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Clarke Historical Library

May 2017

A History of Tiger Baseball Topic of Summer Speaker Event

Detroit Tigers historian and prolific author Bill Anderson will be visiting the Clarke on June 13 to talk about his favorite topic! His interest in the team goes back to the first game he attended at the old Briggs Stadium in the 1950s.

Anderson is the former director of the Michigan Department of History, Arts, and Libraries. He is widely published as a baseball historian. His numerous books include The Detroit Tigers: A Pictorial Celebration of the Greatest Players and Moments in Tigers History, The Glory Years of the Detroit Tigers: 1920-1950, and The Detroit Tigers: A Pictorial Celebration of the Greatest Players and Moments in Tigers History. Join us in the Park Library Auditorium for an exciting evening of Tigers anecdotes and images, followed by a reception at the Clarke. For this event only, the start time is 6:30pm.



Latest issue of the Michigan Historical Review

Big Annie Clemenc leads a strike parade in Calumet. Image courtesy of Michigan Tech Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, Michigan Technological University The Spring issue of the MHR, Michigan?s only scholarly journal of state history, is just off the press! Article topics include: an important early building in northwest lower Michigan, the transformation of the University of Michigan between 1852 and 1900, and records of the Saint Mary?s Falls Ship Canal Company. Of special interest is the winning essay of the 2016 graduate student essay prize, ?In Defense of the Home: Working-Class Domesticity and Community Action in the Michigan Copper Country.? Author Shannon Kirkwood was a Ph.D. candidate in the CMU Department of History. Additionally the issue contains reviews of the best new books about Michigan history.

Information about the 2017 Graduate Student Essay Prize, including submission requirements, is available on the MHR web site. The cash prize has been increased to $2,000 and the deadline for submission is July 1, 2017.

Paper copies of the Michigan Historical Review are available by subscription. Electronic access is provided to CMU Libraries online users with logins through the library Smart Search and JSTOR. Access via JSTOR is also available through other subscribing libraries. Big Annie Clemenc leads a strike parade in Calumet. Image courtesy of Michigan Tech Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, Michigan Technological University



Social Media Postings

The Clarke Facebook page regularly posts materials from our collection, in addition to featuring posts about Michigan history from a variety of sources. Recent posts have included historic and modern CMU photos, the Jackson Monument to the discovery of ore in the Upper Peninsula, auto industry pioneer and philanthropist Charles Mott?s Applewood estate in Flint, and the Belle Isle conservatory in Detroit. Visit us on Facebook and Twitter for breaking news and announcements, and information about campus events related to Clarke interests.



Spring Speaker Series Wraps Up

As the final speaker of the Spring semester, the Clarke hosted author Desiree Cooper. Cooper spoke on her book of flash fiction Know the Mother, which was recently recognized as a Michigan Notable Book. In flash fiction, an entire story is told in the space of 500-1,000 words. Cooper is a former Detroit Free Press columnist whose latest nonfiction work appears in the collection Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies published by Wayne State University Press. Further information about her Clarke talk is available at this blog posting.



CMU Budget Reductions Impact Clarke Library

As has been widely reported, Central Michigan University?s administration planned to reduce spending by $20 million in the coming fiscal year to resolve an ongoing budget deficit. In early May, University officials announced the details of this budget reduction. The Clarke Historical Library was impacted in two ways.

Most notable to the public was a decision to reduce hours of operation, the details of which are currently under discussion. Less visible to the public, but also important, the Clarke Historical Library?s ?S&E? budget was reduced by $6,000, or approximately 10 percent. Within the Libraries the budget is broadly divided into three categories: personnel, acquisitions, and ?S&E?, a catch all for any expenses not placed in the first two categories. Within the Clarke Historical Library S&E pays for a wide variety of activities, from buying new computers and digital equipment to paying for photocopier paper. S&E also pays for various ?charge-backs?, which are service fees paid by units to fund campus infrastructure activities, such as telephones.

Although these reductions will have an impact on the public?s ability to use the library, as well as funding for some ongoing activities, they represent a relatively small reduction in the Clarke Historical Library?s overall program, and reflect continuing strong commitment on the part of both the Library administration and CMU?s senior officers to the work performed by the Clarke Historical Library.





Soo Locks Exhibit Featured in Publication

The subject of the Library?s current exhibition, historic photos of the Soo Locks is featured in the latest issue of the Society of American Archivists? Archival Outlook magazine. In it Bryan Whitledge, Clarke Archivist for University Digital Records, discusses the four year process of consultation and evaluation that led to the massive glass plate negative scanning and rehousing project that preceded the exhibition. The Soo Locks exhibition will be up throughout the summer. Stop by and enjoy a look at never before seen images documenting the construction, as well as related historical materials such as books and historic souvenirs. The exhibit includes interpretive wall panels and enlargements of key historic images, also original historic photographs.



The Olga Denison Collection of Anishinaabe Art

Works from the Clarke?s Denison collection of Anishinaabe art are continuously displayed in the Park Library?s fourth floor exhibition area and were recently rotated. The Anishinaabe are native peoples of Michigan and surrounding regions. Intern Crystal Wood (a CMU history major) facilitated the changeover by first inventorying the current exhibit. She then chose another set of artifacts to display, including art works on paper that were removed from their frames and scanned for display so the originals wouldn?t suffer damage from exposure to sunlight. The new artifacts were installed, along with labels and interpretive panels. Crystal worked under the direction of Clarke Archivist Marian Matyn and Exhibit Coordinator Janet Danek. For further information on the collection, please refer to the Clarke web page.



Clarke Historical Library Summer Hours

The Clarke Historical Library is open Monday- Friday from 8am-5pm. The University Libraries (Clarke and Park) will both be closed on the following dates: May 29 (Memorial Day), July 4 (Independence Day), and September 4 (Labor Day).