Picture This

Thousands of historical photos will soon be available digitally as part of a new effort to better serve local communities.

By Alexis Antracoli

Mel Ivory, co-founder of Ivory Photo Engraving Company, began his photography career doing photo finishing at both his father’s and his uncle’s drug stores. This early work led him into a career in photography that began in the mid-1920s when he was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. Many of his earliest photographs capture the University of Michigan campus and life in Ann Arbor in the 1920s and 1930s.

After graduating in 1931, Mel continued his photo finishing work and began providing photography services to the local community, and his work continued into the 1970s. Ten years later, the Bentley Historical Library acquired Mel Ivory’s extensive collection of photographic negatives documenting the built environment, local businesses, and community life in Washtenaw County in the middle of the 20th century.

As Ann Arbor celebrates its bicentennial this year, the Bentley Library wanted to make the Ivory Photo collection available to the entire community. Staff have been working hard behind the scenes to prepare the collection for digitization and will be making the first batch of images accessible in the coming months.

When the project is complete, anyone will be able to view these images of life in 20th-century Ann Arbor online through the University of Michigan’s digital collections platform. My hope is that access to these images supports community commemorations and individual recollections, and spurs the creativity of the entire Ann Arbor community as it reflects on its history.

Among the highlights of the Ann Arbor portion of the collection are photos of the World War II era, images of local businesses that may or may not still exist, and depictions of people participating in community events and organizations like the Girl Scouts and the Parent Teacher Association. The Ivory Photo negatives also contain images of surrounding communities, including Ypsilanti, Dexter, Chelsea, Saline, and Milan, and even a few images of Detroit, Big Rapids, and Cadillac. There’s really something for everyone in the collection.

The Ivory Photo digitization project is one among what we hope will be many efforts that focus on community engagement. In Ann Arbor and beyond, we plan to focus more on community partnerships with a wider range of users, creating welcoming physical and digital spaces. This year we are already at work to launch new public events designed to serve the many communities represented in our collections. Stay tuned for announcements about upcoming events in our newsletter and digital communications; we are excited about these new efforts that will help us better serve our users.

[Lead image: Students at the Pretzel Bell, 1937, HS7547]