The Michigan Connection…

My husband and I recently visited the Detroit Public Library in Detroit, Michigan, where the original manuscripts of The Long Winter and These Happy Golden Years are housed. It is a trip that I have been wanting to take for a good many years, and I was very excited when I found out that we would finally be able to go. I have always been very nervous about driving in heavy traffic and also seem to have been born without a sense of direction. Driving in Detroit was not something I have ever wanted to attempt alone!

When I first checked into viewing the Laura Ingalls Wilder Collection several years ago, I was told that an appointment had to be made to view these precious items. So this was not something we could do on the spur of the moment. Or so I thought. When I called, I was told that we could come anytime and they could show it to us and that there is no cost (as it states on their website).

So we found ourselves heading to Detroit on a Friday not very long ago. It is about an hour’s drive from our home and with the help of Isabelle, our GPS navigator, we found it easily. After a little bit of wandering, we found the Burton Historical Collection room which houses the Laura Ingalls Wilder Collection. We only had to wait a few anxious moments for an archivist to arrive and put his white gloves on. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Collection includes the manuscripts for The Long Winter and These Happy Golden Years and also contains some letters and photographs.

I read each of the letters, which gave me a little insight into Laura’s life at the time (1948-1949). Most of the correspondence was from Laura to Mr. Ralph Ulveling, who was the Director of the Detroit Public Library system at the time. He had obviously written to her regarding an invitation to be at the opening of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Branch Library, also in Detroit (opened on May 12, 1949). Laura responds by telling him that although she wishes that she could be there, she is not able to because Almanzo had been sick (he was 92 years old at the time) and she could not leave him alone at Rocky Ridge. She also writes regarding her donation of the manuscripts and some photographs and drawings. She also offers to donate the reader and history that she studied in Little Town on the Prairie, however, those items are not included in the collection. There are also letters that she had written to others that must have been donated to the library.

The archivist told us that Laura’s collection was the most popular that they have. He recently had a homeschooling group visit and also a group of Mennonites had come in. I was happy to find out that it was so well known and it is always good to hear that there are young people interested in learning more about Laura.

Of course, I was most interested in the manuscripts. At first, the archivist brought out only the The Long Winter. As if I would be satisfied with seeing only one! He quickly realized that I would want to see them both and retrieved the manuscript for These Happy Golden Years as well. It is an awesome feeling to be able to see the orange school tablets and read a little bit of the stories in Laura’s own handwriting. To have them sitting there right in front of me – “in person!” I would have read both books all the way through, however, I’m not sure that the archivist wanted to stand there and turn each page for me. So I had to be content to read only the first page of each notebook. I really wanted to touch them, just to be able to, for one second, put one finger on something that had been in Laura’s own hands.

My husband told me that he would have created a distraction so that I could sneak a little touch, but no, that wouldn’t have been right. But then again…