In Search of Sibouin

by Tristen Woodruff

When working on historical projects, the need to conduct at least some minimal sleuthing is part and parcel within the line of work. This sleuthing can range from the simple fact check, to a slightly more in-depth academic journal cross reference. Rarely, however, is the rabbit hole of research followed to its proverbial wonderland. In the case of the search for the a set of islands in the Great Lakes, however, the journey to wonderland became the only way to determine the facts of the matter.

While working on the metadata for the letters of noted Civil War officer Orlando M. Poe, I was drawn down this path. Prior to the Civil War and his promotion to Major General, Orlando Poe served as Second Lieutenant of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. The Topographical Engineers were a part of a large survey of the Great Lakes region prior to the War and were notable for the many islands and shorelines they mapped during this time. During the summer of 1857, Poe was assigned to chart and map the eastern portions of the Saginaw Bay. This would lead to a direction from his commander, George G. Meade, to map a set of islands identified by Meade.

Meade's longhand: "the ??? islands"

The problem was that, in Meade’s longhand, what were the name of the islands. Did they begin with an L, or an I? Was the second letter an E? The word ends in “o-u-i-n,” but what islands in and around Saginaw Bay end in “o-u-i-n”?

Saginaw Bay from J.H. Colton's
Map of Michigan, 1857.
Click to enlarge.

Looking at a map today, the letters on the page seemed odd because there are no contemporary islands on current maps with similar letters. When looking into maps of the 1850s, a name that seemed similar to Meade’s writing did not appear, either. Thus began the spiral into figuring out the true name of these islands. The first place needed to look was in the official reports of the Great Lakes Survey that the Corps released a few years after Poe was first instructed to map these islands. In these reports, I searched for Poe’s name to see the location where Meade reported that he sent Poe. With this, there was, in fact, a location that Poe was sent with the name ‘Sibouin’ Islands. But, there was no map to point to them.

The only known location of these mystery islands, based on the letters and the report, was that they were in the eastern portion of the Saginaw Bay. Naturally, knowing the general location of the islands, I attempted to search the national and local newspapers to find them, including the millions of scanned pages available through the the Library of Congress and the Clarke Historical Library, but to no avail. Surely then, they would exist in the national archives! Still no such luck. Even looking at the amazing collection of maps provided by the David Rumsey Map Collection, no islands named ‘Sibouin’ were mapped in the eastern Saginaw Bay. Finally, I searched “Sibouin” in Hathi Trust, which includes numerous US and State of Michigan government reports among the 17+ million digitized volumes in the database, and there was only one document about a set of islands in the Great Lakes with the name “Sibouin” – Meade’s report mentioning where he sent Poe.

Armed with the knowledge that George Meade was the only person referring to these islands with the name “Sibouin,” I returned back to the report for more clues. Near these islands, Poe was instructed to map the wider “Wild Fowl Bay.” This was helpful as it even further narrowed our search, but there was still no record of the mystery islands in Wild Fowl Bay. I then moved to the amazing Hathi Trust again in search of “Sibouin” (or variations of the spelling). Here would be the key to this whole mystery, the Report of the Chief of Engineers of 1860 had a reference to the “Sebouin Islands.” The report also listed latitude and longitude for the mystery islands, finally!

Map of Fairhaven Township,
from the Atlas of Huron County,
Michigan, 1890. Click to enlarge.

Using the maps of David Rumsey, current map websites, and the coordinates of the Chief of Engineers report, I could divine a location. The answer was revealed, hiding in plain sight right in Wild Fowl Bay. The Sibouin Islands were in fact the modern day Maisou Islands of Huron County. These islands are now apart of the Wild Fowl Bay State Wildlife Area and are no longer owned privately, but back in the 1850s they had been called Kate Chai Island and North Island. These islands had gone through many name changes since the 1850s, and that had done a good job of obfuscating their prior titles. These name changes, however, would eventually be peeled back, due in large part to the help and skills of Bryan Whitledge, without whose guidance I would not have fully figured out even the name of these mystery islands that seem to exist only now as ghosts of the documents of the 1850s.

An Archivist’s Friendship with a Former CMU President

by Bryan Whitledge

When I learned that Bill Boyd, former Central Michigan University President, passed away last month as a result of contracting COVID-19, I was truly saddened. I felt that I had lost a dear friend with whom I shared many important moments in Central’s history—occasions like the May 1970 takeover of the ROTC building, hosting the 1975 International Special Olympics Summer Games, and changing CMU’s policies to deem the children of migrant workers in-state residents for tuition purposes.

But when one looks at the facts of my life and when I crossed paths with President Boyd, a glaring gap is visible… when Bill Boyd left CMU to become president at the University of Oregon, I wasn’t yet born. In fact, I wasn’t yet out of elementary school when he retired from working life altogether. Even more, it wasn’t until I was 29 years old and President Boyd was nearly 90 years old and had been away from Central for 35 years that I first heard of him. And to cap it off, I never met the man and only on two occasions where I was in the room when he was on a telephone call with others did I get the chance to talk to him, asking him a brief matter-of-fact question each time to which he replied in a similar fashion… in total, we talked to each other for maybe 30 seconds in our lives. None of this is indicative of a personal relationship.

So why is it, with so much time between his tenure and my work at CMU, and having never met President Boyd and only very briefly talking to him, do I feel such a personal connection with this man? The simple answer is because of the power of archives.

I am not the first person, nor will I be the last, to feel this. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin has talked about the intimate relationships she has formed with FDR, Abe Lincoln, and other US presidents, even though she never met them. French researcher Arlette Farge wrote a classic of archives literature in 1989, Le Goût de l’archive (The Allure of the Archives), in which she discusses how “she was seduced by the sensuality of old manuscripts and by the revelatory power of voices otherwise lost.” And it is common for budding archivists, while in graduate school, to get a little piece of advice from one of the veterans working with them when the graduate student gets their first assignment processing and arranging a collection: “Hopefully, you like Ms. X, because you are going to be spending a lot of time with her.”

President Boyd and Eunice Kennedy Shriver,
1974 Michigan Special Olympics State Summer Games

In my case, I first “met” President Boyd in 2011, when I joined the Clarke’s team and began researching the history of the university. I was new to CMU and I didn’t know a thing about the history of the university. So, I was advised to start with John Cumming’s book. I still remember reaching the last 50 pages of the book or so and reading about President Boyd. I was immediately intrigued by him. He seemed like a history-making figure and a decent person. I then dug into the Central Michigan Life student newspaper and the Centralight alumni magazine. When documenting events of the late 1960s to mid-1970s, President Boyd seemed to be at the center of all of the action – anti-Vietnam-War activism, the formation of the Faculty Association (one of the first collective bargaining units for faculty at a 4-year university in the country), CMU moving up to NCAA Division I in athletics, the liberalization of residence hall regulations that forced women students to observe an earlier curfew then men students, and more. And in each case, his actions always seemed wise and he often had something intelligent and reasonable to say.

With that research project, I also dug into the archives of previous university presidents—Anspach, Warriner, Able, and of course, Boyd. The folders of speeches, correspondence, and working files gave me an idea of how each of these people approached their job and what they valued. Working with the Boyd records, I began to really like the guy. By January of 2012, when I had wrapped up the research, I was impressed with President Boyd and thought he was a special person.

As time moved on, I learned more and more about him. In late 2012, I mentioned to a colleague in the History Department about President Boyd’s efforts to increase diversity at CMU by hiring Dr. Robert Thornton, a physicist from San Francisco State University, in June 1969. Dr. Thornton was brought on as a special assistant charged with increasing recruitment of Black students and faculty and providing guidance to incorporate Black Studies into CMU’s curriculum. My colleague said, “Do you realize that San Francisco State was the first school in the country with a Black Studies program and it started in March of 1969?” I had no idea! Just four months after SFSU started their program, Boyd was drawing on their experience to try to improve CMU. One more fact about President Boyd’s sense of decency and humanity was added to my knowledge of him.

President Bill Boyd and Professor Jean Mayhew,
"King and Queen of Gentle Friday," 1970

A couple years later, I was invited to listen to an oral history interview between Frank Boles, the director of the Clarke, and President Boyd. Over speakerphone, I listened to President Boyd say that he was most proud of making the Central campus more beautiful, and remark on the May 1970 unrest by saying, “I was surprised and pleased by the good nature of the Central student body.” After a couple years of digging into the archives and answering questions about the history of CMU, it wasn’t a stretch for me to imagine being there as he was making tough decisions during a stressful situation.

Two years after that, I spoke to a group of about fifteen alumni involved in the anti-Vietnam-War movement, and I listened as every single person had something complimentary to say about President Boyd. One of the members of the group contacted him via telephone and the conversation that ensued between the alumni and their former president were, to say the least, very touching. After the alumni expressed their gratitude for his leadership and the lessons they learned from his example some 45 years after those moments in history, President Boyd ended the phone call by saying that speaking with all of these former students that day was among one of the best moments of his life. By this point, I felt like I knew Central’s seventh president.

President Bill Boyd speaks to students
outside "Freedom Hall," May 1970

Over the years, I had many more of these moments in which I learned more about the decency and humanity of President Boyd: when I learned about the change to residency requirements for tuition purposes for the children of migrant workers (pages 6-10 of linked article); when I learned about his plans for his inauguration, which featured a rather subdued ceremony, cancelling classes for the afternoon, and hosting free concert for students featuring activist and folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie; when I learned about Earth Week. I felt proud to “know” the man behind these stories.

After President Boyd’s passing, I read many remembrances including two from Racine, Wisconsin, where he lived for nearly the last 40 years. Both remembrances (Journal Times and Wright in Racine) mentioned a great many things that I never knew about President Boyd—which makes perfect sense objectively because I really only have access to records from the seven years when he was president at Central. But I wasn’t surprised by these wonderful anecdotes because I “know” President Boyd and the stories match exactly the man I know. The same is true for all of the comments on the CMU Alumni Association Facebook page responding to the post announcing President Boyd’s death. In fact, I felt a sense of pride that all of these people respected and admired him—a man who is part of the Central Michigan University family.

The only things that connect me to Bill Boyd are the historical documents in the Clarke and the stories from people who knew him. But, like Arlette Farge and others can attest, those pieces of paper and statements, as seemingly mundane and innocuous as some might believe them to be, hold a great deal of power—enough power to form a relationship. And, knowing what I know about him, generations from now, there is likely to be someone else who digs into the Boyd Papers and forms a friendship with Central’s seventh president.

Leelanau County American Bicentennial Flag

by Marian Matyn

In early February, volunteer archives processor Brian Schamber found a large American bicentennial Leelanau County flag in Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver's collection. Her collection is hundreds of boxes in size and includes a wide variety of formats, including this flag. The flag is blue polyester with a red, white, and blue county seal in the middle. There is a note from 1977 identifying the flag and stating that in hung in the Probate judges' chambers, 1975-1977. Justice Weaver was a Probate Judge in Leelanau during this time period.

Here are two images of the flag, one with Brian and intern Crystal Wood holding it up for a size comparison, and the other image is a close up of the county’s bicentennial seal.

Winter Sports in the Archives

by Marian Matyn

With continued inclement weather, I thought about Michigan winter activities documented in the manuscript collections in the archives.

We have one collection which includes images of a snow plow in action: Ann Arbor Railroad Company Photograph collection, 2006.

Then, I also thought about school closings due to weather. We do not have any manuscripts just on that topic, although I"m sure a number of the District School volumes document bad weather days.

We have a number of manuscript collections that document winter sports:

MI Postcards: Winter Sports-Skiing examples-From top: Over the tree tops, world's highest unofficial ski jump at Iron Mountain (MI); winter play at Caberfae winter sorts area, Cadillac (MI); untitled

Skiing at Boyne Mountain Ski Resort in Rotary Club Slides, 1958-1962

William Jamerson Film Collection, 1920, 1962 includes skiing, Ski villages at multiple sites in Michigan, as well as winter festivals and events.

The Michigan and non-Michigan films collection, 1927, 1973 includes winter sports

City of Petoskey (Mich.) Scans and CDs of photographic collection, 2013 includes 1300 scans of images 19-20th c. mostly in Petoskey with winter sports.

There are also numerous images of winter activities in the miscellaneous photographs, CMU photographs, and postcards collection

MI Postcards: Winter Sports-Skiing examples-From top: Winter at Caberfae, Cadillac (MI); ski jumping at Ishpeming (MI)

MI Postcards: Winter Sports-Skiing examples-From top: Winter at Caberfae, Cadillac (MI); ski jumping at Ishpeming (MI)

Christmas in the Archives

by Marian Matyn

In the Clarke Historical Library there are 32 archival paper-based collections that document Christmas in some way. Here the list is enhanced by some of our historic Christmas cards. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Writing about a WWII soldier's Christmas packages in France 1944

or Christmas at a Korean orphanage 1953

or charitable Christmas activities

or Christmas gatherings and celebrations, various collections

or Christmas bird count by the local Audubon club.

There are numerous and various types of Christmas images, general, familial, Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and CMU.

There are Christmas addresses from Saginaw Daily Courier Newsboys, 1873-1874.

There are Christmas inscriptions in books given as Christmas book.

There are circus Christmas tree ornaments.

Many collections have assorted holiday cards or Christmas wishes.

Thanksgiving Postcards

by Marian Matyn

In the Clarke, we have a section of the Display Items Collection that are holiday related cards and postcards. The turkeys are clearly the main focus of Thanksgiving postcard art. Here is a sample of historic holiday postcards celebrating Thanksgiving mostly circa 1910. Enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving.

Turkey- a truly patriotic American bird

Patriotic turkey over America

turkey pulling a pumpkin with a fairy in it. Why?

turkey with fall harvest scene

cutie and a turkey on gorgeous lush red background

cutie sans turkey with poem.
She could grace a postcard for any season

Freehold of Thanksgiving poem with turkey

Grapes and veg poem

harvest prayer poem

Clarke Joins National Film Inventory Site

by Marian Matyn

As part of our ongoing film project in the Clarke, processing student Jen Bentley and I are entering some of our films into the AVCC, an open source web application for rapid inventory of film, video, and audio materials. AVCC was developed with funding from the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board, the Metro NY Library Resource Council, and the NY State Documentary Heritage Program. The plan is to inventory film, video, and audio materials in production-based, archival, and other collections of unpublished media which are hard to access, uncataloged or not even inventoried. Also, it registers films which are suffering preservation issues, as so many are.

We have films in numerous collections. Tressa (a former student assistant in the Clarke) and I completed processing, identifying, rehousing and cataloging of non-Channel 9 & 10 films. SK and Jen (current student assistants) and I are still working on all those verbs for Channel 9 & 10 films. I think it is an excellent idea to register the films in AVCC for wider discoverability. I opened a free account for the Clarke and for each film we will fill in a template for each film we register. This is an important step in getting the Clarke acknowledged as holding films of interest at the state and national level and providing accessibility to a broader audience.

First, we added the 8mm and 16mm films in the Joe De Bolt collection documenting CMU Vietnam Moratorium student protests. The films are part of the Joe De Bolt Central Michigan University Vietnam Moratorium Committee Records, 1967,1983. The films are described in the Centra catalog record here: De Bolt catalog record

The films now appear under the heading of the Clarke: https://avcc.avpreserve.com/records/ (Must be signed in to a free account in order to view the record)

Here is how the films actually look:

De Bolt 8mm

and cover off

16mm

pamphlet

beautifully cored

We've also added two CMU. Films collection films documenting 1944 Homecoming and 1960s Homecoming and football events. The link to the catalog record is here: catalog record CMU Films

Jen and I both have to work together to add each film as we need to add additional information beyond what Tressa and I documented. We prioritized non-Channel 9 &10 films that we believe are of value to CMU, MI and nationally. As we finish processing, identifying, and rehousing Channel 9 &10 films we note which films are of particular interest to CMU, MI and nationally. These will be our next top priority to add to the national inventory.

We will not add all the films to the inventory. In most cases an example is part of a larger collection and the inventory information will lead interested researchers to those collections and additional films.

You can learn more about AVCC here at their blog https://www.avpreserve.com/blog/announcing-the-release-of-avcc-inventory-collection-management-tool/

There is also a review of the AVCC site in the American Archivists reviews portal here https://reviews.americanarchivist.org/2016/08/01/avcc/

Lastly thanks to Matthew Wilcox at Michigan State University Archives who has collaborated with us about film and informed me about the inventory site.

New Hemingway-Related Collection in Clarke

by Frank Boles

Portrait of Marjorie Bump, ca. 1916

On October 16, at the annual meeting of the Michigan Hemingway Society in Petoskey, the organization permanently loaned to the Clarke approximately one linear foot of material documenting Marjorie Bump’s relationship with Ernest Hemingway. Ms. Bump was a local Petoskey girl who met Ernest Hemingway in 1915. Her first name is given to the female protagonist in the Nick Adams short story, “The End of Something,” published in 1925.

After Hemingway’s death in 1961, Don St. John undertook a project to interview individuals who had known Hemingway to obtain first-hand accounts about the author. One of the people he contacted was Marjorie, by then known as Marjorie Main. Between 1965 and 1974, the two corresponded extensively. That correspondence now joins a bevy of resources related to Hemingway in Michigan found in the Clarke.

Georgianna Main, the daughter of Marjorie, wrote of her mother’s recollections about Hemingway in Pip-Pip For Hemingway (Bloomington, Ill.: iUniverse, 2010). The accounts found in Pip-Pip and in these papers are not consistent. For example, In Pip-Pip Georgianna reports her mother was taught to fish by Hemingway. In her recollection to St. John, Marjorie says she never went fishing with Ernest.

For a quick summary of the scholarly literature regarding Marjorie visit Project Muse, which reproduces a 2014 book review of Pip-Pip written by Matthew Nickel and first published in The Hemingway Review.

Before her death, Marjorie Main destroyed the correspondence with Hemingway she possessed. Thus, it is likely scholars will have a difficult time deciding if Marjorie chose to tell her daughter stories she thought Georgianna wished to hear or, if recounting events to St. John more than a half-century after they occurred, the inevitable tricks of memory led Marjorie to recall things in a way that differed from what had actually happened so long ago.

The Michigan Hemingway Society and the Clarke Library have worked together for more than a decade to document Ernest Hemingway’s life in Michigan. The relationship has been one that has benefited both organizations and we in the Clarke are extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work continually with the Society to find new information (with a Michigan twist) about one of the 20th century's most important authors.

Fall Processing

by Marian Matyn

It is the beginning of fall term and my students have been helping me to process multiple collections in numerous formats. There is more to process in the stacks, but this gives you an idea of the variety we are processing.

On the desk is an addition to CMU. Student Government Association materials-minutes, scrapbooks, posters, and position outlines which on student is processing. Behind it are printoffs from CDs in another collection documenting the debate and fight over Enbridge oil line which passes under the Straits of Mackinac. Two students have worked on this collection so far. Now that we have all the printoffs we will be comparing it to the rest of the collection looking for duplicates

These are a few boxes which are being sampled by a student who will be on an internship here this term processing one of the more difficult and complex of MI Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver's papers. There are several hundred cubic feet of her collection in the stacks.

This is my table of about 10 different collections that I'm processing including archaic media videotapes, scrapbooks, papers, pins, and digital materials.

This is an addition to the CMU. Park Library collections, of the Dean's office materials. Another student is working on this prior to beginning his internship. He'll be processing a larger mixed format collection of early Clare History.

The top two images also show the blue film containers two students are rehousing Channel 9 & 10 film into following, rewinding, identifying, splicing, and reorganizing of the film. More on that later. Yes, we have a lot happening in my unit.

IBBY Addition 2016

by Marian Matyn

We got a foot plus addition this year, but also decided to go to the prior boxes and print out anything that came in a digital format due to some of the current formats being difficult to access. This resulted in a doubling of material. Going from box 9 forward we now have 18 boxes. The finding aid, catalog records and EAD finding aid is updated. The amended EAD finding aid will be available next month. More will be coming as part of this addition is on exhibit elsewhere.

A big thanks to Jen who helped me double check everything. All those foreign names with foreign punctuation marks requires a lot of extra checking.

Brewer Family Ambrotypes

by Marian Matyn
A recent addition to the Dwight J. Brewer Collection, 1862, 2012 includes 3 ambrotypes from the 1850s and 1860s and a CD of the 3 images.

Dwight J. Brewer and two of his wives, sisters Carrie and Ellen Stearns as children.

From left: Carrie (Stearns) Brewer (1850-1935) from the early 1850s;
Ellen (Stearns) Brewer (1839-1918) and her brother Edwin (1844-1921) probably taken in the early 1850s;
Dwight J. Brewer (1844-1881) probably taken around 1860.

Carrie and Ellen were born in NY and both died in Clare, MI.

Dwight J. Brewer (1842-1881) was the son of Jairus and Lucy Brewer. After Lucy died, Jairus married Mary Langdon and, later, Ellen Stearns (1839-1918) sister of Edwin Stearns (1839-1918). Dwight had two siblings: Augusta and Julius. By 1850 Jairus moved his family to Mich. Dwight enlisted in Company F, 20th Mich. Infantry on Aug. 9, 1862 at Brooklyn, Mich., for three years, at age 20. He was mustered on Aug. 18, 1862. Dwight was discharged at Knoxville, Tenn., May 24, 1865. He contracted small pox at the end of war and spent time in two hospitals in Knoxsville recovering (as documented in his last three letters). After the war, Dwight married Edwin and Ellen's younger sister, Carrie (1850-1935) with whom he had three children. Dwight died in 1881 and was buried in Cherry Grove Cemetery, Clare, Mich. Edwin Stearns enlisted at Norvell for three years, on Aug. 11, 1862 in the same company as Dwight and was also mustered on Aug. 18, 1862. Edwin was wounded in action on June 17, 1864. He was promoted to corporal on May 1, 1865. On May 30, 1865 at DeLaney House, D.C., Edwin was mustered out. (This information is from the collection.)

You can read the Brewer family collection catalog record at http://catalog.lib.cmich.edu

Detroit Tigers scrapbook, 1940-1941

by Marian Matyn

I processed a Detroit Tigers scrapbook, 1940-1941.

The scrapbook has a blue and gold decorative cover and measures 11.5x14.5x1.5 inches. Billy Caldwell created it beginning in 1940 (documented on first page). The pages are acidic. The scrapbook consists almost entirely of Detroit Free Press clippings of the Detroit Tigers, 1940-1941. About two-thirds of the pages have clippings pasted on them, the rest are loose, some with dates and the title of newspaper. Also included is a Gem Theater advertising flier for Ithaca (Mich.) mail route residents for June 1941. The flier, along with genealogical information added from ancestrylibrary.com, is in one folder inside the front cover of the scrapbook.

Billy Caldwell was William O Caldwell, Jr. (1928-2012). He was the son of William Sr. and Thelma G. Caldwell and had a sister, Betty Ann. He lived, worked at Total Petroleum for 28 years, died and was buried in Ithaca (Mich.). (This information is from ancestrylibrary.com, accessed in Aug. 2016.) The Gem Theater was in Saint Louis (Mich.) located near Ithaca.

The Gem Theater flier was critical to me to place Billy Caldwell in a specific Michigan location and discover his history.

In 1940, the Detroit Tigers were American League Champs. They lost the world series 4-3 to the Cincinnati Reds. In 1941, they finished 4th in the American League. (This info from baseball.reference.com)

Sad Tiger Cartoon

Creator's name and date on first page

Triumphant Tigers

Fun portraits

leaving the dugout. Dig those traditional uniform pants

Gem theater flier

Home game; cool imagery

American League Champs

Cover

Tigers leaving on a train (this doesn't happen today) for the World Series

Mount Pleasant Indian School In National Archives Newsletter

The National Archives at Chicago distributed their August newsletter recently with a feature article about Native American boarding schools. Among the more prominently mentioned boarding schools is the Mount Pleasant Indian School, which was in operation in Mount Pleasant from 1893-1933.

The Clarke maintains a great deal of information about the boarding school in Mount Pleasant including photographs, reprints of annual reports from the National Archives, and remembrances of those who attended the school. But the series of materials at the Clarke is by no means complete and the information highlighted by the National Archives at Chicago shows that any serious researcher of the history of the Mount Pleasant Indian School, the students who attended, or the people who worked there certainly must consult more records than those available at the Clarke.

You can read the most recent newsletter via this link. If you would like to view past issues of the National Archives at Chicago newsletter or sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox, head over to the National Archives page for more information.

CMU Activist Alumni in the Archives

by Marian Matyn

This past weekend, May 20-22, a large group of alumni who attended CMU between 1968 and 1974 and who all took part in anti-Vietnam War activism as well as other activist movements came back to Mount Pleasant for the Mountain Madness Reunion. I had a very interesting day this past Friday, May 20, showing them CMU publications from the time period they were students at CMU and numerous primary source collections concerning the CMU Vietnam Moratorium (October 15, 1969), protests on campus, John Westie’s Conscientious Objector status materials, and President William Boyd's papers (everyone in the group had a great deal of respect for him!). We heard a little of an oral history interview with President Boyd and saw a sample of the digitized film of the Vietnam Moratorium. I heard lots of interesting stories and comments. Everyone enjoyed the memories.

Next we went to visit Kim Hagerty and they learned about microfilming and digitizing. Then we visited the stacks and saw some treasurers in the vault. And everyone took lots of free pens, pins, and booklets about the Peace Flag and President Warriner’s involvement in the peace movement, courtesy of Professor Hope May and the Center for International Ethics. 

It was really nice to meet these amazing grads and hear their fascinating stories. I’m glad they appreciate all we do in the archives and microfilm/digitizing to document, preserve, and make available their history to researchers. They were delighted a younger generation at CMU finds their history fascinating and regularly researches it. Through their effort they had quite a positive effect on CMU and our national history. They remain firmly and proudly dedicated to their ideals of peace, peaceful protesting, and underground presses. Many brought pins, papers, newsletters, photographs, and other material that help document the period and enhance existing collections in the Clarke. Thank you to the alumni who brought materials to donate and for those of you willing to be interviewed for an oral history.

Wrapping Up Archives Processing

by Marian Matyn

The end of the term means various archival processing projects are wrapping up.

Thanks to Chad and Suli, the Morley Bros. Oversized volumes are mostly in order and the listing is nearly done. Kipp, Cassie, and Brian helped reshelve the identified, organized volumes.

All Oversized volumes are Morley

All Oversized volumes are Morley

All Volumes and Oversized volumes are Morley

Cassie and Kipp are done with processing and nearly done with the finding aid for PMRR Saginaw station (Dennis Wolfe)

PMRR Saginaw Station completed last week

Brian is finishing up Nottawa Twp. records addition. Processed, labeled (nearly), finding aid nearly complete.

Nottawa addition

Jordan is still sorting children's art postcards for the DigMichNews 2015-2016 competition collection. There are still postcards from two finalists to sort and folder.

DigMichNews competition 2015-2016, children's art postcards

Here's a cool photo of Boyne Mountain's ski lift

Here's another cool postcard. The fish and way the art is created reminds me of Celtic imagery and the fish scales of the armor in the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting William the Conqueror. See the armor here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry

Now the processing room is almost empty. New projects await in the stacks for summer 2016.