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Clarke Historical Library

August 2016

Current Exhibit Wrapping Up and New Exhibit Coming Soon

President Campaign Exhibit We are in the final weeks of our current exhibit, Native Treaties ? Shared Rights. Stop by the Clarke before September 10 to view this wonderful exploration of how land, rights, and education came together as indigenous people and the United States Government created the legal understanding that underlies our societies today.

If you cannot make it to the Clarke to view the exhibit before September 10, you have several great opportunities from now through the end of the year to view the travelling component of the exhibit. The traveling exhibit will be at the Munising Public Library September 6-18 and then at both Northern Michigan University and Presque Isle District Library September 24 ? October 9. For a complete list of the seven institutions hosting the exhibit from now through December 11, check out our list of partners, available via this link.

Our next exhibit officially opens on September 15. Pulling from our rich collection of presidential campaign biographies, the next exhibit will focus on those who vied for the office but were not elected. Each election, there is one winner and a host of others ? some remembered and some not ? who threw their hat in the ring only to come up short. View campaign materials, including texts, ephemera, and autographs of those who have not been one of the 44 who have held the highest office in the land.

The Native Treaties ? Shared Rights exhibit is made possible thanks in part to a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council.



Fall Speaker Series

The Clarke has an exciting lineup of speakers this fall and we are sure you will enjoy their presentations. Mark your calendars for these engaging events:

On September 15, Jack Lessenberry will speak about the book he cowrote with Frank Kelley, The People's Lawyer: The Life and Times of Frank J. Kelley, the Nation's Longest-Serving Attorney General (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015). This presentation will also open the Clarke?s Fall exhibit documenting presidential candidates who were not elected to lead the nation.

Later in the month, on September 28, Poets Naomi Long Madgett, Herbert Woodward Martin, and Toi Derricotte will speak in the Park Library Auditorium. Madgett is the poet-laureate of Detroit, while Derricotte has deep roots in Detroit and published her first volume of poetry in that city. This presentation is co-sponsored by CMU Public Broadcasting.

The following week, on October 4, noted author and Laura Ingalls Wilder expert William Anderson will speak about the life and writing of the author of the Little House on the Prairie series. This presentation is made possible by the David M. and Eunice Sutherland Burgess Endowment.

And finally, on October 19, Thom Bell will air his documentary, ?Hoax or History: The Michigan Relics.? Over 100 years ago, several thousand ancient looking clay, slate, and copper tablets were discovered in mounds located throughout rural Michigan. These tablets were inscribed with a mixture of writing styles: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek, and cuneiform symbols. Controversy over the authenticity of the Michigan Relics continues to this day. This presentation is made possible by the John and Audrey Cumming Endowment.

In addition to this wonderful slate of speakers, on September 21, the Clarke Library will cosponsor a presentation by CMU Trustee and President of The Henry Ford, Patricia E. Mooradian, to the Museum Studies Club (a CMU registered student organization) as well as other students interested in a career within a heritage organization.

Unless otherwise noted, all events, which are free and open to the public, begin at 7:00 pm in the Park Library Auditorium and will be followed by a reception in the Clarke.



New Digital Collections Website Coming Soon

Big changes are coming to how you view the digitized documents of the Clarke and the CMU Libraries. The CMU Online Digital Object Repository (CONDOR, www.condor.cmich.edu), our current site for hosting historical documents and the scholarly and creative work of the CMU community, will be replaced with CMU Libraries Digital Collections in the coming weeks. The new site will improve access and searching across the distinct collections of digital documents held by the CMU Libraries. These collections include the historical Digital Michigan Newspapers, the creative and scholarly production of the CMU community, materials such as yearbooks, newspapers, course catalogs, and others related to CMU History, and documents exploring the history of Michigan found in the Clarke that are not readily available in a digital form anywhere else. In the future, you can expect to see more great resources add to these collections including historic photographs, more newspapers from throughout Michigan, and a bevy of newly-digitized primary resource documents.

Keep up with the Clarke News and Notes blog for the latest about the progress of the switchover and the new URLs you can use to access the valuable digital resources made available by the Clarke and the CMU Libraries.



Clarke Awarded Third Round of NDNP Funding

The Clarke Historical Library has been awarded a third round of grant funding for the Michigan Digital Newspaper Project, part of the Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Humanities' National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). As a result of the first two rounds of grant funding, we digitized 200,000 pages of historical Michigan newspapers and uploaded them into the Library of Congress' Chronicling America website. To date, over 11,000,000 pages of historic newspapers from across the United States are available via Chronicling America and the site has recently expanded its scope to include newspapers published as early as 1690 and as late as 1963.

We look forward to digitizing another 100,000 pages of historical Michigan newspapers between now and 2018 and making them freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world via the Chronicling America website.



New on the Clarke's Social Media

The Clarke News and Notes blog featured three great posts recently. First, we have an in-depth explanation of the story behind our newly acquired Native American lithographic portrait of Tshusick. We also have a remembrance of a notable CMU alum and Mount Pleasant resident Clarence Tuma, who passed away July 21. And we explore a long-gone campus tradition of hazing freshmen by forcing them to wear a little green beanie.

Clarke?s social media also featured many great posts. Take a look at recent images we posted to our Facebook and Twitter pages, including a photo of the famed House of David baseball team, a photo, on his birthday, of a young Ernest Hemingway captioned by his mother as ?Little Mercury?, and a photo of the Kelley / Shorts stadium surface being prepped for Astroturf back in 1972!

Stay up with the latest from the Clarke by checking in with the Clarke News and Notes blog or following our Facebook page and Twitter feed.



Clarke Hours ? Saturday Hours Return in September

The Clarke is open Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm to view our exhibit or to use our materials for your research. Beginning Saturday, September 10, we will be open Saturdays from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm as well. You can view a calendar of our hours (and the hours of the rest of the CMU Libraries units) via this CMU Libraries webpage.