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Our Donors Make History

Generous donors like you help preserve and share invaluable records that document the state of Michigan and the University of Michigan.

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Support the Past, Give Today

Your gift will help more people engage with primary source materials to foster a connection to history. This means you’re helping the Bentley do more than collect papers—you’re helping us celebrate and share history! Thank you for supporting our work.

Unbox Your Support

Explore the many ways you can support 
the Bentley Historical Library!

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The Director’s Priorities

You can help preserve Michigan history by giving to this fund, which supports initiatives such as repairing collections for future generations of researchers, and digitizing collections to make them available online.

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Michigan Sports History

Help us maintain and enrich U-M’s athletics history. This fund supports the historical archives of all men’s and women’s U-M varsity sports including photo galleries, digital recordings, sports programs, rosters, statistics and more.

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Digital Strategic Fund

In a Google world, library users want and need their materials to be accessible online, and the Bentley is working tirelessly toward this end. With your help, we can continue to digitize our collections and make our materials available 24/7.

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Public Outreach

The fund will support the Bentley Historical Library and the Detroit Observatory public outreach programs, including presentations, exhibits, classes, and any activity that is made available to the general public.

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Student Engagement

Support both undergraduate and graduate students who are interested the archival field by employing them in meaningful work that furthers their interests and pays a higher wage so they can pursue this line of work with less financial struggle.

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Detroit Observatory

Help us preserve and update this campus treasure, which was built in 1854 and launched U-M as a premier research university. Gifts to this fund will increase access to the building and will expand its role as a teaching facility.

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Digital Technologies and New Media

Honor the legacy of founding Computing Center Director Dr. Robert Bartels with a gift to this endowment for the study & curation of digital technologies & new media.

Meet the Donors

Read stories about the generous Bentley supporters who have fallen in love with primary sources and fostered a connection to history.

A woman with brown hair wearing a white shirt sits at a desk and adjusts a piece of paper on top of a black scanner bed. Behind her is a computer monitor displaying the paper on the scanner.

Impact Story | July 2, 2026

A Grand Scan Plan

by Lara Zielin

Generous donors during the most recent Giving Blueday made it possible for the Bentley Library to purchase a new scanner for patrons in the reading room.

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A woman wearing tan pants and a flower-patterned shirt stands on a set of black stairs surrounded by brown archival boxes on shelves.

Impact Story | July 2, 2026

Equal Footing

by Katie Vloet

Once a top athlete whose options were limited in the time before gender equity in sports, Alyce Sigler now volunteers at the Bentley, where a bit of serendipity has her researching Title IX.

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A man and woman lean against a table, each of them holding papers. The woman is on the left wearing a sweater and has brown hair, the man is on the right wearing a white shirt and has brown hair. A box of archival materials sits between them.

Impact Story | June 20, 2026

New Peikert Fellows Announced

by Lara Zielin

Berkley Sorrells and Jaxson Kaplan-Rudolph are the latest cohort of a student fellowship program that helps preserve and share University of Michigan athletics history.

Learn more
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Your Story Can Leave a Legacy

Learn more about the ways you can become part of an active, engaged archive that celebrates and shares its rich collections. Bentley archivists will work closely with you to discuss whether the Library is the right home for your papers.