Unearthing Enchantment: Discovering Hidden Fairy Tales in the Clarke Historical Library

by Katie Clausen, visiting scholar and recipient of the Clarke's 2023 International Children's Literature Research Grant

For five days in August 2023, I nestled into a quiet corner of the Clarke Historical Library and rigorously searched for fairy tales waiting to be discovered. With the generous support of the International Children's Literature Research Grant, my quest was to unearth captivating stories that could resonate with young readers. As an Information Science scholar specializing in fairy tales, my research focuses on identifying stories that offer opportunities for girls and women to connect their experiences with these timeless narratives.

Some interpretations of classic fairy tales (*cough*Disney*cough*) have perpetuated harmful stereotypes and ideals, often portraying female characters as submissive, beautiful, and thin. Fairy tales need not reinforce such limiting narratives. Indeed, iconic princesses like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty may seem one-dimensional at first glance, but they can be understood more profoundly, revealing layers of resilience, determination, and inner strength. However, it's equally important to acknowledge a world of untapped potential in fairy tales, unknown or lesser-known, waiting to be discovered.

Perhaps we must reimagine what heroism and empowerment mean for today's generation. A more complex, inclusive, and diverse narrative landscape—one that offers a broad spectrum of stories for girls and women of all backgrounds—reinforces the fundamental right of everyone to see oneself as the hero of their own narrative. Amidst my research journey at Clarke, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon fairy tales that embody richness and complexity.

Published in 1877, "The Toy Princess" by Mary de Morgan¹ is a fairy tale about a girl named Ursula who is born into a regimented kingdom where she is restricted from expressing any emotion. No laughing or crying, and people “never said more than was quite necessary, as ‘Just so,’ ‘Yes indeed,’ ‘Thank you,’ and ‘If you please.’” Ursula’s father, the king, wants the successor to his throne to be obedient, detached, and well-behaved. With magical help from a fairy godmother, Ursula escapes the kingdom, replacing herself with a mechanical toy princess who looks identical to her and behaves in the same polite and reserved manner as the people in the kingdom. Ursula is taken to a humble fishing village, where she grows up with a loving fisherman and his family. Years later, the kingdom is shocked when, by chance, the toy princess's head falls off, revealing its true nature. I won’t give the ending away…please read it!²

In the 1912 collection, The Maker of Rainbows,³ a fairy tale titled “The Rags of Queen Cophetua” retells the story of a legendary African king. King Cophetua of Ethiopia falls in love with a young woman he sees begging for money. They marry, and she becomes Queen. But in this 1912 version of the fairy tale, the Queen grows weary and longs for independence. When she opens the box containing her old, tattered clothes, she remembers who she once was and puts on the ragged garments. Suddenly, the king accidentally interrupts her. Seeing her in her tattered dress, the king recognizes the sadness in her eyes and asks, “Are you weary of being queen?” These two characters love each other immensely, but is love enough? This fairy tale contains themes of loss, longing for independence, love, identity, and change.

Illustration from,
"The Rags of Queen Cophetua"

Both of these fairy tales offer new and profound interpretations that delve into the complexities of identity and self-discovery. My research, supported by the International Children's Literature Research Grant, underscores that while well-known princesses can be read with depth and complexity, untold stories are waiting to be uncovered in libraries like Clarke. Let us remember that these narratives are not only vehicles of enchantment but also tools of empowerment, capable of reshaping our perceptions and inspiring new generations of readers to see themselves in the stories they cherish.

Note: I would like to extend my deepest appreciation to all who have made this grant possible, especially Dr. Susan M. Stan, whom this grant honors. Her legacy and dedication to children’s literature paved the way for scholars like me to pursue our passions and make a meaningful impact.

[1] Mary de Morgan, "The Toy Princess," from On a Pincushion, and Other Fairy Tales, 1977 (PZ8 .D399 On3).

[2] Links to "The Toy Princess" point to an anthology by Louey Chisholm, The Enchanted Land : Tales Told Again, 1906, which includes a reprint of "The Toy Princess" authorized by Mary de Morgan.

[3] Richard le Gallienne, The Maker of Rainbows, and Other Fairy-tales and Fables, 1912 (PR4881 .M3 1912).

The 100th Anniversary of Hemingway's “Three Stories and Ten Poems”

written by Magdelyn Gipe

The Clarke's copy of
Three Stories and Ten Poems

Ernest Hemingway has solidified his place in the American literary canon as a prolific author and cultural touchstone. He is most well-known because of noted books such as A Farewell To Arms (1929), The Old Man and the Sea (1952), and The Sun Also Rises (1926). Although these works are pieces that helped him rise to fame and stay there, his earlier writings set the tone for his career.

The earliest book in Hemingway's long bibliography debuted 100 years ago. Three Stories and Ten Poems was released in Paris, France, on September 1, 1923. Privately published when Ernest was just 24 years old, this first collection did not lead to Hemingway becoming exceptionally famous. However, the book was well received by critics and those who could get their hands on it. With only 300 copies made, securing one at the time was no easy feat, and it is even more of a tall task, today. In 2018, the Clarke was pleased to acquire one of these rare copies, which was made possible by the generous donors who have supported the Clarke Historical Library's Hemingway in Michigan collection over the years.

This collection of stories and poems was inspired, in part, by Hemingway’s experience during World War I and his summers spent in Michigan from his birth through his late adolescence. Indeed, the story, “Up in Michigan,” is the centerpiece of this collection of writing. The controversial story, set in fictional “Hortons” Bay, Michigan, graphically describes Jim forcing himself on Liz on a Lake Charlevoix dock after a night of drinking. It is said Hemingway’s own parents refused to have the book in their home because of the content.

List of best short stories of 1923, from the Omaha Morning Bee

100 years after the first collection of fiction by the future Nobel laureate hit the shelves, there is little doubt of Ernest Hemingway's legacy as a writer and cultural icon. For researchers examining Hemingway's life and career, his formative experiences in Michigan offer a great deal of insights. Thanks to our donors, the Clarke is proud to support such research with original sources, like Three Stories and Ten Poems, to accurately document Hemingway’s life with the works and writings he produced.

The 100th Anniversary of the Central Marching Band

by Bryan Whitledge, adapted from a 2014 post by Casey Gamble

100 years ago, in September 1923, the students of the Central Normal College were hustling around in a frenzied attempt to register for classes (Central State Life, 9/25/1923, p. 2). The only peace to be had on campus was coming from the newly formed school band. It was the band’s duty to lighten the atmosphere and remind students that their first days in Mount Pleasant were the start of an exciting chapter of their lives. A century later, the CMU Marching band is still setting the tempo of the return to the Mt. Pleasant campus. The drum line’s infectious beats pulse through the air while the Leadership Safari participants explore their new campus. The blare of the trumpets in unison is the soundscape for students moving back into residence halls. And while friends meet up after three months of summer vacation, the Marching Chips are on the practice field and the tick-tick-tick of the metronome sets not only their cadence, but the cadence of all of those in earshot.

Central Marching Band, 1923

The first mention of a “school band” goes back to January of 1922, when the idea was “referred to [Central’s] Ways and Means Committee." It seems that they hoped to organize by that fall, but their plans didn’t come to pass until the next year. In the first issue of the Central Normal Life of the 1923-24 school year, the headline, “That Umpah Band an Assured Fact” triumphantly announced that Central would have a “real Normal band, instruments, uniforms, and even a drum major.” And that week, the band, which was organized by the Department of Music and lead by Mr. Powers (the man for whom Powers Hall – the old music building – is named), was lightening the mood around the Central campus with their music.

By November of 1923, the band had new uniforms and were ready to be a formidable 12th man for the football team when Central squared off against Alma College down in Alma later that month: “The new maroon and gold uniforms … are to be donned on that occasion, and a formal army of musicians will appear upon the Presbyterian battlefield* in the colored garb of war.”

CMU Marching Band, circa 1980

100 years later, the Marching Chips are still the loudest supporters of Central’s football players when they take the field. And getting to gameday involves quite a bit of practice and hard work. During band week, which happens right before the start of classes, the band members are on the practice field all day, every day, whether in the blazing heat or the pouring rain. Throughout campus, the Marching Chips break into sections that work on the songs and routines that will be on display for thousands of fans throughout the fall. All of the musicians put in hours of work to learn the songs for football halftime shows in addition to the dozens of pregame tunes, stand times, and of course, the CMU Fight Song.

Marching Chips, 2014

But the work doesn’t stop after band week—members of the Marching Chips are first and foremost CMU students. Once classes start, many of the music majors will be taking 10+ classes, and they combine that with marching band practice a few hours in the afternoon, except for game days when some sections will be practicing by 7:00 am. Graduate students and senior section leaders will help the younger marchers keep each foot together and each note in sync until the formations are performed to perfection.

And what is the payoff of all this hard work? After 100 years, the Marching Chips still brings cheer to the students of CMU when they need an upbeat song to get them through their studies. They continue to uplift the football team and entertain the crowds at halftime and throughout the game. The members hand down beloved traditions across multiple generations of band members. And the Marching Chips make lifelong memories and learn some of the most important lessons of their college experience in terms of discipline and perseverance. 

*Alma College was founded as a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in 1886 and remains so to this day.

Clarke Historical Library student Andrea Howard is now a Visiting Processing Archivist

by Marian Matyn

Andrea Howard interned for Archivist Marian Matyn in the Clarke Historical Library during Spring term 2014. During her internship, she spent most of her time on the Aladdin Housing Company collection, sorting through the personal records of Aladdin founder William Sovereign and his son, Will Sovereign, Jr. Andrea said, "I loved finding unexpected things, like photographs of pilot Jeanette Lempke, William Sovereign’s wife, and her trailblazing flights in the 1920s. I knew pretty quickly that I’d also found a new career path."

Fast forward about 9 years, Andrea has earned a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After a brief stint as a Local History Librarian in Ohio, she is currently a Visiting Processing Archivist at Grand Valley State University. Andrea stated, "Drawing directly from my processing experience at the Clarke, I am currently working to process a large collection of zoning and urban planning materials. I’m excited to contribute to the field in the next couple of years by becoming involved in professional archival organizations and giving conference presentations. "

"Sometimes I wonder where I would be if I had not been flipping through a course catalog my senior year, looking for a history course and noticing the archives internship option for the first time," Andrea reflected. "My internship at the Clarke taught me fundamental archival principles and skills and kindled my love for archives, but it did so much more than that. I developed a lasting friendship with Marian Matyn; I regularly turn to her for advice and encouragement and highly value her opinions and insights. That internship was also the only hands-on, official archival internship I had before entering the job market. I know that the experience I gained at the Clarke was instrumental to my job search success. If you are on the fence about interning in the archives, I say go for it! You never know what you might find."

We are excited to see how Andrea's career has taken shape and wish her much success in the future!

Tales of Hauntings in Michigan

by Aubrey Dickens and Sara Daniels

With Halloween soon approaching, there are many fun ways to celebrate the holiday. And if you're a fan of scary stories, Michigan has countless spooky attractions to get your thrills.

Grand Rapids is one of Michigan’s most beloved cities. A hub for art and culture, this city in Western Michigan has plenty to offer, including something for haunted house enthusiasts.

Once located where the Bell Telephone Company currently stands, the Judd-White house was home to young married couple Warren and Vashti Rowland. Having married in 1907, their tragic story in Grand Rapids began when Warren started a job at G.R. and Indiana Railroad, where he lost his leg in a gruesome railroad accident. After Warren’s accident, he was fitted with a wooden leg, a piece of him that would later contribute to the couple’s tragic end.

As the Grand Rapid Press of July 10, 1909 (pictured at right) reports, those who knew the couple said that Warren and Vashti never appeared to be happy with each other. Vashti’s sister expressed a long-held fear that Warren would murder her sister, recalling once seeing Warren chase Vashti down the street with a razor. After months of the couple living unhappily together, the two separated, leaving their residence at the Judd-White house vacant. This would be the last time the room would have any peace.

A short time after the couple separated, Warren called upon Vashti, presumably to make peace with his estranged wife. But the opposite came true.

As Warren and Vashti made their way into their former home, Warren removed his wooden leg and beat Vashti over the head. As Vashti was lying on the floor, unconscious, Warren locked the door to the room and began to seal the windows with towels to close any gaps to make the room airtight. He then went to the gas fixture on the wall and began to fill the room with a noxious gas. Warren, however, was not finished with his task. Using a razor, he attempted to kill himself.

When their bodies were discovered two weeks later, reports show that Warren had not cut himself badly enough to kill himself, and instead most likely passed from the fumes. After hearing of the tragic story, locals speculated that Warren was a mad man who became angry and jealous after believing his wife was seeing someone else. The public maintained this opinion. According to the Grand Rapids Press article, “No note of farewell to the world was found in the room, nor any clue regarding the motive of the crime.”

After their death, the room remained vacant for some time, with no one wanting to stay there due to its horrid past. In 1920, the Judd-White house was torn down, and in its place stands the Michigan Bell Telephone Company building. Although the house is gone, people claim that the spirits of Warren and Vashti Rowland are still there today.

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Among the repertoire of haunted places, mental asylums are infamous for being severely haunted by former patients and staff who lived within their walls. In Michigan, Traverse City State Hospital is one of these abandoned places, with a history of suffering and horror that has outlived the hospital itself.

In 1885, Traverse City State Hospital was opened and remained so for a little over a century before it was closed and abandoned.

Northern Michigan Asylum Report, 1908

The stigma of mental health remains an obstacle even now, as it was during the 19th century, when mental hospitals were still in their infancy in the U.S. Although these hospitals aimed for the greater good, many patients suffered cruelty at the hands of doctors and staff who ran these institutions. The practice of lobotomy, the use of straight jackets, and periods of isolation were common in mental hospitals, with the belief that they would help the patient. However, thanks to our better understanding of modern psychology, it is now known these practices created more harm than good.

As the years passed and the state hospital became more decrepit, the building became a spot for vandals and those curious to explore. From these visits come the stories of the ghosts who haunt the building. It is reported that individuals have seen faces appear through windows, radios emit nothing but static, or people sense the feeling of someone lurking. Many patient deaths occurred at the hospital, with the common forms of death being disease and suicide.

Throughout the years, horror stories of the abandoned hospital have emerged. An internet urban legend tells of the story of two young boys who were patients at the hospital and how one disappeared.

Northern Michigan Asylum Tunnels

The two boys were outside playing and had begun to wander. As their trek across the grounds continued, they ventured into the underground tunnels that traveled beneath the buildings. As they continued to walk down the tunnels, they encountered a man who was an escaped patient of the hospital and had been living in the tunnels ever since his escape. Terrified of the man, the boys ran out of the tunnels, but sadly only one would make it out. Having run for some time, one of the boys looked behind for his friend, but he was nowhere to be seen. After reporting the incident to the hospital staff, they searched for the missing boy but could find no trace of him other than his St. Raphael necklace. Over a month later, the boy’s remains were found at what now is known as the hippie tree–a name created from the delinquent activities that took place there.

Northern Michigan Asylum Report, 1908
(click to enlarge)

While this urban legend does not give the time of this incident, looking into a report from the Board of Trustees of Traverse City State Hospital, fourteen men were discharged from the hospital in an unimproved mental state in 1908. Earlier in the report, it is also stated that of 505 patients admitted, “15 were homicidal or had threatened homicidal assaults.” Is it possible that one of the men discharged was also the murderous man in the tunnel? While legend says he escaped, is it possible that he could have taken refuge in the tunnels after being discharged?

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Before even the nation’s first mental hospital opened its doors, and before Michigan became an official state, the territory in the Great Lakes region saw both violence and sweeping changes. Like with the case of Warren and Vashti Rowland and the chilling conditions of Michigan’s mental asylums, colonization and the conflicts between settlers and Indigenous peoples are remembered not just through history books, but through hauntings.

From the book, Haunted Houses of Grand Rapids, comes the tale of Big John, an Ottawa fur trapper from the 1850s. In 1936, Grand Rapids homeowners Lillian and Tom Rush encountered a ghostly figure in their basement. While firing guns at their in-home firing range, Lillian saw a man emerge from the furnace, “tall and somber, with a high-crown hat of the type worn by bad men in old western movies” (p. 11-12). Wearing two long black braids and a watch chain, the specter of Big John stood silently in their basement before disappearing as abruptly as he had appeared.

Big John’s apparition was a remnant of the Michigan fur trade. He once lived in a wooden house located where Lillian and Tom’s abode later stood, where he trapped beavers, mink, lynx, wolves, and bears alongside his wife and two sons. In 1857, Big John’s family was rumored to have fought over the furs, a fight that ended in John’s mysterious disappearance. While his body was never found, people of Grand Rapids believe he haunts the area to this day.

Aerial View of Grand Rapids, circa 1910 

Murder-suicides, asylums, disappearances, and apparitions—Michigan has countless chilling tales to offer this October. But its ghost stories also get at something deeper than just raising goosebumps. Our ghost stories serve as ways of trying to understand our struggles through history. Beneath the spectacle of many of these stories lies real lives: women facing violence like Vashti, Michiganders struggling with stigma surrounding mental health before modern psychology, and the bloody history of colonization.

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Bibliography

 

Don Farrant and Gary Eberle, Haunted Houses of Grand Rapids: chilling, authentic local ghost stories .... Ada, Mich.: Ivystone Publications. ca. 1979-82.

 

Northern Michigan Asylum, Report of the Board of Trustees." Lansing, Michigan: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Company, State Printers. 1908.

"Used Wooden Leg To Stun His Wife," Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. July 10, 1909.