The William L. Clements Library is a rare book and

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

repository located on the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

's central campus in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

. Specializing in Americana and particularly North American history prior to the twentieth century, the holdings of the Clements Library are grouped into four categories: Books, Manuscripts, Graphics and Maps. The library's collection of

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

materials is expansive and particularly rich in the areas of

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

, the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, and the

colonization of North America During the Age of Discovery, a large scale European colonization of the Americas took place between about 1492 and 1800. Although the Norse had explored and colonized areas of the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short ter ...

. The Book collection includes 80,000 rare books, pamphlets, broadsides, and

periodicals A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a Academic journal, journal ...

. Within the other divisions, the library holds 600 atlases, approximately 30,000 maps, 99,400 prints and photographs, 134 culinary periodicals, 20,000 pieces of

ephemera Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...

, 2,600 manuscript collections, 150 pieces of artwork, 100 pieces of realia, and 15,000 pieces of sheet music. The Clements Library is visited by over 450 researchers yearly. Patrons include undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and scholars from around the world, such as

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning author and historian, David McCullough, who used the library's collections for the book ''1776''. The library building was designed by architect Albert Kahn.

History

William L. Clements William Lawrence Clements (1861–1934) was an American businessman and collector of historical works; founder, and donor to the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. In addition, Clements donated more than twenty-million ...

, an alumnus and regent of the

, founded the library in 1923. The library's initial collections were donated by Clements, an avid collector of materials relating to the discovery of the Americas by Europeans and the

. Clements’ extensive personal collection included "20,000 volumes of rare books, 2,000 volumes of early newspapers, several hundred maps, and the papers of William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne." Upon the opening of the library, Clements published the book, ''The William L. Clements Library of Americana at the University of Michigan'', detailing the acquisition of his personal collection. The book and the Clements Library were reviewed by

Lawrence C. Wroth Lawrence Counselman Wroth (January 14, 1884 – December 25, 1970) was an American historian and the author of ''The Colonial Printer'', the definitive book on the American printing trade during the period of 1639 through 1800. Though he wrot ...

in the ''New York Times'' on July 22, 1923. Wroth vigorously praised Clements, saying, "The Clements Library goes to the University of Michigan s a collectionin which no inquiry concerning America between 1492 and 1800 need go unanswered." In addition to giving his collection, Clements donated funds to build the current library building.

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

architect Albert Kahn designed the building "in the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

style, based on Vignola's casino for the

Villa Farnese The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a pentagonal mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese a ...

, ca. 1587, in Caprarola, Italy." Among the restrictions Clements placed upon the library was that it should remain separate from the university's greater library system and be governed by an independent board of trustees. Today, this distinct governing structure remains in place, but the library's holdings are integrated into the University Library's Mirlyn catalog. From 1935 to 1945

Howard Henry Peckham Howard Henry Peckham, (July 13, 1910 – July 6, 1995) was a professor and historian and an authority on colonial and early American history who published a number of works on those subjects. His academic career encompassed a wide variety of invo ...

was manuscript

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

, during which time Clements Library was acquiring collections that established an international reputation for itself as an institution for the study of the Revolutionary War and British Colonial America.

Collections

The library's collections are spread across five divisions: the Book Division, the Manuscripts Division, the Graphics Division and the Map Division. The Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive, established in 2002 as a fifth division, moved in 2013 to the Hatcher Library, the special collections section of the University of Michigan Library. Exhibits showcasing the library's collection are on public display on weekday afternoons. Exhibited materials have included rare books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and prints. Past exhibition topics include: the history of wine-making in America, the

sugar trade Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double s ...

in the Atlantic world, sports played in 19th century America, and

the War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

Book Division

The Book Division contains approximately 80,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, and periodicals. Highlights of the collection include books on the discovery and exploration of North America,

colonial American American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. T ...

imprints, and books and pamphlets of the

. Expanding beyond the areas of William L. Clements’ personal collection, the library also holds books on a variety of subjects such as African American history,

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

, Native American history,

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

sermons A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. El ...

and orations,

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and anti-slavery,

the West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater ...

, and

women's history Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history and the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, personal achievement over a period of ...

. The contributions of other collectors, such as the James V. Medler Crime Collection and James S. Schoff

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Collection, provide additional subject strengths on certain topics.

Manuscripts Division

The Manuscripts Division cares for approximately 2,600 collections of letters, documents, diaries, financial records, and other materials, with an emphasis on 18th- and 19th-century North America. The division's strengths include Revolutionary War era British-American colonial and

military history Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians norma ...

; the Civil War; 19th-century social and religious reform movements, especially

abolition Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to: * Abolitionism, abolition of slavery * Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment * Abolition of monarchy *Abolition of nuclear weapons *Abol ...

; African American and Native American history;

; education;

naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

and

maritime history Maritime history is the study of human interaction with and activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, although national and regional histories remain predominant. As an academic subject, it ...

; health and medicine; travel; business and commerce; and other topics. William L. Clements began to collect manuscripts in the early 1920s and, with the library's first director Randolph Adams, acquired many of the cornerstone collections of the manuscripts division, including the papers of British Prime Minister William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne; commanders-in-chief of the Army in North America Thomas Gage and Henry Clinton; abolitionists Angelina Grimké,

Sarah Grimké Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pi ...

, and

Theodore Weld Theodore Dwight Weld (November 23, 1803 – February 3, 1895) was one of the architects of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years from 1830 to 1844, playing a role as writer, editor, speaker, and organizer. He is best known ...

; and others.

Map Division

The map collection has been assembled to document the expansion of geographical knowledge of the Americas from the 15th through the 19th centuries, with particular emphasis on North American military history, frontier expansion, and the history of cartography itself. The Map Division was established to deal with the numerous maps and plans acquired by Mr. Clements in the 1920s, some with important manuscript collections and others through the purchase of existing map and atlas collections, notably that of Henry Vignaud (1830–1922). The Map Division holds some 30,000 maps and plans, about 1,500 of which are manuscripts. Many of the latter came to the library with manuscript collections such as the Gage and

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

papers, which makes the holdings particularly rich in the cartography of the

. In addition to separate maps, the Clements holds 600 atlases. The map catalog includes all maps in books and atlases.

Graphics Division

The Graphics Division holds prints, photographs, printed

, original artwork, illustrated and non-illustrated sheet music, and realia. William L. Clements had a modest collection of portrait prints and a few Revolutionary War cartoons when he founded the library in the 1920s but he showed little interest in visual materials. The current Graphics Division, founded in 2002, is made up mostly of materials acquired over the past 30 years. For sheer numbers, the fastest growing part of the Clements Library has been the photograph collection, with fewer than 100 items in the 1970s, and over 150,000 by 2015. The subjects represented by the division mirror the subjects of the other Clements divisions with strengths in American military history, political and social histories, American urban and landscape views, portraiture, satire, popular culture, leisure activities, labor, technology, travel, and

culinary history Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs ...

. Examples of almost every printing and photographic process used from the 15th to the 20th centuries exists within the collections. The library has recently acquired th
David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography
representing over 100,000 photographs taken from ca. 1845 -1980 in the state. Approximate numbers for the division holdings: *Prints—9400 items *Photos—150,000 *

Ephemera Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...

—10,000 *Sheet music—15,000 *Artwork—150 * Realia – 100

Clements Library Associates

Clements Library Associates support the library through membership dues and can contribute at several levels, beginning at "Student" with a $5 membership fee. The Associates program was created in 1947; and it is estimated that the members have helped purchase "$5,000,000 worth of historical material that today has a monetary value many times that amount." Associates are invited to attend Clements Library programs, lectures, and exhibits free of cost. Members are regularly informed of happenings and new acquisitions at the Clements through the library's magazine, ''The Quarto.''"The Quarto"
Retrieved August 16, 2012

References

External links

The William L. Clements Library
– Official site
Clements Library Chronicles
– Official Blog
Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive
at the Hatcher Library {{authority control Research libraries in the United States University of Michigan campus Museums in Ann Arbor, Michigan Albert Kahn (architect) buildings University and college academic libraries in the United States History museums in Michigan University museums in Michigan Libraries in Michigan 1923 establishments in Michigan Rare book libraries in the United States Special collections libraries in the United States