Archive for July 2009

The Michigan Tech Archives has opened the Nissila Livery and Greenhouse Collection for research.  The collection, accession # 08-083A, comprises three cubic feet of documents, correspondence, and photographs. The materials were donated by Pete Nissila in 2009, following the closure of the family’s greenhouse and nursery business in Ripley, just east of Hancock.

Originally called Nissila & Makela Livery and later as the Scott Street Livery, the business began as a livery stable, providing horses and carriages to individuals, companies, and for funeral services.  It was located on Scott Street in Hancock. 

Eventually, the business evolved into a floral shop.  After returning from service in Europe during WWII, Carl Nissila took over the shop along with his wife Gertrude.  He attended Michigan State University from 1948-1950, earning a degree in horticulture.  The floral shop started in the home on Scott Street and later moved to a location on Quincy Street, where it remained until 1952, when the business moved again to Ripley.  The location in Ripley had been in place since the early part of the century, originally being home to a local competitor, Dale’s Greenhouse. 

In 1984, Carl and Gertrude retired, and Carl’s son Pete and his wife Jill took over the business.  Pete was a recipient of a master’s degree in horticulture from Oregon State University in Corvallis.  Locally, during his management of the greenhouse he hosted a weekly radio show on WZRK-FM and offered gardening classes.  The business remained active until 2008, at which time the property went up for sale. 

This collection was processed by Autumn Hall-Tun, a graduate student intern in the Archives during the summer of 2009.

Aerial view of Nissila Greenhouse and surrounding buildings east of Ripley.  The photograph is image #ACC-08-083A-Pt 2  (you can view the record by clicking this link: http://digarch.lib.mtu.edu/showbib.aspx?bib_id=681606).

Join local historian Bill Haller for an illustrated talk on the history of the Isle Royale Mining Company near Hurontown.  The presentation will take place at 7:00pm on Tuesday, July 21, 2009, in room 641 of the Dow Environmental Engineering Building on the Michigan Tech campus.  This event is part of the Archival Speakers Series and is free and open to the public.

Following unsuccessful attempts at mining in Copper Harbor and on the island of Isle Royale, the Isle Royale Mining Company relocated south of Houghton in 1852. It was one of many small mines working the “South Portage Range,” including the Portage, Dodge, and Huron mines. Some of these companies also developed communities around their mines, including the present towns of Dodgeville and Hurontown.

By 1909, the properties were consolidated into the Isle Royale Copper Company, a subsidiary of the famed Calumet & Hecla Company.  C&H operated the properties profitably for many decades and built a short line railroad to carry copper ore to a stamp mill near the mouth of the Pilgrim River. Remnants of this mill include extensive deposits of stamp sands. The mining properties continued in operation by C&H until 1946, with some later work attempted by the Copper Range Company.  

Haller’s presentation will provide an overview of the evolution of this important mining area, including photographs and maps showing the different mine locations, industrial buildings, and underground workings.  Although few significant structures remain from the Isle Royale Mine, many of the operation’s key sites lay adjacent to major highways and are passed unknowingly by local residents every day.

Employees of the Meyers Bros Ice Company cut ice from the Huron Dam area south of Houghton. The lake formed by Huron dam once provided water to the copper stamp mill of the Huron Mining Company (note the former mill buildings in the background being used for ice storage). The story of the Huron, Dodge and Isle Royale mines will be told by local historian Bill Haller on July 21. The photograph above is image #MTU Neg 00221  (you can view the record by clicking this link: http://digarch.lib.mtu.edu/showbib.aspx?bib_id=596955).

Michigan Tech’s Archival Speakers Series highlights current research utilizing the Archives’ collections. The department hosts a wide variety of researchers and research topics — everything from genealogical investigations to book and magazine publications — engaging students, staff, and faculty, as well as local citizens and other off-campus researchers. The presentation is free and open to the public.  

For further information contact the MTU Archives at 906-487-2505 or via e-mail at copper@mtu.eduThe Archives reading room is located on the ground floor of the Van Pelt and Opie Library, in the heart of the Michigan Tech Campus.

UPDATE:

More than 125 attended the event in Room 641 of the Dow Building on the Michigan Tech Campus.

Local historian Bill Haller (left) speaks with attendees following his presentation.

The Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections has received a federal grant to support a two-year project to improve the description of its historical collections and share more of this information across the web. The grant has been awarded by the National Historical Records and Publications Commission (NHPRC), the grantmaking arm of the National Archives. The outright grant of $116,500 is for 47 percent of the budgeted project cost of $250,342.

“This is a huge step forward for our department,” said Erik Nordberg, University Archivist at Michigan Tech. “Monies from this federal grant program are intended to “reveal hidden collections” at mid-sized institutions, particularly those which are geographically remote like ours here in Houghton. Because we’re a bit farther off the beaten path, we need to find ways to reach potential researchers.”

As part of the project, the Archives will hire two additional staff and implement Proficio, a specialized collection management software program created for archives and museums. Descriptions of each of the Archives’ 900 manuscript collections will be created in the new system, with information shared to Michigan Tech’s Van Pelt and Opie Library catalog and to WorldCat, a national bibliographic utility which comingles information from libraries and archives around the world.

“Not only will this push information out about our collections to researchers around the world,” Nordberg said, “but it will also build the foundation to gather and organize even more detail about our collections after the grant project is completed.”

A regional history manuscript collection, the Michigan Tech Archives collects information on the history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula, including its historic copper mining industry. The collections to be described include a wide variety of format and content, including personal papers and diaries, business and industrial records, photographs, maps, and wide format items.

A full listing of projects funded by NHPRC this spring is linked from here: http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2009/nr09-92.html 

For further information contact the MTU Archives at (906) 487-2505 or via e-mail at copper@mtu.edu The Archives reading room is located on the ground floor of the Van Pelt and Opie Library, in the heart of the Michigan Tech Campus.

We’ve recently compiled a list of publications drawn from research in the collections of the Michigan Tech Archives over the last 25 years. We created the list at the request of a granting agency who wanted to understand the types of research and publication which were conducted in our holdings (more on the grant project soon).  The list isn’t intended to be completely comprehensive, but does highlight the wide range of books, articles, and graduate theses and dissertations which have made use of our collections.

The list is linked from our main web page at http://www.lib.mtu.edu/mtuarchives/ under the “Quick Links” section.  You can download the list as either as a .pdf document or in Microsoft Word format.

It is our intention to update the list on a periodic basis.  Please feel free to use the comment section immediately below this message to share other publications you feel should be added to the list.

Michigan Tech historian Larry Lankton discusses the newly-published book ”Old Reliable: An Illustrated History of the Quincy Mining Company” with archivist Theresa Spence at a book premier event held in August 1982 under the big No. 2 hoist at the Quincy mine site. The book, based partially upon research conducted in the collections of the Michigan Tech Archives, was co-authored by Lankton and Charles Hyde and published by the Quincy Mine Hoist Association.  The photograph above is image #No Neg 2008-01-07-03 from photograph vertical file (you can view the record by clicking this link: http://digarch.lib.mtu.edu/showbib.aspx?bib_id=637523).