From the Collection

Detroit Suffrage Pioneer Sarah Gertrude Banks

Posted February 15, 2016 by Jonathan Gleit

On February 15, the anniversary of Susan B. Anthony's birthday, the Detroit Historical Society is pleased to share from the collection a 107 year old postcard depicting Susan B. Anthony.  Social activist Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was an internationally recognized leader in the long campaign to give women the right to vote. It turns out that the postcard's addressee, Dr. Sarah Gertrude Banks, has an important place in Detroit history.

Martin Luther King, Jr. in Detroit, 1966

Posted January 18, 2016 by Jonathan Gleit
Program, "We Rally For Freedom. Cobo Hall, Detroit. June 19, 1966.

 

The Mystery of the Missing Mausoleum

Posted November 19, 2015 by Brendan Roney

In our previous post, “A Fitting Place of Burial” we featured a photo of the key to Lewis Cass’s mausoleum. Several sharp-eyed readers have since pointed out that while Cass has an impressive sarcophagus-shaped monument in Elmwood Cemetery, the famed explorer, territorial governor, general, senator, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State is not actually entombed within it.

Armistice Day

Posted November 11, 2015 by Jonathan Gleit

Hostilities in World War I (then known as The Great War) ended on November 11, 1918. The United States had entered the conflict on April 6, 1917, as Congress declared war. When the news of the cease fire was announced, large crowds gathered at Campus Martius and elsewhere in Detroit to celebrate the peace.

Philip K. Wrigley's 1935 Stout  Scarab

Posted November 6, 2015 by Nathan Kelber
Philip K. Wrigley shows his Stout Scarab to Henry D. Brown, Director of the Detroit Historical Society (1964).

 

A Fitting Place of Burial

Posted October 29, 2015 by Brendan Roney
A tranquil scene from Detroit's Elmwood Cemetery decorates this 1914 postcard.

 

The Battle of Bloody Run and Pontiac's Tree

Posted July 31, 2015 by Brendan Roney

On July 31, 1763, a stretch of Parent's Creek, on the present site of Elmwood Cemetery, ran red with blood.  Chief Pontiac, leading an alliance of several tribes, had begun a siege on the British in Fort Detroit on May 7th.  On July 31st, a group of about 260 British soldiers intent on breaking the siege attacked Pontiac’s nearby encampment along the creek.  Pontiac’s forces fought off their attackers, killing commanding officer Captain James Dalyell in the process.  In reference to the battle's carnage, Parent's Creek earned a new name–Bloody Run.  Today, much of the stream runs undergroun

The Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild

Posted May 1, 2015 by Adam Lovell
Edward Matusek poses with his model collection in this 1939 photo.

 

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