April 5, 2012
Spring break
A picture book of spring in Detroit. Historical glimpses of weather patterns. A poem about Lake Erie. Plus, it’s Opening Day.
• • •
October 28, 2011
Dogs in early Detroit
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:
• • •
February 2, 2011
Detroit historians on weddings and marriages
Silas Farmer and General Friend Palmer on early French weddings and the shadow of mortality in marriage.
• • •
January 6, 2011
Who was Silas Farmer? We found out.
Silas Farmer: upright Christian citizen, co-founder of Detroit’s YMCA, author of “History of Detroit and Michigan” and “The Drinker’s Dictionary.” All in our very first podcast
• • •
June 11, 2010
June 11, 1805: The fire
• • •
June 2, 2010
And change had oft succeeded change.
A poem about tearing down abandoned houses in Detroit. Written in 1882.
• • •
May 23, 2010
On writing, about history and otherwise
Unequaled Detroit historian Silas Farmer has some advice for you.
• • •
April 4, 2010
Michigan Garden & Detroit’s “Amusement King”
A public garden/museum of curiosities/menagerie/circus/theater/bathhouse in early Detroit.
• • •
January 20, 2010
WHO WAS SILAS FARMER?
UPDATE: Silas Farmer’s death certificate is in the Michigan state archives. He died suddenly on December 28, 1902, apparently of a heart attack. He was living in present-day midtown, at 52 Selden, and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. Next stop, as my mom sassily pointed out to me on Twitter (MOMS ON TWITTER!!), is a real-life library.
• • •