The DALNET libraries serve many different user groups. Their collections include instructional materials, rich cultural heritage resources and collections of unique one-of-a-kind objects. Each member library plans the production, processing and presentation of digital contents from several perspectives. The following projects represent the use of different approaches to the delivery of digital projects.
Automobile in American Life and Society
The Henry Ford - Benson Ford Research Center, University of Michigan-Dearborn
This web site contains overview essays and case studies on the automobile’s relationship to labor, gender, race, design, and the environment. Each essay is copiously illustrated with archival materials, and supplemented with a variety of resources for teachers and students (annotated bibliography, definitions, reading comprehension and discussion questions, writing and research assignments). Also included are more than a dozen oral histories of major automobile designers taken during the 1980s by The Henry Ford, digitized and made available online for the first time. [archived site]
Black Abolitionist Archive
University of Detroit Mercy
The Black Abolitionist Archive is a collection of documents created by antebellum blacks. In contrast to the popular belief that the abolitionist crusade was driven by wealthy whites, these important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement. The collection was donated to the University of Detroit Mercy by Dr. C. Peter Ripley in 1998. The paper collection is maintained by Dr. Roy E. Finkenbine who teaches in the UDM History Department. The digital archive is being developed and maintained by the UDM Libraries / IDS.
Building the Detroit Renaissance Center
Wayne State University
A locally created online image collection open to the public. Search or browse images and records.
Bulletins and Annual Reports of the Detroit Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Art
Detroit Institute of Arts
In 1919, the Detroit Museum of Art became the Detroit Institute of Arts and its collection was transferred to the City of Detroit.
Thanks to a Detroit Area Library Network (DALNET) digitization grant, the Detroit Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts' Bulletins and Annual Reports have been digitized and are now available as .PDF files. Please note: not all volumes are available in their entirety
Cass Corridor Documentation Project
Wayne State University
An oral history project created as part of a Wayne State University Libraries and University Art Collection collaborative, to document Cass Corridor culture during the 1960s-1980s. The interviews were conducted by graduate students in an oral history methods course within the Archives Program of the School of Library and Information Science under the direction of Dr. Joseph Turrini.
Detroit Plaindealer
DALNET
This weekly African American newspaper began publishing in Detroit with the May 16, 1883 paper and ceased publication in about 1895. From Library of Michigan, DALNET has digitized (with the help of the Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library Michigan Digital Newspaper Project), the available run of the newspaper from 1889 to 1893.
Detroit Publishing Company
The Henry Ford - Benson Ford Research Center
The canals of Venice. The Casbah. The Colorado Rockies. In the days before television, Americans longed to see exotic sights. The photographers of the Detroit Publishing Company, founded in 1895, brought the world to everyone's living room.
Digital Dress Costume Collections
Detroit Historical Museum, Meadowbrook Hall, The Henry Ford - Benson Ford Research Center, Wayne State University
A locally created online image collection open to the public. Search or browse images and records from the Detroit Historical Museums Costume Collection, the Dorothea June Grossbart Historic (WSU) Costume Collection, Meadow Brook Hall Historic Costume Collection, and The Henry Ford Costume Collection.
Dorothea June Grossbart Historic Costume Collection
Wayne State University
This demonstration project provides digital images and descriptions of the Dorothea June Grossbart Historic Costume Collection. The physical collection contains over 400 garments and accessories from the 19th and 20th centuries, and is curated by the Fashion Design and Merchandising Area of the Department of Art and Art History in the College of Fine Performing, and Communication Arts (CFPCA).
Exhibition Catalogues of the Detroit Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Art
Detroit Institute of Arts
These digitized exhibition catalogues are divided into two sections: the Detroit Museum of Art (1886-1919) and the Detroit Institute of Arts (1919-1923). The exhibition catalogues listed correspond with special exhibitions, including selections from the museum's collection, collections lent by other institutions or individuals for temporary display at the DMA or the DIA, as well as a combination of both. Each exhibition catalogue has been digitized and made available as a .PDF file.
Great Lakes Shipping Collection Database, University of Detroit Mercy
University of Detroit Mercy
Documents, publications, photographs, and negatives collected, by Jesuit professor Fr. Dowling, over a seventy year period dealing with all aspects of Great Lakes Shipping from 1850 to the present day. Many of the photographs were actually taken by Fr. Dowling.
Herman Miller Consortium Collection
The Henry Ford - Benson Ford Research Center, Wayne State University
In 1988, Herman Miller, Inc. established the Herman Miller Consortium to share the historical product collection that had been accumulating as part of Herman Millers corporate archives in Zeeland, Michigan. The consortium collection, now held by thirteen museums all over the country, contained about 750 pieces of furniture, as well as a large quantity of product literature. As the lead institution in the consortium, The Henry Ford maintains the record of the consortium holdings. The Herman Miller consortium online database now provides access to these records.
Historical Exploration of Father Charles E. Coughlins Influence
University of Detroit Mercy
Among the first public figures to utilize the immense power of the nations passion for radio, Fr. Charles Edward Coughlin reached a broad ecumenical audience during the 1930s. Though a critic of the forces of mass consumer culture around him, he ironically used the first national network to distribute his political and economic views. Coughlin built his reputation on serving as a champion of the poor, foe to big business and financial interests, and as the mouthpiece for the hopes and fears of the nations lower middle-class. The taint of his anti-Semitism has tended to produce biographies that struggle to avoid simple demonization while also not apologizing on his behalf. Instead he acts as a cipher to various streams of marginal beliefs that exist in American society. This digital archive contains images, audio files, bibliographies, lesson plans, the Social Justice newspaper, the Shrine Herald, a biography of Father Coughlin, historical perspective, links to other websites, and letters from Rev. Gerard L Stockhausen, S.J., President of the University of Detroit Mercy and Monsignor William H. Easton, Pastor of the National Shrine of the Little Flower.
James T. Callow Folklore Archive
University of Detroit Mercy
The University of Detroit Mercy Digital Folklore Archive was founded in 1964 by Professors Frank M. Paulson and James T. Callow. The archive is comprised of over 42,000 folklore traditions taken from field notes covering traditions gathered between 1964 and 1993. The online Folklore Archive is searchable and contains such subjects as: urban legends, ethnic jokes, songs from fraternities, sororities, and scouts, drinking games, graffiti, initiation pranks, superstitions, gestures, riddles, proverbs, customs, festivals and elder lore.
Julia's Prayer: Recollections of Hamtramck, Michigan: A Polish-American Community
Oakland Community College
This collection is a unified set of videos with clips of photos, narration, music, and oral histories about early Hamtramck, Michigan, USA. The series contains 23 open-access web-accessible video files (version 1: RealOne Player and version 2: Windows Media Player accessible). Created as part of the Making of Modern Michigan digitization project.
Letters From Florence Nightingale
Wayne State University
Literary Map of Detroit
Marygrove College Library
This online literary map shows locations with literary significance around Detroit, Michigan. Each number on the map is a hyperlink to an online essay about the literary location represented.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Speeches and Interviews
A DALNET Project
This collection includes links to YouTube videos with speeches and interviews by and about Dr. King. The website also contains a timeline, a brief biography of Dr. King, and links to other related websites.
Maurice Greenia Jr. Collections
University of Detroit Mercy
Maurice Greenia, Jr. is a native Detroit artist whose work grows out of the city.
This site is aimed at the preservation of his work, some of which cannot be physically preserved, and is viewable only in photographs. Browse through the site and see the range of creativity in medium and expression, ranging from poetry to drawing to sculpture, with many stops along the way, and often involving found objects.
Michigan Churches of Christ: A History
DALNET, Rochester University
The collection chronicles Churches of Christ in Southeast Michigan during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a focus on racial reconciliation during the civil rights movement. The collection was donated to Rochester College by Vernon and Alice Boyd.
A DALNET grant provided funds for scanning and preserving the collection, while Don McCatty accessioned and organized the collection and Katelyn Kozhuharov scanned and entered metadata. Kristy Eklund performed additional cataloging and metadata entry.
Michigan County Histories Collection
Wayne State University
The Michigan County Histories collection provides access to 192 histories dating from 1866 to 1926. The collection provides all members of the
community with keyword searching and page-by-page access to digitized reproductions of Michigan county atlases and histories as a resource for historical and genealogical research. Initial collection content comprises titles selected from Frances Loomis's Michigan Biography Index (Detroit: Detroit Public Library, 1946), Bentley Historical Library holdings, and the Research Publications microfilm publication County and Regional Histories of the Old Northwest.
Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes
Arab American National Museum
Why does the word "Arab" evoke images of terrorists & veiled, oppressed women? This online exhibit dismantles stereotypes by tracing their origins and impacts, while offering a more realistic portrait of Arab and Arab American identities.
The Peacock Room
Wayne State University
Browse the collections and use the virtual tours to learn more about the artwork.
TITANIC: 100 Years, 1912-2012
DALNET
The purpose of this project was to organize access to freely accessible online primary print resources contemporary to the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic on April 15, 1912. The scope of the project was limited to the selection of contemporary accounts available in digitally reproduced, freely accessible newspapers, journals and books.
Virtual Motor City Project: A Subset of the Detroit News Photo Archive
Wayne State University
The digitized images in this project represent a small subset of the Detroit News Collection, one of the premier photojournalistic resources freely available from a national-level newspaper and held at the Reuther Library.
WPA Music Manuscripts
Wayne State University
WPA Music Manuscripts Project is a collaboration between the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Wayne State University (WSU) Department of Music, WSU Department of Art and Art History, and Wayne State University Library System. WSU, with the cooperation of the DSO, worked from 2006-2008 to preserve and create access to the WPA Music Copying Project manuscripts contained in the music library of the DSO.