EMU Today

YPSILANTI – Eastern Michigan University Archives is hosting its first Memory Swap — an event to assist the community in documenting and preserving their histories. The EMU Aerie, the EMU Archives’ mobile oral history recording booth,  and a portable digital scanning station will be stationed at the Riverside Arts Center, 76 N Huron St. in Ypsilanti, to gather and preserve oral histories from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 5.

With help from EMU Emerita Irene Allen, EMU Archives purchased and outfitted the mobile unit to help fill in the historical gaps in its collections dating back decades. The goal of the EMU Aerie is to attend campus and community events and gather oral histories of alumni, faculty, staff, and Ypsilanti residents. This way of collecting history is new to the already established Historic Preservation graduate program.

“EMU does not exist in a bubble, and the preservation of community history is nearly as vital to the institution as EMU's collective memory preservation,” said Matt Jones, EMU lecturer and oral historian.

The passage of the Ypsilanti non-discrimination ordinance in 1998 is the focus of the first Memory Swap. Currently, EMU Archives is wrapping up a massive oral history project on the ordinance, "Out Of the Margins: Voices From 1279,"  and members of the community groups that helped pass the ordinance are being encouraged to come to the Memory Swap to preserve their artifacts from the efforts. 

According to Jones, Memory Swaps will incorporate oral history, digital artifact scanning, and community outreach to construct a more accurate portrait of who this community is, who it has been, what it holds dear, and why. 

Before exploring the mobile unit, attendees will be assisted in scanning photographs, negatives, and documents, before stepping into the Aerie to talk, on the record, about why those particular items are so significant to them and to the history of their community. All participants will receive digital scans of their items and digital copies of their oral history interviews. All interviews and scanned materials will be used in a number of online exhibits to augment oral history collections and will be archived and stored safely within the EMU Archives. If participants wish, they may also donate the physical objects themselves for preservation in the EMU Archives. Memory Swaps are free to all participants. 

“Our goal is to augment the oral history collection with their documents and photographs and make everything accessible online via the archives website,” said Jones. 

To learn more about EMU Aerie, contact Matt Jones at djones12@emich.edu.

About Eastern Michigan University

Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest public university in Michigan. It currently serves more than 15,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering and Technology; Health and Human Services; and, its graduate school. EMU is regularly recognized by national publications for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website.