Michigan Joins the Union

Michigan entered the Union as the twenty-sixth state on January 26, 1837. Over 200 years earlier, when French explorer Étienne Brulé visited the region in 1622, some twelve to fifteen thousand Native Americans lived there. Sault Sainte Marie, the state's oldest town, was founded in 1668 at a site where French missionaries had held services for 2,000 Ojibwa in 1641. The Ojibwa, along with the Ottawa, helped the French establish a thriving fur trade in the Great Lakes region.
Great Britain acquired control of present-day Michigan in 1763 and administered it as a part of Canada until 1783, when it was ceded to the United States under the provisions of the Treaty of Paris. Part of the Northwest Territory from 1787 to 1803, Michigan became a separate territory in 1805. Bishop Frederic Baraga,Bishop of Marquette and Saulte Ste. Marie, Michigan,circa 1844-circa 1860.America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotypes, 1839-1862
Originally settled by French Catholics, Michigan maintained its strong Catholic identity in the early nineteenth century, attracting a large number of Catholic immigrants. Dioceses were established at Detroit (1833), Marquette, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Saginaw, Gaylord, and Kalamazoo.
The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 prepared the way for a great influx of settlers between 1830 and 1850. Michigan made a significant contribution to the Union in the Civil War. Some 90,000 Michigan soldiers fought for the Union—14,000 gave their lives.
Mining, lumbering, and agriculture dominated the Michigan economy in the nineteenth century. After 1910, the automobile industry emerged as the predominant source of income in the state. Manufacturing jobs attracted new immigrants, many of whom left homes in the rural South and migrated to Michigan's urban areas. Today, nearly half of the state population resides in the Detroit metropolitan area.

The American Memory collections feature a wide variety of material highlighting the history of Michigan:
Penned by Irving Berlin in 1914, "I Want to Go Back to Michigan" was a hit that year. Later it was a success in vaudeville and eventually, in its most famous rendition, sung by Judy Garland in the film Easter Parade (MGM, 1948). Of all the "phonograph singers," none made or sold more records than Billy Murray whose version is featured here. He recorded for all the major record companies of the period—Victor, Columbia, and Edison. His renditions of the era's popular songs, recorded on cylinder and disc, numbered in the hundreds and sold in the millions.
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