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William Shakespeare Collection

 Collection
Identifier: RH-A-3433

Scope and Contents

The collection is composed of one book, Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War 1861-1865, volume 2, Second Michigan Infantry, published by Ihling Brothers & Everard Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan. There is no publication date although there is a letter inside the cover dated 1904.

Dates

  • Creation: 1904-1906

Creator

Biographical / Historical

Born in Ohio in 1844, William Shakespeare came to Kalamazoo County with his parents one year later. He left school when he was 12 and began to work first at the Kalamazoo Telegraph and later the Kalamazoo Gazette. At seventeen in 1861, he enlisted in Company K, Second Michigan Infantry and mustered out three years later due to wounds received in battle. After the war he became editor of the Gazette at age twenty-one, a clerk and later a lawyer. In 1881, he received an appointment as a brigadier-general and quartermaster-general of the Michigan state troops and subsequently became known as General William Shakespeare. At retirement, he gave his 1300-volume library to the Kalamazoo County Law Library. He died on January 31, 1907 at the age of sixty-seven.

Extent

0.10 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Source of Acquisition

This book had been in the Kalamazoo Public Library (A-441) collection but a decision was made to put it in its own separate collection.

Physical Description

The collection amounts to .10 cubic feet and is composed of one book titled, Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War 1861-1865, volume 2, Second Michigan Infantry published by the Ihling Brothers & Everard Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan around 1904. The book is 9 ¼”x6 ½” with 189 pages. The cover is brown with darker letters. It contains information about the Second Michigan Infantry including where the unit fought during the Civil War and a list of all the members. Someone, possibly William Shakespeare, added notes in the margins next to names; marks several as "dead." The book is in fairly good condition. In the front cover is a newspaper clipping about the death of Harmon Camburn in 1906 and a letter from the Adjutant General's Office, dated September 19, 1904 to General William Shakespeare. There is a shadow on the inside front page due to the newspaper clipping. There also is wear on the edges and corners of the book.

Title
William Shakespeare Collection Finding Aid
Status
Completed
Author
Lynn Houghton
Date
2011-09-12
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Western Michigan University Archives & Regional History Collections Repository

Contact:
Charles C. and Lynn L. Zhang Legacy Collections Center
1650 Oakland Drive
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5307 US
(269) 387-8490