Seeking Michigan is about…Michigan of course! Our name is derived from the state motto: “Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice,” ”If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.”
Mission
To enrich quality of life by providing access to unique historical information that promotes Michigan’s cultural heritage. We define cultural heritage as the stories of Michigan’s families, homes, businesses, communities and landscapes as told by unique source documents, maps, films, images, oral histories and artifacts.
Goal
Simple. Seeking Michigan connects you to the stories of this great state.
Method
It’s evolving. Seeking Michigan employs the latest web technologies and integrates a large content management application with WordPress blogging software. Where appropriate, social media is used to enhance the user experience. We want to provide the user with historical content, and whenever possible, provide context for that content including a dedicated “Teach” page that provide resources and content for K-12 educators.
Partners
The Leota and Talbert Abrams Foundation has been an incredible supporter of both the Library of Michigan and the Archives of Michigan for the last decade. This site was created to honor their comittment to making historical and genealogical materials available to the public. In particular, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Mrs. Barbara Brown who has been key to the continued support of our programs.
The Library of Michigan and Archives of Michigan began work on this site in 2008. At that time, staff recognized the benefit of collaborating to bring the public a wide array of cultural heritage materials. Seeking Michigan is the result of focusing on you, the user, and the cooperation of both agencies and their respective foundations. It is testament to the value of teamwork and collaboration in reaching a goal.
There is much to seek, discover and look at in Seeking Michigan. In the coming year you will see the collections grow to include oral histories, motion pictures, documents and other interesting sources.
Finally, a thank you to Greg Storey and Airbag Industries, Inc. for shepherding us through the redesign of this site and Derek Kastner for the extensive coding of CONTENTdm and WordPress.
Contact
If you have questions or comments, please contact us at: seekingmichigan[at]gmail.com and we will forward the request to the appropriate office.
