August evenings in the Copper Country tend to be warm and relaxing, the type of atmosphere that invites people to sit on porches and savor the summer. For Calumet on August 13, 1983, evening peace would be impossible as a century of history vanished into the flames. In 1868, the place later called Calumet was . . .
This category is used for posts that talk more about the people, services, and operation of the archives as a department.
Cross the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, northbound or southbound, or take a walk along the canal in Houghton, and you can’t help but notice it. The Jacobsville sandstone building standing on the Houghton end of the bridge has greeted passersby for well over a hundred years, serving an impressive array of purposes in its century . . .
What stands out in people’s memories? Ask that question of a dozen passersby, and you might get a dozen answers: weddings, births, graduations, special vacations. All of these examples are good, noble, and vivid. But, if we’re honest with ourselves, we might add something else to the list: we remember food. To give us a . . .
The Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, a department within the J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library, is currently accepting applications for its annual Travel Grant Program. The travel grant, which is returning after a brief hiatus, brings scholars and researchers to Michigan Technological University to work with . . .
To Copper Country locals, “White City” today evokes images of a sandy beach–a rarity in the Keweenaw–with the Huron Mountains’ verdant, distant slopes rising above a glistening Lake Superior. Visitors reach this beach by driving south from Lake Linden toward Jacobsville, following a winding township road that offers glimpses of Torch Lake. A hundred years . . .
On behalf of the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, in partnership with the Friends of the Michigan Tech Library, we hope you will help us welcome our new Archives Intern for spring 2022. Samuel Oral was was selected as the Friends of the Michigan Tech Library Archives Intern after a competitive . . .
The Michigan Tech Archives reading room will be closed to patrons for two weeks over winter break. The closure begins on Monday, December 20. Normal appointment hours will resume January 3, 2022. Remote research requests may be submitted via copper@mtu.edu, but responses may be delayed during the closure. On behalf of the entire Archives team, have . . .
Dominic and Mary Vairo were in their kitchen when they heard the commotion upstairs. The voices were loud, insistent, emotional. Had a fight broken out? With tension palpable in town, fisticuffs even at a party would surprise no one. Worse–as Dominic listened closer to the cries–was it a fire? A fire kindling on the second . . .
It was the boss’s house, the boss’s rules, and the boss’s style. Michigan’s copper mines regularly provided housing to their workforces. Indeed, a company who did not offer dwellings felt itself at a disadvantage in trying to attract workers. Thus row after row of homes arose in the shadows of shafthouses, echoing quietly with the . . .
From the earliest days of silent films in nickelodeons to the convenience of Netflix, Americans have embraced movies with a passion reserved for few other entertainments. What date could be more typical than dinner and a movie? How many of us recall in vivid detail our first film or a movie that inspired our first . . .