The Thompson Library & Archives Blog

What the GHCC Did Over Summer "Vacation"

A lot has changed on the second floor at the Genesee Historical Collections Center. Here is the GHCC’s “how we spent our summer vacation” update.

• As the Inclusive History Project (IHP) embarks on year two, the GHCC received a large grant to research and present Urban Renewal and the University of Michigan—Flint. The project will examine how UMF acquired its riverfront campus amidst the turmoil of urban renewal.
• New displays related to IHP, new collections, and community partners are coming on each floor on the library building. 
• We are working on a repository agreement with the City of Flint to preserve historical documents and make them accessible to the wider Flint community. Some materials include campus planning documents, Historic District Commission meeting minutes and notes, home demolition records, building and park blueprints, photographs, and more!! 
• Some new collections arrived in the archives over the summer. We are currently processing donations from the Flint Freemasons, the Russian Jewish immigrant Dubois/Catsman family, and a remarkable collection of Hurley Hospital nurses' uniforms and textbooks from 1947 to 1986. 
• Water Crisis archiving is continuing throughout the year. The oral history project, Growing Up Flint: 10 Years of the Water Crisis, is going well. If you or someone you know grew up in the last ten years in Flint, we’d love to speak to them! Our digital public archive concerning the water crisis is also being processed. The University of Iowa is designing a website with GHCC input for official water crisis documents, while the GHCC will host auxiliary documents on our Digital Collections page. 

Our most significant change is that the archive will have regular open hours this fall semester! We are currently working by appointment only, but the archive is expanding with the renewed interest in University and local history. Check the Hours and Events page for up to date information.