Rev. Dowling was a talented artist , but he was not the only member of his family with artistic talent. This Easter card from his father Edward Francis Dowling, shows that there must be something in the genes that gets passed on from father to son. ...
The University of Detroit Mercy has hosted a few NCAA basketball tournaments in the past. The first was 1988 and a second time in 1991 where the games were played at the Pontiac Silverdome. There was also a third time at Ford Field in 2008, all as the Midwest Regional Basketball Championships. In 2009, the university was the host at Ford Field for the Final Four where the championship game saw University of North Carolina beat Michigan State. I think...
Its the end of an era-Northland Shopping Center is no more. The last company will be out in April, but the memories will last forever for all the long-time Detroit area residents. As a child, our family would sometimes make a trip to Northland after church, have some lunch and go window shopping through the mall. If I remember it right-stores were not open on Sundays back in those days. To take a trip through memory lane, here is a...
Looking for something to do at the library? UDMercy Libraries/IDS is hosting a Video Game Night on Friday, March 13th from 6-9:00 PM. Games planned include: Halo:Master Chief Collection, Blur, Call of Duty:Advanced Warfare, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and the ever popular Wii Sports. This year we have something different! A demo of Oculus Rift. This device will let you feel like you are in a 3D virtual world. You can look up, down, side-to-side, even behind you....
“What’s in the new University of Detroit Library besides 125,000 books? According to the Very Rev. Father Celestin Steiner, S.J., University president, there’s everything including the kitchen sink.” That was how the press release began with the announcement of a formal dedication of the library November 11, 1950. As the highlight of the University of Detroit’s homecoming week, the one million dollar library was dedicated by Edward Cardinal Mooney, archbishop of Detroit. When the library first opened, the stacks were...
Construction on the million-dollar McNichols Library began with the June 11, 1949 ground breaking ceremony. Aside from the outdoor patio added by the Class of 2010, not a lot has changed on the exterior of the library building. See my previous post to see some of the changes made in the interior of the building. Here are some of the pictures as it was being built....
Pope Francis has bestowed the title of “basilica” upon the National Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic Church, its inaugural mass as a basilica will be celebrated April 22, 2015. The designation of basilica is in recognition of its robust parish life, which includes eight weekend masses, and its stature as a destination site with relics from various Catholic figures, including its namesake St. Therese of Lisieux (Detroit Free Press Feb 1, 2015). The church’s first pastor was the Rev....
The University of Detroit Mercy has a large collection of documents in the Black Abolitionist Archive that can be searched on the library web page. You can find the text of over a thousand speeches and editorials from the 1820′s to the Civil War on the site, some of which you can also listen to on an audio file. It is not possible to list everything in the collection, so periodically there is a request to find something in the...
The Library of Congress display of Rosa Park‘s personal documents, photographs and keepsakes became available recently to the public. Park’s refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on Dec. 1, 1955 was a key event in the civil rights movement. Do a search through the Black Abolitionist Archive and you will find documents of similar treatments almost a hundred years earlier. Here are a couple of news reports from Black Abolitionist newspapers: Sad to think it took...
“Merry-Ann” was the first musical production by the UD Student Union. The book and lyrics were by Seniors James Pooler Silas and P. Ralph Miller. The story, told in two scenes and ten acts, is a love triangle with Merry-Ann the center of attention between an old childhood friend and the son of a wealthy philanthropist who decided to give the girl a higher education. Of course, complications arise (as well as a secondary romance about another couple), but who...
