The University of Michigan Libraries houses one of the largest collections of Southeast Asia-related material in the United States, with particularly extensive collections related to the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. Below is an overview of the University’s most notable holdings for each country. Please see the “Information by Country” tab for more detailed information and direct links to collections pertaining to each country.
The University of Michigan was heavily involved in the expansion of the U.S. colonial regime in the Philippines. Several U-M faculty and students traveled to the Philippines through the late 19th and early 20th centuries to conduct their research, often taking home with them zoological, anthropological, and archeological materials, much of which were deposited with the university, creating one of the largest collections of Philippine-related material in the U.S. The U-M Libraries Special Collections houses the Philippine History Collection, composed primarily of the materials of Dean Conant Worcester, U-M assistant professor of zoology who served as a member of the United States Philippine Commission and secretary of the interior for the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands. There are two digitized collections, the Philippine Photographs Digital Archive, comprising over 2,100 photographs of the Philippines, and The United States and its Territories, 1870 - 1925: The Age of Imperialism, which is composed of documents from American governance in the Philippines (1898-1910). The William L. Clements library also houses several related collections pertaining to the Philippines, including the Revolutionary Philippines and Cuba Collection, as well as several series of correspondence between U.S. servicemen stationed in the Philippines in the mid-20th century. Recently, strides have been made to consider the repatriation of materials gained through colonial expansion and the building of connections with communities of origin in the Philippines, through the Reconnect/Recollect Project, led by U-M Professors Ricardo Punzalan (School of Information) and Deirdre de la Cruz (Anthropology and History).
U-M Libraries also holds a significant collection of material from Thailand, especially as it relates to Buddhism, literature, and linguistics. The U-M Libraries Special Collections and the Bentley Historical Library house the William J. Gedney Collection. Gedney, professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan from 1960-1980, was a pioneering scholar of Thai linguistics, establishing Thai-language study at the University. The collection includes over 6,000 monographs, manuscripts, and serial titles focused on Thai history and culture, with an emphasis on Thai Buddhism and the history of the Chakri dynasty. The collection also includes a number of Khmer and Pali-Thai manuscripts that have been microfilmed to ensure preservation. U-M Libraries Special Collections also holds several 18th-19th century bamboo and palm-leaf manuscripts on Thai Buddhism, literature, astrology, and medicine. The William L. Clements Library holds the Hemenway Family Collection, which includes materials from an American missionary family based in Thailand through the mid-19th century, as well as several smaller collections from American travelers to Thailand in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The University of Michigan’s History of Art Visual Resources Collection, Breezewood Collection also includes over 3,500 photographs of Thai art and architecture.
The University possesses an extensive collection of Indonesian newspapers, as well as documents related to Dutch colonization, Islam, and political and civil unrest in Indonesia, available as microfilm at the Hatcher Graduate Library. There is also a notable collection of art and photographs from Indonesia at the University of Michigan History of Art Visual Resources Collection, including the Borobudur Collection, composed of over 4,000 slides of the temple, as well as important examples from the Breezewood Collection. The Music Library also hosts a large collection of recordings and texts on Gamelan music.
U-M also has several collections related to the Vietnam War. The Special Collections unit houses the Colonel Henry Tufts Papers (1968-1975). Tufts was a commanding officer of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command who investigated the My Lai Massacre and My Son cases. The papers include extensive documentation and communication related to these investigations. There are also several collections that depict U.S.-based resistance to the Vietnam War, notably a collection of posters in the Labadie Collection, as well as several series at the Bentley Historical Library. Special Collections also holds the Thánh Gióng slides, 1970, a collection of slides produced by the Vietnamese Ministry for Education and Training in 1970 that depicts the folktale.
The U-M Libraries Special Collections holds the Kay Boyle Papers (1966-1999). Boyle was an American journalist reporting on the effects of the Vietnam War in Cambodia. The papers include a series of photographs taken in Cambodia, offering a glimpse into life in the country, which was exceptionally rare during the time period. The Hatcher Graduate Library also houses a collection of textbooks collected before the Khmer Rouge regime (1974-1979) and the subsequent destruction of academic materials.
The Southeast Asia Division of the Hatcher Library selects and acquires library materials, solicits and accepts purchase recommendations, catalogues the collection, provides assistance to library users in the use of the unit's collection, and offers formal instruction in the bibliographic resources in the unit's area of expertise. Through the acquistions and cataloging of both vernacular and English language materials from the region, we support the research and instructional needs of faculty, students, visiting scholars,and independent researchers from around the world.
While three countries - Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand - have received the most comprehensive attention, we are also concerned with developing the collection by increasing our holdings for the other seven countries that make up the geographic region: Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam.
Our collection development also extends to materials that focus on Southeast Asia published in European and East Asian countries. International scholars are increasingly interested in the dynamic region of Southeast Asia and collecting these materials has become an important component of our responsibilities. In addition to the coverage of the ten Southeast Asian countries, we also collect materials pertaining to Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island countries, such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Palau.
This site has been developed to perform as a quick reference to the services and materials available in our Division. Additionally, this site is intended to act as an interface between the user and the ever-expanding index of resources pertaining to Southeast Asia found on the Internet.
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