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Recently a manuscript collection of artist John D. Egner (1940-2021) was transferred to the Clarke from Wayne State University's (WSU) Art Collection. Egner was a leading light of the Detroit art scene beginning in the 1960s and a member of WSU teaching faculty. Many of his artworks are in WSU's Art Collection. His papers document how he won a Michigan Commission on Art in Public Places competition in 1987 with his Artist’s Statement to design a tile floor for Central Michigan University’s new Industrial Education and Technology (IET) Building. His intention was to design the tile floors to resemble large "Oriental rugs". The floors would be subtle and not detract from the rest of the building's structure.  The manuscript collection documents the entire process of Egner winning the competition, creating the design templates for various floor patterns, the laborious installation of the tiles according to the design templates, and, finally, the building’s dedication...

Here's what I did with my reparative cataloging project team members today. We presented at Core, a division of the American Library Association.  Unfortunately for me, my reparative team members Melissa James and Laura Thompson both work at other institutions now. Our presentation was selected after we presented at ALA. We had over 100 attendees at ALA and 66 today. Now we have a book chapter to get published. It's been a pleasure working with them.

CMU Calkins Hall Scrapbook, 1958-1966, dedication pages, list of attendees Scrapbooks and other materials from CMU's Calkins Hall dormitory were transferred to us recently. Scrapbooks are a nightmare from a preservation archival perspective, but I must admit that I enjoy some of the artistic endeavors of their creators. These images are all from the earliest Calkins scrapbook, 1958-1966. It opens with documentation of the dorm's dedication in 1958. Attendees included major people for whom campus buildings are named. Many activities of students are also documented, some of which we now find funny.  Back then there were no pre-made scrapbook decorations. This scrapbook was organized and decorated by hand drawn art or colored construction paper.  For a history of Calkins see the Clarke's page on historic existing buildings,  Calkins Hall   Calkins started as a women's dorm, but housed men from 1959 to 1960, and women after that. Currently all four of CMU's NW quadrangl...

  We recently had a small cache of papers related to Gloria "Jean" Feldhauser Reihl (1928-2022) come to the Clarke. Jean was born and raised in Grayling, the youngest child of Edward and Delia Feldhauser. She was the Valedictorian of the Grayling High School (GHS) class of 1946. The list of 1946 grads notes those serving in the military. Through my husband I am related to several people on the list, including Jean. Jean graduated from CMU in 1950. She met her husband Edward at CMU and they married in 1951. For 30 years Jean taught elementary school, 20 of them in Beal City, MI. Here are images of some of her materials documenting her GHS experience, including a two-page poem by another 1946 GHS grad, Ilace Small.