In Memoriam: Wystan
Sheehan & Co. bookstore, State Street, 1877
There seem to be three storefronts here; the Sheehan & Co. bookstore is at the left, and in the same building is a staircase leading to a second-floor barbershop. A wooden Indian appears to guard the steps; the barbers, one wearing an apron, are African-Americans. Note the square barber pole; propped against it is a big sign advertising a BASE BALL game. According to campus historian Edwin Humphrey, 1877 was the only year in which senior students (male) voted to wear academic mortarboard caps, as they do here. This photo looks north, toward the spire of the Methodist Church. Sheehan's and the stores beside it (one with a "Soda Water" banner) were the first on State Street; they faced the end of North University Avenue. Houses lie hidden behind the wall of trees. The most disturbing feature of this photograph is a large book, lying in the dirt near a mud puddle: it appears large enough to be a bound volume of a newspaper -- perhaps one of the now-lost volumes of the annals of Ann Arbor. What on earth was it doing there?
To properly view all the details in this tantalizing photograph, one must view it really large, on the Ann Arbor District Library's Making of Ann Arbor website.
Sheehan & Co. bookstore, State Street, 1877
There seem to be three storefronts here; the Sheehan & Co. bookstore is at the left, and in the same building is a staircase leading to a second-floor barbershop. A wooden Indian appears to guard the steps; the barbers, one wearing an apron, are African-Americans. Note the square barber pole; propped against it is a big sign advertising a BASE BALL game. According to campus historian Edwin Humphrey, 1877 was the only year in which senior students (male) voted to wear academic mortarboard caps, as they do here. This photo looks north, toward the spire of the Methodist Church. Sheehan's and the stores beside it (one with a "Soda Water" banner) were the first on State Street; they faced the end of North University Avenue. Houses lie hidden behind the wall of trees. The most disturbing feature of this photograph is a large book, lying in the dirt near a mud puddle: it appears large enough to be a bound volume of a newspaper -- perhaps one of the now-lost volumes of the annals of Ann Arbor. What on earth was it doing there?
To properly view all the details in this tantalizing photograph, one must view it really large, on the Ann Arbor District Library's Making of Ann Arbor website.