Michigan History Magazine

Michigan History Magazine Published since 1917, Michigan History is about-and a part of-Michigan's fascinating past. To learn more about the Society, visit www.hsmichigan.org.

Michigan History magazine was first published in 1917 as a journal and evolved into its current magazine format in 1978. The publication is part of the non-profit Historical Society of Michigan, the state's oldest cultural organization. Is there a story that you would like to see published in Michigan History? Send your idea to [email protected]. All subscription inquiries can be directed to [email protected].

The Dougherty Mission House near Traverse City, Michigan, may be closed for the season, but their website has lots of gr...
01/05/2026

The Dougherty Mission House near Traverse City, Michigan, may be closed for the season, but their website has lots of great history to read about! Have you ever visited this “history hot spot” on the Old Mission Peninsula?

Built in 1842, the Dougherty Mission House is one of the oldest framed structures in Northern Michigan. The structure was built by the Reverend Peter Dougherty, a Presbyterian clergyman, with the help of Ojibwa Chief Agosa and members of Agosa’s tribe. The Reverend Dougherty became the first non-Indigenous settler in the Grand Traverse Region in 1840 and worked to establish the first sustainable settlement in the area. His restored home is filled with period antiques, including a spinning wheel that once belonged to Maria, Dougherty’s wife and the mother of their nine children. Visitors can tour the 15-acre property that includes a walking trail, gardens, pavilion, and a half-mile gravel trail through the woods.

Read Michigan History magazine to discover “History Hot Spots” in each issue! Learn more at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

Happy New Year, Michiganders! 2025 was one for the history books, and we can't wait to see what next year has in store! ...
01/01/2026

Happy New Year, Michiganders! 2025 was one for the history books, and we can't wait to see what next year has in store!

Please note that our office is closed today. Our normal hours will resume Friday, January 2 at 8 a.m.

To all our friends and partners in the U.P., we hope blizzard cleanup is going well! In honor of this snowy start to the...
12/30/2025

To all our friends and partners in the U.P., we hope blizzard cleanup is going well!

In honor of this snowy start to the week, check out this 1910 postcard from Michigan History magazine’s “Michigan Mailbag” section in which a mailman in Cheboygan, Michigan poses with his dogsled and mail bags! If you area postal worker or are in the U.P. today, what do you think—would you return to mail by dogsled on days like today?

See more cool historical mail in every new issue of Michigan History magazine! Learn more and see what else is in the current issue at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

Wishing you a very happy holiday from all of us at the Historical Society of Michigan! We hope your day is merry and bri...
12/25/2025

Wishing you a very happy holiday from all of us at the Historical Society of Michigan! We hope your day is merry and bright!

Please note that our office is closed today and Friday, December 26. Normal operations will resume Monday, December 29, at 8 a.m.

Happy Holidays! We hope you are having a wonderful time with friends and family. Our HSM staff will be enjoying a much-d...
12/24/2025

Happy Holidays! We hope you are having a wonderful time with friends and family.

Our HSM staff will be enjoying a much-deserved break for the holiday season, so please note that our office is closed from Wednesday, December 24, through Friday, December 26. We will reopen on Monday, December 29, at 8 a.m.

If you have a pressing item, please email [email protected]. See you next week!

We hope that your new issue of Michigan History magazine is arriving in time for you to cozy up with over the holiday! A...
12/23/2025

We hope that your new issue of Michigan History magazine is arriving in time for you to cozy up with over the holiday! As you may have already read in the message from Larry Wagenaar, our Executive Director and CEO, this year, in honor of our nation’s Semiquincenntenial, each issue of Michigan History magazine will feature an article dedicated to our country’s 250th anniversary. The first of these stories, “A Revolutionary Relocation: From Michilimackinac to Mackinac Island,” appears in this edition, and it delves into one of the most meaningful connections Michigan has to the Revolutionary War period. Throughout the year, look out for more in-depth content exploring and commemorating this unique milestone in American history.

Also in this issue: Kitch-iti-kipi, Petoskey’s Perry Hotel, The Fisher Body Craftman’s Guild, Lansing’s Rosa Library, Alexander Jefferson and the Tuskegee Airmen, Michigan’s oak savannas, Bub Merrill and the Bataan Death March, and much more! With six feature articles, lots of special sections, and plenty of historical Michigan news, there’s something in this issue for everyone. We can’t wait to hear what you think of it!

Through the end of the year, when you get or gift a new subscription of our award-winning magazine, you get a FREE gift! Learn more and get yours today at https://hsmichigan.app.neoncrm.com/forms/ornament-sale-2025

Have you ever been inside one of Gordon William Lloyd’s “little wood churches?” Gordon William Lloyd was one of nineteen...
12/22/2025

Have you ever been inside one of Gordon William Lloyd’s “little wood churches?”

Gordon William Lloyd was one of nineteenth-century Michigan’s most prominent architects. While many of his designs were expansive and included stone or brick, an unusual request following the death of Lisette Denison Forth—a free Black woman and formerly enslaved woman of Detroit—led Lloyd to create plans for a small church, constructed primarily of wood. Those plans would go on to form the basis of five small wooden churches scattered across the Michigan landscape. These churches are St. James Episcopal Church in Gross Ile, St. John’s Episcopal Church in St. John’s, the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Allegan, Grace Episcopal Church in Holland, and All Saints Episcopal Church in Saugatuck, three of which still have worshipping congregations today.

Read the full article in the November/December issue of Michigan History magazine! For more like this, become a subscriber today—and get a FREE gift! Learn more at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

Are you finishing up your list and checking it twice? Don’t worry, it’s not too late—we have just the thing for the hard...
12/19/2025

Are you finishing up your list and checking it twice? Don’t worry, it’s not too late—we have just the thing for the hard-to-shop-for person on your list!

Gift your friend or favorite history buff a subscription to Michigan History magazine, print off our digital gift card for under the tree, and receive a FREE holiday ornament—all from the comfort of your home! A subscription to Michigan History magazine is a year’s worth of exciting reading material for the history buff in your life. Full of feature articles, special sections, nostalgia, trivia, and more, each issue contains dozens of pages of great Michigan historical content.

Order yours today at https://hsmichigan.app.neoncrm.com/forms/ornament-sale-2025

“Little Town Flirt,” “So Long, Baby,” “Thinkin’ It Over,” “Hats Off To Larry,” or “Runaway” …which is your favorite Del ...
12/17/2025

“Little Town Flirt,” “So Long, Baby,” “Thinkin’ It Over,” “Hats Off To Larry,” or “Runaway” …which is your favorite Del Shannon song to hit the airwaves?

Pop music historiographers tend to be well-versed in the Del Shannon saga, a remarkable rags-to-riches story in American rock ‘n’ roll lore. Chuck Westover of Coopersville, Michigan, changed his name to Del Shannon in 1961 after writing and recording “Runaway” with his bandmate, Max Crook. With its rumbling guitar and eerie space organ solo, “Runaway” was the biggest hit in America and Britain in the summer of 1961 and the beginning of a prodigious run for Westover. To popular music aficionados, Shannon’s contribution to the genre stands. Shannon was an accomplished guitarist and wrote his own songs, previewing the pattern of the rock revolution just around the corner.

Read about how Chuck would play guitar for anyone who wanted to listen in empty classrooms, at a gas station in Fruitport, and even in the Special Forces in Germany in the article “Coopersville’s Favorite ‘Runaway’: The Story of Del Shannon.” This article is available in the November/December issue of Michigan History magazine, and when you get or gift a new subscription, you get a FREE gift for a limited time! Learn more at https://hsmichigan.app.neoncrm.com/forms/ornament-sale-2025

🎶Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la 🎶 The holidays are approaching fast! Here at HSM, we’r...
12/15/2025

🎶Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la 🎶 The holidays are approaching fast! Here at HSM, we’re decorating with our new holiday ornament—available now as a free gift with all new Michigan History magazine subscriptions.

Michigan History, published six times per year, makes a great gift for the history lover in your life. Got someone who “has it all” and is hard to shop for? We bet they’ll find something new in each issue of Michigan History! It has a bit of everything—feature articles, local history news, famous Michiganders, nostalgic “remember when” stories—and each issue includes stories from all regions of the state and multiple time periods. Michigan History has plenty to offer…

Get your FREE holiday ornament with Michigan History magazine at https://hsmichigan.app.neoncrm.com/forms/ornament-sale-2025

Operating as a family business for more than 100 years, the Doherty Hotel is one of Michigan’s most famous hotels. Have ...
12/12/2025

Operating as a family business for more than 100 years, the Doherty Hotel is one of Michigan’s most famous hotels. Have you been a guest of this historic hotel, declared by Henry Ford in 1925 to be the “best hotel in Michigan?”

The enterprise was founded by Alfred James “A.J.” Doherty, an entrepreneurially minded resident of Clare, Michigan, who was involved in business and politics at the turn of the twentieth century. Through the years, the hotel has played host to plenty of colorful characters, including businessmen, vacationers, dignitaries, and mobsters. The central location of Clare, made it a natural “Gateway to the North”—the perfect place to build a hotel that would serve as a banquet hall, conference center, restaurant, soda fountain, bar, library, office space, showroom, dance ballroom, gambling house, art gallery, and, on one tragic night, the scene of a murder…

Read the full article in Michigan History magazine! This month, when you get or gift a new subscription to our award-winning magazine, you receive a FREE gift to help you deck your halls with boughs of history—learn more at https://hsmichigan.app.neoncrm.com/forms/ornament-sale-2025

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Michigan History Magazine

Published since 1917, Michigan History is about—and a part of—Michigan's fascinating past. Every issue tells the exciting stories of all of Michigan’s peoples and their impact on their communities, nation and world. The magazine covers a variety of history topics ranging from military history to historical Native American recipes and everything in between. It is published by the Historical Society of Michigan.

The Historical Society of Michigan, the state’s oldest cultural organization, helps to connect Michigan’s past to students, educators, historical organizations, and the public through education programs, conferences, publications, awards, workshops, referral services, networking opportunities, and support for local history organizations. It is a 501(c) nonprofit.

To learn more about Michigan History or the Historical Society of Michigan, visit www.hsmichigan.org.