The Clarke Historical Library has a very large collection of material
telling the story of Michigan's communities. For many years we have
actively sought this material because, taken together, these local
histories make up state history. By knowing what has happened in
Michigan's cities, towns, and rural communities a researcher can develop
more accurate generalizations about change and continuity throughout
the state. Because of the importance of local history we hope that this
bibliography will make these often elusive resources better known to
researchers as well as stimulate use of our local history material. The
bibliography was prepared to supplement an exhibit, "Local History:
Isabella County," which appeared in the Clarke Library from January 13
through May 9, 1998
Although local history is important defining what it is, and
is not, can be difficult. For the purposes of this bibliography we have
defined local history sources to be published material intentionally
produced to document residents of a specific place or publications that,
while not specifically intended to document the residents of a place,
nevertheless includes substantial information about a well-defined,
geographically-based community. To illustrate this definition, consider
publications about Michigan's mining industry. Mining is obviously an
intensely local activity. A history of a mining town or a history of a
mining company that included substantial information about the company's
workers or the impact of the mine on the local community would be
included in this bibliography. However, a book about mining operations,
even if it incidentally described some specific activities that were
undertaken in a particular Michigan mine, would not be included in this
bibliography. Similarly, we would not include the history of a single
family that might reside within a mining community. This bibliography
cites sources that tell how either residents or scholars have
consciously chosen to document the places where people live. It is only
incidentally and tangentially about the individual families that make up
those communities, the processes by which community residents live, and
the natural environment upon which rests the local community.
This bibliography is organized by county. Although Michigan's
county boundaries are not unchanging, for the last century the state's
counties have had stable boundaries. Counties are also
conveniently-sized. They are large enough to encompass inter-related
nearby communities but sufficiently small so that unique local
characteristics are not lost in broader generalizations. In a few cases,
particularly for the upper peninsula, we have organized material by
geographic region rather than a county. These are, however, the
exceptions that prove the rule. Where possible we have taken
multi-county, regional histories and made an entry for the work under
each of the counties it covers.
Local history is documented through a variety of formats.
Books, newspapers, photographs, postcards, manuscripts, maps, and videos
all have been used to document a time and place. The Clarke Historical
Library has materials in all these formats. All, however, are not found
in this bibliography. Listed here are generally textual sources such as
books, newspapers, and some term papers found in the Clarke Library, as
well as birds-eye views. Excluded from this bibliography, primarily to
make the publication of manageable size, are unpublished manuscripts,
most maps, government documents, post cards, photographs, corporate
history, and genealogical material.
Most of the entries found in this bibliography are for books.
A few of the volumes were produced either by scholars or other
professional authors but most are the product of the hard work and
dedication of local volunteers and were published by small, local
presses. A significant minority were self-published, either by the
author or, more often, by the sponsoring organization. Because the
critical ability and writing skill of local history authors varies
widely, so to does the quality of these volumes. The intent of the
author, however, is almost always to record and inform.
Local newspapers are a rich source of local history, both
intentional and unintentional. Newspapers are almost always closer
chronologically to the event then any subsequently published local
history. Nevertheless newspaper accounts, like most published local
history, represent the work and perspective of a third party. Because of
an ongoing project to microfilm Michigan newspapers, the Clarke's
holdings of microfilmed local newspapers is particularly extensive and
thus are included in this bibliography.
Although maps are generally excluded from this bibliography
on special category of map, called birds'eye views, has been included in
this work. We decided to include birds' eye views for the pragmatic
reason that the Clarke has the largest collection of these views of
Michigan cities found anywhere outside of the Library of Congress. To
publish a bibliography of the library's local history holdings that
excluded these unique visual representations because other cartographic
holdings were not included seemed a foolish consistency. Rather we
believed it was important to share with researchers our holdings of
these carefully researched artist's renderings, named because they were
usually drawn from the perspective of a bird looking down on the scene.
Most birds' eye views detail major businesses, schools, and churches,
delineate homes, and include various modes of transportation, including
rivers and railroad tracks (usually with a train passing by).
Student works would also customarily be excluded from a
published bibliography. However, at Central Michigan University for
several decades professors who taught local history routinely asked
their students to produce term papers about local communities. With
equal routineness, the professors deposited these term papers in the
Clarke Library, presumably with the permission of the student. Very
often the students chose to research the histories of small, otherwise
undocumented communities. Some students included photographs with their
term papers while others conducted and wrote up extensive interviews
with local residents. Although the quality found in these papers varies
dramatically, nevertheless the papers offer important and sometimes
unique insights into Michigan communities. Researchers should know,
however, that because of more recent federal legislation these term
papers cannot be copied without the written consent of their authors. In
most cases the Clarke does not have this written consent.
Collecting local history material continues to be a priority
of the Clarke Library and new items are regularly added to the
collection. However, materials accessioned after July 1997 are not
included in this bibliography.
Evelyn Leasher