Bay View is a jewel box of a Northern Michigan Chautauqua community along the shores of Little Traverse Bay, southwest of the Mackinac Bridge. Founded in 1875 and now a National Historic Landmark, its 31 public buildings and 450 cottages are among the most pristine examples of 1900-era High Victorian architecture in the United States. Historical photographs capture the fascinating journey via rail and Great Lakes steamer to the early campground's beech-forested hillside. Rare images trace its path from a wilderness Methodist campground to a vibrant embodiment of Chautauqua's four pillars: the arts, education, recreation, and religion. Building on the Camp Meeting and Chautauqua traditions, the founders forged a unique lifestyle that ends every November only to resume with renewed energy every April. The turrets, towers, and gingerbread of this timeless Brigadoon excite the imagination today just as they did more than 135 years ago.
Uses historic and contemporary images to trace the region’s evolution to a modern-day tourist destination. The railroad’s arrival in the 1870s transformed the formerly sleepy Little Traverse Bay region into a tourist mecca. Victorian resort communities and the growing towns of Harbor Springs and Petoskey provided lodging, dining, entertainment, and supplies to an influx of settlers, speculators, and tourists who visited in the summer or stayed year-round. Over the decades, cars have replaced trains and steamships and many structures have been altered or demolished, but Little Traverse Bay, Past and Present shows that the area’s history is still very much a part of the present day. Featuring contemporary images by Rebecca Zeiss, over three hundred historic (most never before published) photos, and historical narrative by Michael R. Federspiel, this volume documents the development of the tourist economy and also serves as a snapshot of the region today. Little Traverse Bay, Past and Present is divided into chapters by place and topic. Federspiel and Zeiss look at the cities of Petoskey and Harbor Springs; the resort associations of Bay View, Wequetonsing, and Harbor Point; and railroads, steamships, and excursions. Along the way, they visit historic hotels, public buildings, residences, commercial districts, and waterfront areas. At many sites, Zeiss’s beautiful and precise photos show that the historic views are still as they were; at others, they are hidden behind facades or structural alterations. Sometimes the historic sites are simply gone, replaced by something totally new or turned into empty lots. Federspiel also includes an introduction on the making of modern Little Traverse Bay and introduces the leaders and businessmen behind it. Popular tourist regions often boast beautiful souvenir photo books or history books addressing their past. Little Traverse Bay, Past and Present is both, making it of interest to visitors and local residents alike who want to learn more about the area’s nineteenth-century history as well as those interested in its appearance today.
Allergy is the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the United States. More than fifty million Americans suffer from allergies, and they spend an estimated $18 billion coping with them. Yet despite advances in biomedicine and enormous investment in research over the past fifty years, the burden of allergic disease continues to grow. Why have we failed to reverse this trend? Breathing Space offers an intimate portrait of how allergic disease has shaped American culture, landscape, and life. Drawing on environmental, medical, and cultural history and the life stories of people, plants, and insects, Mitman traces how America’s changing environment from the late 1800s to the present day has led to the epidemic growth of allergic disease. We have seen a never-ending stream of solutions to combat allergies, from hay fever resorts, herbicides, and air-conditioned homes to numerous potions and pills. But, as Mitman shows, despite the quest for a magic bullet, none of the attempted solutions has succeeded. Until we address how our changing environment—physical, biological, social, and economic—has helped to create America’s allergic landscape, that hoped-for success will continue to elude us.
This book traces the rise and decline of what Theodore Roosevelt once called the "most American thing in America." The Chautauqua movement began in 1874 on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in western New York. More than a college or a summer resort or a religious assembly, it was a composite of all of these—completely derivative yet brilliantly innovative. For five decades, Chautauqua dominated adult education and reached millions with its summer assemblies, reading clubs, and traveling circuits. Scholars have long struggled to make sense of Chautauqua's pervasive yet disorganized presence in American life. In this critical study, Andrew Rieser weaves the threads of Chautauqua into a single story and places it at the vital center of fin de siècle cultural and political history. Famous for its commitment to democracy, women's rights, and social justice, Chautauqua was nonetheless blind to issues of class and race. How could something that trumpeted democracy be so undemocratic in practice? The answer, Rieser argues, lies in the historical experience of the white, Protestant middle classes, who struggled to reconcile their parochial interests with radically new ideas about social progress and the state. The Chautauqua Moment brings color to a colorless demographic and spins a fascinating tale of modern liberalism's ambivalent but enduring cultural legacy.
From authors of bodice rippers and gallant figures to hometown poetry, hearty men, and tales of American originals, the history of literature in Michigan is deep and rich. The Wolverine State has been the birthplace, home, and inspiration to a tremendous number of men and women of letters, both the well-known and the obscure. Ink Trails II tells the stories of these fascinating and diverse writers whose talent is inextricably linked to Michigan. Exploring the hidden treasures of otherwise forgotten authors while also acknowledging the Michigan-set stories of giants like Hemingway, Dave and Jack Dempsey delve into the state’s literary heritage, as robust, diverse, and inexhaustible as the natural beauty of the place that nurtured it. This second volume of “ink trails” continues to tell the story of the remarkable writers, powerful words, and sublime nature of Michigan in the same well-researched and entertaining prose as the first.
This first history of nontraditional education in America covers the span from Benjamin Franklin's Junto to community colleges. It aims to unravel the knotted connections between education and society by focusing on the voluntary pursuit of knowledge by those who were both older and more likely to be gainfully employed than the school-age population.
