Twice each year, the Bentley Historical Library produces Collections, a 24-page magazine dedicated to showcasing the very best of the Bentley. We welcome you to browse the full publication through our PDF reader or click through individual stories below. You can also access the magazine’s archives by clicking here. If you are interested in subscribing, please email editor Lara Zielin at laram@umich.edu.
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The Copper Line
Spring 2022After copper miners went on strike in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in 1913, violence wasn’t far behind. Documents at the Bentley reveal multiple sides of a terrible conflict.
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The Elegant Philosophy of Ones and Zeros
Spring 2022A 1936 master’s thesis written by Claude Shannon changed the computing world overnight. Collections from the Bentley archive show how the genius idea grew from a revamped engineering campus and one elective class.
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Reaching for the Stars
Spring 2022In the late 1800s and early 1900s, women fought to study the stars just like their male colleagues. The Detroit Observatory was training ground for four unparalleled women astronomers.
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Exclusion Did Not Deter Her
Spring 2022Jean Fairfax’s story emerges as part of the Bentley’s new long-term project on this history of African Americans at the University of Michigan.
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The Past Speaks in Two Voices
Spring 2022One voice says, “Things were different here”; the other voice says, “The origins of the present will be found here.” Both are actually true.
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Writing Belle
Spring 2022The now-famous librarian to J.P. Morgan wrote often to the director of U-M’s library. Their correspondence reveals mutual respect, admiration—and benefit.
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The Pride of Michigan
Spring 2022A historian and an artist team up to create a comic book celebrating Michigan’s first-ever Pride celebration.
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