Rare Quillwork Book coming to Blackbird Museum

The Historical Society invites the public to visit the Andrew J. Blackbird Museum on Wednesday and Thursday, July 24^th and 25^th between 10 am and 4 pm for the unique opportunity to view a quilled birchbark copy of Andrew Blackbird's 1887 History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan. The quillwork cover was handcrafted by Andrew’s sister, Margaret Blackbird Boyd in about 1888.

Boyd was a skilled artist, leader, and community advocate who created the quilled copy as a gift for Blackbird's book editor Georgiana Webb Owen from Ypsilanti, Michigan. The book has traveled from Amherst, Massachusetts where it is currently stewarded by the Amherst College Collection of Native American Literature.

The book will also be on display at the Harbor Springs History Museum on Thursday, July 25th from 4:00 pm until 5:30 pm in the lead up to a history talk by Eric Hemenway, Director of Archives and Records for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, on Margaret Boyd. The talk begins at 5:30 pm on the second floor of the museum building and advanced registration is required.

For more information or to register, call the Historical Society at (231) 526-9771 or visit www.HarborSpringsHistory.org.

A nonprofit membership organization founded in 1990, the Harbor Springs Area aHarbor Historical Society preserves, interprets and shares the history of the Harbor Springs area, while encouraging curiosity and promoting an understanding of how the lessons of the past can foster an informed community.