Michigan and the Cleveland Era - Why was this book written?
This is the book in question: Michigan and the Cleveland Era, edited by Earl D. Babst and Lewis G. Bander Velde (University of Michigan Press, 1948). The title page adds a subtitle, which offers a clue to the answer to the question in the title of this post: Sketches of University of Michigan Staff Members and Alumni Who Served the Cleveland Administrations 1885-89, 1893-97. At first glance, though, no question arises as to why the book was written. But just inside the front cover, a printed answer is provided anyway on a 5 X 7-inch card from the Michigan Historical Collections, University of Michigan. This card was previously featured in another post I wrote about three years ago on ephemera concerning rare books and collections at the University of Michigan . I came across this card again and thought it deserved its own post because it's a bit unusual. Looks like a good number of University of Michigan alumni and faculty members served in numerous ca...