EDITORS: Photos available on request.

ANN ARBOR—While they all may not be available for an idle chat, women have left a treasure of fascinating memorabilia that shouts for attention and conversation.

The Clements and Bentley libraries at the University of Michigan are home to an eclectic collection of artifacts and material that reveal women’s history. Both libraries are open for public research.

The Bentley Library is currently exhibiting items from both collections. “Discovering and Exploring Women’s Sources at the Bentley and Clements Libraries” includes such items as a 1787 Fraktur birth certificate; Daguerrotypes, popular from 1840 to 1860; a 1790 penmanship exercise and some children’s books that feature the 1849 “The Little Girl’s Own Book: Knowing the Rewards that Attend Good Actions! And the Punishment of Bad Ones!”

Curators Barbara DeWolfe and Kathy Marquis also chose for the exhibit an ad in Matchmaking, a New York publication; the papers of a Philadelphia personal shopper of the 1840s and 1850s; a coed’s 1911-13 scrapbook while a student at U-M; a
The Bentley Library is located at 1150 Beal Ave. on U-M’s North Campus and is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturdays through April 27, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. After April 27 there will be no Saturday hours. The exhibit will continue through May 31. Admission is free.

E-mail: mjnesbit@umich.edu

Clementsmjnesbit@umich.edu