Memorial Day is celebrated this weekend. Although decorating
soldiers graves is an ancient custom, the custom became a national mourning
ritual, known as Decoration Day in the U.S., during the Civil War. It was a
ritualized, recognized day to decorate the war dead because of the
unprecedented numbers of dead at the time, most of whom died far from home.
Many families could not visit faraway graves, or even know for sure where their
loved ones where buried. Memorial Day is documented in some of the collections in
the Clarke.
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What the day is all about- rows of honored, decorated U.S.
soldiers graves in France, World War I
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| This image and others are in Nurse Mary Bourgeoise's gorgeous WWI A.E.F. [American Expeditionary Forces] photograph album |
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| Closeup of Nurse Mary Bourgeoise's clever photographic cover |
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Mary and her nursing unit in France, WWI
Within Clarke holdings are many primary source collections
documenting veterans of wars, mostly the Civil War and World War I, although
there is some material from World War II and Vietnam, and one collection
mentioning the Korean War. These collections also document veterans'
organizations and the women's organizations that supported the veterans. There
are posters, official government records of war, postcards, scrapbooks,
photograph albums, photographs, letters, pins, radio addresses, printed
speeches, as well as secondary sources, published books, music, newspaper
articles, and films.
Clarke Historical Library Archivist Marian Matyn would like
to start documenting more of the Michiganders who have served our nation since
World War II. If you are or have the materials of Michigan veterans or Michigan
organizations that supported our troops since World War II, please consider
donating to the Clarke. There are Michiganders making history right now serving
our nation today.
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An assortment of GAR pins Civil War Veterans wore to
parades, meetings and gatherings honoring fallen veteran comrades, also in our
Display Items
To learn more about any of these collections, go to the Clarke
Historical Library webpage
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