Collections Magazine, Spring 2022

SPRING 2022

COL L EC T ION S A P U B L I CAT I O N O F T H E B E N T L EY H I STO R I CA L L I B RA RY

Striking copper miners paraded in orderly rows through northern Michigan streets in 1913—at least until the “strike breakers” were called in. Disaster quickly followed.

SPRING 2022

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The Elegant Philosophy of Ones and Zeros

Claude Shannon established a brand-new field of science called information theory, leading to modern advances like digital circuits and the internet. Surprisingly, it may have been a philosophy elective at U-M that resulted in his genius breakthrough.

10 The Copper Line

When copper miners went on strike in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in 1913, National Guard troops were summoned and mine owners enlisted their own “strike breakers.” Papers at the Bentley provide a glimpse into the nine-month conflict—and the fallout.

16 Reaching for the Stars

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, women were determined to study the skies just like their male colleagues.

The Detroit Observatory was a training ground for four unparalleled women astronomers who left legacies that still resonate today.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

1 The Past Speaks in Two Voices

ABRIDGED

2 Select Bentley Bites IN THE STACKS

Hazel Losh, known as “Doc Losh,” was the first woman at U-M to become a tenured professor in astronomy. See page 16 for more women astronomy pioneers.

22 Exclusion Did Not Deter Her 24 Detroit and the Olympics 26 The Pride of Michigan PROFILES

29 Sing to the Colors 30 Writing Belle BENTLEY UNBOUND

31 A Scoop of History

DIRECTOR’S NOTES Terrence J. McDonald Director, Bentley Historical Library (Left) African American students gather for a house party at U-M’s Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity (Epsilon chapter), May 1927.

The Past Speaks in Two Voices AS MANY COLLECTIONS READERS KNOW, I have decided to leave the Bentley at the end of the summer and transition to the LSA Department of History and my original job as a professor of history there.

I am making this change despite the fact that, as I have joked before, “being an historian is the hardest job in the world.”

The past always “speaks” to us in two voices. One voice says, “Things were different here”; the other voice says, “The origins of the present will be found here.”

Both are actually true. Our whole approach to hearing those voices can change, too, when new historical sources are revealed or new approaches to the past are proposed.

Keeping all these things in balance is what makes it hard—for anyone—to study or write history. But that’s also what makes it incredibly exciting.

The solution to these challenges is found, significantly, in the archives. And that is why places like the Bentley are so crucial to our future: They house the “voices” from the past that we need to hear.

Here’s an example of this.

During the University’s 2017

Bicentennial Year, Professor of History and Afroamerican and African Studies Angela Dillard asked the Bentley a pretty simple question: Who was the 100th African American to attend the University of Michigan?

She well knew, as we all do, the “firsts” in various fields or places at the University.

But what happened after that?

We could not answer her question, but we set out to do so. In March 2022, the first stage of results from that work appeared in a new Bentley website called the African American Student Project, well described in the article by Brian Williams, the archivist who led the project, on page 22 of this issue.

With some qualifications, we can now say that the 100th African American student at Michigan was Oscar Baker, a Bay City, Michigan, native who graduated from the U-M Law School in 1902, and who went on to a very distinguished legal career in the state.

But there are also now more than 3,295 other African American students in the first version of our database, which will grow over time. Given these numbers, we now can see patterns that move us decisively beyond the framework that simply celebrates the “firsts.”

Other information on the website suggests that African American students had a hard time finding housing in the community. That problem was not solved when the first dormitories opened on campus because those dorms were racially segregated—if not on paper, certainly in practice.

However, African American students, organizations, parents, and alumni pressed the University to change, and improvements were made over time.

In fact, our 100th student, Oscar Baker, returned as the attorney who represented the family of admitted nursing student Marjorie Franklin. In 1925, Franklin challenged the University system that segregated the special dormitory for nursing students.

And so the focus of our historical work changes: a new question is asked; the answer is sought; new records are revealed.

In this case, we will never be satisfied with a focus on the “firsts” again.

It has been a wonderful privilege to be on the front lines of managing these archives. Now, however, I am excited to return to the status of archives “user” along with so many of you.

Terrence J. McDonald

Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Professor of History, and Director

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ABRIDGED

abridg @PWindastry: UMichiganNews: Student films. Journal entries. Tributes to hospital workers. @umichBentley Historical Library’s COVID19 collection provides a poignant glimpse of the pandemic’s impact on the U-M community.

Contributions are welcome. #MichiganToday

An Early Collection of Steam Carriages and Politics

Edward W. Staebler poses in a Toledo “Steam Carriage” car circa 1901. Staebler was an Ann Arbor businessman who managed an early automobile dealership. From 1927 to 1931, he served as Democratic mayor of the city.

NEW YORK, NY SMITH COLLEGE OBSERVATORY BOSTON, MA BADEN-BADEN, GERMANY Locations visited in this issue of Collections magazine.

“Jim Toy was a model for us all both in how he lived and what he left. In life he was the gentlest but most unshakeable campaigner for what was right in so many areas; in death his legacy has been preserved in his magnificent collection at the Bentley Historical Library, which is not only frequently used but has served as a magnet for other collections involving LGBTQ individuals. In this way, just as he was a pioneer in the LGBTQ cause in life, he has helped open a whole new understanding of that cause in the archives after his death.”

—Pridesource.com article on the death of Jim Toy in January 2022, featuring a quote from Bentley Director Terry McDonald 2 BENTLEY.UMICH.EDU

ged

ABRIDGED

COL L E C T ION S

Aviation Fascination

DELIQUESCENT: A STUDENT FLUENTLY RECITING THE WORDS OF ANOTHER

In 1932, the Hudson Motor Car Company introduced its aviation-themed “Terraplane” automobile and selected Amelia Earhart as its spokesperson. In July of that year, she christened the first car off the assembly line with a bottle of champagne. Earhart’s affiliation with the brand continued for years, and in 1934 she was photographed with another aviation legend, Orville Wright, as seen in this image. This picture, and other Hudson Motor Car Company promotional photographs, can be found in the Roy Dikeman Chapin papers.

“BIRD BOOK”

Popular slang words and definitions were collected from more than 200 U-M students and published in 1895. The slang book is available online if you want to “June around” with some “chromo” words: myumi.ch/n8Vzg

IN-HOUSE BAUHAUS

Seeing Anew The title of the symposium marking the reopening of the Detroit Observatory, which was held on Friday, April 8, 2022, beginning at noon and ending with a “see the stars” viewing night. To learn more about this newly reimagined space, visit detroitobservatory.umich.edu

There are more than 400 building structures in the legacy of architect Irving Tobocman, whose collection is now archived at the Bentley. He was a 1956 U-M graduate whose approach to architecture included designing interiors and furniture.

His architectural style was influenced by the Bauhaus school, a style established in Germany in 1919. Tobocman was killed in an automobile accident in November 2017 at age 84.

Name of the Richard Hunt sculpture that will live outside the new Chicago Public Library branch at the Obama Presidential Center.

Hunt is a renowned African American artist and, in 1975, two of his sculptures, Historical Circle and Peregrine Section, were dedicated in the Bentley’s courtyard.

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THE ElegantP hilosoph

4 BENTLEY.UMICH.EDU

hyOF ONES AND ZEROS COL L E C T ION S

A 1936 MASTER’S THESIS WRITTEN BY

CLAUDE SHANNON

CHANGED THE COMPUTING WORLD OVERNIGHT. SHANNON’S INSIGHT SEEMED TO COME OUT OF NOWHERE, BUT COLLECTIONS FROM THE BENTLEY ARCHIVE SHOW HOW THE GENIUS IDEA GREW FROM A REVAMPED ENGINEERING CAMPUS AND

ONE ELECTIVE CLASS.

By Robert Havey

T

actually publish his findings. “Many things I’ve done and never written up at all,” Shannon said in a 1987 interview with Omni magazine. “Just knowing is probably [my] main motivation.”

Collections at the Bentley Historical Library reveal what a perfect environment the University of Michigan College of Engineering in the 1930s was to nurture his curious mind, including an elective class that would lead to one of his most incredible breakthroughs.

●DISPATCHES FROM NOWHERE●

THE MODERN WORLD WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE WORK OF CLAUDE ELWOOD SHANNON. OVER HIS LONG AND DECORATED CAREER AS A MATHEMATICIAN, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, INVENTOR, AND CRYPTOGRAPHER, SHANNON’S THEORETICAL INSIGHTS LED DIRECTLY TO THE CREATION OF DIGITAL CIRCUITS, ADVANCED TELEPHONY NETWORKS, AND THE INTERNET.

His work was so ahead of its time, it was a challenge to even categorize. In 1948, Shannon’s paper “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” established a whole new field of science: information theory. Before that, his 1936 master’s thesis at MIT, “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits,” became the language at the foundation of modern computing.

Shannon wasn’t driven by wealth or ambition, but by his endless curiosity. He spent time tinkering, inventing things like a trumpet that shoots flames when played and a mechanical mouse that navigates a maze. He had to be reminded by his colleagues to

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Gaylord, Michigan, was a city of fewer than 2,000 people when Shannon was born in 1916. Most of its inhabitants worked for the Michigan Central Railroad or for one of the businesses that relied on it.

Shannon spent much of his time taking things apart and, if he could, putting them back together. “As a young boy, I built many things, working with mechanical stuff. Erector sets and electrical equipment, built radios, things of that sort,” Shannon said in a 1997 interview. “I remember I had a radio-controlled boat.”

Communication was a particularly interesting subject for the young Shannon. He constructed a telegraph system using the barbed-wire fences that surrounded the local farms. As a Boy Scout, Shannon won first place in a “wig-wag” contest, a competition where scouts would use flags to send and receive Morse code.

Shannon’s application to the University of Michigan, archived in his alumni file at the Bentley, reveals him to be a good but not perfect student. He received A’s and B’s at Gaylord Public School, particularly excelling in his math classes. For the question asking if the applicant “earned any money in your high-school course?”

Shannon wrote: “Yes, peddling papers and delivering telegrams.”

In 1932, Shannon was accepted into the University of Michigan College of Engineering.

●ENGINEERING TRANSFORMATION●

Engineering education at U-M had radically changed since the first class in metallurgy was taught in 1854. In 1901, demand for engineers in the rapidly industrializing world led the U-M regents to approve construction of the West Engineering building, adding more than 150,000 square feet of floor space. The East Engineering building, completed in 1923, would add 163,000 more.

Dean of Engineering Mortimer Cooley was a driving factor behind the rapid expansion. Under his leadership, engineering enrollments went from 18 in 1881 to more than 2,000 by 1929, surpassing enrollments from both U-M’s Law School and School of Medicine. When a colleague mentioned that engineering was second in size only to the College of LSA, Cooley replied, “By Jove, we’ll pass them yet.”

The engineering curriculum was changing, too. More and more specialties were added, including electrical, chemical, and marine engineering. Classes in “wireless telegraphy” were beginning to be

COL L E C T ION S

taught just a decade and a half before Shannon’s arrival.

There was also more emphasis placed on the common foundation of all engineering: math. This suited Shannon just fine, as he wanted to pursue degrees in both electrical engineering and mathematics.

Asked about his choice of dual degrees in an interview years later, Shannon said it was driven mostly by indecision rather than a plan for his future career. “I wasn’t really quite sure which I liked best,” said Shannon. “It was quite easy to do because so much of the curriculum was overlapping.”

Shannon’s favorite engineering classes were in communication engineering, mostly because they were “the most mathematical, I would say, of the engineering sciences.”

Although Shannon earned his degrees in a little over three years, the 1936 Michiganensian yearbook showed he still had time for extracurricular activities. He was in the Junior Math Club, Radio Club, and on the gymnastics team. (The gymnastics training stayed with him his whole life, as he was often seen in the halls of Bell Labs on a unicycle juggling bowling pins.)

HS14879

●ELECTIVE SUCCESS●

During his whirlwind undergraduate career, Shannon found time to take an elective class from the Department of Philosophy that would lead to his first groundbreaking paper. Philosophy 33: Introduction to Logic taught students “the general principles of both inductive and deductive logic,” according to the U-M General Register.

Students would learn how to break down and diagram paragraphs like they were math problems. A simple example might be: All archivists have a college degree. Sue is an archivist. Therefore, Sue has a college degree.

Given the first two sentences are true, the last one is also true.

Compare that to: All archivists have a college degree. Bob has a college degree.

Therefore, Bob is an archivist.

The last statement is not necessarily true, since people other

than archivists also have college degrees.

An archived final exam for Philosophy 33 from the Department of Philosophy collection at the Bentley reveals how complicated these statements could get. One question asks students to “Symbolize the following arguments and show whether or not they are valid.”

The first statement: “To say that a thing has the attributes of infinity, omniscience, and perfection implies a denial that it has potency. Now God, as pure act, has no potency. Therefore God is infinite, omniscient, and perfect.”

Shannon’s answer to the exam question, unfortunately, is lost to history.

●INSPIRATION IN BOOLE● It was in this class that Shannon was introduced to the work of philosopher George Boole. Boolean algebra is a system of logic in which statements are given values 1 and 0, with a true statement written as 1 and a false statement as 0. Statements can be considered together with conjunctions such as and, not, and or.

Anyone who has done any sort of computer programming will immediately find this familiar. Today, all programing languages use Boolean logic as a foundation. But when Shannon first learned it, it was in his elective philosophy class, not in engineering.

Shannon wouldn’t have to wait long to make use of his newfound Boolean knowledge. He graduated from U-M with his two degrees in 1936 and, after seeing a postcard advertisement pinned to a bulletin board in the West Engineering building, Shannon started his post-graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Shannon spent most of his time at MIT operating and repairing the differential analyzer, a room-sized machine dedicated to solving advanced mathematical problems like the behavior of scattering electrons. The machine was an analog computer, an unwieldy amalgamation of gears, electrical switches, spinning discs, and graph paper.

Claude Shannon’s U-M student registration photo circa 1932.

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(OPPOSITE PAGE AND THIS PAGE) ALAMY

●SHANNON’S PAPER, “A SYMBOLIC ANALYSIS OF RELAY AND SWITCHING CIRCUITS,” PROVED THAT BOOLEAN ALGEBRA COULD BE USED FOR CIRCUIT DESIGN. THE BINARY ONES AND ZEROS THAT ALL MODERN COMPUTERS ARE BASED ON TODAY ARE THE “TRUES” AND “FALSES” OF BOOLE.●

Three years working closely with the machine led Shannon to an aha moment that would connect Boole to the machine, as he recalled in a 1987 interview: “The main machine was mechanical, with spinning discs and integrators, and there was a complicated control circuit with relays. I had to understand both and work on them. The relay part got me interested. I knew about symbolic logic and realized the Boolean algebra was just the thing to take care of relay and switching circuits.”

This insight would become his master’s thesis.

His paper, “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits,” proved that Boolean algebra could be used for circuit design. The binary ones and zeros that all modern computers are based on today are the “trues” and “falses” of Boole.

Shannon’s big idea wasn’t for circuit design, but instead for the process of how to use mathematics to describe and refine circuits before they are even built.

Suddenly, you could look at a circuit diagram written out on paper and know for sure if it would work and if it could be made more efficient.

When later an interviewer asked him about how he made the connection between relay circuits and Boolean algebra, Shannon was characteristically humble: “Oh, it’s trivial! Once you make it!” The project was “a lot of fun, working that out. I had more fun doing that than anything else in my life.”

Despite the tremendous impact of Shannon’s work, it was his pursuit of fun and interesting problems that drove him. “I do what comes naturally, and usefulness is not my main goal. I like to solve new problems all the time. I keep asking myself, How would you do this?

Is it possible to make a machine to do that? Can you prove this theorem? These are my kinds of problems.

Not because I’m going to do something useful.”

Claude Shannon has been remembered in many ways at U-M. In 1961, he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. Though he died in 2001 at the age of 84, U-M hosted the Shannon Centennial Symposium in 2016, celebrating Shannon’s 100th birthday with lectures and events attended by hundreds of people from around the country. Today, a statue of Shannon deep in thought sits outside the west entrance of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building on North Campus.

Sources for this story:

A Mind at Play by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (2017, Simon and Schuster). “Interview: Claude Shannon” by Anthony Liversidge, Omni magazine, 1987, p. 61–66.

(Opposite page and this page) Shannon experimented with artificial intelligence by building an electromechanical mouse and testing whether it could solve a maze.

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LINE COPPER The

COL L E C T ION S

After copper miners went on strike in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in July 1913, violence wasn’t far behind.

Newspapers, journals, and bulletins on both sides of the conflict flooded their pages with stories of harm, each blaming the other. Documents at the Bentley reveal multiple sides of a terrible conflict, and investigations at the highest levels of government to uncover what really happened.

By Lara Zielin

The accusations were scandalous.

Women beaten and assaulted, children trampled by horses, homes raided, men thrown in jail without due process or shot pointblank in broad daylight.

The 1913 labor strike in Michigan’s “Copper Country”—an area primarily comprising the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—was led by copper miners against mining companies for the right to unionize, better working conditions and pay, and more.

The nine-month strike created a slew of hostilities and accusations on both sides. On one hand were claims that the miners were creating “riotous mobs” that were violent and needed to be severely reined in; on the other hand were claims that the armed guards brought in presumably to maintain the peace were harming women, children, and miners without cause.

“No time should be lost in instituting an exhaustive inquiry into the matter,” the Detroit Free Press admonished in August 1913.

Collections at the Bentley showcase multiple sides of this terrible conflict, as well as Congressional-level efforts to get to the bottom of what really occurred during nine months of unrest in Copper Country.

(THIS PAGE) STEPHEN CAMPMAN COLLECTION; THE MINER’S BULLETIN; HS18326; (OPPOSITE PAGE) HAGE NIELSEN SCRAPBOOK

The nation was horrified. Could these things possibly be true?

COL L E C T ION S

STRIKING OUT

(Opposite page, top to bottom) A 1913 strikers’ parade photo features “Big Annie” Clemenc (third from right) and a National Guard soldier in the background; the Miner’s Bulletin from August 18, 1913; men

underground in the Quincy Mines of Hancock, Michigan.

(This page) Hage Nielsen was a member of the Third Regiment Band, Michigan National Guard, during the strike. Photos from his scrapbook show soldiers with crates

of alcohol (top); Hage with a stuffed shirt, headscarf, and “skirt” to mock a miner’s wife (middle); and with other soldiers holding bottles of alcohol (bottom).

Before the strike, approximately 15,000 men worked Copper Country mines in 10–12 hour shifts in brutal and dangerous conditions. They were often first-generation immigrants from Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Slovenia, and more. As unskilled laborers, their employment options were limited. On average, one worker per week died in the mines.

The strike was organized by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), which initially recruited around 9,000 men to strike. At first, WFM placed no demands on the mining companies other than to ask for a meeting. While there were myriad issues to be raised—long hours, unsafe conditions, and low pay among them—their first letters simply asked all parties to convene. When the mining companies refused a conference, the strike began on July 23, 1913.

The strike shut down nearly all the mines in Copper Country. Miners took over the streets and paraded daily, often led by “Big Annie” Clemenc, a 6' 2" miner’s wife who regularly carried a 10-foot American flag.

James MacNaughton, manager of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, along with other mine managers, immediately met with Houghton County Sheriff James Cruse, asking him to request National Guard troops from Michigan Governor Woodbridge Ferris.

Ferris agreed and deployed the entire National Guard (more than 2,500 troops), while the mining companies tried to find replacement workers who would cross the picket line.

For weeks, the parades continued and the National Guard maintained relative peace. Because of this, Governor Ferris decided to reduce the number of National Guard troops in Copper Country. At the same time, the mine managers recruited men who were willing to cross the picket line. They also increased their own security through the Waddell-Mahon Detective Agency, a private firm of well-known strikebreakers. Local men were also deputized, more than tripling the local police force.

The increase in so-called “scab” mine workers, leading some mines to be re-opened, plus the increase in “private security”—all while the National Guard numbers dwindled—was a spark that lit a raging fire.

MONTHS OF VIOLENCE On August 14, sheriff’s deputies and a group of strikebreakers arrived at a boardinghouse to arrest Croatian miners Ivan Kalan and Ivan Stimac. The two men had taken a well-known shortcut home and had been confronted with trespassing on land owned by the mining company. Kalan refused arrest and deputies opened fire, killing miners Alois Tijan and Steve Putrich.

On September 1, during a Labor Day parade through the town of Kearsarge, deputies began shooting at a group of mostly women and children. Fourteen-year-old Margaret Fazekas was shot in the head but miraculously lived after being taken to the hospital in Calumet.

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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, KEWEENAW NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

Throughout the hearings, the miners, strikers, and Copper Country community members were consistently asked about their immigration status, specifically whether they were U.S. citizens. “What is your nationality? Do you have papers? Are you American?”

“Big Annie” poses for a portrait in 1913 with the oversized American flag she often carried in strikers’ parades. She was jailed that same year and allegedly beaten. In 2013, she was inducted into Labor’s International Hall of Fame.

COL L E C T ION S

The Miner’s Bulletin from this time is filled with additional accounts of people who say they were attacked in various ways.

Remarkably, every person’s account is notarized by the Houghton County Notary Public, and the notarization is printed with their testimony: “[A] deputy sheriff came along and struck me a violent blow with his fist behind the left ear. I did not make any remarks but went quietly on my way.”—Palamidessi Gaetano “I was frightened by one of the soldiers shooting. The two soldiers, one on each side, stopped me and pointed their bayonets at me, but inflicted no injuries, although it frightened me to a great extent.”—Elisabeth Szanyi On the other hand are accounts in the archive asserting that either the miners’ stories were exaggerated, or that the injuries were all a result of lawful, uniformed men desperately trying to keep peace while a violent mob attacked.

The Committee of the Copper Country Commercial Club conducted a strike investigation and presented its findings to Governor Ferris in October 1913. “Every day riotous mobs roam through the streets of our communities and are held in check only by the force of the National Guard of the state,” their report stated. The strikers’ parades regularly caused a “a state of lawlessness, which absolutely baffled the civil authorities.”

And despite reports that uniformed men from the National Guard were harming civilians, the report maintained that “the conduct of both men and officers has been exemplary.”

In fact, it was the striking miners who were causing the greatest harm, according to the investigation. Train cars carrying replacement mine workers were regularly attacked and shot at. In December 1913, a few months after the investigation’s publication, three men slated to begin mining would be murdered, presumably targeted for being “scab workers.”

The investigation also asserted that the mining companies were doing “everything to make this industry as safe for its employees underground as possible,” and gave little credence to the miners’ demands for better pay or a standard eight-hour shift.

CHRISTMAS DISASTER AND A NEW YEAR INVESTIGATION The miners’ strike conflict reached its pinnacle on Christmas Eve, 1913, when hundreds of people packed into the Italian Hall in Calumet to celebrate the holiday. Suddenly, someone yelled “fire!”

In the panic to escape, 73 people were crushed and trampled—59 of them children.

There was no fire. Witnesses alleged that the person who cried “fire” was wearing a Citizens’ Alliance button, which represented the local organization opposing the WFM and the strikes.

Early in 1914, a subcommittee of the Committee on Mines and Mining in the U.S. House of Representatives arrived in Copper Country to investigate the strike. They took testimony from miners, members of the National Guard, newspaper reporters, even Margaret Fazekas, the young girl who was shot in the head and survived.

Throughout the hearings, the miners, strikers, and Copper Country community members were consistently asked about

their immigration status, specifically whether they were U.S. citizens. “What is your nationality? Do you have papers? Are you American?”

Orrin Hilton, a lawyer for the miners, questioned Clarence Miller, a soldier, who thought that the striking miners weren’t “American” enough to carry the flag: Hilton: What reason did you have for thinking that it was not a patriotic impulse that prompted them to carry the flag?

Miller: I have never seen very Americanized people in the parade.

Partial transcripts of the investigation are archived in the collection of Samuel Pepper, Chief Law Officer for the Michigan National Guard (MNG) and, later, Judge Advocate General of the MNG. The subcommittee later convened in Chicago to hear more testimony about the strike, though it didn’t lead to any substantive action or recourse.

THE END OF THE STRIKE AND SEEING SIDES Governor Ferris visited Copper Country in January 1914 and wrote to his children that the “Red” socialists of the WFM made his “blood boil,” but that the mine owners were “not angels” either.

“There are as usual two sides to this dispute. Capital and labor should be twins. Should cooperate.”

Beth Kirschner, author of the novel The Copper Divide (Touch Point Press, 2021), researched several collections at the Bentley for her book and saw firsthand how multiple sides of the conflict reported events vastly differently.

The Mining Journal, for example, was almost exclusively antistrike and anti-WFM, while Työmies (The Worker) was a radical socialist Finnish newspaper on the opposite side of the issue.

“The truth is sometimes multifaceted,” she says. “You can’t just take one side of the equation.”

Kirschner’s story follows Nelma, a wife of one of the miners who supports the strike, and her friend, Hannah, a merchant’s daughter who joins the Citizen’s Alliance in opposition of the strike.

“Because the stories were reported so differently, I tried to represent it through these different characters,” she says. “It’s a reminder to keep an open mind.”

After the Italian Hall disaster, many miners left the area. The WFM ran out of funds to support the strikers and, by April 1914, miners voted to end the strike. They were unsuccessful in achieving any of their demands.

The miners wouldn’t successfully unionize until 1939, but many mines were shut down by then. Laborers were already flocking to Detroit, where they had the opportunity to make $5 per day in comparatively better working conditions.

The last working Copper Country mine closed in 1995.

Sources for this story include:

Thelen, Greg: Copper Strike 1913–1914, Military History of the Upper Great Lakes, October 2015. Strike Investigation by the Committee of the Copper Country Commercial Club of Michigan, 1913. Miners’ Bulletin, Western Federation of Miners: August 13, August 28, 1913; April 14, 1914. The Girl Who Lived, Michigan Tech Archives blog. Conditions in the Copper Mines of Michigan: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Mines and Mining, House of Representatives, Sixty-Third Congress, Volumes 1-7. Woodbridge N. Ferris papers. Roy C. Vandercook papers. Samuel D. Pepper papers.

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REACHING FOR THE STARS

R

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COL L E C T ION S

Detroit Observatory

EARLY WOMEN ASTRONOMERS

Stars THE FOR

Reaching

It was still very much a man’s world in the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Increasingly, though, women looked beyond the “man’s world” and explored the universe instead. At U-M, the work of some early women astronomers was centered at the Detroit Observatory.

From this vantage point, they looked skyward and created a better understanding of solar flares, comets, the moon, the stars, and all that could be seen through the observatory’s mighty telescopes. These pioneering women left a legacy that is as big as the cosmos itself.

By Katie Vloet

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I 1

Helen Dodson Prince

PIONEER IN SOLAR FLARE ASTRONOMY

Detroit Observatory

EARLY WOMEN ASTRONOMERS her long career, she published more than 100 articles and received the Annie Jump Cannon Prize of the primary field of study, and it’s easy to understand American Astronomical Society in 1954, the degree D. Sc. the appeal. Solar flares are “among the solar system’s (honoris causa) from Goucher College, and the Faculty mightiest eruptions . . . caused by the sudden release Distinguished Achievement Award from U-M in 1974. of magnetic energy,” according to NASA. “In just a few “A ‘real live wire’ and ‘a marvelous woman,’ in the seconds flares can accelerate solar particles to very high words of students and colleagues, velocities, almost to the speed of Dodson was also a kind and light, and heat solar material to effective teacher, not at all vain tens of millions of degrees.” about her accomplishments: She Dodson Prince’s career in held that solar behavior has a astronomy began in earnest in way of making people humble,” 1934, when she earned a Ph.D. said an obituary published in the at U-M with a dissertation on American Astronomical Society “A Study of the Spectrum of after her death in 2002 at age 96.

25 Orionis.” The data for the Two years earlier, Dodson study were obtained from 141 Prince was honored with an spectrograms taken at the Detroit asteroid named for her: Asteroid Observatory.

71669 Dodsonprince. With that, After many years as an her name was given a permanent instructor at Wellesley and place in the cosmos.

Goucher colleges, she returned to U-M in 1947 to work at and eventually to become associate director of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory, located in Lake Angelus, Michigan, which was operated by U-M at the time. She continued her solar flare research Helen Dodson Prince while also being named an associate helped develop the professor, and later a professor.

Comprehensive At the McMath-Hulbert Observatory, Flare Index, which she made a long series of daily defines a solar observations with the tower telescopes flare’s importance and the improved spectroscopic and provides criteria for “major” solar equipment. She also co-developed flares. Asteroid the Comprehensive Flare Index with 71669 Dodsonprince Ruth Hedeman, which is a widely used is named for her. measure of flare activity. Throughout

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION INDIVIDUAL PHOTOGRAPHS

HELEN DODSON PRINCE CHOSE SOLAR FLARES as her

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Harriet Williams Bigelow AN EARLY OBSERVER

Detroit Observatory

EARLY WOMEN ASTRONOMERS was her natural successor.

As a Smith faculty member, Bigelow placed a high prilow’s dormitory window faced the college’s observatory. ority on research and published frequently about comets.

When asked years later what drew her to astronomy, she Nothing, however, mattered as much to her as the direct replied with a laugh that her view of the observatory work with students. She was able to apply the knowledge launched her career path: “I thought it might be fun to she gained at the Detroit Observatory and used the Smith help turn the dome around.”

College Observatory as a learning More influential than the view laboratory. of the observatory was the first “She felt . . . that it was our task, director of the Smith College not to turn out astronomers, but Observatory, Mary Byrd. Byrd to make the girls intelligent about hired Bigelow as her assistant, the world in which they live,” her and they worked together to pubcolleague Marjorie Williams wrote. lish a work on the instructor’s pioBigelow insisted that all of her stuneering use of the laboratory to dents develop an understanding teach astronomy. of scientific methods.

Byrd inspired Bigelow to pursue Within the world of astrona Ph.D. of her own, at the Univeromy, Bigelow was influential and sity of Michigan. While here, she well-known. She was elected a studied in the Detroit Observatory councilor of the American Astroand was under the guidance of its nomical Society and was president director, Asaph Hall Jr., when she of the American Association of completed her dissertation about Variable Star Observers. north polar stars.

A great adventurer, she was In 1902, in one of her numerous traveling the world during a yearpublications at the observatory, long sabbatical in 1934 when she Bigelow investigated the structure died in Java of a “stroke of apoof the objective glass of the Detroit plexy,” the include: New York Times wrote.

Observatory’s Meridian Circle. She Harriet Williams Sources for this story “Beyond the Horizon: Detroit Observatory’s Women Astronomers,” “Although a the great shock to herEarly family observed devices that produced plane-poBigelow, pictured An Exhibition of the Development and Impact of Higher Education in Astronomy for Women at U-M (Undergraduate Research Opportunity and friends, the sudden death of Harriet Program). Willarized light, known as Nicol prisms, and here on a 1923 soliams, Marjorie, “Harriet W. Bigelow” Popular Astronomy 42, (January 1934).

Voices from the IUseems Bicentennial: Agnes Wells: fitting Educator, end Administrator, Equal W. Bigelow a peculiarly determined the curvature of the glass. She lar expedition with Rights Advocate. Saginaw Hall of Fame, Biographical Sketches via Women Who Dare by historian Amy French of Delta College in University Center, to a life so full of energy and enthusiasm,” earned her Ph.D. in 1904 and returned Charles Ridell, was Michigan. “Miss Agnes E. Wells Dies; Ex-Dean at I.U.,” The Indianapolis Star, Williams wrote in “Doc Popular Astronomy.

“To to Massachusetts to work as a faculty July 8, 1959. Tobin, James, Losh,” U-M Heritage Project. “‘Doc’ Losh," the longtime diMichigan Alumnus (December 1975). “Space for Mankind’s Benefit,” 1971, those who knew her it was inconceivable member at Smith. rector of the Smith Huntsville, Alabama.

College Observathat a time should come when she should The timing of Bigelow’s return was fortory and published become ill, unable to spend long evetuitous for her and for the observatory. In frequently about nings at the observatory, or to walk briskly 1906, Byrd resigned as Smith’s observacomets. across the campus.” tory director, and her one-time assistant

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE

AS A STUDENT AT SMITH COLLEGE, Harriet Williams Bige-

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t 3

Agnes Ermina Wells EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATE

Detroit Observatory

EARLY WOMEN ASTRONOMERS “[Wells] faced criticism for her strong views. In the late 1920s, she caused quite a controversy after implementing limbs, Agnes Ermina Wells would fare quite well. “She has a ‘no bloomers, no classes’ rule that required women to a string of degrees, scholastic honors, and memberships wear bloomers under their skirts and dresses at all times. in educational and Greek letter societies as long as your Though faced with ardent backlash from students and arm,” an article in the Muskegon Chronicle said of her. newspapers across the state, Wells continued to enforce Indeed, Wells was a pioneer in academia, as well as the rule,” according to an Indiana a leader in the pursuit of equal University remembrance of her. rights for women, a high school Make no mistake, however: principal, a university instructor, Wells was a staunch supporter a dean of women, and a member of ensuring women were recogof too many professional organinized equally in the eyes of the law zations to tally in this space. and of society. In her acceptance Wells earned her Ph.D. in speech as the chair of the National astronomy at U-M in 1924, with Woman’s Party in 1949, she a dissertation titled “A Study of pointed out that the constitutional the Relative Proper Motions and amendment that gave women the Radial Velocities of Stars in the right to vote did not adequately Pleiades Group.” The dissertation recognize women’s rights. was completed under the Detroit In particular, she highlighted Observatory’s Director Ralph an important demographic Hamilton Curtiss. that was sometimes forgotMost of her career—both before ten in discussions about equal and after her time at U-M—was rights. “People who argue about spent at Indiana University. the woman’s place being in the The dean of women for nearly home often overlook the unmar20 years, she was instrumenried woman; who unless she has tal in the initiative for women’s wealth, must go out and earn her residence halls on campus. She A staunch supportown living,” Wells said. continued to teach astronomy and mather of equal rights Beyond speeches and proclamaematics even after her long stint as dean for women, Agnes tions, Wells also invested in the future of of women. Not content to slow down, Ermina Wells eduwomen: She founded a $1 million fellowshe became chair of the National Womcated and empowship fund for the American Association of an’s Party at age 74, fighting for the Equal ered women for University Women. The fund would go on Rights Amendment during a 12,000-mile much of her life, even becoming to help countless women establish their speaking tour of the country. chair of the Nationplace in the world.

Wells’ views highlight the complexial Woman’s Party ties of being a woman in leadership in the at age 74. early part of the 20th century.

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INDIANA UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

IF ONE WERE INCLINED TO MEASURE SUCCESS in relation to

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Hazel Marie Losh THE PEOPLE’S ASTRONOMER

Detroit Observatory

EARLY WOMEN ASTRONOMERS

She spoke of solar and lunar eclipses, meteors, planetary motion, and the space race.

Queen for Life” in 1966. She wore a fur coat, pearls, and “I guess I’m simple-minded,” she said, “for I’ve often cat-eye glasses in the portrait taken for the occasion. The been accused of being able to make things plain and fact that Losh won this distinction at age 78 has nothing, understandable. But I think if someone, even a so-called and everything, to do with her time as an astronomy fac‘expert,’ can’t explain something to you, can’t reduce it to ulty member at U-M. a clear and basic level, then perLosh earned her Ph.D. in haps it is they who have a probastronomy in 1924, having writlem, not you.” ten her dissertation on “A Study of Losh was also diehard football the Spectrum of Zeta Tauri.” That fan from the time that she saw the same year, she was asked in an first game played at Michigan StaAlumnae Council Survey to name dium in 1927. Losh was well known the 10 “most outstanding women” for her tradition of walking across who ever attended U-M, from the the football field before every standpoint of human service. game. She continued to attend Losh recognized two other Detroit games and carry on this tradition Observatory astronomers in her up to a week before her death. response: Agnes E. Wells and HarJust as Losh was an astronoriet W. Bigelow (see related stomer who found a way to connect ries, pages 19 and 20). with students and audiences, so, After a detour to Smith College too, was she a football fan who and the Mt. Wilson Observatory in connected with players, alumni, Los Angeles, she returned to U-M and her fellow rabid fans. This in 1928 as an instructor. She rose passion and popularity led to to the ranks of tenured professor her being named “Homecoming of astronomy, the first woman at Queen for Life” by U-M fraterniU-M to hold that position. ties in 1966.

The classroom was her stage, During 41 years of Losh retired from teaching in 1968. In where she held court before some 50,000 teaching, Hazel 1971, she spoke at a NASA conference, students during her 41 years of teaching.

Marie Losh saw “Space for Mankind’s Benefit.” Drawing Many students would go on to regard her some 50,000 Sources for this story include: “Beyond the Horizon: Detroit Observatory’s Early Women on decades as athescientist and teacher, sheAstronomers,” as a friend. The astronomy professor was students in her An Exhibition of the Development and Impact of Higher Education in Astronsaid, “The at history of the human is a Program). Wilaffectionately known as “Doc Losh” and omy for Women U-M (Undergraduate Researchrace Opportunity astronomy classes. liams, Marjorie, “Harriet W. Bigelow” Popular Astronomy 42, (January 1934). continuous toward regarded as the “people’s astronomer.”

Beloved for making Voices from the IUstruggle Bicentennial:from Agnes darkness Wells: Educator, Administrator, Equal Rights Advocate. Saginaw Hall of Fame, Biographical Sketches via Women complex topics light. . .by. [A] trueAmy astronomer . . loves the Center, Inside the classroom and out, Losh was Who Dare historian French of Delta.College in University Michigan. “Miss Agnes E. Wells Dies; Ex-Dean at I.U.,” The Indianapolis Star, simple, Losh was stars tooTobin, much to be ofHeritage the night.” known for her simple, clear explanations July 8, 1959.

James, “Docfearful Losh,” U-M Project. “‘Doc’ Losh," Michigan Alumnus (December 1975). “Space for Mankind’s Benefit,” 1971, known as the “peoof astronomy in a monthly radio program, Huntsville, Alabama. ple’s astronomer.” public lectures, and newspaper stories.

MLIVE MEDIA GROUP

HAZEL MARIE LOSH WAS ELECTED U-M’s “Homecoming

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Jean Fairfax was instrumental in establishing U-M’s Lester House, the first interracial house for women on campus.

(Top to bottom) Lester House residents in 1943; Lester House residents in 1940, including Fairfax (third row from bottom, far right).

Exclusion Did Not Deter Her

Jean Fairfax’s story emerges as part of the Bentley’s new long-term project on the history of African Americans at the University of Michigan.

By Brian Williams

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(TOP TO BOTTOM) INTER-COOPERATIVE COUNCIL RECORDS, BL023825

In 1941, budding student activist Jean Emily Fairfax responded to the war in Europe by chairing “Starvation Day” on the University of Michigan campus. She encouraged fellow students to donate the cost of a meal to aid international refugees.

At U-M’s two-day Spring Parley, Fairfax presented a pacifist perspective under the theme “The Student Looks at War and Peace.” The event, according to The Michigan Daily, was designed to “stimulate individual thought” and featured faculty and student panel discussions.

Even as a first-year student in 1937, the young scholar distinguished herself when she earned membership in the national freshman honor society, Alpha Lambda Delta.

But despite her contributions to academics and student life, Fairfax encountered a system of segregated housing that required her to live off campus. Exclusion did not deter her, however, and Fairfax’s lived experience at U-M is more than a narrative about discrimination.

LASTING LEGACIES The personal and academic successes of Fairfax and many others are documented in stories and documents at the Bentley Historical Library—all as part of the library’s long-term project on the history of African Americans at the University of Michigan.

“This project begins, as it should, with the lives of African American students at the University, and we are calling this website, appropriately, the African American Student Project,” says Angela Dillard, the Richard A. Meisler Collegiate Professor of Afroamerican & African Studies and a member of the executive committee of the Bentley Historical Library.

The website’s centerpiece is a database that lists the names and years of attendance of every African American student who enrolled at the University between 1853– 1956. The database features more than 3,295 entries, which may include each student’s hometown, local addresses, and membership in fraternities and sororities, as well as relatives who attended U-M, revealing some significant family legacies. Researchers consider this a first installment of the database and intend to supplement the content as more information becomes available.

“For most of the University’s history, African American students’ experiences were a combination of institutional barriers and the determination to overcome them,” says Dillard. “The website gives context for this by providing data while also showing photos, stories, maps, and more.”

HOUSING HISTORY The site includes an interactive map that basically illustrates the history of housing segregation. It shows the off-campus residential pattern for students like Fairfax (who secured off-campus housing with some distinctive hosts). First, she lived at 622 S. Ashley St. in the home of Savonia L. Carson, former executive secretary of the Dunbar Center, a social services organization for Ann Arbor’s African American community. As a sophomore, she lived in a boarding house at 132 Hill St., managed by African American musician Levi Bates and his wife, Lena. And the following year, she moved to the University-owned house for “colored women” at 1102 E. Ann St. The Bentley site also features stories, autobiographies, and biographies about some of the remarkable African American students who attended the University and the diverse nature of their experiences. In Fairfax’s case, academic honors abounded. She was one of only 27 sophomores selected to the prestigious honors

program. The scholastic honorary society Phi Kappa Phi selected her as a junior, capped by membership in Phi Beta Kappa.

Outside the classroom, Fairfax pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority established in 1908 by African American women at Howard University. She joined the Congregational Student Fellowship and was active in the Student Religious Association. A talented singer, she also joined the Choral Union.

But the alumna’s longest-lasting legacy came in direct response to the housing discrimination she encountered. Fairfax was intrigued by the cooperative housing movement emerging on campus in the 1930s. She was instrumental in establishing the Lester House cooperative at 909 E. University Ave. Named for British pacifist Muriel Lester, the residence was the first interracial house for women on campus.

RARE HISTORICAL RECORDS “What we have discovered is that it was African American students, their organizations, the local community, and African American alumni who carved out lives for themselves on this campus, often with no help and with opposition from the University itself,” says Terrence McDonald, director of the Bentley Historical Library. “This was an important endeavor for the Bentley because historical records of African American students, their living situations, their organizations, and their overall experiences on this campus are sadly rare.”

The Bentley invites the public to use the database and to provide more complete information or correct errors through a web form. “This is a long-term project that is still in an early phase,” McDonald says.

“We will need help from the public to make this data as robust as possible, and to add additional archival sources on the African American experience to our holdings.”

As for the legacy of Jean Emily Fairfax, Lester House continues within the Inter-Cooperative Council (now located at 900 Oakland Ave.). In September 2020, Professor Celeste Watkins-Hayes honored Fairfax’s social justice career by naming her collegiate professorship the Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professorship of Public Policy.

Visit africanamericanstudentproject. bentley.umich.edu

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Detroit and the Olympics Detroit has tried to host the Olympic Games more than any other American city. Nine times, to be exact. The city came closest in 1968. Papers at the Bentley show how Detroit went for the gold—but came up short.

By Heather L. Dichter

CAN YOU IMAGINE AN OLYMPIC GAMES IN DETROIT? The Motor City angled for every Summer Olympic Games beginning in 1939 through 1972. Detroit rarely garnered many votes from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but the best chance the city had was for the 1968 Olympics.

The people behind Detroit’s bid included prominent Detroiters as well as representatives from Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Detroit Edison, Parke Davis, and the city’s largest bank, Detroit Bank & Trust, known today as Comerica. The city also had the support of Michigan Governor George Romney and Douglas F. Roby, a former U-M football and baseball player, who graduated in 1923.

Roby became a prominent American sports leader involved in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), United States Olympic Committee (USOC), and the Pan American Games. He was also an IOC member from 1952 through 1985. Both Roby and Romney donated their papers to the Bentley Historical Library, and their collections show the political challenges confronting Detroit during this time, including Cold War politics and an infrastructure on the decline.

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In the early 1960s, the period of distrust and enmity between the United States and the Soviet Union—and its allies—known as the Cold War, was still in full effect. The erection of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 hardened the West’s position against East Germany. NATO tightened travel restrictions on East German citizens and on their national sports teams.

However, East Germany was not barred from the Olympics because they competed on a combined German Olympic team with West German athletes. This meant that the IOC would be inclined to pick a country to which the East Germans could travel to compete—potentially ruling out Detroit as a host city.

Roby jumped in to liaise between the Detroit bid committee and the U.S. State Department to prevent travel restrictions from hurting Detroit’s chances to win the Olympic Games. Roby was in frequent contact with the State Department about this matter, trying to make sure that a letter guaranteeing free travel, which Detroit provided, was accepted by the IOC. Meanwhile, the USOC selected Detroit as the America’s candidate city in October 1962, meaning the first hurdle was cleared.

Now, Detroit could move on to the next round of selection against other candidate cities across the world. However, Los Angeles officials weren’t inclined to let Detroit through; they fought the USOC’s decision for the next five months.

Romney and Detroit mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh attended the special USOC meeting in New York City in March 1963 that officially ended Los Angeles’s hopes and reaffirmed Detroit as the American candidate city for the 1968 Summer Olympics. “This was the greatest vote of confidence ever placed in Detroit and Michigan,” Governor Romney said of the victory.

But the battle for the Olympics was far from over.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) GEORGE ROMNEY PAPERS; (THIS PAGE) DOUGLAS ROBY PAPERS

INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES Between 1947 and 1963, Detroit lost 134,000 manufacturing jobs. While deindustrialization and racism intensified poverty for Detroit’s African American residents, it also shifted jobs and wealth to the suburbs—away from the city. As a result, Detroit’s tax base shrank, and the city lost money year after year.

Into this stepped Roby, determined to use the Olympics as an opportunity to build and invest in the city. “Facilities like Cobo Hall, Olympia, the University of Detroit Memorial Building, and Titan Stadium will be usable,” he told the Detroit News in November 1962. But other facilities would have to be enlarged or built from scratch, he said, including a 110,000-seat stadium on the Michigan State Fairgrounds.

Chicago businessman Avery Brundage, the president of the IOC, visited Detroit to tour the city’s facilities in September 1963, a month before the IOC voted. Roby, Romney, and Cavanagh were part of the group that showed Brundage the venues that they all hoped would host Olympic events. On the tour were Cobo Hall and the Civic Center, followed by a lunch at the Detroit Athletic Club.

ONWARD TO GERMANY In October 1963, the International Olympic Committee met in Baden-Baden, West Germany, to select the city for the 1968 Summer Olympics. The cities competing against Detroit were Lyon, France; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Mexico City, Mexico.

Each city made a formal presentation to the IOC and also organized an elaborate reception. To make its case, Detroit shipped 3.5 tons of materials across the Atlantic Ocean and a 60-person delegation to build a reception exhibit, which included panoramic images of the city sliding across two large screens. The center of

the exhibit was a 12-foot model of the Michigan State Fairgrounds, including the proposed 110,000-seat stadium.

The Detroit News noted that “auto and advertising company heads, a real estate tycoons, utility, public relations and film company executives” assembled the exhibit in what the paper called “the highest-paid construction crew in building trades history.”

Romney even traveled to West Germany for the city’s final 45-minute presentation to the IOC. Detroit included a slick 31 minutes of color video footage featuring a filmed speech by President John F. Kennedy.

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID When the IOC voted, Mexico City overwhelmingly won with 30 of the 58 votes. Detroit received 14 votes; Lyon received 12; and Buenos Aires had only two.

After losing to Mexico City, Detroit tried one more time to host the Olympic Games, failing to achieve its goal once again with its bid for the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Nearly 50 years later, when the USOC was seeking an American candidate city to bid for the 2024 Olympics, they sent a letter to 35 of the largest U.S. cities—including Detroit. Boston originally received the nod before bowing out, and Los Angeles stepped in as the U.S. candidate city. The IOC ultimately decided to award the 2024 Olympics to Paris and the 2028 Games to Los Angeles.

Perhaps someday again Detroit will be the United States’ candidate for the Olympic Games.

Dr. Heather L. Dichter is an Associate Professor of Sport History and Sport Management at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University in Leicester, U.K. She has edited two books on sport and diplomacy and her most recent book, Bidding for the 1968 Olympic Games: International Sport’s Cold War Battle with NATO (Massachusetts, 2021), used the Romney and Roby collections held at the Bentley.

(Opposite page) Michigan Governor George Romney (far right) celebrates Detroit’s success as the U.S. candidate city for the 1968 Olympics.

(This page) Olympic City ’68, a special report from the Detroit News in 1963, featured a photo of an Olympic torch-lighting ceremony.

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The Pride of Michigan

By Katie Vloet

A historian and an artist team up to create a comic book celebrating Michigan’s firstever Pride celebration. “It’s my job to bring to life people we wouldn’t know about otherwise,” the author says.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) ISABEL CLARE PAUL; (THIS PAGE) COURTESY OF TIM RETZLOFF

TIM RETZLOFF SAW A PHOTO of a performer dressed up like a superstar—or a queen, if you will. He knew the singer’s persona but not his name. “I had to find my Aretha,” Retzloff says.

He pored through library collections, newspaper articles, and city directories. His relentless searching led him to an article that identified the drag queen in the photo, who had performed at the first gay pride parade in Detroit, as Mike Scott. Another article said he was a cook in Lansing restaurants. The common name made it challenging to locate the right Mike Scott, but Retzloff isn’t deterred by such obstacles. He eventually found the right person but learned Scott had died in 2010. He then tracked down Scott’s sister so he could interview her.

That’s the effort Retzloff put into

identifying one person in one photo. Multiply that by several dozen, and you’ll get an idea of Retzloff’s persistence in telling the story of the 1972 Pride celebration in Detroit, the state’s first.

“This is a story that’s so important, you have to take the extra time. Do the extra digging. They were marginalized then and are marginalized now,” says Retzloff, who earned his doctorate at Yale. He is currently an adjunct assistant professor at Michigan State University and teaches LGBTQ studies and U.S. history. “It is my job to bring to life people we wouldn’t know about otherwise.”

Retzloff has done exactly that with a new book called Come Out! In Detroit: The

he found in several archives and libraries, including the Bentley.

Initially, he envisioned a short comic that would be timed to celebrate the event’s 50th anniversary. Retzloff reached out to family friend Isabel Clare Paul, an Ypsilanti artist and graduate of the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, in 2020 to talk about a short comic that could run in Between the Lines, the Detroit-area’s LGBTQ+ newspaper.

Paul couldn’t wait to get started. “I graduated in a pandemic, so there weren’t a lot of opportunities,” she recalls. “This was a perfect, immaculate thing that appeared out of nowhere.”

She learned about the march as she prepared to create images. For queer people in Detroit, Paul says, the march “was a big deal because not a lot of people had come out. They went down Woodward and took up a whole lane of traffic,” says Paul, referencing one Detroit’s main streets. “They got in people’s faces. I thought that was really powerful, and so brave.”

The powerful and brave stories needed more than a few pages, the team decided. And Retzloff no longer wanted the comic to be published in something as ephemeral as a newspaper. It needed to be its own comic book. Both creators wanted to make the story available at no charge.

“INDEED, EVERYONE THERE CAME OUT.”

(Left) Illustrations

by Isabel Clare Paul help tell the story of Michigan’s first Pride celebration in 1972.

(Right) Author Tim Retzloff used oral histories and archived material to amplify marginalized voices.

Story of Christopher Street Detroit ’72. The 28-page, full-color comic is the result of decades of research, including the collection of oral histories from dozens of the 300 or so people who attended the pride parade.

His interviews were supplemented with documents

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I N T H E S TA C K S RECORDING HISTORY Some of the most important moments in Retzloff’s research occurred long before he had even conceived of the comic. When he was an undergraduate history student at U-M in the early 2000s, he would use his income tax refund to pay for trips centered on collecting oral histories from notable LGBTQ+ people. Along the way, he learned of Greg Kamm, a founder of the first known gay organization in Kalamazoo and an officer with the earliest LGBTQ+ organization at Michigan State University in the early 1970s.

In 2004, Retzloff reached out to Kamm, at an address in northern Michigan. More than a year later, he finally heard back. The problem, Retzloff recalls, was that Kamm was only going to be in the country for a few weeks before returning to Saudi Arabia, where he Jim Toy spoke at taught English. the 1972 rally and Retzloff dropped co-founded the everything, hopped Human Sexuality in the car, and set Office at U-M, the out to record an first campus office interview with in the U.S. that Kamm. served LGBTQ+ “He brought out

these photo albums, and there were people marching down Woodward,” Retzloff says.

“I’d never seen them. They were extraordinary. A year later, I went back and scanned all these photos.”

That’s also when he learned that Kamm had kept detailed diaries around the time

“I know that gay stands for love, and that gay stands for life,” Toy said on that day in 1972. “Maybe that’s all I know, but that is all I need to know, and that is all you need to know. So, I ask you to come out—come out for love, come out for life.”

Retzloff showed Toy the drawing that Paul made of him before the book was published. “He’s wearing a purple boa. He loved it,” Retzloff says. Toy died earlier this year.

The comic ends with a panel quoting Kamm’s diary: “I feel I helped the cause, that the entire rally was a beautiful statement of homosexuals no longer hiding & taking the dirt of society. I feel that I & the entire group did something of great significance.

“Indeed, everyone there Came Out.”

students.

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of the march. He was reluctant to show them to Retzloff, who offered a suggestion: “I said, ‘How about if you read an entry to me, and I can ask you questions about it?’ He did, and one of his first entries was this detailed description of the day of the march.” The words from Kamm’s diaries appear throughout the new book.

Another prominent figure in the book is Jim Toy, the co-founder of what was then called the Human Sexuality Office at U-M. It was the first campus office in the U.S. that aimed to serve LGBTQ+ students. Toy, a longtime activist based in Ann Arbor, was one of one of five speakers at the rally.

Come Out! In Detroit has been funded in part by a Michigan Humanities Grant. Some 20,000 copies of the book will be distributed at Free Comic Book Day in May 2022, as well as Pride events, community centers, libraries, and bookstores. Retzloff’s collection of oral histories has been donated to the Bentley Historical Library; most of the collection is closed to research until later in 2022, with some portions becoming available in 2028.

ISABEL CLARE PAUL

“I KNOW THAT GAY STANDS FOR LOVE, AND THAT GAY STANDS FOR LIFE. MAYBE THAT’S ALL I KNOW, BUT THAT IS ALL I NEED TO KNOW, AND THAT IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW.”

PROFILES

COL L E C T ION S

Sing to the Colors For nearly 20 years, James Tobin has been writing about the University’s history. Many of his stories are now available in a new book, Sing to the Colors. We sat down with him to talk about research, collections, and even finding love at the library.

By Lara Zielin

(TOP TO BOTTOM) BL000018, COURTESY OF JAMES TOBIN

How did you get started writing about U-M history?

For many years I worked as a journalist, and I even covered U-M for the Detroit News. But it wasn’t until I struck out on my own as a fulltime freelancer that I began writing about U-M history. My first piece was for Michigan Today about the playwright Avery Hopwood. After it came out, I pitched the editor on a monthly U-M history piece.

Then, as plans for U-M’s bicentennial [celebrated in 2017] began to take shape, a friend and member of U-M’s staff, Kim Clarke, approached me about a new digital publication called the University of Michigan Heritage Project. I began writing longer-format pieces there, too.

All told, I’ve done more than 130 pieces for Michigan Today, and around 50 for Heritage.

But the new book is more than just a compilation of some of your history stories, right?

Right. I wrote a pitch for U-M Press, which went to Fran Blouin, the former director of the Bentley Historical Library. He told me republishing the stories wouldn’t be enough. Readers would want to know what I had learned along the way. Where had I been troubled or inspired?

He was right, so I stepped back and thought about my family’s love for the university and my complicated relationship to it. I wrote several first-person essays that try to tie the stories together, plus two new pieces not published before.

Your friendship with Fran Blouin speaks to your longstanding relationship to the Bentley. Can you tell us how long you’ve been using the archive?

I started researching at the Bentley as an undergraduate at U-M in the 1970s. I was a reporter for The Michigan Daily, and I needed the Bentley to give me historical context for some of my stories.

As an undergraduate, the reference archivists were always so helpful. But learning the protocol around the archives was a different story. For example, at one point I went to use the men’s bathroom

and I took my book with me. I grew up J-Hop events, like this one in 1920, thinking you read in the bathroom! When were popular with I returned to the table, a reference archiU-M students vist asked me, “Is that our book you’ve been including James dragging all over the library?” I didn’t make Tobin’s parents. that mistake again.

I wound up researching my honors thesis at the Bentley and seminar papers in graduate school. I also crossed paths with my wife there. Fran recruited her to join U-M’s master’s program in archives administration. I showed up for the first day of a history class in 1978, and she was sitting in the back row.

Didn’t your parents meet and fall in love at U-M too?

Yes, my parents had a classic Michigan romance going to J-Hop, the central social event of the year. I write about that in the book, and how my mom spoke about it with such respect and nostalgia. My dad went off to WWII then came back to U-M to attend the Law School.

Both my daughters went to U-M too. As I say in the book, I can see my life as a little green vine growing up and around the giant oak of U-M.

How do you find your story ideas?

If I spend a day at the Bentley, I’ll often stumble on something that looks interesting to me. As I go through this box or that box, I see things that appeal to me and I will want to go deeper. I’ll also ask the Bentley reference archivists for help. I’ve always had trouble coming up with good story ideas, but the exception has been U-M history. I can always find a story I want to write about.

What’s your favorite thing in the collections at the Bentley?

Going through the student scrapbooks from the 19th century, you just have that feeling of being transported to a different time. I love looking at things like the graduation programs and dance cards.

I get a big kick out of handling materials—I find myself totally absorbed the way I feel when I’m reading a great novel. Just rapt.

James Tobin is a professor of Media, Journalism and Film at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Educated at the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in history, he spent 20 years as a newspaper reporter and freelance writer. Among his books are Ernie Pyle’s War: America’s Eyewitness to World War II (Free Press, 1997), and The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency (Simon & Schuster, 2013). He has also written three books for children.

BENTLEY.UMICH.EDU 29

The now-famous librarian to J.P. Morgan wrote often to the director of U-M’s library.

Their correspondence reveals mutual respect, admiration—and benefit.

By Lara Zielin

IN 1905, BELLE DA COSTA GREENE was hired by the indomitable banker and financier J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library in Manhattan, New York.

Greene’s literary and business savvy helped Morgan create a world-class collection. She was unquestionably brilliant, while also defying the racism of the time by passing as white. The story of her life—and her painful secret—is the subject of a recent bestselling book, The Personal Librarian (Berkley, 2021), co-written by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

Greene’s now-famous story also extends to papers at the Bentley Historical Library through her correspondence with the Director of the University of Michigan Library, William Warner Bishop.

Bishop became library director in 1915 and quickly went to work growing U-M’s collection of books and training staff on its organization and use. Bishop was key in establishing a department of library science at U-M to train individuals in bibliographical and other library-related skills.

Greene tapped on Bishop’s expertise in 1927, when she hoped to send her assistant, Virginia White, to interview him regarding “several points concerning library matters,” specifically, advice on “certain cataloging problems which have come up in our work.”

She also asked Bishop, in 1929, to weigh in on “the question of photostating [an early form of photocopying] a complete manuscript or book for the use of individual students. . . . I trust that you will forgive me for imposing upon your kindness to this extent?”

The relationship was mutually beneficial as Bishop leaned on Greene for access to rare materials for researchers. In 1928, he asked Greene if graduate student Alice K. Hall could get access to limited works by the poet John Keats. Bishop also helped negotiate multiple “photostats” of manuscripts for English Professor Roy W. Cowden.

The relationship flourished and, on several occasions, Greene invited Bishop to New York. “I do hope that the next time you are in New York, you will write the name of the Morgan Library all over your calendar,” she wrote to him in 1934. Later that year, she invited him to a dinner hosted by the Friends of the Princeton Library (Bishop had been the head cataloger at Princeton for two years). “It will mean a great deal to all of us, as you can well understand, if you will lend us your personal charm and your outstanding reputation for that evening,” she wrote.

Bishop retired in 1941; Greene in 1948. At the time he retired, Bishop had grown the total number of volumes in U-M’s collection from just over 350,00 to more than one million, several of the rarest being copies from the Morgan collection. When she retired, the New York Times praised Greene for having “transformed a rich man’s casually built collection into one of which ranks with the greatest in the world.”

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THE MORGAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

PROFILES

Writing Belle

A pastel portrait of Belle da Costa Greene, circa 1913,

by Paul César Helleu.

WESTPHALIA ICE CREAM PARLOR

A Scoop of History The well-worn recipe book for a Michigan ice cream parlor showcases treats from a bygone era.

By Robert Havey

DOES THE MAPLE SUNDAE come with a cherry on top? What is the difference between a Fruit sundae and the Tutti-Frutti? What dish do you serve the Buffalo sundae in?

The Westphalia Ice Cream Parlor, established circa 1919 in Westphalia, Michigan, kept track of all these delectable details in a notebook containing handwritten recipes for all of its 33 unique “Special Sundaes.” Each sundae is described from the bottom layer up, from the dish it’s served on, to the ice cream, to the flavors (syrups), to the cherry on top.

B E N T L EY U N B O U N D

COL L E C T ION S

The documentation must have been crucial for reminding the ice cream scoopers of important nuances—for example, that the Belmont was the same sundae as the Buffalo but with a cherry, and if customers wanted double strawberry ice cream with a cherry it was the Happy Thoughts sundae, but if they wanted cinnamon rather than a cherry it was the Teddy Bear.

There are familiar recipes for timeless classics like the Banana Split, but there are also unique concoctions like the “Orange Marge,” a sundae composed of “orange flavor,” ice cream, and a “half orange put on both sides of dish.”

Almost every sundae was priced at 20 cents, although a few had their original prices crossed out and discounted to just 15 cents. Patrons of Westphalia Ice Cream Parlor looking for value could order the Free Lunch Sundae, which was a tall glass with sliced bananas, a large scoop of ice cream, and chocolate flavor all topped with chopped nuts, a cherry, and a “Nabisco” cookie.

The lone 30 cent option is the Submarine: three scoops of ice cream in a banana split dish with chocolate, strawberry, and pineapple flavor—plus a cherry with a flag through it as garnish.

Ice cream aficionados (and the rest of the public) are welcome to page through the Westphalia Ice Cream Parlor recipe book in the Bentley’s reading room.

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WHERE MICHIGAN’S HISTORY LIVES MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO RESEARCH AT THE BENTLEY

DID YOU KNOW THE BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC BY APPOINTMENT? This means all researchers are welcome in our reading room. All you need to do is request an appointment here: myumi.ch/z1jDR Once you submit your request, a member of our Reference staff will be in touch with you to confirm the appointment.

WHEN VISITING IN PERSON, PLEASE REMEMBER TO: n Complete a ResponsiBlue screening check on the day of your visit. n Bring a photo ID to show check-in staff. n Wash your hands before beginning your research. Hand sanitizer is also available.

Do You Have Michigan History to Share?

The Bentley is once again accepting donations of materials. More than 11,200 donors have entrusted us with their unique collections. Find out if what you have is right for the archive.

TO DONATE MATERIALS THAT ARE RELATED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN:

Call Aprille McKay at 734-936-1346 or email aprille@umich.edu

TO DONATE MATERIALS THAT ARE RELATED TO THE STATE OF MICHIGAN:

Call Michelle McClellan at 734-763-2165 or email mmcclel@umich.edu

There is free parking at the Bentley if you have a parking permit.

We will issue a permit to you when you arrive.

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR NEED ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE, PLEASE EMAIL OUR REFERENCE STAFF: BENTLEY.REF@UMICH.EDU

32 BENTLEY.UMICH.EDU

COLLECTIONS, the magazine of the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, is published twice each year.

Terrence J. McDonald Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Professor of History and Director Nancy Bartlett Associate Director Lara Zielin Editorial Director Patricia Claydon, Ballistic Creative Art Direction/Design Copyright ©2022 Regents of the University of Michigan ARTICLES MAY BE REPRINTED BY OBTAINING PERMISSION FROM: Editor, Bentley Historical Library 1150 Beal Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113 PLEASE DIRECT EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE TO: laram@umich.edu 734-936-1342 Regents of the University of Michigan Jordan B. Acker, Huntington Woods Michael J. Behm, Grand Blanc Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor Paul W. Brown, Ann Arbor Sarah Hubbard, Okemos Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms Ron Weiser, Ann Arbor Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office for Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-6471388, institutional.equity@umich.edu. For other University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817.

Land Acknowledgment Statement The Bentley Historical Library acknowledges that coerced cessions of land by the Anishnaabeg and Wyandot made the University of Michigan possible, and we seek to reaffirm the ancestral and contemporary ties of these peoples to the lands where the University now stands.

The Sky Is No Limit SUPPORT THE OBSERVATORY’S RICH PAST AND EXCITING FUTURE.

The Detroit Observatory was built in 1854 and quickly became the centerpiece of scientific advancement at U-M. In 2022, construction was completed on a 7,000-square-foot addition that once again makes the Observatory a popular and productive feature of the University, just as it was in the 1800s. The new addition features added classroom, event, and exhibit space—while still preserving the historic integrity of the Observatory.

Your support ensures the Detroit Observatory remains a centerpiece of Michigan’s scientific legacy.

PLEASE USE THE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE OR GIVE ONLINE TODAY.

bentley.umich.edu/giving 734-764-3482

A B O U T T H E B E N T L EY

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 1150 BEAL AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 48109-2113

Where Michigan’s History Lives Every day, people use the Bentley Historical Library to explore history.

With more than 70,000 linear feet of letters, photographs, books, and more, the Library is a treasure trove of primary source material from the State of Michigan and the University of Michigan. We welcome you to uncover Michigan’s history here.

The Bentley Historical Library is open to the public by appointment only.

REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT ONLINE myumi.ch/Z1jDR EXPLORE COLLECTIONS AND FINDING AIDS ONLINE bentley.umich.edu FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL facebook.com/bentleyhistoricallibrary @umichbentley @umichbentley MAKE A GIFT bentley.umich.edu/giving 734-764-3482

GOOD SPORT Detroit tried to host the Olympics nine times from 1939 to 1972. It came closest for the 1968 games, with Michigan Governor George Romney backing the bid along with representatives from Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, and more. Read about how Detroit went for the gold on page 24.