Even if you don't live near Kalamazoo
you can still get a free dose of Kalamazoo history three times a year. The Kalamazoo Valley Museum's magazine, museOn, which is
available online, can provide a little bit of your ancestors' world
from people to places to past-times. The current edition includes a
piece about some of the different industries that have employed
Kalamazooans. You can read it here.
Each issue has something of interest.
Some recent subjects have been the history of Kalamazoo's townships,
Kalamazoo during the Depression, Kalamazoo's history of windmill
making, Kalamazoo and the car, Kalamazoo dressmakers and many others.
Because back issues are available here on the KVM website
I encourage you to take a peek at issues past to see if they have
covered a topic of particular interest to you. If you had ancestors
who lived in Kalamazoo during the Civil War you may be interested to
peruse the Winter/Spring 2005 issue which has a number of articles
relevant to Kalamazoo life in that time period. One that was of
particular interest to me lately was on page 12 of the Winter 2012
issue which had a photograph of the members of Kalamazoo's Orcutt
post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). One of my people,
Lawrence Flynn, may very well be in this photo if it was taken prior
to 1917. I contacted the museum and they confirmed that the photo
was, alas, undated.
One fun feature is the “What Is It”
page. Three historical objects are shown and your job is to identify
them if you can. Sometimes they are real stumpers.
If you live within an easy drive of
Kalamazoo you should scroll to near the end of each issue to see what
local history talks are coming up in their Sunday Series. Over the
past few years they have had speakers discuss Kalamazoo baseball,
horse racing, “The Sins of Kalamazoo-- Gambling, Saloons and Pool
Halls,” Kalamazoo's musical history and many other topics. If I
lived in the area I would attend many of them.
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