Frank Boles
On February 21 the Clarke Historical Library opened its
current exhibit, The Hemingway Collection
at the Clarke. For almost two decades the library has worked closely with a
number of key partners to locate, develop, and make use of a growing body of
material documenting Nobel-laureate Ernest Hemingway’s experiences in Michigan.
Hemingway’s family owned a cottage on the shores of Walloon
Lake, near Petoskey. Ernie Hemingway, the eldest son of Dr. Clarence Hemingway
and Grace Hall Hemingway spent his summers exploring the lake’s shoreline,
learning more and more about life and people as each summer passed.
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Ernest Hemingway at 17 years old
near Wallon Lake.
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Today, the Hemingway collection in the Clarke Historical
Library is of national importance. The presentation, however, did not dwell on
the pieces of the collection that make this statement true. Rather than talk about what was in the
library, the presentation, made jointly by Mike Federspiel, Janet Danek, and
Frank Boles, talked about how the collection came into being, and how it is
used to educate and inform through exhibits and other outreach tools. The talk
was, in practice, a case study on how archival collections are built and the
uses they can be put to in public programming.
To hear their presentation please visit, https://vimeo.com/319562106
which is the website of Mt. Pleasant’s local public access television station,
which recorded the talk.