Spring 2016

From television icon Ann B. Davis’s role on the Brady Bunch to her spiritual transformation later in life, to the troubled brilliance of Detroit Observatory director and meteorologist Mark Harrington, this issue explores lives of reinvention and struggle. It also highlights Jim Toy, whose courageous activism reshaped Michigan’s fight for LGBTQ equality.

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Selected Stories

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

The Forgotten Feminists

by Lara Zielin

One U-M class uncovers lost aspects of Civil Rights history and makes them available online.

Perfect Harmony

by Robert Havey

Detroit’s Harmonie Club was once the hub of German singing groups, whose music fueled fellowship and cultural pride. When the Harmonie Club went belly up, its historic German music was in danger of being lost forever—but found a safe home at the Bentley.

Jazz, Guns, and Governments

by Dan Shine

A U.S.-led effort in 1965 to win over Communist hearts and minds through music landed U-M Jazz Band members in the middle of gunfire in the Dominican Republic. This strange tale of U-M students, concerts, and Red Scare politics is showcased in a new collection at the Bentley, 50 years in the making.

Lens on Gibson

Writing the Handbook on Teaching with Archives

Bentley Director Terrence J. McDonald discusses how the Bentley is helping perfect the way that University faculty use the Library's collections for teaching.

Bound and Determined

by Brian A. Williams

The class of 1849 was the fifth class to graduate in the University of Michigan’s young history, and they worked to ensure their time on campus would be memorialized for generations to come.

Pride and Prejudice

by Robert Havey

When Jim Toy stood up and delivered a speech at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in 1970, he became the first person in the state of Michigan to publicly come out as gay. The equality pioneer has spent his life working to change the gay rights landscape in Michigan and beyond.

The Fault in His Stars

by Fritz Swanson

Mark Harrington was a brilliant botanist and meteorologist as well as a lumberjack and boxcar jumper. His tragic battle with mental illness would drive him from positions of prestige, taking him across oceans, to flop houses and sugar plantations, and eventually to an East Coast asylum.

Here’s the Story of a Lovely Lady

by Katie Vloet

You know Ann B. Davis as Alice the housekeeper, the beloved heart of The Brady Bunch. But you may not know the two-time Emmy winner, author, and comedienne left Hollywood to pursue a life at the center of a different home--one founded on the tenets of the Episcopal faith.