"Tuned into the Library of Michigan," By the Yard exhibit, and the 1951 State Office Building Fire Anniversary
 Tuned
Into the Library of Michigan on the
WGVU Morning Show
One of the many ways in which the Library of Michigan communicates with its patrons is through the radio! Tuned
Into the Library of Michigan is a monthly segment on the WGVU
Morning Show. Morning Show host Shelley Irwin interviews Library of Michigan staff on the first Wednesday of each month as they talk about programs, services, and other topics
related to the Library of Michigan. Here are a few of the more recent segments:
Find additional recordings of past segments by searching
Tuned Into the Library of Michigan on the WGVU News website. The
WGVU Morning Show can be heard live on 95.3 / 88.5 FM Grand Rapids and 95.3 FM Muskegon or streaming live online through either the
WGVU News website or the
NPR app.
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By The Yard: Panoramic Photography in Michigan Exhibit
Since its invention, photography has served as a window into who we are as a people, but of all its myriad inventions the panoramic camera
and its images have provided the most transparent look into our society at a time when America was comprised of joiners with unbridled optimism. Panoramic photography recorded everything from military units to bands, parades, circuses and the numerous fraternal
groups that formed at the turn of the century. Panoramic photographers left behind stunning images often called “yard longs” because of their unusual length sometimes reaching six feet long or more.
The Historical Society of Greater Lansing and the Library of Michigan are showcasing more than 50 panoramic photographs taken in Michigan
from 1863 to 2004. The exhibit called “By the Yard: Panoramic Photography in Michigan” opens Saturday,
February 11, 2023, and runs through May 1, 2023.
Most of the panoramic photographs in the exhibit represent the people, places and things of Michigan and were collected by the late Dan
Barber of Lansing whose estate is donating his collection to the Library of Michigan for preservation. The collection was supplemented by loans of photographs from Libraries, Archives and private collectors from Michigan.
The exhibit showcases some of the more common visuals for panoramas such as soldiers and sailors shipping out for WWI. The soldiers and
sailors would stand at parade attention as a panorama photographer would snap a shot using such long exposures that a person at one end could run to the other and appear twice in the same photograph. The photographers would then sell photos to sailors and
soldiers and their families.
Read more about the exhibit on the
Historical Society of Greater Lansing website or in the February 8, 2023 issue of the Lansing
City Pulse.
During the exhibit, the Historical Society of Greater Lansing will be hosting 6 in-person lectures
at the Library of Michigan in the Lake Erie Room.
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Satuday, February 11, 2023 - 1:00PM - 2:30PM
By The Yard: Michigan in Panoramic Photography
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Tuesday, February 21, 2023 - 7:00PM - 8:00PM A
Capitol & Its Cameras
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Saturday, March 4, 2023 - 1:00PM - 2:00PM History
of Real Photo Postcards
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Thursday, March 16, 2023 - 6:30PM - 8:00PM David
V. Tinder Collection
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Saturday, April 15, 2023 - 1:00PM - 2:00PM Photography
of Michigan's Upper Peninsula
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Thursday, April 27, 2023 - 6:30PM - 8:00PM
"In the Day"
Learn more information about the lecture series on the
Historical Society of Greater Lansing website.
Harbor at Mackinac Island; Mackinac Island, Michigan, c. 1924; Courtesy of Chris Byron and Tom Wilson.
1951 State Office Building Fire Anniversary
This week was the anniversary of a devastating event that severely impacted the Library of Michigan. At 12:40PM on February 8, 1951, a
fire was discovered on the top floors of the State Office Building (now known as the Elliott-Larsen Building) on the corner of Walnut Street and Kalamazoo Street in Lansing. Several government departments/agencies occupied its halls including the Library of
Michigan, the State Banking Commission and the Michigan Highway Department. By the evening of February 8th, additional fire crews from Battle Creek, Flint and Jackson were called to assist, followed by additional support from Grand Rapids. Local construction
companies also provided 100-foot booms to help stretch hoses to the top of the building.
It would take several days until the fire was contained and still more until the recovery process could begin. State Librarian Loleta
D. Fyan and her staff would bring thousands and thousands of items from the State Library's collection to the fieldhouse at the Boys Vocational School in order to dry out the waterlogged materials. It's estimated that the Library of Michigan lost over 30,000
items as a result of this event. It was later determined that a 19-year-old Highway Department employee started the fire in a wastebasket with the intention of starting a small fire, extinguishing it and admitting fault in order to avoid being drafted into
military service in Korea.
Discover more about the 1951 State Office Building Fire by either reading the February 10, 2021 Lansing City Pulse article Memories
of Lansing’s Most Devastating Structural Fire or in the publication Lansing's
Biggest Fire: (State Office Building) by Carlisle Carver. Photos of the
aftermath of the fire are also viewable on the Library of Michigan's LM Digital platform.
February 9, 1951 front page of the Lansing State Journal.
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