Senior archivist of black history to retire after years at Chicago Public Library's Harsh Research Collection
Michael Flug, senior archivist for the Chicago Public Library's Harsh Research Collection, speaks Friday at a news conference to announce the addition of papers from the Rev. Addie Wyatt and Rev. Claude Wyatt. (Chris Salata, Photo for the Chicago Tribune / July 31, 2010)
Senior archivist Michael Flug helped build a vast collection of African-American history and literature
Dawn Turner TriceAugust 9, 2010
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Often, when a person announces his retirement, the "congratulations" follow. But that hasn't exactly been the case for Michael Flug, the senior archivist with the Chicago Public Library's Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection who will retire next month after 21 years of service.No, most of the people have either grimaced or gone slack-jawed. One friend, a television producer who has relied on Flug for years, said to me, "Lord, I have to sit down."
That's exactly the way I felt when I received the news, which came mid-July in the form of an e-mail invitation to his going-away party later this month.
You might not know Flug's name, but if you've read a news story or book, or even watched a documentary dealing with black history in Chicago, chances are you've encountered archival information that he has either assembled or shepherded.The Harsh Research Collection, housed in the Carter G. Woodson Library Branch, is believed to be the largest collection of African-American history and literature in the Midwest.
That's thanks to Flug and a staff that includes another archivist, a curator and two reference librarians, as well as "friends" of the collection whose contributions have made Harsh an enormous repository of material: rare books, magazines, sheet music, microfilm, photographs and clippings you won't find anywhere else. Harsh also has more than 200 collections of archives and manuscripts.
Flug is a self-described curmudgeon who shuns the limelight and praise, but the researchers I've directed his way have all returned to me wowed by his unique insights and perspective, and the way he treated their projects with a zeal and enthusiasm one normally reserves for his own.
But it's not just bigwigs who receive the full measure of his expertise.
"I'm just as proud of the high school students who do great history projects as the college professors who write fine books," Flug told me as we visited last week in the library.
Flug, 65, grew up in New York, the son of Jewish immigrants. He joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in New York in 1960 and worked in several states, including Mississippi. He left there in 1968 to work for Detroit's Human Rights Department before coming to Chicago in 1990 to work for Harsh.
As an archivist of African-American history, Flug has been able to meld his passion for social justice work with his desire to safeguard precious memorabilia that had been shunted into the alcoves of church basements, apartment closets or damp lofts.
For three years, Flug made weekly visits to the Hyde Park apartment of activist and educator Timuel Black, now 91. Flug labored through 70 years worth of hip-high stacks that included photographs and correspondences from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mayor Harold Washington.
The material is now in 250 document cases, and the staff is nearly finished processing the collection, which is scheduled to open to the public in October.
Perhaps one of Flug's greatest contributions was Harsh's 1998 "Chicago Renaissance" exhibit that examined the cultural flowering of black Chicago in the 1930s, '40s and '50s in art, music, journalism, literature, the social sciences and even social protest.
"We decided that because we already had collections of people who participated in the Chicago Renaissance, we were going to show how it differed from the Harlem Renaissance and how multidimensional it was, and the international impact it had," Flug said.
The exhibit ran for two years, and donations from others who had been involved in the movement poured into the Harsh collection.
On Friday, Flug joined Mayor Richard Daley and others at the Harold Washington Library Center to announce the opening of the "Rev. Addie Wyatt and Rev. Claude Wyatt Papers." With 345 boxes of memorabilia, it's the largest collection ever processed by Harsh and chronicles the lives of Claude Wyatt, a seminal civil rights figure in Chicago, and Addie Wyatt, a labor activist and leader in the civil rights and women's rights movements.
Flug told me that his approach to black history comes from Carter G. Woodson, the early 20th century scholar, historian and author, who believed that the presentation, study and dissemination of black history could change race relations and make this a better country.
"To that end, this has never just been a job to me," said Flug, who hopes to return to Harsh on a part-time basis. "The work is not an abstract enterprise or confined to the ivory tower. I am a very lucky and blessed man because if I look at the universe of jobs I could have had, there's none better suited to me than this one."
Indeed. And, by the way, congratulations, my friend!
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Monday, August 16, 2010
Senior archivist of African-American writing for Chicago Public Library's Harsh Research Collection retires
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