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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A Plucky Bunch
Spring 2025U-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.
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On the Fly
Spring 2025Typhoid, 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.
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The Gutenberg Bible and Beyond
Spring 2025Meet 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.
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An Ill-Fated Voyage
Spring 2025Fifty 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.
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Ford on the Field
Spring 20252024 marked the 50th anniversary of Gerald R. Ford’s presidency. His accomplishments on a national scale make it easy to forget he was also an exceptional U-M football player.
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Atomic Connections
Spring 2025When Walt Di Mantova visited the archives to investigate a possible family connection to the Manhattan Project, he found more than he bargained for regarding J. Robert Oppenheimer.
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A Dangerous Lady
Spring 2025Records show how Lucinda Hinsdale Stone’s tireless advocacy for women’s education, even in the face of adversity, changed women’s lives at U-M and across the state of Michigan.
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