Category: News

The Annual Friends of the Michigan Tech Library used book sale, held 6–7 April 2018, raised more than $3,300 for the library, which uses the funds to support the popular reading collections, as well as purchasing equipment and special furnishings. Book sale funds also provide travel grants to researchers who use the University Archives and Copper Country Historical collections, and help to support a competitive summer intern position. As always, the Michigan Tech community supported the sale, by attending and volunteering. We send our thanks to the many volunteers who help organize, set up and take down the sale, especially: the Michigan Tech Facilities grounds crew who moved the books from the library to the Memorial Union the morning of the sale, the library front desk personnel for their help receiving books throughout the year, and the following student groups: the Society of Intellectual Sisters, the Student Chapter of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Undergraduate Student Government, Graduate Student Government, and the fraternities and sororities of Tau Beta Phi, Phi Delta Chi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and Phi Kappa Tau. The Friends accept gently used books and materials for the annual sale throughout the year. Check our website for a list of items that we accept and ways to donate.

by Kelly Luck, Treasurer, FMTL

The books for the Friends book sale come from generous donors, and we are grateful for their contributions. We seek to thank them by name, although many are anonymous. For the many, many donors of years past, thank you too for your generosity and for your support of the library. Among our 2018 donors are:

• Susan Bagley & Gil Lewis
• Susan and Pat Martin
• Linda Belote
• Glenn Mroz
• Marilyn Cooper
• Bruce Seely
• Beth Flynn
• Martha Sloan
• Gopal Jayaraman
• Debbie Van Wagner

Thanks for all you give and all you do!

The Michigan Tech Archives is grateful to continue a strong partnership with the Friends of the Michigan Tech Library to sponsor the annual travel grant program. Two researchers, Dr. Matthew Liesch and Wesley Thompson, were delighted to have the opportunity to advance their research in the Copper Country.

Dr. Liesch concluded a multi-part research plan, which started in 2017 and culminated in June 2018. In addition to countless hours poring over photographs and historic documents pertaining to his “rephotography” project, Liesch shared his expertise in a travel grant presentation that took place on June 25, 2018. His talk, “Circling Lake Superior: Rephotography to Document Changing Landscapes of the Lake Superior Circle Tour,” guided the audience on a photographic journey to explore changing landscapes from throughout the Copper Country and the Lake Superior Circle Tour. The presentation featured historic landscape photography from the Archives, and supplemented those with other scenes along the route. For comparative purposes, Liesch rephotographed ordinary landscapes around Lake Superior during 2018.

Wesley Thompson was another new grant recipient this year and his research visit is slated for late October. Please see the FMTL wesbite or contact the archives for details on Thompson’s presentation, which will be taking place on Wednesday, October 24 at 4 p.m. in the library; please contact the Archives at copper@mtu.edu or (906) 487-2505.

by Lindsay Hiltunen, University Archivist

With the generous support from the FMTL, the library hosted Dr. Brett Gary, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU, as speaker for Constitution Day. Every year federally-funded schools provide programming to honor Constitution and Citizenship Day and this year the library took the opportunity on September 13th to collaborate with the organizers of WW1CC to host both a talk as well as to celebrate the opening of the WW1CC festivities.  The WWI trench recreated on Michigan Tech’s campus invites visitors to explore and immerse themselves in the history.

Sue Collins, Associate Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media here at Michigan Tech and lead organizer for WW1CC, opened the evening with a few brief words welcoming everyone to the opening of WW1CC and to the library’s Constitution Day event. Dr. Gary then delivered a captivating talk to a full East Reading Room. His talk, entitled, “World War 1 Speech Catastrophes and the Postwar Struggle for Free Political and Sexual Speech” explored the history of the wartime crackdown on political dissent and sexual impurity, and the development of the parallel civil liberties traditions that emerged in the war’s aftermath.

by Katie Edson, Collections Librarian and FMTL

Throughout the fall term there will be speakers, films, performances, and exhibits on campus and in the community that relate to the centennial of the end of World War I. The “World War I and the Copper Country” (WW1CC for short) project was conceived to help commemorate the end of WWI and explore the impact the “Great War” had on our area and university.

The program kicked off with a talk by Prof. Brett Gary (NYU) in the library on the curtailment of civil liberties during WWI in conjunction with Constitution Day (see the following article in this newsletter), and then kicked into full swing with a series of things: a full-scale reproduction section of a WWI front line firing trench at the corner of US-41 and MacInnes Drive that includes an audioscape of readings from soldier’s memoirs and poetry; a two-day symposium, “Armistice & Aftermath”, that featured two keynote speakers, Dr. James Morrow, Jr. (UGA) on “The African-American Experience in WWI” and Dr. Lynn Dumenil (Occidental College) on “Women and the Great War”; a concert by the Superior Symphony of the music of James Reese Europe, noted Harlem bandleader and composer who served with the African-American 369th Infantry; and Charlie Chaplin’s silent film, Shoulder Arms (1923) accompanied by a live (digital) Wurlitzer organ accompaniment played by organist Jay Warren of Chicago.

The symposium itself featured a day-long program of two dozen papers on WWI and its domestic impacts and features with speakers from the Copper Country, across the country, and as far away as Israel. A full digital Proceedings will be published on the library’s Digital Commons in November.

There will also be a WWI Relief Bazaar the last Sunday of October in Dee Stadium and a trench closing-in commemoration on Nov. 11, at 11am, the time, 100 years ago, when WWI ended.

See http://ww1cc.mtu.edu/ for more information on the whole semester of events, including the ongoing film series (Thursday nights), symposium program, links to the Proceedings, and two live Trench Cams!

by Steven Walton, WW1CC Committee and FMTL Webmaster