NOTICE: The Eastwood Branch will be closed on April 29th & 30th for maintenance needs. 

See the latest updates about Alma Powell Branch.

Local History

General Topics

Garden Clubs

Gwen Frostic-designed catalog for Kalamazoo Garden Club, 1981 Whether the focus was playing a vital role in beautifying parts of the city, sharing knowledge of horticultural practices, teaching the basics…

New Years Day

New Year’s Day is a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the (hopefully) better days ahead, especially this year. But today seems like an especially good time for a look back at life in Kalamazoo one hundred years ago.

Sister Cities

Conceived after the destructive upheaval of World War II, sister city programs developed from the simple idea that sharing information and experiences between people from different cultural backgrounds could nurture…

That Gal in Kalamazoo

It was during World War II that a song helped immortalize Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Glenn Miller Orchestra introduced “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” in the 1942 musical Orchestra Wives (20th Century-Fox Pictures) starring George Montgomery, Ann...

The Great Blizzard of 1978

Two years before Kalamazoo’s devastating 1980 tornado, a storm of a different sort brought much of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions to a standstill. People still refer to this historic winter storm as the Great Blizzard of 1978.

TWISTER!

On Tuesday, 13 May 1980, a tornado struck the heart of Kalamazoo, Michigan. First touching down at 4 pm eight miles west of the city limits, it rapidly moved eastward through downtown until it dissipated east of the city at 4:25 pm...

Underground Railroad in Kalamazoo

More than three million African-Americans lived as slaves in the Southern United States in the mid-1800s. They had few human rights and were regularly bought and sold at auction. Whole families were torn apart, never to be reunited. This bleak...

USS Kalamazoo

The name “Kalamazoo” has graced U.S. Navy ships in several eras. The most recent was the USS KALAMAZOO (AOR6), a U.S. Navy replenishment oiler, one of seven of that class named in honor of U.S. cities or rivers with names of Native American...

Vietnam War and Kalamazoo

Antiwar demonstration at Miller Auditorium, October 17, 1969. Kalamazoo Valley Museum Collection, 80.487. The Vietnam War was fought in a faraway southeast Asian country, but like all large-scale conflicts involving…

Share: Facebook Twitter