LibGuides: Flint & Local History: Overview

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Introduction

This is a guide to researching Flint's history. The researcher should be aware that as the geographic area or topic becomes more specific, the number of published or online sources declines, and certainly this is true of Flint and Genesee County.

Genesee Historical Collections Center
The GHCC, a division of the University of Michigan-Flint Thompson Library, contains both published and unpublished material concerning the history of Flint and Genesee County, Michigan, as well as the archives of the University of Michigan-Flint.

Digital Collections at UM-Flint
This resource, along with other archival collections, documents various aspects of the history of Flint and Genesee County. It currently contains three collections, but others will be added.

The collections already included are:

• Donald W. Riegle Papers, 1966-1994, containing mostly photographs from his career as Democratic Senator from Michigan and newsletters from his tenure as Republican and Democratic Congressman from Flint.

• Lyman George Willcox Papers, 1830-1933, containing family photos and letters to this pioneer resident of Rochester, Michigan, and other Michigan towns. One photograph is the earliest known photo of Traverse City.

• University of Michigan-Flint Labor History Project. This significant oral history project, carried on from 1978 to 1988 under the direction of Prof. Neil Leighton of the Political Science Department, contains over 160 interviews relating to the General Motors Corporation Sit-Down Strike of 1936-1937. The digitized collection includes almost all interviews, including the actual recordings and digitized transcripts. Keyword searching is possible, which makes this a unique and valuable resource for not only labor and radical history, but also for many aspects of the history of Flint.

Books on Flint History

The following books are good general histories of Genesee County and Flint from its early years to the modern era.

History of Genesee county, Michigan. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers by Franklin Ellis
Call Number: Online
Publication Date: 1879

This link is to a scanned digital copy of the book from Michigan County Histories and Atlases. The library and archives do have print copies of it as well. Find them here.
History of Genesee County, Michigan: Her People, Industries and Institutions : With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families by Edwin O. Wood
Call Number: Online
Publication Date: 1879

This link is to a scanned digital copy of the book from Michigan County Histories and Atlases. The library and archives do have print copies of it as well. Find them here.
The City of Flint Grows Up: The Success Story of an American Community by Carl Crow
Call Number: F 574 .F62 C7
Publication Date: 1945

The history of Flint, MI from the 19th Century to 1945. The main focus of is on the early 20th Century and the rise of the auto industry.
Picture history of Flint : The Flint Journal Centennial, 1876-1976 by Lawrence R. Gustin
Call Number: F574.F6 P52
Publication Date: 1976
Class Conflict and Cultural Consensus by Ronald W. Edsforth
Call Number: HC108.F4 E37 1987
Demolition Means Progress by Andrew R. Highsmith
Call Number: F 574 .F62 H54 2015

In 1997, after General Motors shuttered a massive complex of factories in the gritty industrial city of Flint, Michigan, signs were placed around the empty facility reading, "Demolition Means Progress," suggesting that the struggling metropolis could not move forward to greatness until the old plants met the wrecking ball. Much more than a trite corporate slogan, the phrase encapsulates the operating ethos of the nation's metropolitan leadership from at least the 1930s to the present.

UM-Flint Student Papers and Dissertations

The Genesee Historical Collections Center (GHCC) holds numerous student papers and dissertations relating to Flint as well as sociological studies dating from as early as the 1940s. Most of the master's theses done by students in the Master of Liberal Studies and Master of Public Administration programs which relate to Flint are also in the collection. These may provide useful sources for aspects of Flint's history.

Library Catalog Search for UM-Flint Master's Thesis
All of the bound copies of theses found in the Thompson Library and GHCC collections.

Dissertations & Theses @ University of Michigan Flint
Index to master's theses and doctoral dissertations submitted at UM-Flint. Some full text will be available at a later date. Theses can also be found in hard copy in the library or archives.

Student Papers from UM-Flint History Department
Dating from 1970 the papers in this collection of history major papers concerns aspects of the history of Flint, Michigan, and its surrounding area.

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Colleen Marquis

Subjects:History

Flint & Local History

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