The Ypsilanti Historical Society, founded in 1961, operates the Ypsilanti Historical Museum and Rudisill-Fletcher-White Archives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. The YHS Museum & Archives are located at 220 North Huron Street in the Historic 1860 Dow House, a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

mansion built in 1860 for Asa and Minerva Dow. Asa Dow moved to Ypsilanti to become the first president of the Ypsilanti Savings Bank. In 1864 Minerva died under unknown circumstances, and Asa sold the home and moved back to Chicago. Minerva Dow was the second person interred at Ypsilanti's newly constructed Highland Cemetery. The house came into possession of the Ypsilanti Historical Society in 1970 after previously being owned by the City of Ypsilanti since 1966. The City purchased the property and other stately homes on the east side of North Huron Street with the design to turn the location into a Ypsilanti version of neighboring

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

's successful Arborland. Local community members boycotted the effort and the event served as the impetus for the creation of the Ypsilanti Historic District. Prior to 1966 the house was in disrepair, as the home had been turned into at least six apartments since 1922. In 2007 the Fletcher-White Archives (now the Rudisill-Fletcher-White Archives, being renamed after former YHS President and influential Ypsilantian Alvin Rudisill who spearheaded funding for the Archives) moved from the property's two story carriage house into the newly renovated basement of the main house. The Rudisill-Fletcher-White Archives contains a meeting space, a reading room, filing cabinets for document and photograph storage, and a temperature and humidity-controlled storage room. Much of the collections of the YHS Archives are the work product of former Ypsilanti City Historians Louis S. White and Foster Fletcher. The position of Ypsilanti City Historian was discontinued with the retirement of Foster Fletcher and the City of Ypsilanti Archives were transferred from their location at the Downtown Ypsilanti Public Library on Michigan Avenue to the Ypsilanti Historical Society, which has continually grown the collection since. Different rooms of the Historic 1860 Dow House are displayed like a traditional house museum, with a parlor circa 1880s and a sitting room circa late 1920s. It also includes a dining room, early twentieth century kitchen, second floor bedroom, a solarium original to the house with a slatted floor for watering plants and a roof vent to adjust the plants' temperature, and a library with a New York City made

Tiffany Studios Tiffany may refer to: People * Tiffany (given name), list of people with this name * Tiffany (surname), list of people with this surname * Tiffany Darwish, (born 1971), an American singer, songwriter and actress known mononymously as Tiffany * ...

(a separate company from the related Tiffany & Co.) stained glass window originally from the Starweather Ladies Library building just south on North Huron Street. The Rudisill-Fletcher-White Archives includes collections on Ypsilanti City and

Township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

history,

Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, EMich, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern) is a public university, public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1849 as the Michigan State Normal School, it was the fourth normal ...

, the

Willow Run Bomber Plant Willow Run, also known as Air Force Plant 31, was a manufacturing complex in Michigan, United States, located between Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, Ypsilanti Township and Belleville, Michigan, Belleville, built by the Ford Motor Company to manu ...

, Lincoln Consolidated Schools, and Ypsilanti Community Schools. Among the holdings are family Bibles, maps and atlases, city and county directories, postcards, yearbooks, many Ypsilanti and neighboring community obituaries, news clippings, Ypsilanti newspapers on microfilm, tax assessment rolls, and civil and criminal dockets. Through collaboration with the

University of Michigan Library The University of Michigan Library is the academic library system of the University of Michigan. The university's 38 constituent and affiliated libraries together make it the second largest research library by number of volumes in the United Sta ...

's Digital Library Production Service, the Ypsilanti Historical Society Photo Archives has made over 17,500 Ypsilanti-related digitized photographs available to the public online. The Ypsilanti Historical Museum is a member of the

MotorCities National Heritage Area MotorCities National Heritage Area or Motor Cities National Heritage Area is a federally designated National Heritage Area that commemorates and promotes the automobile industry in Metro Detroit, with portions of 16 counties in southern Michigan, ...

. The Society's quarterly publication, ''Ypsilanti Gleanings'', has been published since 1973. It was awarded the 2009 State History Award for "Communications: Newsletters and Websites" by the

Historical Society of Michigan The Historical Society of Michigan (HSM) is the official historical society of the State of Michigan. It was founded in 1828 by Territorial Governor Lewis Cass. See also * List of historical societies in Michigan References External links ...

. The publication is available digitally and word searchable on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

and the Ypsilanti Historical Society website.

References

External links

Ypsilanti Historical Society website

*
Asa Dow House
on Flickr {{Midwestern U.S. historical societies Museums in Washtenaw County, Michigan History museums in Michigan Historic house museums in Michigan Ypsilanti, Michigan Historical societies in Michigan