William L. Clements Library

09/03/2026

Rolling strikes and taking names. Happy National Bowling League Day! 🎳

📸: Ransons Walloon Lake Bowling Alley, David V. Tinder Collection of Real Michigan Photography, Real Photo Postcard Series

09/02/2026

Happy ! We’re all set up near Mason Hall, come stop by and say hello!

09/02/2026

The Bowman sermons are an incredible addition to the holdings at the Clements Library, expanding our collection of Revolutionary War-era materials through a previously unknown voice.

When historic materials come up for sale, the opportunity to acquire them often arrives before funds can be raised. That’s why the Clements Library launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $40,000 for this important addition to the collection—and we’ve already reached 75% of our goal! Thanks to a generous 1:1 match from the Clements Library Board of Governors, every gift goes twice as far.

Help us build on this momentum and bring this valuable piece of history into the collection: https://myumi.ch/ww7Mp

09/01/2026

During James Watke-Stacy’s time as Intern for Instruction and Engagement, he was often tasked with looking through the Clements collections for materials that would assist with class instruction or an event.

Before graduating last spring, he compiled some lessons he learned through this process to share with students tackling archival research for the first time:

During James Watke-Stacy’s time as Intern for Instruction and Engagement, he was often tasked with looking through the Clements collections for materials that would assist with class instruction or an event. Before graduating last spring, he compiled some lessons he learned through this process to...

08/31/2026

Brynne Smith, an undergraduate student here at the University of Michigan, has joined us today for a Q&A to share what her day is like as the Student Library Assistant at the Clements! https://myumi.ch/111Qy

08/28/2026

William L. Clements began his collection with rare books about early European exploration of the Americas. As Clements was born in 1861, 19th-century topics like the Civil War were more like current events than history!

Mr. Clements wanted the acquisition of historical materials to continue after he founded the library in 1923. In fact, between 1925 and 1930, Clements acquired the papers of several notable figures in the revolution: British Generals Thomas Gage and Sir Henry Clinton, Cabinet Minister Lord George Germain, and the Hessian General von Jungkenn, creating the largest archive in the United States of manuscripts and maps relating to British conduct of the American Revolutionary War.

The Clements scope has expanded over years in time, types of materials, and topics. Subscribe to our blog to see the latest collections as they become available!

08/27/2026

On a sunny August evening, Clements Library fellows, curators, researchers, and librarians mingled over sangria and salty snacks. The Clements fellowship experience extends beyond the Avenir Foundation Reading Room and into a large network of resources and colleagues, who are all eager to support your work.

If you're looking for a true research community, be sure to mark the fellowship application deadline (January 15th, 2027), on your calendar!

08/26/2026

Stretching from 1740 to 1930, the nearly 3,500 letters from the Weld-Grimké collection document the lives of the Weld and Grimké families in South Carolina, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and Michigan.

Centered around sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimké, these correspondences highlight the work of women as political actors, religious leaders, and medical practitioners.

Previous Digitization Specialist Ella Johnson worked through this collection page by page, taking over 13,000 images of these letters. In this blog, she shares a brief biographical sketch of the Grimké family: https://myumi.ch/xjjnb

For the last year, the digitization team at the Clements Library has been hard at work on digitizing one of our cornerstone collections. Nearly 3,500 letters from the Weld-Grimké collection will shortly be digitally available, allowing remote access to these important documents. Stretching from 174...

08/26/2026

🎂🥳💙

Happy Birthday to the University of Michigan! 🥳 The school you know today as U-M was first established in 1817 by the Michigan Territorial Legislature, many years before Michigan even became a state.

This image shows U-M's first building as it looked in Detroit, before the university moved to Ann Arbor!

08/25/2026

As the nineteenth century progressed, more and more Americans had actually seen a balloon in person.

The experience of going up in a balloon was still very much a novelty, but the idea of a balloon was becoming familiar.

Balloon imagery became prolific in American print culture, including the word puzzle pictured here.

Visit the Clements Library weekdays between 12-4 pm to view the exhibit “Up, Up, and Away: A History of Ballooning in America” in person before it closes on August 28, or view the extended online exhibit: https://myumi.ch/w928X