Friends of Mann House

12/06/2023

We apologize for the inconvenience, but the Mann House will not be open for tonight's (Dec. 6) evening event in Concord.

07/18/2023

Save the date!
Annual Women’s History Conference
Thursday, September 14, 2023
9:00 @ Concord Community Schools
Education Theme
Call: 517-930-3806 to rsvp
Conference registration is $40

12/11/2021

Due to high winds and other weather concerns. This evenings scheduled house tours from 6 to 8pm have been canceled. We will be open tomorrow, December 12 from 2:00 to 6:00pm. Tomorrow will be your last opportunity to see the house decorated for the holidays!

11/23/2021

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MIDNR/bulletins/2fc0137

Visit the Mann House in Concord for special holiday hours Dec. 3-12! Michigan Department of Natural Resources sent this bulletin at 11/23/2021 10:30 AM EST Share or view as webpage | Update preferences Visit the Mann House in Concord for special December holiday hours For the first time in 25 years,...

05/08/2021

It's Jackson County Museum Day! We are so thankful to our friends at Experience Jackson and Good Things Going – Jackson for developing this great video about the history of the Mann House!

Watch now: https://www.experiencejackson.com/business/the-mann-house

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mann House will remain closed for the 2021 summer season. You can enjoy a virtual video tour of the home here: https://vimeo.com/466676501

03/27/2021

Happy centennial to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources! Thank you for including the Mann House on your fantastic timeline at Michigan.gov/DNRcentennial

Here's to another 100 years of working together to keep Michigan's natural and cultural resources available for generations to come.

Department of Natural Resources - Centennial

03/15/2021

Did you know the Mann House has 72 windows (including the carriage house)? A cousin of the Mann sisters, Fred Schoen, dubbed it, “The House of Light”, noting the many windows made it very cheerful and bright.

03/01/2021

Sisters Jessie Ellen Mann (left) and Mary Ida Mann Cady (right), namesakes of our historic Mann House in Concord, were pioneering women for their time. While only 10% of the American population had high school diplomas in 1900, the Mann sisters both graduated college with unusual degrees for women during the period.

The eldest, Mary Ida, attended the Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) and focused on physical education. Jessie also attended the Michigan State Normal College, and in 1906, she earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan. Both women became teachers.

Active participants in their local community, they supported local agriculture, participated in community cultural events and institutions, and advocated for the right of women to vote.

In 1970, they donated their family home and all of its contents to the State of Michigan so it would become a museum and a learning tool for school children. The Mann House museum is now part of the Michigan History Center Museum system.

Learn more about the Mann Sisters and their home, watch this virtual tour created for the home's 50th anniversary as a museum: https://vimeo.com/michiganhistory/mannhouse2020

01/29/2021

Reduce Reuse Recycle - They’re our modern buzzwords for the practice of sustainable living. But for those who lived through the Great Depression and through World Wars, sacrifice, austerity and reducing waste was more than a lifestyle - it was a strategy for survival.

Back then, the mantra was, “Use it up, Wear it out, Make do or Do without” and was promoted during times of scarcity and rationing to encourage people to use whatever was on hand, in order to conserve resources. For many, thriftiness and a tendency to repurpose everything, became a habit that stuck with them the rest of their lives.

Jessie Mann and Mary Ida Mann Cady were middle-aged by the start of the Great Depression and already well-versed in the home economic arts. For years, they had made, reconstructed and repaired their own clothes. They grew and preserved their own food. And they were also quite savvy with money, from running a profitable sheep farm to making wise investments in stocks. Quilting, darning, canning and other sustainable activities typical of the era, are seen throughout the Mann House.

During our collections inventory we discovered more evidence that nothing was discarded if it could be repurposed later. Every note was written on the back of a used envelope, church bulletin or “junk mail”, there are bags upon bags of saved buttons and several closets full of old towels to name a few.

Here are two rather creative examples of “upcycling” - saving leftover wallpaper for placemats and a medical tape container made into a handy spool for sewing trim!

Share your stories in the comments, of the creative ways your ancestors lived frugally during hard times.