Abundant Waters Digital Exhibit Now Online

by Sara Daniels

3D view of the Clarke's "Fur, Freighters, Fuels" section of the exhibit

The Clarke Historical Library officially opened its most recent exhibit,

Sunset at CMU Biological Station,
Beaver Island

Abundant Waters: Our Most Precious Resource on February 22, 2022. Now, we are proudly presenting the exhibit's digital companion. Exploring the state's cultural, environmental, political, and economic history through its 3,200 miles of freshwater coastline and 76,000 miles of rivers, this website offers new ways to approach the exhibit's driving question: how often do we actually think about our relationship with Michigan's most precious resource? 

Home to over 20% of the world's surface freshwater supply, Michigan is a state surrounded by, defined by, and embroiled in issues of water. The digital exhibit of Abundant Waters delves into the depths of Michigan's past in order to uncover our lasting connections with water and reveal how our future and the future of Michigan’s lakes and rivers are one in the same.

The digital exhibit is a culmination of months of research and community efforts. With contributions from WCMU Public Media, CMU professors and students, and members of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Conservation Community, the exhibit approaches Michigan's waterways through a multitude of perspectives. It provides an engaging and multidimensional platform on which to experience for yourself Michigan's greatest resource—water. From a 3D perspective of the Clarke’s physical Abundant Waters exhibit to a series of videos exploring the conservation of Michigan’s waters, the digital exhibit contains a number of fresh features and new approaches to exploring this topic and showcasing the many ways humans have interacted with and been affected by water.

Ernest Hemingway canoeing in northern Michigan

Take, for instance, one of Michigan's flashier roles as a rum-running capital, with 75% of the alcohol smuggled into the United States during Prohibition passing through one of Michigan's water borders with Canada. Or consider Michigan's status as the “Arsenal of Democracy” during World War II—it went beyond building bombers, with one of Michigan’s own Chris-Craft ships among the first to make landfall in Normandy on D-Day.

Michigan's waters have occupied countless other roles in personal, state, and national histories, which the Clarke explores in its digital exhibit. Its Great Lakes have been a 

The Edmund Fitzgerald

graveyard to hundreds of ships; its northern freshwater springs have been touted as miracle healers. Its ports and straits have acted as home to both war and industry, while its waters hold a sacred, life-giving status for Indigenous communities. 

To the famous American novelist Ernest Hemingway, Michigan was "a great place to laze around and swim and fish when you want to. And the best place in the world to do nothing." To others, it’s the best place in the world to do something—for the Soo Locks, that’s 80 million tons of commodities navigating the St. Mary’s falls each year. For each of the hundreds of millions of others to come in contact with Michigan, its waters represent something unique and personal.

Abundant Waters taps into this complex tapestry, illuminating the webs of connection flowing through Michigan's waterways and tying together facets of history and human experience. The exhibit aims to help the public reflect on our complex and meaningful relationships with water and to help us understand how water connects us all across time and space. 

Canoe manifest bound for Drummond Island c. 1818

Ultimately, Abundant Waters explores the lakes and rivers of Michigan as cultural, spiritual, and commercial epicenters, ones that define and sustain the region physically, ecologically, and economically. It imagines water in its many forms—mover of industry, mode of exploration, borderlands between/hubs within nations and peoples, and carrier of story—and in its ultimate form, as the veins that carry the lives of not just Michiganders, but people everywhere. Visit the digital exhibit today, with its new features and extended access to photographs and primary documents, to discover for yourself how we see ourselves—and each other—in Michigan's great waters.

The Abundant Waters exhibit is funded, in part, by an award from the American Library Association as part of the ALA’s American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries program.

3D view of the Clarke's "Disasters" section of the exhibit

Larry Massie's Presentation: The Allure of Association - The Appeal of Provenance: Stories Told by Old Michigan Books

By Frank Boles

(to see a podcast of this March 1, 2011 presentation at ITunes U, click here)

On March 1 Larry Massie spoke in the Park Library Auditorium. His  topic was The Allure of Association - The Appeal of Provenance: Stories Told by Old Michigan Books.  Although there are many book collectors in Michigan, Massie is uniquely qualified to speak on this subject.  With a private collection of more than 35,000 volumes, Massie has assembled the largest existing, personally owned collection of Michigan-related books.

Mr. Massie’s principal point, made through many examples, is that very often what makes a book interesting to a collector is not simply the book itself, but also the person who once owned the book.   The association of owner and volume, particularly in cases where the owner or others chose to inscribe the volume, can offer fascinating insights into history.

For example, one of the books Massie discussed was a relatively common book of music printed in the first years of the nineteenth century. This particular music book, however, was owned by Father Gabriel Richard. Richard was a Catholic priest who served in Detroit from 1798 until his death in 1832. He was an innovative, educated man who quickly became a community leader.  Michigan’s first printing press arrived at Richard’s instigation. Richard co-founded Michigan’s first University.  And Richard apparently enjoyed music.  Not only did he add a music book to his personal library, he likely placed the book on Michigan’s first piano, which he was responsible for having brought to Detroit. Through association with a fascinating man, a “common” music book took on interesting “associational” value.

In another example Massie produced two copies of Laura Havilland’s A Woman’s Life Work: Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Havilland.  The book is an interesting one in that Havilland, a devout Quaker, was a key conductor on the Underground Railroad, which led escaped slaves north to Canada. Supposedly she and her husband established the first Underground Railroad station in Michigan. Haviland herself traveled south several times to help slaves escape, in one case seeking the children of slaves who had already fled north. Her adventures were numerous, documented through endless legal actions filed against her by irate slave holders and more pointedly, by once being held at gunpoint by a slave owner who seems to have briefly considered shooting the Yankee troublemaker.

In one the copy of her book Haviland had written, “No word or tear of sympathy for the oppressed is in vain.” Haviland’s fierce commitment to abolitionism demonstrated in this passage was matched by her commitment in faith.   She inscribed a second book found by Massie, “No prayer presented in living faith is unanswered by Him who is the author and finisher of our faith.”

A third example from Massie’s talk was a Book of Mormon once owned by Wingfield Watson. In nineteenth century Michigan, Watson was a well-known follower of Mormon-leader James Jesse Strang. When Mormon founder Joseph Smith was murdered, Strang offered himself as Smith’s replacement. Strang profoundly disagreed with the church’s decision to appoint Brigham Young Smith’s successor. He refused to submit to Young’s leadership and founded his own branch of Mormonism.

Strang and his followers eventually settled on Beaver Island. Although Strang was murdered in 1856, until his own death in 1922, Watson continued to proslitzye on behalf of Strang’s interpretation of Mormonism.  Watson lent the copy of the Book of Mormon in Massie’s possession to individuals he hoped would join the faith. One of the most fascinating entries in the Book is signed by “A Blackbird.”  Andrew Blackbird was a well-known and well respected Indian leader who lived in Harbor Springs. Blackbird apparently read the volume, but was unmoved by it or by Watson’s words of persuasion.  As Blackbird wrote in the volume, “keep your books to home.”

In these and many other examples Massie demonstrated that the joy in collecting books is not just in finding a particular title, but in the story a particular volume  of a title may tell.