Tag Archives: History

Isabella Swan — ‘The Deep Roots’

Posted on April 14, 2014 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell How often would I get a chance to write about a female historian who made a case based on evidence that slaves lived and worked in her Michigan community? Score one for women’s history. Score another for … Continue reading →

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Free Press motto

Posted on February 22, 2014 by admin

Old Detroit Free Press motto: “It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news, and raise hell.”* New Free Press motto: “A newspaper’s duty is to digitize, and enliven downtown.” * Editor’s note: Oh, come on! This motto was coined … Continue reading →

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The slave quilt hoax

Posted on February 12, 2013 by admin

By Joel Thurtell   Early in 2007, I read a New York Times article exposing a hoax involving the history of the Underground Railroad. I call it the slave quilt scam. Soon after I read the Times article, I noticed … Continue reading →

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‘Tomatoes & Eggs’ Part II: Erasing slavery on Big Isle

Posted on February 10, 2013 by admin

Grosse Ile historians chose not to use photos of slave inventory; one of the slaves mentioned, Charlotte, worked on Grosse Ile. Burton Historical Collection. By Joel Thurtell During the long-ago historical period when I was a grad student in history, … Continue reading →

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‘Tomatoes & Eggs’ Part I: Slavery at Grosse Ile, Michigan

Posted on February 9, 2013 by admin

Inventory of slaves in Detroit, Michigan. Joel Thurtell photo of record in Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library By Joel Thurtell Just as I predicted in a January 2007 Detroit Free Press story, Grosse Ile’s historians changed history. But not … Continue reading →

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Lowell’s oddball bridge

Posted on November 18, 2012 by admin

By Joel Thurtell LOWELL, Mich. — It doesn’t attract as many tourists as Italy’s Ponte Vecchio, but Lowell’s Main Street Bridge bears a certain similarity to that 14th-century pedestrian span over the Arno River in Florence. Lowell’s bridge, barely 100 … Continue reading →

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Electric history

Posted on September 23, 2012 by hro50ta1

  Electric History: Detection and Measurement of Human Behavior Through Quantifiable Historical Records By Joel Thurtell Ever hear of an “electric historiscope”? Nor had I until I began thinking about history in a new way. “Electric historiscope” is my offbeat … Continue reading →

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My natural experiment

Posted on January 31, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell For years — decades, in fact — I’d been telling the same story. I was trained as a historian and I ought to know. The famous dictum of the great medieval historian Marc Bloch that “history is … Continue reading →

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Tomatoes and eggs

Posted on January 16, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Back when I was writing for the Detroit Free Press, I found some of my most interesting stories on Grosse Ile, the big island in the Detroit River that was purchased from Indians on July 6, 1776 … Continue reading →

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Tarascans under Spanish rule: How one town stayed Indian while its neighbor became mestizo

Posted on December 15, 2011 by hro50ta1

  By Joel Thurtell Twelve kilometers east-southeast of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, four wooded volcanic peaks roughly bound the east end of a moderately fertile, flat, well-watered valley. On a long slope descending to this plain sits Cuanajo, a large[1] Tarascan town. … Continue reading →

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