“Historic Photos of Detroit”, by Mary J. Wallace

 

220 pages, Turner, ISBN-13: 978-1683369295

Historic Photos of Detroit by Mary J. Wallace is just one in a whole series of books of historic photos, each of which focuses on a specific city and, sometimes, specific era of the place in question; this particular volume covers the era starting in 1900 through 1969 through nearly two hundred photographs, the quality of which are…alright, perhaps because they were printed on mass-produced matte paper rather than glossy, which I thought would have been standard for a photo book like this one. Wallace made her selections from the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University (where she worked as an audiovisual archivist) and from the Burton Collection of the Detroit Public Library, and so her familiarity with the material shows in the photographs chosen; many are of the lesser-known and even intimate variety, rather than a select few that become the standard due to their wider familiarity.

Wallace has divided her book into four chronological sections: the first from 1860 to 1899 (from the Civil War until the arrival of the automobile); the second from 1900 to 1919 (the birth of the auto industry through the end of World War I); the third from 1920 to 1941 (the early boom of the auto industry through the Depression); and the fourth from 1942 to 1969 (from World War II through the 1967 riots and the aftermath). What I most appreciate is the balance she shows in showing us images of the development in architecture with the photos of real people at work, in their fashions, and some historical events. Even when she picks the historical events, she selects an image that gives us a different perspective on the event. We all know the images of the fight of the Battle of the Overpass at the Rouge Plant. Not many of us have seen the image she shows us here of the peaceful demonstration before the struggle began.

A wonderful book from cover-to-cover, recapturing a lost era in which the Motor City was king of the world and an economic powerhouse envied by all. Would that we could become so again.