AAS 230: Survey of Afro-American History 1

• For this survey class, Clements staff gave an introduction to the Clements, using thematic materials to highlight the different types of sources relating to the class subjects in the collection. Students circulated to three tables focused on various material types — letters, documents, and visual sources– and worked through a primary source analysis worksheet. Students scheduled return visits to work with selected materials in the reading room to be used for a research paper. Staff who had facilitated the class were present in the reading room to help answer questions and provide continuity for students.

Museum Studies 608: Cultures of Collecting

• This graduate-level seminar, cross-listed with the German Department, focused on both theoretical aspects of collecting as well as the historical forces that shape how collections are assembled. For this session the Director of the Clements Library engaged with a curator from the University of Michigan Museum of Art about their respective collections. The conversation focused on a theoretical “exchange” of a single item between each institution: How would the receiving institution situate the new item in the context of its “new” collection home? What discussions and research approaches would it make possible? The session connected two distinct collecting units on campus to open up questions about how collections are formed, how the broader institutional context of a collection shapes the ways we view surrounding materials, and the different approaches institutions bring to both research and public engagement.