Fall 2025

This issue spotlights Gertrude Buck, who used writing and teaching to break barriers for women. It revisits an 1800s showdown as medical faculty resisted state-mandated homeopathy. And it dives into Jeep Holland’s papers, capturing the tumultuous, scene-shaping energy of Michigan rock-and-roll in the 1960s.

Back to Collections Magazine

bhl-collection-magazine-cover-winter-202

Selected Stories

A selection of stories of this issue. Please download PDF to read all content.

Rising to the Challenge

by Director’s Notes from Alexis Antracoli

Director Alexis Antracoli shares her thoughts on the archives, including how they show the many ways that people across Michigan history have risen to the challenges of their time.

Light Years

by Madeleine Bradford

U-M’s Lantern Night was a chance for the women of the senior class to symbolically pass the torch to younger students. Over time, it evolved to include a dance pageant, and more.

Pattern Recognition

by Amy Probst

How fashion student Adam Denzler used Bentley collections to painstakingly recreate a 1904 University of Michigan football uniform—down to the drawers.

Good Sports

by Lara Zielin

University of Michigan students Lily Fritsch and Nathan Schreck are part of a new fellowship program that helps preserve and share U-M athletics history.

An Archivist Finds Her True Career Passion

by Katie Vloet

Meet Michelle Light, whose training at the Bentley changed her career path. Today, she's an associate librarian for Yale's Library Special Collections & director of the Beinecke Library.

And Then There Was One

by Kim Clarke

U-M's first buildings were the Professors' Houses, built in 1840. Only one stands today. Bentley collections reveal which one has endured, and what happened to the rest.

Early Michigan Letters

by Lara Zielin

A rare and surprising cache of sixty new letters makes its way to the Bentley to supplement an existing collection.

Reckoning with the History of Hate

by Madeleine Bradford

A paid internship program gave students hands-on experience with archives that included studying the history of intolerance in Michigan and parallels between the past and today.

Friends In Deed

by Katie Vloet

Elizabeth Chandler and Dr. Nathan Thomas fought for the abolition of slavery at a time when many people in Michigan opposed slavery but far fewer took a stand.

The Rhetorical Oracle

by Madeleine Bradford

Gertrude Buck earned U-M's first rhetoric Ph.D. The archives reveal how she used writing & teaching to break barriers for women, laying groundwork for today's feminist rhetoric.

Science Versus the “Gentle Medicine”

by James Tobin

In the mid-1800s, U-M's medical faculty revolted when the state government tried to force homeopathy into the curriculum. Archives reveal the war between medical fact and fiction.

Chaotic, Hassled, and Beautiful

by Gregory Parker

Jeep Holland's passion for music helped shape the 1960s Michigan scene. His collection at the Bentley Historical Library illuminates a tumultuous rock-and-roll journey.