The very special Special Collections Library

Like most students who have been at U of M for a couple of years, I’ve discovered a few things at the school that deserve more recognition than they get, my favorite being the Special Collections Library on the 7th floor of the Grad. I was first directed to this collection last year when writing a research paper, and have since used it for much more firsthand research, but probably mostly just for my own interests. There are several sections of the Special Collections Library, but my favorite is the Labadie Collection. The Labadie Collection is one of the largest collections of radical political documents from 19th-21st Centuries in the world, and has pretty much anything you can imagine in that genre. Last year I was doing a research paper on a random political cartoon from 1873 France and they had an original copy of it in their archives. You can spend hours (and I have) just looking through their extensive collection of pamphlets and posters, even if you aren’t a radical anarcho-communist trying to smash the state (but you go to U of M so obviously you are). The Special Collections Library also has an awesome selection of medieval documents and facsimiles, which are wonderful for seeing all of the details and small intricacies that you would never be able to see by just looking on the internet. They also have scrolls, which is another experience that can’t be reproduced over the internet or looking at a book copy. There also many other sections of the Special Collections Library that have amazing documents of history, including an actual document written by Galileo, and I really suggest exploring this stuff while you are still at U of M (you commie).