Preserving Your Digital Photos With Archivist Lance Stuchell

Sat, 04/28/2012 - 11:00am by hillary dorwart

Saturday April 28, 2012: 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Learn how to ensure that your family's cherished digital photos are secure from loss, damage, changing technology or electronic equipment failure when archive specialist Lance Stuchell visits AADL for this informative presentation. All technical skill levels are welcome.

Lance Stuchell is the Digital Project Archivist at the Henry Ford's Benson Ford Research Center. He will explain how digital preservation lessons learned in the archive library profession can be applied by the home user to help secure family's photographic legacies.

Detroit Free Press, Historical Database (1831-1922)

Wed, 04/18/2012 - 9:43am by darla

Explore Detroit's history through the eyes of the major city newspaper:

MT. ELLIOTT CEMETERY. CONSECRATION OF A CATHOLIC BURIAL GROUND. -- Detroit Free Press, Dec. 10, 1865, Page 1.

J. L. Hudson Celebrates the Anniversary of His Establishment in the Clothing Business. -- Detroit Free Press, Mar 31, 1882, Page 6.

VERNOR TO RESCUE: Brings His Ginger Ale to Council Meeting. THIRSTY ALDERMEN REJOICE -- Detroit Free Press, Aug. 22, 1906, Page 6

SEVERE TEST FOR THE NEW FORD MACHINE: Makes 1,357-Mile Tour on 67 Gallons of Gasoline and Not One Adjustment -- Detroit Free Press, Oct 11, 1908, Page 20

What an incredible resource we have in this database. AADL patrons have full-text access to articles and full-page images from over 90 years of Detroit newspapers. These articles cover Detroit and Michigan, as well as national news from 1831-1922, and provide citations for students wishing to use them as primary resources. Genealogists will enjoy the special obituary search option, and historians will love being able to peruse this treasure trove of information.
Access to this and any of our other reference databases and resources is available at every branch of the AADL, as well as from outside the library with a valid AADL library card. For access from an outside location, please sign in to your library account, visit our reference database page, and navigate to the desired resource. To access the Detroit Free Press Historical Database, go to the Newspapers page, and select Detroit Free Press Historical (1831-1922).

"It Was Twenty Years Ago Today..I'd Love To Turn You On" - Jim Leonard Discusses Meaning, Memory And Marijuana In Sgt. Pepper

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 9:15am by hillary dorwart

Tuesday April 17, 2012: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Forty-five years ago, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to an anxious world. Called "the greatest rock album," "the greatest pop album," "the greatest concept album," and simply "the greatest album" of all time, it is an art work, an artifice, and an artifact. But what does it mean?

Jim Leonard, freelance musicologist, takes his best shot at an answer at this event and promises that "A splendid time is guaranteed for all." This event is co-sponsored by the Michigan Theater and held in conjunction with their April 21 concert - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Performed By THE FAB FAUX.

Video: Shipwreck Survivor Pierette Domenica Simpson

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 9:00am by hillary dorwart

If you missed last night's talk with author and shipwreck survivor, Pierette Domenica Simpson, watch this video from her visit last year. Pierette shares her up-close and personal account of surviving the most catastrophic ship collision in history between the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm, in July of 1956, when she was 9 years old. Check out or place a hold for her new young adult novel: "I Was Shipwrecked on the Andrea Doria: The Titanic of the 1950s."

Titanic Centennial Event: Meet A Shipwreck Survivor

Mon, 04/16/2012 - 10:05am by hillary dorwart

Monday April 16, 2012: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

It's the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic. Learn about another amazingly catastrophic shipwreck - the 1956 collision of the SS Andrea Doria and the MS Stockholm - from a very personal viewpoint - - that of a SHIPWRECK SURVIVOR.

Pierette Domenica Simpson returns to AADL to share her personal and harrowing account of this traumatic event. She is the only survivor in history to write a complete account of the disaster, "Alive on the Andrea Doria!: The Greatest Sea Rescue in History." Her new young adult novel is "I Was Shipwrecked on the Andrea Doria: The Titanic of the 1950s." Books will be for sale and this event will also include a book signing.

This event is for adults and teens (grade 6 and up).

Stricken with Titanic Fever?

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:10am by Grace22

It seems everywhere you turn these days you hear or see something about the Titanic. For kids and teens, there are several new books available that look at the legendary disaster in many different ways.

Explore Titanic:Breathtaking New Pictures, Recreated with Digital Technology by Peter Chrisp showcases approximately 125 photos and illustrations in color and black and white, including 12 3D-rendered graphics, to tell the Titanic's story, from its 1911 launching at the Belfast shipyard to its tragic destruction on April 15, 1912 during its maiden Atlantic crossing. There are faithful reproductions of both exterior and interior ship's details, from the Boiler Room and Engine Room far below decks to the luxury passengers' cabins and the ship's grand ballroom.

Titanic Sinks! by Barry Denenberg is a unique combination of fiction and nonfiction. A fictional framework presents the true story of the building and launching of the Titanic. Lavishly designed with authentic period photographs and illustrations throughout, this book immerses you in the era of the Titanic and reminds you why it's still a cultural touchstone a hundred years after its tragic demise.

While unpacking a special collection of Titanic artifacts at the local museum, best friends Tucker and Maya touch a canceled ticket and find themselves transported back to Queenstown, Ireland, where the Titanic is boarding--can they figure out how to save a new friend, and still get back to their own time? Time Voyage is the first book of a four part series, Return to Titanic, by Steve Brezenoff.

The Watch that Ends the Night : Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf, for Teens and Adults, is a richly textured novel in verse that recreates the Titanic's ill-fated journey, through the voices of her passengers, crew, ship's rats, and even the iceberg itself. "A masterpiece. Wolf leaves no emotion unplumbed, no area of research uninvestigated, and his voices are so authentic they hurt. Everyone should read it." (Booklist).

Imagine if wearing a vintage dress could whisk you away to the time and place it was last worn. In The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky, twelve-year-old Louise tries on an evening gown at a vintage sale and finds herself in 1912 aboard the Titanic as the gown's original owner, silent film star Alice Baxter.

Find 37 books about the Titanic for kids here. See 4 Titanic related Teen titles here.

Titanic Passenger Records Released Online

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 10:33am by darla

The genealogy site Ancestry.com has released thousands of records online relating to the passengers and crew of the Titanic. The collection will be available for free until April 15, the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking. More than 2,200 people were aboard when it struck an iceberg, and more than 1,500 killed. The collection includes a massive amount of information relating to those people, including passenger lists, crew lists and lists of deaths at sea. Also included are two databases from Canada, one featuring headstone images of 121 Titanic victims buried at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The second, from the Nova Scotia Archives, includes 329 coroner inquest files and 330 records of bodies that were recovered by ships, along with the disposition of those bodies. "The sinking of the legendary Titanic was a major moment in the history of both the United States and the United Kingdom," says Dan Jones, VP of global content for Ancestry.com. "As the years have passed, many generations have lost information that would confirm relatives who may have been aboard. We’re very pleased to offer these records free for a limited time and provide a single source to find answers to some long-standing family mysteries." Other Titanic-related databases available on Ancestry.com include the Carpathia Passenger List from 1912, which includes many survivors from the Titanic, as well as a broader collection known as “Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1975”.

The Ancestry.com Titanic Collection can be found here. Visit one of our AADL locations to access the library version of Ancestry.com.

Titanic Inspired Fabulous Fiction Firsts #324

Mon, 04/09/2012 - 7:16pm by muffy

April 15, 2012 marks the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the RMS TITANIC on her maiden voyage. Locally, check out Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at the Henry Ford Museum, running through September 30, 2012, as well as other related programs.

The media is feeding the renewed interest with high-profiled and pricy (£10 million) projects like Julian Fellowes' (creator of Downton Abbey) four-part miniseries called simply - Titanic that will premiere Saturday, April 14 (8:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on ABC. Like Downton, the focus is on the divide between the classes.

Not to be outdone, publishers have timed their release of 3 first novels inspired by this historic event.

The Dressmaker by DC political reporter Kate Alcott is a "vivid, romantic, and relentlessly compelling historical novel about a spirited young seamstress who survived the disaster only to find herself embroiled in the media frenzy left in the wake of the tragedy."

A highly-anticipated debut, The Lifeboat * by Princeton grad. (Architecture) Charlotte Rogan, (with glowing endorsement by Emma Donoghue, J.M. Coetzee, Hilary Mantel, Tim O'Brien and Valerie Martin) sets the scene in 1914 when a young and newly-minted heiress is on trial for her actions during the three weeks she spent on an overcrowded and under-provisioned lifeboat after an explosion at sea. A provocative, complex psychological drama that examines instinct and morality. Read the New York Times review and author interview.

"Time travel, airships, the Titanic, Roswell ...David Kowalski builds a decidedly original creature that blends military science fiction, conspiracy theory, alternate history, and even a dash of romance..." in his debut The Company of the Dead * , which promptly won 2 SciFi Awards when it was published in Australia in 2004.

In April 2012, Joseph Kennedy--nephew of John F. Kennedy, and a major in the Confederate army, is one of six people who can restore history to its rightful order -- even though it would mean his death, and the deaths of everyone he loves.

"Imaginative, monolithic, action-packed", "(a) magnificent alternate history, set against the backdrop of one of the greatest maritime disasters."

David Kowalski is an obstetrician and gynecologist living in Sydney, Australia.

* = Starred review

National Library Week Event: Wild Swan Theater Presents 'Shipwrecked!'

Fri, 04/06/2012 - 12:00pm by hillary dorwart

Monday April 9, 2012: 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

It is the 100th anniversary of one of the most incredible shipwrecks of all time - the sinking of the Titanic. With this in mind, AADL invites you to a special National Library Week presentation of Wild Swan Theater's new play - "Shipwrecked!"

Set in 1893, "Shipwrecked!" is about a Detroit family of three: mom, dad, and 12 year old son--who carry cargo on the Great Lakes for their livelihood. They set sail on Lake Huron through "Shipwreck Alley" with a load of Christmas trees from the Upper Peninsula only to be battered by one of the fierce November storms that have over the years imperiled thousands of ships on the Great Lakes.

This event is for grade 3 and up, as well as adults and teens.

National Library Week Pre-Event! Wild Swan Navigates "Shipwreck Alley" In Their Newest, Original Play

Thu, 04/05/2012 - 3:00am by hillary dorwart

Thursday April 5, 2012: 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Go behind the scenes as playwright Jeff Duncan, director Hilary Cohen, and Wild Swan actors discuss the making of Shipwrecked! - the newest play by Ann Arbor's award-winning Wild Swan Theater. Discover the process and the people behind this exciting play about Michigan's maritime heritage and greatest natural resource -the Great Lakes!

Shipwrecked! is the story of an 1893 Detroit family who set sail on Lake Huron through Shipwreck Alley with a load of Christmas trees from the Upper Peninsula only to be battered by one of the fierce November storms that have imperiled thousands of ships on the Great Lakes.

Wild Swan will also present a special showing of Shipwrecked! for youth (grades 3 and up), teens and adults, on Monday, April 9 at 7:00 pm at the Downtown Library.