#DetroitHistory

[walkingdetroit]

My Kind of Street

Just beyond The Fisher Building is a quiet urban oasis with beautiful architecture and tree-lined streets.

[picturedetroit]

“I Spy Some People Mover Tracks” This view is gone now, interrupted by a new building which replaced an old building (Hudson’s) that was a rich part of Detroit’s history but deemed not worth saving and torn down in the 90’s. Constant change is what keeps a city growing and what is actual progress is sometimes debatable. What isn’t debatable is the constant revenue necessary to make a city run. In order to thrive, cities need tax revenue and income from businesses, tourism, and the people who live there ~ but it’s also imperative that those finances be handled correctly. Detroit seems to have finally come out on top, fingers crossed that it will happen for the city of Flint as well. 📸: @picturedetroit | Christina Collie • • • • • #PictureDetroit #DPM #DetroitPeopleMover #PublicTransportation #LightRail #FlintviaDetroit #DowntownDetroit #ElevatedTrain #VisitDetroit #DetroitHistory#DocumentingDetroit #ThrowbackThursday #TBT #HomeDecor #RenaissanceCenter #GMRenCen #DetroitMarriott #MillenderCenter (at Downtown Detroit) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckx7yi3r79l/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[loupickney]

#2024NFLDraft #NFLDraft #NFLDraft2024 #prospect #combine #mockdraft #DraftKing2024 #1957 #1957Lions #Detroit1957 #Detroit #DetroitLions #NFLChampionship #57Lions #DetroitHistory #MichiganNFL #DraftKing

[detund]

DU™️ #Repost @rebecca__goldberg ・・・ Visited the @detroithistorical museum photography exhibit celebrating 20 years of electronic music festivals in Detroit! Was excited to see a full artist list including my name since I performed at @movementdetroit in 2016 🔊🎶🎧 GO CHECK IT OUT! Thanks to #finehoes @___housecat and @gabi_detroit for the field trip and the photo. 👯‍♀️ #technocity #movementdetroit #detroittechno #detroitelectronicmusic #detroithistory #detroithistoricalmuseum https://www.instagram.com/p/CFqhhRJFCmz/?igshid=1b9pfncld3jvr

[michiganpast]

Packard Plant Bridge over Grand Blvd in Detroit - 1939 

(Source: Detroit Historical Society https://detroithistorical.pastperfectonline.com/photo/47C9FC4B-F8E3-41F0-BFDF-826974320500 )

[williamsburggarment]

Realizing I've been making jeans a long time while writing a post about how I started. I did some research to find the first notable black denim designers or black-owned denim brands? Nothing came up prior to the 90s, acknowledging I could be the first. In the early 1980s, since high school, my studio was my mom's basement in Oak Park, Michigan. My cutting table was the pool table covered in plastic. Patterns-in-work taped to the walls. Equipment: one industrial walking foot, one Juki home serger (my first machine), my mom's home sewing machine, and I stonewashed denim by hand. Read the full story in the latest Blog post on the website. . . . #mauricemalone #blackhistorymonth #80sstreetwear #blackhistorydenim #blackhistory #blackfashionhistorymonth #blackfashionmatters #blackfashionhistory #blackdesignersmatter #streetwearhistory #blm #blackbusinessowner #hiphopculture #hiphophistory #hiphopfashion #detroithistory #americanfashionhistory #streetwearculture #blackarchives #blackfashiondesigners #detroitfashion #blackculture (at Maurice Malone - Fashion Designer) https://www.instagram.com/p/CaHv2-ylXlW/?utm_medium=tumblr

[epyonroyal]

Folks have been going to @easternmarket for over 150 years. We're so proud to be a part of that kind of #DetroitHistory! You may not be able to buy livestock and snake oil anymore... But it's the best place to directly support real people. Rather than just buy everything from a department store, supporting billionaires. www.epyonroyal.com (at Eastern Market Partnership) https://www.instagram.com/p/CaFE1PQlbPa/?utm_medium=tumblr

[k3ro]

Designed this in 2001 ⚠️ #Repost @detroitraveflyers with @make_repost ・・・ We Like You Humans 2.0, 2001 - #rave #detroitrave #oldskoolraveflyers #raveflyers #warehouserave #acidhouse #techno #trance #electronicmusic #ravers #housemusic #detroithistory #raveculture #90srave #detroitmusic #tresor #90s #90srave #detroitart #musichistory #graphicdesign https://www.instagram.com/p/CWtiQD4PnFc/?utm_medium=tumblr

[xpriimer]

If you know; you know. #coder #techie #gamer #modder #detroit #detroitculture #detroitartist #bladeicewood #detroithistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CLqfYbiFqBU/?igshid=1cv5rf53is7n6

[walkingdetroit]

Detroit Historical Museum

What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Here are a few of the highlights from my visit. I hope you had a great weekend!

[husheduphistory]

Dedicated to Death: The End Experiment of Thomas Bradford

When the Fox sisters of Hydesville, New York claimed they contacted the spirit of a murdered peddler in 1848 the ears of the entire country listened. Suddenly there was hope that those who passed away were not truly gone and people from all over began to scramble to find ways to communicate with the dead. Later, with the horrors of the Civil War tearing the country and families apart people looked to Spiritualism and any way possible to find answers from beyond. Hundreds of thousands never came home, countless numbers were never found and the need for closure and communication drove people into the parlors and palms of people claiming they could be their much-needed bridge to the other side.  As many people that believed in life after death, there were just as many who refuted it and the divide grew. As time moved on the division deepened with both sides seeking the ultimate proof that death was, or was not, the end. It is an argument that is still actively debated to this day.

Prof. Thomas Lynn Bradford was a man of many ventures. A one-time electrical engineer, athlete, and actor, by 1920 he had begun studying and lecturing about the occult with a particular focus on the afterlife. The world had now suffered through World War I and people’s spirituality was again feeling highly tested. Bradford was a man of sound mind, but his headspace became more and more filled with his thoughts on life after death and how to prove it. He wrote “…all phenomena are outside the domain of the supernatural." He wanted to prove his theories using scientific fact, but he knew he could not do it alone.

Professor Thomas Lynn Bradford.

In the early part of 1921 Bradford placed an ad in a local Detroit newspaper under the name “Professor Flynn” and stated that he was seeking “someone interested in spiritualistic science.” It was a strange ad, which was exactly why it caught the attention of prominent Detroit native Ruth Starkweather Doran. Doran was not a firm believer in Spiritualism. But, she was an avid researcher and was intrigued with the opportunity to learn about a field so unfamiliar to her. On a whim, she responded to the ad and before long she and Bradford began meeting face to face.

The experiment Bradford presented to Doran would have sent most people running, but for reasons unknown, she stuck with the plan. Before their last meeting on February 5th 1921 Bradford finished typing his latest manuscript and laid it neatly next to his typewriter. There was much to do and once Doran arrived the details were ironed out about how he would contact her when his half of the experiment was complete and how they would then reunite. The deal was made. They bid each other farewell and Bradford shut the door of his rented room. He knew he would not be disturbed, he already informed his landlord, a Mr. Marcotte, that if anyone were to call for him to tell them he was out and would not be back until very late. He turned on his heater. blew out the pilot light, turned up the gas, and laid down in bed until the fumes took his life.

The fact that Bradford killed himself in pursuit of answers about life after death may not have come as a shock to some of his friends. It was later reported that the occult interested him more than anything in the physical world. At one point he told Mr. Marcotte, “When I die my body goes to science. It is to be sent to the Michigan Medical Institute. Anyhow, my body does not amount to much.”

When Bradford’s body was discovered by Marcotte the next day the gas was still pouring from his heater. Upon investigation police found his typewriter, with one final note never removed, “And it is through scientific facts that I propose to demonstrate clearly the phenomena of spirits and prove that all the phenomena is outside the domain of super-natural.” Baffled by the suicide, the Detroit Police Department began to look for an explanation, and the dots quickly led to Doran who escaped any legal action by claiming they had met and discussed proving the afterlife but that she did not know he was planning to kill himself that night. Now, with his lifeless body laying in his home the first part of Bradford’s plan was complete. The second part relied on reconnecting with Doran to prove there was life after death. The self-proclaimed skeptic agreed to go through with it. “I am his friend.” Doran said, “If he can cause his spirit to come back to earth I believe his spirit will come to me first.”

Newspaper headline about Bradford’s suicide.

In the days following Bradford’s suicide the eyes of the Spiritualism world were firmly fixed on Doran’s parlor where she was hosting multiple vigils waiting for her friend to reach out and make contact. Throughout the entire process though, Doran made it a point that she was not a psychic, saying that she was simply a human being there to serve as a middleman and prove Bradford’s theories. She and the intrigued masses patiently waited night after night for a connection, but the hours moved on quietly with Doran only stating at one point that she felt a “strange sensation”.

Doran and the spiritualists were not the only one wanting to hear from Bradford. Multiple newspapers waited eagerly for word, running headlines updating the masses with the New York Times reporting, “Dead Spiritualist Silent” two days after the suicide. It was a few days into a planned two week long vigil that there was finally something to report, but it was not from Doran. A woman named Lulu Mack came forward stating that during a visit with a medium she heard a voice calling the name “Thomas Bradford”, a name she claimed was totally unfamiliar to her at the time. She told reporters that Bradford could not communicate very well because his suicide made him weak, suspending him before he could fully pass on to the next realm. “Life has fled from the body of Thomas Lynn Bradford but his spirit is hovering near and calling to us to hear its message,” Mack reported. “I have heard the call of his spirit. It is calling to me even now. But I cannot hear the message it would send, because the spirit is too weak.”

Headline from The New York Times, February 18, 1921. 

Headline from  The Pittsburgh Press, February 10, 1921.

Suddenly, a week after Bradford took his own life, Doran claimed she had a feeling she was going to hear from him, but it would be difficult considering how weak he was. Papers, thirsty for the next part of their bizarre story, urged spiritualists to concentrate on Bradford and “assist” him in reaching out. To make sure it was a focused effort it was agreed that 9pm was the time to take action and focus to help Bradford and Doran reconnect.

Much to the delight of some and criticism of others, at 9pm that night Doran sat in her darkened parlor with three witnesses. Suddenly, she put her hands to her temples, commanded the lights be turned off, and told someone to start writing. According to her, Bradford had finally arrived. “I hear his voice” she said to the room, “It is faint, but it grows more distinct. It is the professor.”

As Doran spoke in broken fragments the alleged message from Bradford was slowly pieced together:

“I am the professor who speaks to you from the Beyond. I have broken through the veil. The help of the living has greatly assisted me. I simply went to sleep. I woke up and at first did not realize that I had passed on. I find no great change apparent. I expected things to be much different. They are not. Human forms are retained in outline but not in the physical. I have not traveled far. I am still much in the darkness. I see many people. They appear natural. There is a lightness of responsibility here unlike in life. One feels full of rapture and happiness. Persons of like natures associate. I am associated with other investigators. I do not repent my act. My present plane is but the first series. I am still investigating the future planes regarding which we in this plane are as ignorant as are earthly beings of the life just beyond human life.”

At 10pm the lights were brought back on and a flustered Doran looked over the bits and pieces that she claimed were given to her directly from the spirit of Bradford. Then, she suddenly fainted. Once resuscitated one of the witnesses asked her if she was positive about her message, was she absolutely sure she was speaking with Bradford from beyond the grave? She was adamant, “I am convinced. I never heard a spirit voice before. That was the professor, without doubt."

Illustration from  The Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 21, 1921.

For all of the speculation and attention leading up to Doran waiting to hear from Bradford, the aftermath was remarkably tame. Despite the accounts from both Doran and Mack, members of both the Spiritualism community and the general public were not convinced that the alleged message from Bradford was proof of anything. The headlines faded into obscurity and Doran went along with them. Later in the year Doran wrote an article claiming that she maintained regular communication with her departed friend ever since. She was now a believer, still receiving messages from Bradford detailing how one day both realms would meet.

“Through spiritualism the world will be reclaimed: sin will be vanquished, suffering will end” she claimed he told her. “The physical in man will cease to be, and physical death, and that is the only death, will be no more. Men will live on earth forever, even as they live forever in the spirit world.”

At the time of his death Bradford was near penniless. His estranged wife living in Wisconsin only learned of his death later and his body was claimed by a brother, James Bradford, who handed it over to an undertaker for interment.

The body of Professor Thomas Lynn Bradford, the man who gave up his life to prove life after death, is buried in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.

[picturedetroit]

“Greenwich Time Pub” (Congress Street Entrance) There’s something magical about this place. It has two separate entrances, and if you don’t know better you might think it’s two different bars before you walk through the door. At the time I shot this, I was walking by and the sign caught my eye so I decided to capture the moment. It’s interesting to think back to what Detroit was like that year, especially just months before we filed for bankruptcy. There was a tension in the city, mainly caused by what the employees of the city were going through: threat of losing their pensions; employee cut backs in city jobs ~ including the police + fire departments, meanwhile fires were up across the city, especially further out from downtown. I was dating a Detroit firefighter at the time and lived right outside of downtown while working for the Detroit Convention & Visitors Bureau (@VisitDetroit) but despite all of the bs, Detroit never lost her sparkle to me.
 So many places didn’t make it through 2020, it makes me happy to know that Greenwich is still rocking their brews and delicious sandwiches. I found an old write-up from @OpportunityDetroit that I’m sharing below for anyone interested in more history. One of the things that I find curious is the “Est. 1955” when the bar wasn’t purchased and renamed Greenwich Time Pub until 1966… I started shooting documentary photography back in 2007, when I got my first “portable camera” as I refer to it (iPhone 1). This mostly likely would’ve been an iPhone 4 or 5. Or it could’ve been my Samsung, I didn’t look because I fully edited it on my iPad w/o taking it to my laptop where I make edits prior to listing images on my website. Christina x @PictureDetroit Shot: 5.14.13 • • • • #PictureDetroit #GreenwichTimePub#DetroitBars#InteriorDesign #Architecture #DetroitStories #GreenwichDetroit#DetroitHistory#DocumentingDetroit#DetroitArchitecture#DetroitGifts #InteriorDecor #NeonSign #StreetPhotography #MomentInTime #DetroitPhotography #DetroitArtist #Mood #MoodyGram #CCSAlumni #ThrowBackThursday#TBT#SayNiceThingsAboutDetroit #DetroitLove #DetroitMI #DetroitMichigan #MidwestLiving #HomeDecor #HourDetroit #DetroitHomeComing (at Greenwich Time Pub) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUKmrqJLKfD/?utm_medium=tumblr

[detund]

DU™️ #Repost @program17 ・・・ What a wonderful time. Have not been to this place in decades. I don’t remember it at all. It was very different than I remember. #musem #henryfordmuseum #dearborn #ford #detroithistory #history #bboy #dj #sounddesigner https://www.instagram.com/p/ChgjyMcuOyE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[michiganpast]

Celebrating Paczki day at St Christopher's Catholic School in Detroit [Detroit Free Press 2/12/1975] one of the earliest articles I could find that went into any detail on paczki

[bygonely]

1967 Detroit Riots Causes, Facts, And Photos From the 12th Street Riot That Disrupted The City

[epyonroyal]

All aboard the Boblo Boat! #DetroitHistory #Detroit #Bobloboat www.epyonroyal.com (at Detroit, Michigan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CaCyXQgF679/?utm_medium=tumblr