Happy birthday to this guy
by amy • May 7, 2012 • General Friend Palmer, History, Parties • 0 Comments
Celebrating General Friend Palmer's birthday with "whiskey in the gentlemen's dressing room, and champagne in the supper room."
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The Night Train
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History
One reason we might be called “Wolverines”
by amy • March 12, 2012 • Books, History • 0 Comments
Why are we called "Wolverines"? You've heard the stories about the Toledo War and greedy land-grabbing settlers. Here's one more idea, from an old tavern in Dearborn.
Read more →The history of William Webb, composed by himself.
by amy • February 29, 2012 • History • 3 Comments
The story of an escaped slave living and working in Detroit.
Read more →CYCLORAMA! Gigantic Paintings in Detroit, Part 2
by amy • February 17, 2012 • Art, Culture, History • 3 Comments
Part 2: From Germany, to Milwaukee, to Atlanta, to Detroit: the cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta.
Read more →PANORAMA! Gigantic paintings in Detroit, Part 1
by amy • February 16, 2012 • Art, Culture, History • 0 Comments
Starting around 1850, Detroiters could pop into Old City Hall or the Firemen's Hall and, for 25 cents or so, see the latest "greatest painting ever made" — sweeping views of overland route to California, the funeral of Napoleon, Bible scenes, the life of George Washington.
Read more →Meditations on a Boat Club
by amy • February 7, 2012 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, History, Meditations • 2 Comments
The Detroit Boat Club, founded in 1839, is the oldest in the country. Its home on Belle Isle is crumbling, compelling, and calls home centuries of water sport.
Read more →Sharks on Belle Isle and slavery in the Michigan Territory: links for Friday, 2/3/12
by amy • February 3, 2012 • History, Videos • 0 Comments
The historic Belle Isle Aquarium, closed since 2005, opens for one day only during Shiver on the River.
Read more →Detroit history tour (in FLORIDA!): The Edison-Ford Winter Estates
by amy • February 1, 2012 • History, Travel • 0 Comments
Henry Ford and Thomas Edison had neighboring seaside summer homes (and a research lab) in Florida. We visited.
Read more →Michigan celebrates 175: Worthy readings, commemorations and cake recipes
by amy • January 26, 2012 • History • 1 Comment
Captain Chelsea Blake tries, fails to avoid cholera
by amy • January 20, 2012 • History • 0 Comments
''Blake ... stood in mortal fear of death and from the cholera in particular. He went to Milwaukee to escape the latter, but unfortunately he did not.''
Read more →Ahoy!
by amy • January 12, 2012 • History • 1 Comment
Milwaukee's Captain Frederick Pabst, in his sea-captain days, crossed paths with another captain — Detroit shipping king and mega-millionaire industrialist Eber Brock Ward.
Read more →Canadian Club: A Detroit original (almost)
by amy • December 5, 2011 • Biographies, History • 5 Comments
How a lifelong Detroiter founded Canada's most famous whiskey.
Read more →That we may be more worthy of the place we now hold in the world.
by amy • November 23, 2011 • History, Holidays • 0 Comments
Michigan was an early adopter of the Thanksgiving tradition.
Read more →Detroit history at the DIA
by amy • November 18, 2011 • Art, Culture, History • 1 Comment
I miss history field trips. After spending most of the summer cooped up to write a book (and most of the fall re-assembling my life), I have been eager to start making excursions again — to cemeteries, parks, historic markers, battlefields, the woods. But it seems my time has started to free up just as...
Read more →An injection of the past into the present to inform the future
by amy • November 4, 2011 • History, Meditations • 3 Comments
Lost Landscapes of Detroit is this weekend at MOCAD, and its curator, Rick Prelinger, has some smart words about the relevance of Detroit history.
Read more →Dogs in early Detroit
by amy • October 28, 2011 • History • 5 Comments
In early Detroit, owning a dog cost you a 50-cent tax. Per dog. Why? Because there were so many damn dogs. Wrote Silas Farmer: There can be no doubt that dog tax was then necessary, for in 1805, with only five hundred and twenty-five heads of families, there were two hundred and nineteen dogs...
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