Making Michigan Lecture series - 06/08/23

Keeping having some good ventures. Yeah travels. Yeah it was fun. I just got to Boston for my first time. Everybody didn't go to Boston. I went to Maynard, which is outside Boston, next to Concord. So I got to see Louisa May Alcott Grave who cried. Oh, no. It was like this is way better than Hollywood grades. You know, it was really cool. But Chinese baby so I get to meet. She was three months old Theodora Payson would pills Hello, New England would film of course. I know. Getting around. Ann Arbor is really difficult these days, so it may be that will have some people coming in late and after these lovely people who come in anybody after this When somebody comes in, I want everybody to turn and look at them. Welcome Like your talk. Okay so, so good evening and welcome to making Michigan the Bentley Libraries series on the history of the University of Michigan. I'm very friends, the director of the Judean Stanley Frankel Detroit Observatory, which is a division of the Bentley I'm pleased to welcome both our online audience and our in person audience here at the observatory. Thank you all for coming tonight. Tonight we offer our second edition of Wolverine writers with some stories that is our subtitle indicates deal with fire and ice and rebirth. Part of the mission of the Detroit Observatory, and of our parent institution, the Bentley is to promote appreciation and understanding of the history of the University of Michigan. We are, of course not alone in this, and I'm thrilled to welcome three individuals who has editors and writers are also contributing to this understanding through the stories they write and publish. I think you will find the stories they discuss penetrating. Insightful and moving. So our Panelists are in the order in which they will speak. Kim Clarke Kim is the manager of Heritage Communications at the University of Michigan, a role that evolved out of her work as director of communications. For U of M's Bicentennial. I had a really great pleasure of working with Kim on the bicentennial, She manages the U of M Heritage Project and award winning collection of narrative stories exploring the university's past. She has. She previously was director of executive Communications for President Mary Sue Coleman. Twice I suppose so much I did it again. She has worked as a reporter and editor at several newspapers in Michigan. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Central Michigan University and a master's in American culture from Eastern Michigan University. Next will be Laura Zealand. Laura is the editorial director for the Bentley Historical Library twice each year, she produces the library's award winning magazine collections. You can get copies in the lobby before you leave, if you want well, also overseeing the library's digital storytelling through newsletters , multiple websites and social media. And she has, of course, been a great help with the observatory's and making Michigan's communications. Laura is a published fiction author. A true crime addict and true crime addict and her podcast archive Unknown explores strange, spooky and unusual collections in archives all across the country , and I recommend it. Debra Hold ship. Deborah is the editor of Michigan Today, a digital monthly magazine distributed by email to about 475,000 U of M graduates, faculty and staff worldwide. She also produces the podcast. Listen in Michigan, which she describes as an audio postcard to alumni from their old Ann Arbor stomping grounds. Deborah joined the university in 2007 is the editorial manager and marketing communications at the Ross School of Business. Prior to Ross. She could be found at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. And before that Deborah had been working in entertainment in Los Angeles, where she was a reporter and editor at Billboard magazine and editor and video producer at launch Media or Great claim to Hollywood fame, was seeing her byline on the silver screen in Bill and Ted's excellent adventure when a headline about their band appeared on Page one of billboards. She just happened to have a front page story in the issue that they used for the time, So we're about to get started, and I want to note as we've indicated in our communications. About this event and on the screen here. Our first talk is going to mention one person's experience with suicide. Please use care and know that support is available. If you are someone you know, is struggling with thoughts of suicide or mental health issues . Please note that resources are available as we're showing on the screen, so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Kim and we'll do a little juggling of technology here and then we'll get going. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Gary. Hmm Thank you, everyone for being here this evening. I want to talk about a story that's on the Heritage Project website called the Arsonist was A scholar. Um and I want to talk a bit about the story behind the story. How the story came about because I started out thinking it was going to be one story and it turned out to be something completely different. Um I was really interested in the impact of a major fire on campus and how that would affect exactly members careers because of the materials that were lost in this fire. So I looked at the Haven hall fire, which happened this month in 1950 Haven hall at the time was located north of Angel Hall, west of the Kraus Science Building Natural Science Building. Today it's the kinesiology building. It was a very old building on campus, so it had no trouble burning. Um In fact, a few years earlier, the Ann Arbor Fire department had told the university You need to tear this building down. It's a fire trap. Um, but it it went up. Um and it was quite quite 20,000 people lined the streets to watch it burn. Um as you can see, in this photo on the left, students climbed up. The fire escapes, helping the firefighters with the hoses and also helping to remove stuff from the building removed papers and books and typewriters and desk cares and whatever they could salvage, um The building houses the History department sociology journalism. And a couple of smaller institutes. Um again, I'm thinking about what happened to the faculty member and the materials that were lost . As you can see, it was just a charcoal briquette by the end of things, um People lost everything. It was final exam week when this happened, so finals were lost. Final reports thesis. Um. Personal libraries of faculty members, as well as many books they borrowed from the university library. To give you one example of a of a lost Dwight Newman, who was a civil war story in who was writing a book on what he believed the causes of the Civil War. Were he lost 500 rare anti slavery, pamphlets, 600 photographs and negatives from the Civil War era 400 books, many of them rare about the civil war. And 5000 bibliography cards of all of his research sources. Doesn't that kind of make you sick to think about that? Oh and that happened Office after office after office in this building. The Fire department said they had no idea what caused the fire. And they said they would probably never know. The university decided to tear down Haven hall because there was a loss. They built a new building, which is the one that we have today on the backside of Angel Hall that faces the diag. The location As you can see here today, it's trees, sidewalks, grass. Um and that's the remainders of build Haven hall and so everybody moved on. In the fall of 1950. There's an arrest made. This is big news because the fire Department and the police said We have no idea how this started . Um the suspect is a graduate student 30 years old. His name is Robert Stacy. He started you of them in 1939 1940 academic year he left in 42 to serve in World War two and the Army. He served in England. He came, He was honorably discharged and 45 came back to Ann Arbor finished his bachelor's degree, finished his master's degree. He was studied the classics. At the time of his arrest. He was working on his doctorate. And he was also teaching undergraduate students as doctoral students often do. He was arrested because of this woman. Largely her name is Zelda Clarkson. Robert Uh, Stacey and Zelda Clarkson had been boyfriend girlfriend a couple of years earlier. It was a rocky relationship. They broke up. He didn't take that. Well, uh, he would call her right. Her shop better at her place. She had him arrested once. Um and then she moved out of town. Um that summer of 1950 after the fire, he shows up unannounced and uninvited at her home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Um and, among other things, tells her I set the fire at Haven Hall. Um I was feeling a great deal of stress and tension. And this relieved all of that, so she felt that he was mentally ill. Um And she petitioned the court to have him involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility. In her petition, she included his confession to about setting the fire that's caught the eye of the authorities. That's what led to him being arrested. Um Police said that when they interrogated him and not only confessed to setting the haven hall fire, but he said he set several smaller fires that are broken out on campus that spring and that he had What taken Several purses. There have been a number of person Ach ing's on campus. Jeez He later recanted all these confessions. Um he went on trial. The trial lasted three days. The jury deliberated three hours. They found him guilty. Um he was sentenced to 5 to 10 years at Southern Michigan Prison in Jackson, which at the time was the roughest prison in the state. Um I'm not think I'm kind of intrigued by this. I'm still working on research about what? The faculty member in their careers, but I'm curious. Who's Robert Stacy? So I asked the Bentley for their, uh, their alumni files, and they have one on Robert. And this is his admissions application to Michigan. It tells me a little bit more about him. He grew up in Manhattan. Um he went to high school in western New York state. He was living with his aunt and uncle. At the time You graduated from high school. His mother died when he was 16. She had a heart problem. His mom or his father was hospitalized. He was a good student, not a great student, but a good student. His application includes reference letters from teachers as principal as you would expect in an application. They all say He's a really good student. He has all the potential to succeed in college and to be, um, success. He said in his application that he wanted to be a college professor. That was his career aspiration. They said they could do that and yet Every reference letter has a qualifier. Um Everybody said he's brilliant, but he's troubled. Um he is withdrawn. He uh, he will not socialized. Um he's erratic. He's moody. He's depressed, and we've tried. They talked with his aunt and uncle who are raising him. An uncle Burt, absolutely baffled as to why they couldn't get him to engage. So This tells me a little bit about the guy behind the fire, but I'm still focusing on these faculty and their research losses. So at the time I start to look at the papers of Alexander Ruthven, who is the president of the university at the time. I'm thinking there's letters in there from professors talking about their careers ruined or would you help me rebuild? Or can I get an extra sabbatical or whatever. Um And in there, I find a letter from Robert Stacy that he has written to Ruthven while he's in jail awaiting trial. Um And he says, my career is over. It doesn't matter if I'm acquitted or convicted, the newspapers have ruined may write. My reputation is shot. Um He says it feels betrayed by his university. Nobody has ever spoken out in his defense. Nobody has come to visit him. Uh he says he is mentally ill, but he's been treated at what was called the Veterans Readjustment Center, which the university created for World War two veterans. Um and he also does to the fact that he tried to take his life. Um, and that had been in the newspaper sector. He was arrested. He had made a couple of attempts on his life. Um nothing that required hospitalization. The guards always were able to intervene. In this letter to President Ruthven. He makes what seems like a confession. He says No. One but myself, is directly responsible for the present situation. And then a couple of pages later, he says, I am innocent. Um I am being accused of guilt or guilt does not in reality exist. He says he's confident he's going to be acquitted. Um but of course he was not. He is sentenced to prison. He serves 6.5 years at Jackson. While he was a prisoner . He teaches classes to other inmates, and he also writes a column for a newspaper run by prisoners. He is. Paroled. In 1957 in June, the seven year anniversary of the Raven Hall fire. Um And you know, and the story But I'm really kind of interested. Who is this guy? What happened to him? He starts over. He starts over at this university, Syracuse in western New York state key in rows in graduate school within a year of being a Syracuse season instructor he's teaching in a program run by the university and the Air Force. Uh he's teaching Russian to American airmen. The Cold War. Um. Within about 10 years. He's got his PhD from Syracuse. She's on the faculty. He's earned tenure and his chair of the department of Slavic languages. Now I am really interested in this guy. It's like holy cats. Um I decided I'm going to focus the story on the resurrection of his career. As a faculty member. He doesn't professors do, he writes books. His area of expertise is Russian literature. He supervises dissertations. Um he writes journal articles, including one with this woman. Her name is Olga Federov. When he was teaching Russian to, uh, Air Force airman. She was working as a Russian translator in the same program. She was married at the time they became friends. When her husband passed away, she and Robert Stacy married So he spent 27 years on the faculty at Syracuse University, and he retired in 1985. And he and Olga made a home in the suburbs of Syracuse. He passed away at the age of 74 and 1994. Never having told anybody about his past. Seemingly So I'm still really curious. How did this happen? Um I noticed in his obituary that his survivors included stepchildren, all the federals Children who are all adults at this point in time, so, uh, One of them was a woman named Nina Federov. She like her stepfather . As a scholar. She's retired professor at Penn State. She's a geneticist. She's also a national medal of science laureate, and she served as science adviser to Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, secretary of the state secretary of state. So with some trepidation, I write her an email. Wow. To say she was destroying working on here's what I know about this fire. Here's what I know about Robert Stacy. Is there anything you ever discussed with you as a family? Nope. She said. You said I had no idea. She was. I mean, her emails like I am absolutely stunned by this, she said. Could you send me a little more information to make sure we're talking about the right guy? Um so I sent some photos and a little more personal D detailed birthdays and stuff. And she said Yes, that is him. Um she said he was a very closed off person very difficult to reach. Um she said, always deflected questions about his past. Um she said she talked with her brothers. Neither of them were aware of this. She doesn't think their mother ever knew. She's passed away, she said. I think he buried this so deep. That it was never going to come out. Um She said. By the end of his life , he was a severe alcoholic. And he was quite depressed, and he had a lot of medical issues. And then she told me one more thing that was like can end this story. Get any crazier. Um that when he died at age 74 it was by his own hand. He took his own life after all those earlier attempts. Um he went for a walk. One day He didn't come home, and , uh, he had overdosed on all of his heart medication. Wow So I said, I think this sounds like a really tragic story. And she disagreed. She said. You know, he it was sad because he couldn't share his pain and he couldn't convey what he was feeling. She said he was depressed and that could have been because of the medical issues he was having. It could have been because of the mix of medications he was on. But she said he achieved his life's goal and that was to become a university professor. He got his doctorate He taught students and that's what he did for his life. So that is the story of the story of the arsonist who was a scholar. And I have one sad little addendum. Um. I mentioned that when he was in high school, he lived with his aunt and uncle because his mother had passed away and his dad was in the hospital I had written to the state of New York for his father's death certificate because I couldn't learn anything about what happened to him, and it arrived. About a year after we published this story. His father had been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility. For a couple of years, and he also took his life, so there's clearly a family history here. Um but it's a fascinating story. In my opinion, I appreciate being able to share it with you. Thank you. Wow. Speaking of truth process, Speaking of. Imagine waiting for so much death certificate. You know, That's me like, Wow, That's so cool. Mhm. Well, thanks everyone, so much for the opportunity to be here today. I'm going to be discussing tragedy on the ice. The story about, um, s connection to an ill fated polar expedition in the late 18 hundreds. So Yeah, Okay, okay. So this story starts like many do for me with a colleague sharing something strange that they found at the Bentley Historical Library where I work , and it's really my favorite thing of all time. So in this case, my colleague Andrew Rutledge told me about the alumni file of a young, um student named Edward Israel and tucked inside this file was a handwritten copy of a journal article about Edward after Edward Died tragically at the age of 25. The article was written by the Detroit Observatory's third director, A man named Mark Wall. Rod Harrington, who was Israel's mentor while Israel was at U of M. But here's where it gets a little strange. Harrington wrote the article and published it in the American Meteorological Journal, which is an unusual place for what was essentially a profile piece. Even back then it really wasn't commonplace for a faculty member to write about a former student, especially one who wasn't really a scholar in the field. So Andrew and I were like, What's the deal here? Why would Harrington right this article? What was his relationship to Edward Israel? So to answer those questions and to begin to investigate and wound up writing a piece in the spring 2023 issue of Collections magazine based on his research, and in the process. I became really interested in this story as well and wanted to learn everything that I could about Edward, Israel and Mark well, right, Harrington and what was going on here and so I'd like to start the story by taking you back in time to 18 77. And that is when our hero Edward Israel gets accepted into the University of Michigan. Edward is young and good looking. He's 5, ft. Nine He's got dark hair and dark eyes, and he's also whip smart. He loves mathematics , and his professors at the University of Michigan can produce pretty quickly see that he's special. It's also worth noting that he's the only Jewish student in his class. His family was the only Jewish family in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the time, where they settled And wherever it grew up. So Edward breaking barriers and learning about astronomy. And while he's doing that something else is simultaneously a foot a man named Omar Dwight Conger. He's a senator from Michigan, and he's in the process of introducing a bill in the House of Representatives to authorize and equip an Arctic expedition. So here's Omar. Now for some context here. This is a time when people were really interested in the Arctic and especially the North Pole. There were a couple of reasons for this one was the idea that there was something called the Northwest passage at the top of the world, and this would be a shortcut for ships sailing between Europe and Asia. That would mean no more sailing around Africa in order to trade And the thought was here was that perhaps this? There was also this thing called the open Polar Sea, which were warm waters at the top of the planet. Once you got through all of that ice and cold, so scientists wanted to learn more about what was happening up at the top of the earth and in these extreme locations, so that is what led to an initiative called the International Polar Year. And the idea was that scientists from around the world would join together in a global effort to record data at the Earth furthest edges and the idea was that they really wanted to understand a plethora of things , including climate, magnetic fields, the northern lights, you name it, so countries from around the world would participate in this included the United States. So Omar Joy Conger introduces a bill in the House of Representatives to author and authorized and equip this Arctic expedition for the International Polar Year, and the government approves it, and the whole thing is off to the races. Now the guy who's leading this this International Polar year mission for the U. S. Is a guy named Lieutenant Lieutenant Adolphus Greely. He's a Civil war veteran. And during the Civil War, he got part of his jaw and a bunch of teeth blown out in the battle of Antietam. So for the rest of his life, he would wear this huge, bushy beard to hide all of his injuries. After the war, he sent out West to go build telegraph lines, and in the process, he learns a ton about meteorology and electricity, and this experience makes him an idea. He'll candidate to lead this expedition into the Arctic for the International Polar Year. But really needs a team. So he sets out a call for among the people he needs. He needs an astronomer and mark Wall. Rod Harrington is like he hears about it. And he says, I got a guy for you. So as I mentioned at the time, Harrington is the third director of this place. The Detroit Observatory and Edward Israel is his student. And Herrington proposes that Edward should be the experienced astronomer that the Greely expedition needs and Edward. For his part, he hesitates, but ultimately he decides to go. And this is when the Harrington right Lieutenant Greely about Edward, and what a great fit he'd be. And he says, quote Edward is an unusually bright man. A member of our senior class has a strong mathematical and scientific chased and desires to make the pursuit of astronomy, his faculty. I think he would do very credible work, and I should be glad to see him appointed. He has already signified his willingness to go. So in fact, he's accepted and Edward Greeley and 23 other men who comprise the expedition. Get ready to go. Here's a picture of most of them gathered together in a formal portrait before they leave and here is really wearing his full raggedy beard to hide his civil war wounds. And here's sweet Edward looking at, by contrast, pretty fresh faced and young. And it's worth noting. I think he's the literally the only person in the picture without any facial hair. So Edward and the team leave ST John's in Newfoundland in July, 18 81 and they sail north and their goal is to make it to this red dot That's Fort Conger named for our fellow Omar Dwight Conger, and that's the location of it. And then the plan is to spend two years there total. They're on a ship called the Proteus that takes them through ice choked waters sailing to that red dot on the last slide. And they really get there without much issue. There's it all goes pretty smooth. And once they land, Edward helps unpack all of the scientific equipment they had, including the heaviest piece of equipment, which is £100 gravity pendulum. And I want you to bookmark that in your brains because that is going to come back into play later, and they build a shelter, which you can see here. They brought prefabricated. I am so they could eat constructed easily, and there was a seam of coal nearby that they knew they could mind to help heat the structure. They also build a little science shack where they set up all their scientific equipment with the goal of measuring wind speeds, barometric pressure gravitational forces, I steps tides much more. And this is where Edward Israel really excels. He and the men take up to 500 measurements every day, and they document everything with scientific precision. In addition to the science really has another mission. He wants members of his team to be the people that go that set the record for going furthest north . Now the record for this had previously been held by an Englishman, a man named Albert Hastings Markham and he said it back in 18 76, but really is like we can break the record. So in April of 18 82, he sends out men and in fact, they do break the record. Going a full four miles past Markham's record, so they were really excited and in the process of doing that, they pretty much proved that this idea of the open polar see at the top of the world just really isn't quite possible. I'm sure they wanted there to be a lovely warm see at the top of the planet. But that's just not how the science works when you get further away from the equator. So all in all, really, at this point feels really proud. The expedition is doing remarkable things are setting new records. They're they're getting incredibly valuable scientific data, and it's all due to his leadership and the quality of his men, including Edward Israel. Now, as I mentioned the expedition was supposed to be at four Congress for two years, and the idea was that after one year a ship was supposed to resupply the men and take anybody back who, for example, was experiencing medical issues and needed to go go home. So the first year the relief ship that tries to get to the men is called the Neptune and it stalls out a few 100 miles south of Fort Conger, because it's simply cannot get through the ice. But no worries. This was all planned for The plan was that if the relief ship couldn't get back to Fort Conger, it would go to that second that you see on the map of police called Cape Sabine, and they would leave their supplies there and then sailed back home. Great plan. Inexplicably, however. The Neptune does not do. This literally turns around. It's unclear kind of why, but it really literally turns around with its whole tactful with all of the food that it was supposed to leave at Kate Sabine the following year in June of 18 82 2 ships called the Proteus and the Yen Tex that's set sail for Greely and his men. But the pro tsk it's stuck in the ice, and while thankfully, none of the crew are killed the ship, the entire ship sinks with Olive Greeley's provisions on board. That leaves the antic which now has to rescue all the guys from the Proteus and drop supplies, little supplies that can for Greely and his men. So the Proteus saves. Excuse me. The antics saves the men from the Proteus but only drops off a few supplies and then heads home again. Really Of course at this time knows none of this. All Greeley knows is that the failure of the second ship to arrive activates a new plan. Greeley Greeley had orders. This was all planned for Greeley's orders, said specifically that if the second resupply ship failed to reach the men that they had to go down south to keep Sabine and winter they're surviving on the stores that all the ships have that ball ships had left for them, and they await rescue early spring. In the early spring and so really follows his orders and decides to do that. So on August 9th 18 83 he and his crew had south of Cape Sabine. It's a 250 Mile trek. It is bleak. It is dangerous. It is frozen. The ice cracking and groaning is nearly constant. And it's so incredibly loud that the men call it the Devil's Symphony. Battle the ice and the elements, and none of them have experience on the water. Fortunately the crew has Edward Israel, and he's able to take Meridian observations to determine their location. He could also navigate with the help of the stars, and without his help them in, certainly would have been adrift and unable to even reach Cape Sabine . But thankfully, after 50 days , the increase of the entire crew makes it there with no fatalities, which is remarkable. Of course, when they get to keep Sabine they realized the brutal truth, which is that none of the supplies that they thought were there are available to them. So Greely and his men found a little bit of food, a few caches of clothes and blankets, but nothing substantial. It's subject zero temperatures, and it's about to be dark every day for months. There's no fuel and they're trapped by ice from rescue. One of the things that the men carried on the journey was their most advanced scientific instrument that gravity Tangela my mentioned earlier it was valuable and also really heavy at one point in their journey down to keeps it being really says to the men. We can just leave this thing behind, but they refused to take it with them, which is pretty symbolic. And it shows you how much they truly valued the science of this mission. And when they get to keep Sabine and realize how very dire their situation is, It's uh it's also very symbolic that they turned this gravity pendulum this precision instrument that they just dragged hundreds of miles and value so deeply, They turn it into a rescue beacon. And that is the picture that you see here. They mounted just off the shore of Cape Sabine, where they hope of passing ship might see it. And so, essentially, the men get to keep Sabina in September of 18 83, and now their mission is simply to survive until a rescue ship can get to them. As you can imagine. This is a brutal, unforgiving landscape, but they try to build a shelter . They overturn one of the boats that they arrived in. They build up a stove, The interior of the hut stays between 15 and 30 degrees on a good day, They do their best to forage any food that they can. At one point they actually shoot a bear, which gives them like £400 of meat, which is great, but even that's not enough to sustain all of them. And they wind up hunting shrimp in the in the nearby bay . They catch them, but they're small and hard to eat, and almost impossible to peel. So by January 18 84 the men begin to die of starvation. And at this point, Edward Israel Journal. Some of the deaths of his colleagues journals about some of the deaths of his colleagues. So Friday, April 4th 18 84. Fred L died this am at nine. He was buried before dinner. Lin is worse today. Hunters unsuccessful Sunday April 6th 18 84 Lynn became unconscious at two PM today and died at seven PM Jewel was too weak to attend ice today took his place and on it goes Edward Israel's last journal entry was on April 14th and he passed away about a month later on May 20/7 18 84. The day ever died. Greeley wrote this in his journal. Quote his unswerving integrity during these months of agony has been a shining example. And although his sacrifices were lost to a few still, the effect has produced good fruit for lack of strength. We could not bury him today. Finally on June 22nd 18 84, the surviving members of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition are found. It keeps the bean and rescued. There were only seven of the 25 left remarkably what had survived almost fully intact where the scientific records of the expedition, which had been sealed and stored as best they could. The bodies of the men were low, carefully loaded into the waiting ship and the surviving men were given food and medical care. But unfortunately one of the surviving men died within a short time of being rescued so that left six men who were left alive and they are pictured here and Lieutenant Greely is in the front row. His beard is much trimmed front row, right? And at first when the survivors get home, they're greeted with a hero's welcome. But soon, these terrible rumors of cannibalism spread like wildfire on among the newspapers. And while autopsies of some of the bodies had shown flesh being stripped away, there was a chance It was from the men trying to capture those tiny shrimp in the bay and Greeley, for his part, denies any knowledge of cannibalism and says, quote I know of no law, human or divine that was broken at Sabine. When Edwards Israel's body is brought back to Kalamazoo, the whole town turns out to greet it. The businesses closed the mayor and the City Council attended the funeral, and he's buried in the Jewish cemetery in town in this historical marker was erected near his grave site in 1972. His mom was given some of the plants that Edward had collected on his expedition, and then she generously donated them back to the University of Michigan. And today, this plant here I'm not even going to try to pronounce it. It exists in the University of Michigan herbarium. And if you look at the collection information, it does indeed say that word Israel collected it. So Edwards death no doubt affected Mark Wall Rod Harrington deeply and it's certainly prompted him to write that strange profile piece in an academic journal, and he may have felt some guilt guilt recommending Israel for the expedition in the first place, and it's also possible that the exhibitions ship, the tragedy shifted something loose in Harrington. That may never have been right again because Harrington left the University of Michigan in 18 91 to lead the U. S Weather Bureau. And then he briefly became president of the University of Washington and Washington State. And then one night in 18 99. He told his wife he was going out to dinner. He walked out the door and he never came back for the next decade. Very little is known about him. The ST Louis Post Dispatch reports at one point in 19 01 that he's logging in the Pacific Northwest in 19 02. The York Times writes about him being in a Chicago flophouse with this headline, Quote an ex college president among the tramps. Then in 19 07. Harrington is discovered in a New Jersey asylum. He could still converse in several languages, read Latin and chart the constellations. Harrington's son had tracked him down there, and he did not recognize his own son, and he really never recovered from this and he spent the remainder of his life in his in the asylum before passing away in 1926. And while Harrington's and his tragic and really this whole story is super tragic, I want to leave you with a small silver silver lining to all of it. And the silver lining is this. That the scientific contributions of Lieutenant Greely, Edward, Israel and the other men on that expedition were absolutely unprecedented and incredible. Their data was unparalleled. And it matters even today, especially today. It's the data that they collected that tells us that the seeds are getting warmer that the ice is diminishing that glaciers have declined. That permafrost has thought it is the expedition's data that tells us all of this and it sounds the alarm on climate change. We can think their unparalleled determination to save the science they collected because that information is one of the definitive ways we know something is deeply wrong with our planet and that it's time to act. So it's one way that the legacy of these brave men lives on. Thank you. Okay He said no, thanks. So. A moment too soon. We have a story about rebirth, Happiest, Yeah. My computer knows that. Yeah. How's that work for you, Chris? Alright So my story First of all, I would like to say these two women are so amazing. I'm always so fascinated by like the extreme granular detail from you. Knowing Greeley's beard was bushy because he'd been in the war and Antietam and lost some teeth. What and then Cam writing for the national you know, writing to New York to get Father of the guy, she wrote about death certificate to find out that he, too had issues, So it's just kind of amazing. My story is a little bit simpler. And as editor of Michigan today, part of My goal always is to really like. It's so corny, but to really engage with people and to have them respond to my stories to provoke them to respond, And so, you know, there are a lot of elements that I look for in a story and this piece that I'm about to share with you. That was written by Jim Tobin, who is a beloved writer. That's contributed to everything we've done in our careers here. Um He's just a great history writer and people always Respond to his stuff. So this is a story called the tap in Oak, and it was a tale of life, death and rebirth, and it was the kind of story That Classically covers away. This is slide to. It's a kind of story that, um, you know, in a town called Ann Arbor People are gonna like trees. It's not too hard for me to figure out. Okay, Step one. Um And also you know, people do favor stories about familiar campus icons, obviously , and this tree being 250 years old, likely had the opportunity to interact with virtually every living alumnus that you know, had the opportunity to come to an arbor spend time on the diagonal cetera. It also is named for you. Evans First President Henry Philip Tappin. Cool Most graduates would have heard of it some point and who probably saw the plaque read about the Tappan Oak and experienced it at some point. So um, I'm happy to report that we planned correctly because almost 20,000. People have read this story in the course of about a year. And about 48 while 48 people wrote in their own memories and their own feelings about this story and how it affected them. And this this person Steve Gold and alum from 68 and 75 really points out that the kernel of something we all realize as virtuous as residents of Ann Arbor that the trees of Ann Arbor are nearly as significant as the people, and it's really true in so many ways. Um The thing about this story is that it's not just about a tree, although we did think we were writing a story or that Jim would be following the story of a treaty. It gets chopped down. Those kind of stories are always said And it's so cute that this fellow Randy Milgrom Road I never imagined a story about a tree could make me weep. But here we are. Because the tree has is has its own hero's journey. I mean, the elements that we love about stories are, you know, having a hero having a mission being transformed little bit of tragedy a little bit of suspense, and then you know a nice Happy ending, And so this tree literally had its own heroes journey. It came and it was a very clever device to tell the history of the university through this trees own experience. So for instance, it came from an acorn that apparently fell off a tree that was on land originally populated by the Ojibwe, the Dawa and the Pottawatomie Nations. Ah a fellow named Elijah Rumsey purchased the land purchased the land from these native tribes, and he's known as one of the original founders of Ann Arbor. So he factors in the story since he bought the land and not a whole lot is known about him, although I'm sure Kim and we're probably know a lot more about him. He died in August 18 27 due to a fever. In these buried Enforced Hill Cemetery here in Ann Arbor with a headstone that bears the inscription, the first settler in Ann Arbor. Um so then we also have an opportunity to learn about President tap in a little bit. Uh he's responsible for this. The old part of this building that we're standing in , was very first president of the university and actually was fired by the board of Regions. So that's a maybe a little known fact. It also gives us an opportunity to meet a fellow named Andrew Dickson White, who came to the university from Yale back in the day on 18 57 and Yale apparently was much leafy er than an Arbor was at the time. And so he started just planting his own trees. And Kim has a beautiful story about him and her website. Ah where he began to for his own love of trees started planting a bunch of trees. A lot of students participated in that with him. And by this point this baroque had started to grow. The students decided to name it after president happen, and as part of their class gift, they planted trees and concentric circles around the tap and oak and left a plaque. Describing their activities so by the time at this point now the civil war is starting to cook up. These boys are leaving campus to go to the war, and by the time they come back, so many of them have died. It's a So sad and Andrew Dickson White is known to have said I fear there are more trees now than boys. So it's really sad, so he was very attached to his trees. And so, um, it's Also here's Hero's journey. By virtue of this character Chase Griffith , who we meet in this story. So now he's a contemporary student in 2013, or so he's kind of an unhappy you have, um, students said grew up in this area, not very enchanted by the University of Michigan lonely and he spends a lot of time on the diag under the tap on Oak and loves it so much there takes so much comfort in it that one day he scoops a bunch of acorns into his backpack. And goes on his merry way he graduates and he goes on to pursue a graduate degree at MSU in Arboretum becomes a fabulous arborist. Um, and in the meantime, Sort of feeling sentimental about his days with the Tappan. Okay even though it was, you know, not so happy here , starts growing some acorns and starts to see some saplings appear. Puts them in his father's back yard in Selene, and kind of holds on fingers crossed. So now suddenly, you know, the story has taken a little bit of a turn from what a sad day this 250 year old oak that's been here forever and has endured all these things. Has died from the virus of all things. So now we've got like chasing the picture and as one of our readers points out, it's so cute, basically re told the whole story, and he's coming. His name is George Phone in 1971 MBA grad. He says great historical recollection that in 18 58, Andrew Dickson white and students named the native oak tallest tree on campus and President Henry Philip happens, honor. And then in 2013 14, with his good nature student chased Griffith gathered Tappan Oak acorns, two of which he has nurtured to 4 ft. Sturdy oak saplings now offering one to Michael Rudovsky, the campus Forrester to plant and carry forward the strong life spirit of the Tappan Oak. And the University of Michigan. So as Jim had been pursuing this story and learning about the life and death of this tree One of the groundskeepers here told him this story about Chase, and now suddenly, we're like he calls me and says You're never gonna believe what I just found out the trees coming back. It's still alive. You know, it was so great. So he saw this readers just like I felt, he said, and so heartening that the tepid oak tale brings back my recollections of the treasure trees at the center of the campus by the old physics, lecture Hall and West Engine Hall when I was there in the fifties I love to see the great trees then and have for a lifetime when visiting the campus. I'm grateful that the university community values and carries forward the strong life spirit of the Tappan oak and all the majestic natural landmarks of the University of Michigan. So as an editor of this publication that goes to 475,000 people. My job is to make those people feel warm and nostalgic about their university and, you know, have happy memories or Not even necessarily happy memories but feel a strong connection to the place. And so, uh, this piece really kind of did that for everyone felt very reminiscent and nostalgic, So I thought this was kind of interesting. This tree played had so many different roles over the years or the ways that it represented campus life to people. And so this person, Randall Smith wrote in his memory of Bump Elliott, one of the football coaches back in the fifties, once hung in effigy from this powerful symbol symbol , So it's like this tree just saw a lot. It's Ah, you know, the Depression, the advent of the space of space travel creation of the Internet, You know it saw a lot of our life here at the University from All these stories. These two are just telling of those people, let alone the protest in the sixties and everything else And so you know, it bore witness to a lot of Michigan life and then the fact that it was going to be gone was pretty sad. So to get another crack the acorn, you know, it was a pretty thrilling sick thing. So in terms of like storytelling and storytelling devices Now we've got this sweet plot twist that has just Taken the story into a whole nother place than we really thought we were going to begin with. And so, um One of this one of our other readers, Jared Canter in 2006. He uh he's talking about his memories of the train. It's so funny, like the different things that people remember what they choose to share. So, he says, I have many fond memories of walking this area of the Diagon gazing up at that majestic tree and the word majestic got used quite a bit in people's comments. And he says this story and this is what I want people to do. And this is what's so great when they do stuff like this. This story has inspired me to go look through long forgotten photos taken on a Palm Pilot no less of a friend of mine trying to interact with the money. Squirrels who loved the tree in that area of campus. So you know, I just sent that person down memory Lane or Jim did with this story, So you know, just that's the kind of energy we're trying to produce. Without, you know. Blowing smoke . You know, we're just trying to remind you of the wonderful things that happened here and the people here. So this person says, you know, now we're thinking a little bit about academics at the moment, so this person recalls the difficult tree identification class that I almost failed. So we're even bringing back memories of, you know, hard school days, which you know, Chase himself was experiencing. Ah not loving life here. But you know, he, uh, Ah! This story gives us a chance to get to know him a little bit and find out that you know, he was still able to find wonder in nature, You know, even though he was a little bit sad, and he was present, and we have to remember to be present, you know, he loved that Theresa much. He picked up an acorn because he kind of wanted to carry it around in his pocket, and now we are basically awaiting the return of a sapling of the This tree's progeny, you know? So it kind of it's one of those lovely little circle of life kind of stories, which I love, but it really teaches us to that, you know. There's this sort of eternal circle that A simple action that one person takes picking up some acorns. He's gonna bring a lot of happiness to a lot of people, particularly the nearly 8000 people that read this story, who are anxiously awaiting the trees return, So it's kind of nice little underlying theme for the reader to realize, you know, we should be a little bit more like chase , and now we can be excited that this tree's coming back. Um So except for a fellow named Kenneth Scheffler, 1975 grad who like Chase also went to MSU for some grad work, And he said, How appropriate that an MSU grad is providing the replacement tree for you of them, like, never lose a chance to get a digging you So you know what can I say? But so, yes, So it's just it just kind of one of those things where Um, you just realized like from a this little tiny acorn. In fact, I have acorn earrings on today that I recently got. I just love the concept that within this eight corners all this potential for a tree, and it's same thing about our lives and the same thing about a story particularly this story. We thought we were writing one story and then it blossomed into this whole beautiful other concept. Um And this is really kind of what? Uh This is another beautiful aspect of this story. This reader said, you know, we need the big old trees to remind us where transient creatures and James Tobin, We need him to tell us great stories that enrich our lives. And that is exactly what you know. My job is. So I was very happy that this person seemed to agree. Um you know, it's not just about the tree now . Also we This story also gave us some interesting other little pathways. Insights into, um, history. Where uh, we discovered this, um, poem Jim found a poem that a student had written. Back in. 18 86, a fellow named Do Bill RK. So in the Argonaut, he wrote a poem above the Tappan Oak, which would have printed if I could figure that out, but it's just really a sweet poem he goes. We are gathered around the tap and oak, fresh from alma mater as halls soon must school life's binding limbs. Rinks be broke. How fun memory recalls. The days are gone by softly, we say under the tepid oak, So it goes on. It's a really sweet poem. So it turns out that not only did that poem exists, but some, you may be wondering about . This artwork this blue leaf that you're looking at? It's kind of hard to find a compelling picture of a tree that you can specifically say is what's happened, Oak and we really didn't have great photography on it. But what we did discover was, um this into 2017 when we were celebrating the university's bicentennial. Uh, this Man named Fritz Swanson , who is a lecturer here in the English Departments writing program, and he has also director of Wolverine Press. He was at the time. He from poem and decided to, uh and also asked the grounds crew to pick up some leaves from the tree. And then they took it into the press. The Wolverine press inked up both sides of the leaf, put it in between two poem blanks and ran them through the press for pressure. This produced a print of both sides of the leaf. And then he says that tree meant a lot to me personally and to so many people on campus. Thank you for inviting me to celebrate it again with these prints Best. Fritz Simmons er Fritz Swanson. So then I had a chance to kind of even interact with Fritz Watson. So that was kind of cool and find out what he felt and how he was paying tribute to the tree. And the thing that's so great about this story is that it just has the capacity to remind us all how much we love that time in our life. I mean, you think back on the shady diag or whatever, and how much we loved college. The diag. The shade the squirrels, grass, the hammocks, the Frisbees, the bikes, the Flyers posters, the kiosks. The chalk messages. The student organizations, the protests, the megaphones, snowball fights. You know this enduring electric ongoing life force. So the college campus that shaped us and that tree for all those years and people really came really felt that deeply when they read the story and Measuring the success by the comments is something very satisfactory to me. And the fact that this one got 48 comments was really great, and I'm just going to read this last one that really kind of captures the essence of it all. So this guy's name is Steve Gold. He graduated well clearly from English language and literature, as you'll understand by it is note and also human nutrition. So he says trees on central campus like the Tappan oak trees and the ARB trees along the shady streets. I remember literally hugging a huge oak on Lincoln south of Hill Street. Drifting home in the small hours from a smoky, boozy party, circa 1970. They helped the multiple ways to create the atmosphere of the place and time. Toby is wonderful story leads me to reflect on how trees span generations stay solidly there, and they're quiet awareness for life After life. I tell my little granddaughters how I used to lie on the shaded grass near the grad library, holding an acorn or a fragment of sandwich and my outstretched hand for the squirrel bold enough to come and take it from me. Maybe 20 years from now they will do the same, risking a bite to feed them many times removed descendants of my sixties squirrels under the spreading canopies of the exact same trees that were there for me and the squirrels half a century ago. Happen, Okay, is gone, But it's germ will live on as a mighty oak on central campus. I'll be gone, but my granddaughters will live on as mighty women here or somewhere. Throw says We stand always quote on the meeting of two eternities past and present. Which is precisely the present moment. Reading James Tobin. Story has made this morning and excellent present moment for me, and I'm grateful so I can say to that is thank you to my fabulous readers and writers who sue right in because you know, I'm forever grateful for that beautiful content that they provide. So thank you. Mm hmm. Another trees . Sure on your microphone station already. Okay Well, thank you all. Thank you. All that was wonderful. Um And as I was listening, you know, I think that it's clear that there's at least one residence across these Stories and I guess what it has to do with heroism, right? Ah I mean, Deborah, you talked about Chase Griffiths Heroism. You talk metaphorically about the heroism of the Tappan oak and what that represents Laura. Clearly the scientific heroism of this group. And am I right that Israel was the only actual scientist on this on this team, Okay, But these are these are these are mostly these were mostly military guys. Who became so committed to this mission into the science of the mission that they didn't want to give up the pendulum and look what they've produced. And then, Kim , you know in your story, there are different kinds of different kinds of heroism. There's the heroism of students or the foolhardiness of students, I guess rushing into a burning building to rescue Academic material. There's the heroism of some of the faculty who lost things, but who came back anyway from that, and I suppose there's even in some sense the heroism of Robert Stacy in some ways, so I just want to say that and have you react in some ways to that? I'm every time we look at that photo of the students on the fire escape. I just think that would never happen to this. Um I don't even know that We have fire safe like that on buildings, but, uh, Just there's so many reasons. I don't think that would happen. And I was just like Wow, um and the and the fire chief even said this would have been even more devastating. That was possible, if not for the efforts of students. Wow And I also think about Robert Stacey. Um I think he must have had some incredible pain. Um because of losses in his life, and that he lived with that, and he's still persevered and made something of his life. So um, there's so many unanswered questions about him, but Like his stepdaughter said he did make a career. That he wanted to achieve so Other other reactions. I think one of the things that I thought was so profound as I mentioned that as It doesn't work. Red light. I don't know if that matters. Okay Come on. Oh, Can I borrow your bedroom? I don't know. It's three. Hi Laura. Stop I'm a star . Okay um, anyway, Edwards, One of Edward's hesitations for going on this mission was that his mom was a widow and she had siblings and he was really worried that him leaving would and he just was so worried about leaving her, and she encouraged him to go and The fact that you know he didn't come back. She could have been bitter. I think she could have been really upset. I mean, sure she was upset, but she could have been bitter and angry. And the fact that she sort of did this really beautiful thing of giving back that plant the herbarium, I think the set time after time with the story people do the sort of right thing and the generous thing And it's astounding. Hello I don't know if it works or not. Yeah similarly Chase offering that tree. He was the one who called you of them to let them know that he was successful, ah, and growing two of them into pretty robust saplings. And it's so true that so often, people say, like the true sign of optimism, or Bravery or whatever is plant and tree that you know you'll never live to see develop into a 250 year old borough That's majestic and incredible, But you know the fact that he, uh Is going to create this happiness for people in the future, or, you know a new, uh, new shady spot on the diag. It's just a really beautiful thing that he'll never be able to enjoy. But just passing it along. I think it's such that's an act of heroism for sure. And I do think you know just the optimism of knowing you gotta keep going. Gotta keep planting the trees. That's great, Deborah. If I could continue with you is there Do we know what's going to happen? Do we do we know when and where I just talked to him recently and they're still waiting there Not is not ready to turn it over yet, little more time, But I don't know exactly where they're going to plant it. Maybe they'll put it back in the same place. There was also discussion of taking the wood from the from the okay from the Tappan oak and doing things with times they do repurpose them and to, you know, benches and Decorations, black EMS. I'm not sure how much of that wood was able to be repurposed because this is the virus that killed it did hollow out much of a trunk. So it was in pretty bad shape. Sadly yeah, so they didn't chase his father, mo over some samplings. Simon is dance backyard and, unfortunately is dead mode over a few of them and chase was like stop. And was able to rescue the two that he's now They're like, very valuable , so he's giving one to MSU and one to us so we could have had the tap and Grove. Yeah batch of them, But we will now they'll just keep dropping acorns, so just keep happening. I just love that ongoing circle. Um Laura, I wanted to ask you for first of all, Do we know anything We know much about Edward Israel's life at U of M. And that's one question the other is what are sort of the primary sources for what we know about all of this. Um So, uh, I wish that my colleague Andrew Rutledge was here He is. The real historian. I just read a book called The, Um It was called something in the ice by Buddy Levi. In Um I'm so sorry. I can't remember the title of it. But the so I read this book by Buddy Levy, which is chock full of primary sources. I highly recommend it. Um Oh, I think it might be called a tragedy in the ice. I might have stolen his title and I will say it's nonfiction that reads like fiction. It is so very good, and it's just so compelling. And um, you know, the thing is in Edward Israel's alumni file. There really, just isn't that much. I wish we knew more about him. Andrew and I tried really hard to find additional photos of him. We found out that one from the expedition, but we weren't able to locate much more about him. So unfortunately I'm not able to fill in much about his life, but on campus, but certainly we do know that he was this academic superstar in the idea that he was in this place with Mark Wall, Rod Harrington and really being nurtured and mentored by him as his pretty pretty cool. Thank you. And came the story you set out to write. Yes about the people who are impacted by the fire. You can use a little bit about that. Yeah Came through dry demand who I mentioned the Civil War historian. Um, he. Regrouped and he wrote a very powerful book about the history of the Civil War. Um and the cause any basically said it was slavery. It was racism. And it came out Maybe something else. Thanks 63 64, and it unleashed the most incredible racist letters to him. Um. For You know, calling it racist that the war Um And but it was the wildly popular book and receive a lot of accolades. There was another faculty member, Palmer Throop. Um also in the history department he was writing on Italy Early Italy Renaissance. Um he lost everything. He said he was going to regroup. He was given an additional sabbatical to do this, and he never recovered his career in that area. So um, very sad. I can't even imagine. No no, it's. That's why I appreciate that. There's the cloud and there's thumb drives everything real. It's just amazing what you can find about these people you know, and how deep their stories going interesting. They are And then I just fascinating. What you uncovered pool view. So I want to invite the audience in online. You can put questions in the comments, and Austin will convey them. And if you're in the audience want to ask a question. Please wait for Maggie to bring the microphone over to you so that we can get it onto the stream and until the recording So any Any questions at this point. Okay well, you know, raise your hand. Anytime and let's let's just keep. Let's just keep going. Um so in general what this is for all of you, I guess. What advice would you give? A young writer who was interested in writing about the University of Michigan? Visit the best you got to go to the right. That wasn't the plan. So many great stories to read about the University of Michigan that have been out there that have been written Kim's site, the Heritage site, Lars magazine. The stories that are in Michigan today, there so and you feel kind of dumb and ruin read this story, I wrote, But it's more because the story itself is fascinating and Ah, there is a great series. Can you guys both worked on it? I think that Detroit public television Yep. For the bicentennial Jim's books . Her articles have been compelled in the books and the colors. You guys did that 200 year 200 year anniversary book. Um and it's the thing that you can tell by the way, these stories have been written and then described and retold. They're really, really interesting. It's not like some boring old. You know, the university Taxed. It's they're real. They're like thrillers and really interesting mysteries and people so When the new president came, and now we have a new VP of communications. I feel like we should give them a list like especially that d P T V series was so good and I captured I believe President. Oh, no. Watched it good. That was nice, And then you can figure out how to write a story. Maybe by reading a lot of them, And, yeah, I think I would tell students that there is a lot of material out there already from many sources. Is to take a look at it and try to find a different angle. Jim Tobin, who we have all worked with, he would say, Pull the thread. Yep Um, pull the thread and see how things unravel because you're just going to find something new and interesting. Your story. Yeah yeah, It's like I don't. Here's the story I'm going to do and that totally blows up and become something different. Um, and I just think There has to be an element of curiosity. Um and then when you're stumped, you talk to people like Greg Kenny and Brian Williams and say, Can you please help me? What do you guys have here at the Bentley that might inform what I'm trying to do. Hmm So interested to buy the questions like that? You're like, Why did this person right this story for this publication? I don't even think that would have occurred to me to ask. You know what I mean? And then that takes you down a path, you know, so just wondering. Just being curious and keep asking, stop to find out one thing that was interesting about the arsonist story was there's a history class. Um I think it's still happens every year where they They do their own research at the Bentley on a given topic, Um, and a couple of weeks, maybe a year or two after the Heritage Project story was published, this class was looking at mental health at Michigan, and so they took four or five sort of episodes or chapters from university history, and each student or team students worked on it and sort of Look at how the university address mental health didn't address mental health Twitter and they use Robert Stacy is one example. But that was just an idea a sense of here so I can come at it from a different angle. Um, and they looked at other episodes in campus history. Um so Yeah. They produced a produced the website . This is on the machine in the world. The world. Thank you. Eject and history. Wonderful stuff. Yeah, that's that's a Bentley history collaborations. Another thing, too. I like just having those elements. If there is a mystery, or there is a journey or there is a transformation all those classic story elements you need conflict . You need attention. Yeah you need to dynamic character and your main character and the All that kind of stuff so and a nice arc to take it over the edge you need. I think you need voices. Mhm Mhm Diaries and memoirs and newspaper clippings that Help to breathe some life into it. Hmm. Yeah, you know, you often hear people say, Well, I'm not really interested in history or, you know, I took history. I took history in high school, and I couldn't stand it and so forth, but But clearly people people engage with history. I mean, it's the same thing at the Bentley when students come and they actually get to hold something, the 100 year old document and look at it and figure out what was going on. Ah, they are enthralled. So I think to the, um what? What is great about the Bentley and the University of Michigan? Is that like whatever you're interested in like you have em is so big and it's been around for so long, like whatever you're interested in, you can find a story about it. I mean, I was joking with Gary earlier like I get really lucky. Last year, I did a talk on UFOs like I get to write about the coolest stuff and you know, there's just so you could write about you could be interested in anything and find a really cool Will you about the story about it? I wrote a story about Henry happens, dog had this famous dog on campus, and it's like, and it was a way to sort of tell the history of the university. But through the experiences of Leo, his his great pooch, you made a good main character who doesn't love a dog story. Of course. Yeah so since our audience isn't asking questions much do you guys have any questions for each other about the about the about Talking just that. Well I wanna the remember reading Jim Tobin story about the Tappan Oak and I sent him an email. And I said only You could write a story about a tree and have me tearing up reading it. It is an absolutely beautiful story to read. Um, it's so well done. I mean, who doesn't love a tree and some of them? I don't know. It's just everything about it was so perfect. That story. Yeah yeah, that happy ending really help, and it went in an unusual direction. There's another one of those things just very casual conversation with the groundskeeper and the groundskeeper volunteered it like it wasn't like Jim said. Hey By the way, did anyone pick up some acorn? You know, basically asking just to write about its history and today and then we got this sweet. Jam the South I have a question for you . Okay I envy many times the stories that you find in Tel there just so well done. And I'm like, how did you find this? And like, I just kind of wondered how do you find your stories and how many are like, Do you have sort of a list that you go through and you know, 80% are don't turn into anything in 20% are real or Cuddy. What's your process? Jim Tobin and Jim is my colleague on the Heritage Project. So we talk a lot about stories we would like to do, um , stories. We've come across a lot of often, it's because it's in maybe a history of the university or, um Something come across the daily, which is not digitized, which is a great resource. Um and again, it's just that There's just something a little thing might jump out and I'll go well. What is that? And the one that always comes to mind is there's a book by Howard Peckham, the history the University of Michigan and make It's sort of the definitive history the university well, the encyclopedic survey is, but it's a history of the university. It's not the most compelling read, but it's got a lot of facts, a lot of names and whatnot, and it talked. There's one sentence in this book about a chemistry professor being blinded in a laboratory accident . And I'm like, huh? How did that happen? Um and it just turned into this incredible story about this poor young. Junior faculty member doing experiment with the students. Things blow up literally has his eyes destroyed and he goes on to teach for, you know, 35 more years is very popular, he writes paper and everything in Braille. Um So you just kind of go. What's going on here? Um, And the really cool attendant to that story is and that was published. I don't know, Seven or eight years ago, uh, this professor Edward Campbell hit a home designed for him by Albert Kahn. It's at the corner of Hill and Washington. Um the people who live there now sent me an email and said, We just read your article. Would you like to come over and see the house like? Yeah Um and that was a very fun afternoon. Um so. I guess it's just that curiosity and asking that push. I think about Robert Carol, if anybody's read his biographies of Lyndon Johnson is sort of the definitive biographer and he wrote a book on writing and doing historical research. Any thing that stuck with me in that book, he says, always turn the page. So when you're going through, those must be folders. Turn one more page because there just might be something on the back of a piece of paper or looking through the roof and papers. I'm trying to find stuff on faculty and fire loss. And there's this letter from Robert Stacy. It's like Holy cow. Um, problem with us is that we would keep you know you could never get out of their thing. When do you stop? When do you start? Hard to walk? We? There's so much cool, just amazing things. Guys So do I. Yeah, Greg. And almost a follow up on that. Do you ever come to a point where you decide this story is not going to work, but something that seemed like a really good idea. But either this resources aren't there or there is just as compelling as you thought It might be. I I'm not going to tell you what the story is, but I spent, I said, spend some time researching it. Um, I thought it was a story. I wrote it, and there's this little voice in the back of my head. It's like this is not a story. Um I sent it to Jim because we edit each other's stuff. And he wrote back and he said, Well, This really doesn't feel like a story. Um and it's like, you know, you're right. I just hope I could sneak it past you get Mom or dad to sign the report card. Maybe he'll just say, Yeah. Um And so you just set those aside and maybe I can use the material and some other way. It might inform another story, But yeah, that's always frustrating when you think you're on to something, and either the material is not there, and you just have to have The material or it's just not as compelling as you hoped or thought it might be so The artwork. Those assets make such a big Oh, yeah images and then the artifacts that both showing amazing Just the records just to see the handwriting and such a rare and always makes you wonder like what are people going to find out about us someday, right out there on some weird document with you. Name auditors something. I had a story about a Michigan writer who is dad and shall remain nameless and I was really excited to do this piece. I was so excited and I got into the collection and discovered that they were a liar. They beat their first wife. No Um, and there is there are pretty celebrated Michigan writers, so I had to take a step back. And um, just hit the pause button because I'm still not sure what to do with this story, but that it could be a potential Controversial And, um again, they're very dead. It's about hundreds of years ago, so yeah, see, um, play Well, that man so Yeah, Anyway, it's just It's super interesting. Like these are the kinds of things that you know you might. I might not be able to write it right now. But maybe someday Yeah. Sometimes you just need that time a little bit of space. Um figure out what to do with it. And, you know, sometimes the national mood informs things. Yes yes. So uh, Gary, I just have to just offer a comment as someone who's worked with Kim Clarke three different times through our careers. Um I have one thing you know that Just When you write about history, you have to have time and something that writers often don't have is the time to do the investigation to do the research to reach out to the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth source, and that's what makes these stories so compelling, I think and I and my experience and is also that these when done well, these can be some Of the most Popular stories of any readership group . We often refer to Kim Clarke as the queen of the gateway, because when we feature her stories on the U F M Gateway News on the Gateway, Um the clicks goes through the charts. It's just It's awesome and in its across Uh, readers generations and it's and I don't mean to just focus on Kim because people like to work with all of these people and read their work and it's incredibly valuable and that somebody is giving them the time to do this work and to And to, to paraphrase a horrible commercial to be curious. Yes yes, continue to be curious is really valuable . Thanks Rick. I think that's a great comment, and I mean, I have to say that I think we are fortunate that there is a There is enough of a commitment at this institution to the institution's history. And that and I mean, these are people who have helped build that commitment and convince others that they should be so committed so maybe as one last question. What What can we look forward to seeing you in the next few months, stories or crazy? One that just published so I didn't want to do it for this presentation, and it didn't have all the engagement that I like to brag about. Um but it's really good history story that an alarm, wrote a book. Ah! You never know if it's the first time writer was a service gonna be great book or not perfectly fine, Pretty good, book, compelling story about Former region and governor of Michigan in the 19 hundreds named, UM another chase Chase Osborn. Uh and this woman has was grew up spent a lot of time in Palestine , Michigan near the bio station. Her father was a professor here as well. So she grew up on Michigan campus and up north. And I always thought this bust of this character and as an older woman, she really she learned it was Chase Osborn. Louis was She started to do some research about him because she wanted to write a biography of him because she had been intrigued by this bus through a whole childhood up north and learned some stuff about him. And a lot of the stories just like Kim was saying, You know, one sentence stands out this writer in one sentence kept standing out. In the history of this man. It was always him and his wife adopted. A young woman named Stella Nova, who was a University of Michigan graduate . They adopted her when she was 37. And then the story would just go on. Like 37, and nobody ever investigated, apparently, until she started looking into it Turns out, Yeah. They were. She had been corresponding with cheese Osborn as a graduate student in writing and ultimately developed a relationship. She wound up He adopted her. He and his wife sort of had a secret divorce amongst themselves because I don't want to be divorced and ruin his reputation. So his wife leaves they lived in the upper peninsula on Island Sugar Island Duck Island, So she, the wife returned to the mainland and left the house and the daughter moved in with her father. And so he was about 70 something that this time and she was his writing assistant, etcetera. So as are the woman that I wrote the story about her writing this story, she went to the Bentley in hopes of finding a scrap or two. That could, um, confirm that these people were more than just adopted father and daughter and she needed some clarification. She found 600 pages of correspondence. Very ardent between these two people from 1920 to 30 like 27 to 37 or something to that effect, but to think that you would buy 600 pages of back and forth, and he would often write back to her and annotate her letters and write little answers to what? Not like correcting, but he would answer questions or Expand on something she had written and then send it back to her, So she had a lot of her original stuff shipment into him. And then he, of course saved stuff. But And in her pinch treat, the contemporary writer was saying, I believe she wanted to be heard because she never no one ever talked about her ever until this, you know, And so she goes . I think she wants some of the funny doubts someday and there you go exists, reads the sentence and goes, There's something more to this story, and now we know this whole tail and it's quite fascinating. So needless to say, what the book is called Ward Wife, widow they were married about about 24 hours before he died. He never married her until he was basically okay. Signed the papers. Yeah. Very short lived marriage. That's good. So sorry . That was kind of long winded, but it's certainly interesting tale. So uh, Gary had a making Michigan recently featuring the story of Chandler Davis, who was one of three faculty who are fired during the red scare. Um and I like to have stories in the magazine where people are still alive, and we can quote them because that doesn't always happen. So we found a what? With Gary's help. We were able to find a student who had done a documentary on Chandler Davis. Um in the in the eighties, and he really helped bring this shameful part of Michigan's history back into the four and helped get a little bit of, um, I won't call it justice but help Chandler Davis's story be retold in that documentary, and his name is Adam. How, and we were able to interview Adam and sort of tell this other part of the Chandler Davis story. We also do stories about stories we do so that's coming out in the fall. Cool. So I was up with the Bentley doing some research on a alarm. His name was John Nakamura. Um Japanese American Young man served in World War two and was killed. Um And I thought this would be kind of cool story because he was Japanese American. He didn't listed he'd been on enlisted by the Army after Pearl Harbor. He reenlisted so as often happens when I'm at the Bentley, Brian Williams steps by and my table and says, What are you working on? And I told him and he made a reference to the fact. Oh, you know, we employed Japanese Americans on campus during the war. It's like what? Um We had such a severe labor shortage during the war because the men on campus either had gone into the military or gone to work for the defense plants like the bomber plant, and Delaney, which paid more, um that we ended up going out to the internment camps in the Western states and recruited Japanese American young men to come and work on campus. Um and hundreds of them came to work at you about. So I am writing about that now, and poor John Nakamura is on the back burner. But I will write his story too. So thank you. Thank you all is looking forward to all of those. Thank you so much for this discussion. Thank you. You want. To Want to encourage our audience. If you don't already know of these publications, Michigan today Collections magazine, the Heritage Project. They're fantastic, thanks to Austin administer for monitoring YouTube justified for handling the microphone. Michigan media for producing the event tonight , thanks as always, to the audience here and online. Making Michigan will be back in September. So stay tuned for news about our fall events. This session will be on our website in about a week or so. If you want to rewatch or send it along to others, and if you have registered, you'll get an email saying when it's up. Ah I want to remind you, the observatory has opened Friday afternoons were leading a lot of campus walks on Friday afternoons over the summer were also opened Friday evenings for Astronomy night and on Thursday evenings for various programming. So please check our website. If you're here at the observatory, the observatory upstairs is going to be open until nine o'clock. We have docents who are excited to show you things. Ah And there's a lot of fascinating history upstairs if you haven't already already seen it, So thank you again until we see each other. Be safe. Stay well and keep up. Hope. Thank you.

Channel: University of Michigan

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Id: deVOc5tPw9c

Length: 93min 25sec (5605 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2023