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.

Magazine

  • Scratching the Surface
    Summer 2021

    To write his new memoir, multimedia journalist and educator Harvey Ovshinsky had to research his own collection at the Bentley.

    Complete Story
  • Digitization by the Numbers
    Summer 2021

    New digital collections have transformed research and teaching, and made the history of the University of Michigan much more available to the world.

    Complete Story
  • Black and Blue
    Summer 2021

    Willis Ward was a celebrated U-M athlete. Interviews and papers from the Bentley reveal Ward’s experiences on a campus that thought itself progressive, but in reality was highly segregated.

    Complete Story
  • Michigan’s “Black Bart”
    Summer 2021

    How a stagecoach robber and murderer was brought to justice, and how the details of the case — including a one-of-a-kind photo — made it to the Bentley.

    Complete Story
  • It Was a Man’s World
    Summer 2021

    In the early 1970s, government pressure was mounting for U-M to give women a level playing field on campus, but the University’s all-male administration was slow to act. A group of determined women demanded accountability and action.

    Complete Story
  • The Great Debate
    Summer 2021

    In April 1920, two leading astronomers met on stage in front of a packed audience at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, defending their respective “models” of the universe.

    Complete Story
  • M Glow Blue
    Summer 2021

    U-M sported a fully functional nuclear reactor, complete with a 55,000-gallon glowing reactor pool. Bentley collections help tell the story of why the reactor was built, and what happened to it.

    Complete Story