This library at University of Michigan has treasures of American history
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - The William L. Clements Library on the University of Michigan's central campus has been described as a hidden gem.
Located next to the president's house and steps away from the Diag, thousands of community members walk past it every day without knowing what's behind its doors.
Its reading room, complete with towering ceilings, chandeliers and walnut paneling, is an experience in and of itself.
"It's one of the most beautiful spaces on campus here in Ann Arbor," said Clements Library director Paul Erickson. "And a lot of people don't know it's here. The front of the building that faces South University doesn't really say what's inside."
This is likely because it is a research library.
"It's not an open stacks library where you can come in and take things off the shelves," said Erickson. "Researchers come here from around the country and from around the world to do specialized research."
Erickson said anyone interested in researching American history – particularly the 18th and 19th centuries – is welcome to make an appointment and make use of the library's collection.
In the reading room, researchers can be seen exploring materials surrounded by historic treasures, including trunks owned by British commanding generals in the Revolutionary War, a Columbian printing press dating back to 1851, and a more than 250-year-old Benjamin West painting.
Despite the reading room's grandeur, it's in the building's lower levels where true magic happens.
Its temperature-controlled vault holds hundreds of thousands of documents, maps and photographs.
Many of the documents have made their way into the hands of longtime conservator Julie Fremuth.
"I do simple paper repairs, box-making, all the way through in-depth resewing and rebinding of old materials so they're available for researchers to use, students to use and to be on exhibit," said Fremuth.
After 35 years at the Clements Library, Fremuth said she's still amazed by the feeling she gets when working with historical items.
"Almost a spiritual energy transfer occurs because I get to know this item so deeply and in a different way than a researcher who's looking at just the content," she said. "I'm mostly paying attention to the physical qualities. And what can these physical features tell us? What can they indicate about this item's life and journey?
"I've been here a long time and haven't left because every day is a new experience."
Over the years, library staff have digitized much of its collections.
They transform fragile, centuries-old documents into digital versions accessible to the public by placing them in a v-shaped cradle rigged with a dual camera system.
Cheney Schopieray has been in the library's manuscripts division for 22 years.
"The things that we collect in the manuscripts division represent the products of the everyday lives of human beings doing stuff and communicating through handwriting on paper," said Schopieray. "And so, it really runs the gamut from something that's deeply personal to these sort of grand and towering figures and events of American history."
He reads a letter written by American abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass.
"It's deeply emotional to be in the presence of the original things and not just reproductions," he said.
William L. Clements was born in Ann Arbor in the 1860s and attended the University of Michigan.
He made his fortune by getting a contract to provide industrial equipment to dig the Panama Canal.
Later in his life, Clements began to collect books focusing on early American history.
In 1921, he donated his collections to his alma mater, along with funding to construct the building – designed by one of Michigan's most famed and celebrated architects.
"This is an Albert Kahn building," said Erickson. "It's patterned after a building in Italy - a casino in Tuscany. And Kahn, apparently, told members of his family that this was his favorite building that he ever designed."
So, where does the library get its collections from?
"We're lucky to get many wonderful donations from people," said curator of books and digital projects librarian Emiko Hastings. "Either families donating their family papers and book collections or collectors who've accumulated things over a lifetime and then are ready to pass them on to the library. And then we also do a lot of purchasing. We've been making a lot of really exciting acquisitions (here) as well."
In addition to its manuscript collections, the Clements also features an extensive collection of historical photographs.
Sierra Laddusaw, curator of maps and graphics, said her favorite thing about the collections is seeing how photographers used to manipulate photographs centuries ago.
"You have a lot of these photos that were taken in the 1800s and we think about modern times and how people are photoshopping and using filters," she said. "Well, they were doing this in the 1800s also."
Graphics division cataloger Jakob Dopp showed us a device called a stereoscope, which he described as a "19th-century virtual reality headset."
By treating two photographs with a technique called multiple exposures, looking through a stereoscope makes photographs appear three-dimensional.
The Clements Library provides monthly tours for members of the public and private tours for larger groups.
"We really encourage our Ann Arbor community and who's anyone interested in American history just to come in and use the sources that we have available," said marketing coordinator Tiffani Ihrke.
The William L. Clements Library is located at 909 S University Avenue.
