Whether it’s cheering on your home team, standing proud with your classmates, or forming a club to make your school a better place, there are many ways to be true to your school and express your school spirit. These events and activities are not only life-defining, but American school spirit is an integral part of our country’s collective history and culture. 

Researching African-American ancestry can be a tremendous struggle and tremendously rewarding. This session offers helpful resources, tips and pitfalls to avoid. Jessica Trotter of Capital Area District Library will give an overview of how to find and navigate resources and offer tips for research. 

Polio, also known as poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis, was once a scourge in the United States and in the world. Outbreaks became common in the US and Europe in the late 19th-century, with numbers of cases fluctuating but trending upward. 1952 was the worst year in the US for polio: nearly 58,000 cases were reported; 21,000 people were paralyzed, either temporarily or permanently; and over 3,000 people died as a result. Perhaps the most terrifying truth about polio was that it mostly affected children under the age of 5.

Rick Cocco’s then-and-now compositions offer a unique look at our city’s ever-changing landscape over the past one hundred years. Between 2018 and 2021, Cocco carefully composed his “now” photographs to match their historical counterparts, largely drawn from AADL’s online collection of Ann Arbor News negatives. Our exhibit reproduces some of our favorite compilations from Cocco’s collection. 

See our online version here: https://aadl.org/recapturingannarbor

Researching African-American ancestry can be a tremendous struggle and tremendously rewarding. This session offers helpful resources, tips and pitfalls to avoid. Jessica Trotter of Capital Area District Library will give an overview of how to find and navigate resources and offer tips for research. Find more tips, tricks, and advice in the downloadable pdf handout attached to the left side of this page.

Dr. Edward Sarkis Balian grew up in Detroit and was in a local band at the same time that Bob Seger was breaking into the music business during the tumultuous 1960s. Dr. Balian’s association has continued with Mr. Seger, as they have both shared the same entertainment attorney for over 40 years. In this interactive presentation, Dr. Balian answers questions in-depth, discusses video highlights of Seger's career, and shares many facets of Seger's personal and professional life. 

Dr. Edward Sarkis Balian is the author of Turn the Page: the Bob Seger Story.

The Ann Arbor Sun was the newspaper for a succession of communities around the paper's founder and first editor, John Sinclair.

Researching African-American ancestry can be a tremendous struggle and tremendously rewarding. This session offers helpful resources, tips and pitfalls to avoid. Jessica Trotter of Capital Area District Library will give an overview of how to find and navigate resources and offer tips for research. Find more tips, tricks, and advice in the downloadable pdf handout attached to the left side of this page.