David McCullough Lauds John Dann, Retiring Director of Clements Library
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John Dann, retiring director of the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.
Admirers and autograph seekers surround author David McCullough after his speech in tribute to Dr. John Dann.
Eighty-five years ago Bay City's William Clements endowed a library in Ann Arbor that has become one of the primary research institutions for early American history.
Thirty five years ago John C. Dann became the third director of that library and helped develop its magnificent collections to their present pre-eminence.
Now Dr. Dann is retiring and, in his honor, one of the nation's top history authors, the eminent David McCullough, came to Ann Arbor recently and delivered a stirring soliloquy.
"Great people had flaws and even the founders like Washington and Adams made many mistakes," said Mr. McCullough. "But their greatness came in that they were able to rise to the occasion and do noble things."
The Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan was packed with literati and academics who came from around the state and nation, and a few Bay Cityans, to toast Dr. Dann.
Mr. McCullough said leaders have to know history, noting that Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and Eisenhower all were avid students of history all their lives.
He decried the state of history education and the knowledge levels of young people today and the fact that people today don't keep diaries like their forefathers "to be given to the University of Michigan and quoted for a hundred years." He commented: "Nobody in political life would dare keep a diary today."
He gave pungent advice about education that he said "begins at home" and urged parents to take their children on trips to historical sites "even if they say they don't want to go." He added: "And bring back dining room table conversation."
Because the library was endowed and built in 1922 by Mr. Clements, the memory of his philanthropy and book collecting heroics have been largely forgotten in Bay City, where the saga of the Clements Library began early in the last century.
Bay City merchant Aaron Cooke, an avid bibliophile, interested Mr. Clements in book collecting and Mr. Cooke's collection of rare Americana was incorporated into Mr. Clements' collection.
Mr. Clements spent a large share, perhaps more than any other of the major book collectors, on bolstering his collection. Using his fortune accumulated from the Industrial Works in Bay City, a world renowned maker of railroad cranes, of which he was a founder, he scoured the world for rare documents, manuscripts and maps relating to American history. He was able to secure several important collections from Britain, including the Revolutionary War papers of Sir Henry Clinton,Lord Shelburne and Gen. Thomas Gage.
"Because of the acquisition of the Gage Papers, the Clements Library became an exceptionally important center for research on Pontiac's War, late eighteenth-century Native American history, and the Old Northwest," wrote Dr. Dann in a booklet published recently for an exhibit documenting the growth and evolution of the library.
Dr. Dann is recognized internationally as an expert on Americana and an audacious collector of historical material -- rare books, manuscripts, maps, prints, music, photographs and ephemera. As a scholar, his interests range across the full spectrum of American history, with special concentration on Colonial and Revolutionary America, naval history, the history of religion and humanitarian reform movements, and the Civil War.
"No single library of Americana is comparable to the Clements," said Mr. McCullough, who credited Dr. Dann with helping facilitate important research by others and completing works of his own from first person reports of the American Revolution.
In the course of his long career, Dr. Dann has spoken several times in Bay City, the last time several years ago in a meeting at the Holiday Inn sponsored by the University of Michigan Alumni Association of Bay County and the Bay County Historical Society. John Wheeler, Bay City insurance executive, is a member of the Board of Governors of the Clements Library.
Dr. Dann has written articles on rare book collecting and his publications include two award winning books, The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (1980), and The Nagle Journal: A Diary of the Life of Jacob Nagle, Sailor, from the year 1775 to 1841 (1988).
Dr. Dann has served on the boards and advisory committees of numerous historical organizations. He is a Professor in the Department of History, University of Michigan.
Mr. McCullough is a Pulitzer Prize winning author who has been called a "master of the art of narrative history." His editors state: "His books have been praised for their exceptional narrative sweep, their scholarship and insight into American life, and for their literary distinction."
Mr. McCullough twice was awarded the National Book Award and twice won the prestigious Francis Parkman Prize. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his books on both John Adams and Truman. He has been honored with the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, the St. Louis Literary Award, the Carl Sandburg Award, and the New York Public Library's Literary Lion Award.
Other books by Mr. McCullough include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, and Brave Companions. "As may be said of the work of few writers, none of his books has ever been out of print," his editors state.
Mr. McCullough has been an editor, essayist, teacher, lecturer, and public television host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and narrator of many documentaries including The Civil War and Napoleon. He is a past president of the Society of American Historians and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received 31 honorary degrees.
Mr. McCullough has lectured at the White House and all over the world. He is one of the few private citizens to speak before a joint session of Congress.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1933, Mr. McCullough was educated at Yale, where he graduated with honors in English literature. He lives in West Tisbury, Massachusetts with his wife Rosalee Barnes McCullough. They have five children and fifteen grandchildren.
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