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Don't Forget the Stove City

Posted November 16, 2011 by Brendan Roney

Detroit had been considered a center of industry long before Charles Brady King built and drove the city’s first car in 1896.  One of our previous claims to fame was as a stove manufacturing capital.  The “Big Three” of those days consisted of the Michigan Stove Company, the Detroit Stove Works, and the Peninsular Stove Company, but they were by

1891 National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic

Posted November 11, 2011 by Brendan Roney

In honor of Veterans’ Day, we have unearthed a series of cabinet cards depicting the 1891 National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Detroit.  As the Civil War was just twenty-six years past, the organization’s ranks were sizable, as was the turn out of the crowd.  This first photo of

Back to School

Posted November 8, 2011 by Brendan Roney

Ah, it’s fall—a time to take in the changing of the leaves, discretely do away with the leftover Halloween candy, and, of course, settle into a new school year.  Recently I was fortunate to be able to work on a box in the Documenting Detroit Collection

Washington Boulevard

Posted October 13, 2011 by Brendan Roney

This past week, postcards have been the primary focus of the digitization team’s efforts.

A Taste of History Anyone?

Posted September 13, 2011 by DHSdigital

This find really takes the cake. While visiting a little-traveled area of the Detroit Historical Society's collection, our Curator came upon an unassuming glass jar that contained porous, brown chunks of what appeared to be sea sponges. What are these things? Or perhaps more to the point-what were these things? The mystery was short lived as a label became visible on the other side of the jar.

The Photogenic Hook and Ladder Company No. 8

Posted September 13, 2011 by Brendan Roney

Over the past couple weeks we have been scanning a series of boxes of photographs donated to the Detroit Historical Society by the Detroit Fire Department primarily in the mid-1950s.  Within have been a multitude of portraits of chiefs, entire companies proudly posing alongside their early horse-drawn apparatuses, action shots, and even a fe

Storytellers

Posted September 2, 2011 by DHSdigital

Looking Backward and Forward from Detroit's Bicentennial Parade

Posted September 2, 2011 by Brendan Roney

I’m sure we all remember the Stevie Wonder concert and the tall ships of Detroit’s tricentennial celebration in 2001, but how did Detroiters celebrate such a milestone in the days before Motown, when large sailing ships were still an everyday sight along the river?

Symbols of Authority and Gratitude

Posted August 26, 2011 by Brendan Roney

The firefighter’s speaking trumpet, commonly called, simply, a bugle, is an important symbol of authority within the profession, and for good reason.  Among the chaos of smoke and flame, coordination becomes necessary for not only success in battling the blaze, but also survival.  In the days before the modern amplified bullhorn, speaking trumpets were the b

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