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Do you believe in miracles? Valentine Davies did.
Christmas craziness Valentine Davies wrote the story that would inspire the screenplay for ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ Then he wrote a short novel to cross-promote the picture. (Harcourt Brace and...
View ArticleThree in one: How U-M created the academic medical center
In the mid-1800s, U-M became the first institution to combine patient care with medical education and research.
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Can data preserve peace?
Accident at sea On Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, J. David Singer turned 16 in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was hot to be a Navy fighter pilot, but you had to be 17 to sign up. So one...
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Madelon’s world
A death in Kalamazoo On a springtime afternoon in 1924, Minerva Moffett walked across the street from her Kalamazoo home to check on her elderly neighbor. Moffett operated a boarding house and the old...
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A tale of two writers, an editor, and one amazing box
Podcast Transcript Hi, I’m Deborah Holdship, editor of Michigan Today. This episode of Listen in Michigan deviates a little from the norm, as if I’ve ever established a norm. But anyway, instead of...
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Two weeks in 1918
An unfamiliar virus … sound familiar? An unfamiliar strain of influenza reached Ann Arbor some time in the final days of September 1918. The early symptoms felt like a common cold plus “more marked...
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The idea to ‘flatten the curve’
The avian threat Howard Markel Early in 2006, wild birds were dying in high numbers. The cause was found to be a highly contagious influenza virus called H5N1 — the “avian flu.” The virus had infected...
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The beginning of what?
To everything turn, turn, turn Spring 2020 will forever be known to graduating students as the year COVID-19 stole commencement. It’s a plot twist few Michigan students could have seen coming when they...
View ArticleThe strategic suffragist
And still, she persisted Women’s Suffrage at 100 August 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of ratification of the 19th Amendment, which allowed white women and black women outside of the South to vote....
View Article‘Of splendid ability’
In 1880, the parallel lives of a misguided scientist and U-M’s first Black female student revealed a contrast of white and Black, privilege and struggle, and more than anything words and actions.
View ArticleMysteries at Michigan
Before COVID-19, the college campus could be described as America's 'last idyll.' Perhaps that is why so many mystery writers over time have set their tales of terror at a fictionalized University of...
View ArticleThe assassin’s widow
In the surreal days after the 1963 assassination of JFK, one Ann Arbor churchgoer sought to redeem the tragedy through a controversial – and secret – move. She invited Marina Oswald to U-M.
View ArticleThe fake news about James Neel
Upon his death in 2000, this pioneer in human genetics was lauded as one of U-M’s greatest scientists. But a post-mortem assault on his honor provides a cautionary tale of what can happen when ideas...
View Article‘No laughing matter’
Nearly 100 years before the 2020 coronavirus pandemic would unleash a wave of anti-Asian bias, a smaller but similar prejudice rippled across the U-M campus. It started with the 19th annual production...
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Bentley’s COVID-19 collection offers varied look at the pandemic
Past and present Student films. Journal entries. Tributes to hospital workers. These are just some items in the Bentley Historical Library’s COVID-19 collection that offer a poignant glimpse of the...
View ArticleSee half a century of U-M football
Way-back machine On Sept. 4, Wolverine fans will reclaim their seats in Michigan Stadium to enjoy live game action for the first time since 2019. And while some fans look to the future, others will be...
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The fraternity war
‘Gentlemen and scholars’ The original Chi Psi logo. (Image: U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.) In the fall term of 1845, just four years after classes had begun at the University of Michigan, a junior...
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Gather and sift
The making of a spy story I just read a new book called Sleeper Agent: The Atomic Spy in America Who Got Away (Simon & Schuster, 2021). The author is a friend, Ann Hagedorn, MILS ’75, a Michigan...
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Willis Ward: More than the game
Dis-agreement They called it a “gentleman’s agreement.” It was an informal adherence to a tradition whereby college football teams from northern states would bench their Black players when competing...
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Fleming Building, RIP
On the move President Mark Schlissel, his vice presidents, and their staffs are preparing to depart the Fleming Administration Building for new headquarters. Next year, they will cross the Diag to...
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