Clarke University history

Commercial publications that had taken on historical significance such as the Report of the Quincy Mining Company (1881) and information from the Cleveland, Detroit & Lake Superior Co.

When this turned out to be not quite what he had anticipated, he returned to Mount Pleasant and in 1913 received a teaching certificate from "the Normal," as CMU was universally called in town.

Beginning in 1917 the state had printed Michigan History.

The Papers of the Governor's of Michigan Project came about because of the vision of President Leonard Plachta, who charged the Clarke to "fill the gap" created because the state had ceased publishing the papers of Michigan's governors with the close of Alexander Groesbeck's term of office in 1927.

9 Howard Peckham, dedication remarks, December 8, 1956.

13 Minutes of the CHL Board of Governors, March 4, 1959.

After some casting about, Doctor Clarke proposed the University hire as director John Cumming, a man he described as "an antiquarian and collector of books as far as his means permit." In 1961, John Cumming was named the second director of the Clarke Library.

Although talk had begun in 1963 about constructing a new library building on campus, it took several years for the necessary construction funds to be forthcoming.

The college was the first small college in the United States to offer a program in Computer Science, also in 1964.

The Clarke's publication program, particularly the library's role in reprinting valuable older volumes, won national recognition in 1965 when the American Association of State and Local History presented the Library with an Award of Merit.

In 1976, discussion began to focus on establishing an "emergency fund" for the Library.

The crisis had begun in early 1979, "the year in which it rained manuscripts."

52 Gerald A Elliott to John Cumming, November 12, 1982.

By 1986, a new library, music performance hall, chapel, bookstore, administrative offices, and central atrium were dedicated.

Bill Mulligan resigned in 1989.

One of the Board of Governors' most important exercises was to review the Library's overall goals and adopt, in 1995, a revised collecting policy and service objective:

Originally drawn as a rectangle, in mid-January 1998 a cost-saving decision to relocate the interior columns supporting the building resulted in four huge blocks of concrete suddenly appearing in the exhibit area.