Blogs

The Reuther Library notes with sorrow the passing on May 15 of Flora Suhd Hommel.

Hommel was one of the pioneers who brought the Lamaze psychoprophylactic method of painless childbirth to the United States, establishing an important teaching organization in Detroit, the Childbirth Without Pain Education Association (CWPEA). She championed the rights of women to control childbirth, creating a grass-roots movement contemporaneous with the women’s movement of the 1960s-1970s. Hommel and the CWPEA were important catalysts in establishing similar childbirth and parenting organizations and teacher-monitrice accreditation programs across the United States.  read more »

On May 22nd, 2015, the Detroit Sound Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the musical sounds and stories of Detroit, will hold its second annual conference at the main branch of the Detroit Public Library. The Michigan Sound Conference will explore the ways that the Mitten State, and the Motor City in particular, have led the world in shaping the contemporary sonic landscape. As a part of the conference, the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs will host the one-day exhibit "This Is My Town: The Concert Poster Art of Detroit, 1970s-2000s." This exhibit presents a selection of posters advertising musical, dramatic, and visual arts events in Detroit from the 1970s to the 200s, drawn from the papers of David Clements.  read more »

The Reuther Library is proud to announce an upcoming brown-bag lecture presented by Sarah Stanford-McIntyre, a doctoral candidate at the College of William and Mary. This event will take place at noon on Thursday, May 21, in the Reuther Conference Room of the Walter P. Reuther Library. Ms. Stanford-McIntyre will present on her current research in her talk “Working Landscapes: The Labor of West Texas Oil, 1920-1970,” a regional history of oil, labor, and environmental change during the Permian Basin oil boom, including corporate imagery of technology, the mythology of the oil prospector, and the vital role of wage workers across the industry. The presentation is free and open to the public.  read more »

A brown bag presentation series highlighting archival practice continues on May 15 with Reuther Library director Erik Nordberg’s presentation "Free Money: Basic Skills of Grant Writing for Archives." The one-hour session will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the Woodcock Conference Room at the Walter P. Reuther Library. Nordberg has experience both awarding and managing grant-funded archives projects, having served as both executive director of the Michigan Humanities Council and director of the University Archives and Historical Collections at Michigan Technological University.

Open to students, alumni, and interested professionals and educators, future events in this series are scheduled on the last Fridays of the month. Contact Kim Schroeder for more information at 313-577-9783 / ag1797@wayne.edu or Erik Nordberg at 313-577-2013 /