Blogs

In 1919, University of Colorado engineering students Lou Alta Melton and Hilda Counts wanted to establish an American Society of Women Engineers and Architects—a women’s auxiliary that would run alongside professional engineering and architectural organizations.  read more »

With the school year now upon us, the Reuther Library presents a look back at summers past as recorded in the Merrill-Palmer collections. As Edna Noble White, first director of the Merrill-Palmer Institute, once said, "The children of a nation are its greatest potential asset." This belief was reflected in the Institute's main role, which was the understanding and interpretation of the individual from birth to adulthood.  read more »

Bernard “Bernie” J. Firestone was one of Detroit’s foremost social activists, a nationally recognized labor leader, and a champion of causes great and small. Influenced by everyday struggles, he was an advocate for anyone who faced oppression or injustice.  read more »

There is a select group of people who place the needs of others above their own, do so against formidable forces and at great risk to their own welfare and well-being. They take these risks never knowing exactly how they will fare, but recognizing that their convictions demand that they cannot do otherwise. General Gordon Baker, Jr., a Detroit revolutionary, was among this select group of people. On May 24, 2014, a packed audience at Dearborn, Michigan’s UAW Local 600 memorialized his life that ended six days before. It was there that attendees gave tribute to a man whose impact did not pass with his death.  read more »