Michigan Service Hub Collections now live in DPLA

We are pleased to announce that the collections of the Michigan Service Hub are officially ‘live’ in DPLA and ready to explore! Accepted to the DPLA network in 2015, the Michigan Service Hub represents a collaborative effort between the Library of Michigan, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University and the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services. As of this week, the Michigan Hub partners have made 42,000 new items discoverable in DPLA and plan to add more in the future.

Michigan’s contributions to DPLA are rich in the state’s local history and culture including the auto industries of the Motor City, but that’s not all – look for collections and items representing such diverse topics as Civil War soldiers’ experiences, cookbooks, botany, and social protest posters.

Take a peek below at some of the newly-added materials from the Michigan Service Hub and start exploring today!

This Civil War pocket diary was kept by Union soldier Augustus Yenner and is one of several digitized as part of Western Michigan University’s United States Civil War collection. On New Year’s Day, 1863, Yenner wrote of the difficult conditions from a Kentucky battlefield: “Oh such a morn & day will never be forgotten, as long as reason remains, We lay in the frosty air & frozen ground…” 

   

This 1912 poster created by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is one of over 2,000 in the Joseph A. Labadie Protest Poster collection at the University of Michigan, which documents twentieth century social protest movements including anarchism, labor rights, women’s rights, and more.

The Changing Face of the Auto Industry Collection contributed by Detroit Public Library’s National Automotive History Collection and Burton Historical Collections via Wayne State University documents Detroit’s booming auto industries of the early twentieth century.

Michigan State University’s Feeding America historic cookbook collection documents not only some surely delicious recipes, like those included in this chocolate, cocoa, and candy cookbook, but also an essential element of America’s culinary past and cultural history.

Social activist Caroline Bartlett Crane designed “Everyman’s House” for Herbert Hoover’s Better Homes of America campaign in 1924 to best meet the needs of the average American family. Crane’s design, part of which is seen here in blueprint form, was the contest winner and the house was constructed (and is still standing) in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Caroline Bartlett Crane Everyman’s House collection comes from Western Michigan University. 

Last, but not least, if you are researching botany, you won’t want to miss the University of Michigan’s Vascular Plant Type collection of over 9,000 plant specimens with images. This specimen of Calyptrogenia cuspidata, a flowering shrub or small tree found in the rainforest, was taken from the Dominican Republic. The collection is international in scope with a particular focus on Michigan and the Great Lakes region and makes a substantial contribution to DPLA’s science collections.   

In the months and years to come, the Michigan Service Hub partners look forward to adding new collections from institutions across the state — stay tuned!

For more collection highlights and information about the Michigan Service Hub, visit michiganservicehub.org.