill reveal that her life and legacy were more complex than the media would acknowledge.

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  • A Reintroduction and New Reflections

    Reflections from Bentley Director Alexis Antracoli on the core ways in which the Bentley will continue to draw on its strengths and chart new paths in the future.

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  • How to Qualify as a Person

    Forty-nine years before women were granted the right to vote in the United States, Nannette Gardner would cast her ballot in Detroit, giving the suffrage movement a notable victory.

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  • The Unsinkable Sarah E. Ray

    In 1945, Sarah Elizabeth Ray was denied passage on a steamboat on the Detroit River because she was Black. She fought the injustice, and today her trailblazing civil rights role is being preserved — including through a new collection.

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