Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center - NMU Events and Announcements

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

In conjunction with the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center’s current exhibition, “The Seventh Fire: A Decolonizing Experience,” the Center will be presenting a performance by the the Métis fiddling master Jamie Fox and her father Jim on guitar.

Jamie Fox is a Métis fiddler of the Aaniih and Nakoda tribes of Montana. The Métis are members of ethnic groups native to Canada and parts of the United States that trace their descent to both Indigenous North Americans and European settlers. Jamie grew up on the Fort Belknap Reservation of Northern Montana where she was immersed in a lively fiddle and dance tradition. She will perform selections from the tunes played there, derived from a mixture of Celtic, French, and Native American cultures, and some other “popular” Métis tunes that are played throughout Native country. She will be accompanied on guitar by her father, Jim Fox. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center and the Hiawatha Music Co-op, which both strive to celebrate and preserve the folk music traditions of the region.

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

Thanks to funds in part by the Michigan Humanities Council, The Beaumier U.P. Center in excited to announce its upcoming exhibit, The Seventh Fire: A Decolonizing Experience. This multi-media display features contemporary Anishinaabe life and the liberty that decolonizing brings to modern society.

Our location is in Gries Hall on campus across from the Hedgecock building. Complimentary snacks and refreshments will be available upon the opening date. Free admission.

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center proudly presents: "Put Your Hand on the Line," an award-winning film about how Northern Michigan's football team made a record-breaking comeback in 1975! Located at Jamrich 1100.
*Free admission*

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

Discover how NMU has changed over the decades along with Marquette's commercial and historical districts on a bus tour lead by Beaumier Center's director Daniel Truckey.

Ready to learn about former off-campus hangouts and stories?

Call 906-227-2549 or email at
heritage@nmu.edu

*Free Admission*

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center is hosting a “Welcome Back” reception in its gallery at Gries Hall on the campus of Northern Michigan University. The reception will have hors d’oeuvres and light refreshments available. This event is free and open to public. NMU requires unvaccinated individuals to wear masks when indoors of any university facility.  Vaccinated individuals are welcome and encouraged to wear masks when indoors.

In addition to the reception, you’ll have a chance to check out the Beaumier Center’s current exhibition, “A Beautiful Location: the Architecture of NMU.” The exhibition looks at how Northern Michigan University went from a one building campus in a remote part of Marquette, to its expansion as a modern campus of the 1960s and the wired-community of today. It also features key information about the structures through photographs, architectural plans, a time-lapse map, and fragments and artifacts from buildings no longer standing. 

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center will open a new exhibition on the architectural history of Northern Michigan University entitled, “A Beautiful Location: the Architecture of NMU,” on Saturday, June 12. The exhibition will be open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 12 to 4 p.m, through September 4. Admission is free and open to the public. Currently, all visitors will need to wear a mask unless they are fully vaccinated.

“A Beautiful Location,” looks at how Northern Michigan University went from a one building campus in a remote part of Marquette, to its expansion as a modern campus of the 1960s and the wired-community of today. NMU has had a rich and fascinating physical history.  The campus features some of the region’s most significant structures designed by Michigan’s greatest architects. From the now demolished Kaye Hall, designed by D. Frederick Charlton, to Harden Hall (originally the Learning Resources Center) designed by Michigan’s most famous architect, Alden B. Dow, Northern’s campus is a mix of unique architectural styles and aesthetics.

The exhibition will feature key information about each structure, including photographs, maps, architectural plans. In addition, the exhibition will have a time-lapse map showing how the campus has grown and spread out over the past 122 years.  There will also be display cases featuring architectural fragments, signs and artifacts connected with buildings no longer in existence on campus.

Lastly, the Beaumier Center will be hosting occasional architectural walking tours of the NMU campus this summer. These tours are free but are limited to 20 people. To make a reservation for one of the following tours, please call 906-227-2549.

Walking tour dates: 

Thursday, July 8

Thursday, July 22

Thursday, August 5

Thursday, August 19

For more information on visiting the Beaumier Center, please go to www.nmu.edu/beaumier or www.facebook.com/beaumiernmu.

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

The Beaumier UP Heritage Center presents "I Go on Singing; Paul Robeson's Life in His Words & Songs" in conjunction with our current exhibition "Conflict & Resolve: Labor in the Upper Peninsula" and with support from the NMU President's Committee on Diversity. This virtual event presented by Anthony Brown features equal parts documentary and live concert experience, which include discussions from legendary folk singer and friend Pete Seeger, and Robeson's original arrangements of favorites such as "Wade in the Water" "Ol' Man River" and "It Ain't Necessarily So". The program is available from April 9 - May 30. The stream is free to NMU students and available to the public for $5 / ticket. Tickets and the stream can be accessed at https://nmu.universitytickets.com/. 

Robeson made a name for himself as a performer in the early 1900s. He started by singing for spending money during his time at Rutgers University, where he was also an informal member of the Glee Club, but could not perform due to racist club policies. A talented baritone, Robeson later garnered international attention for leading roles in London productions. As his career advanced, Robeson excelled in activism for international workers and minority rights. In April of 1946, Robeson visited Ishpeming to perform and support the cause of the striking iron miners. 
Presenter Anthony Brown reflects on Robeson: "Here was an African American man, 'the tallest tree in the forest,' who had not only the intellect and command of language, but also the courage to stand up and speak out for what he believed". 

American baritone, Anthony Brown, promotes peace and reconciliation through his music. His work takes him to political host spots in Africa, South America, Europe and Asia. His stirring performance connect people across race, language, religion and culture and help them focus on how we’re each a part of the great family of humanity. Much like Paul Robeson, Brown believes that our love of music makes us one. 

The Beaumier UP Heritage Center is a museum and educational center on the campus of Northern Michigan University. It celebrates the history and culture of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Reservations to see the "Conflict and Resolve" exhibit can be made by calling us at (906) 227 2549

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center presents a virtual lecture on “Gender and Work in the Upper Peninsula through 1976” by Dr. Russell Magnaghi, Professor of History Emeritus, Northern Michigan University. The program will be on Wednesday, March 24 at 7 p.m. and will be streamed live on the Beaumier Center’s Facebook site, www.facebook.com/BeaumierNMU. Admission to the event is free and open to the public.

This program celebrates both Women’s History Month and the Beaumier Center’s current exhibition, “Conflict and Resolve: Labor History in the Upper Peninsula.” Dr. Magnaghi says, The story of women factory workers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has not been adequately developed. It is the hope of this presentation to provide new insights and history of this facet of women’s heritage in the region.”

Dr. Magnaghi, award-winning historian of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is the author of over a dozen books on the U.P. A graduate of the University of San Francisco and St. Louis University, Russell taught history for forty-five years at Northern Michigan University. He and his wife, Diane, reside in Marquette.

The exhibition, “Conflict and Resolve” looks at organized labor in the region from the very beginnings of the mining and lumbering industry in the mid-19th century to the development of service unions in the 20th century. It features sections on the Knights of Labor, mining safety, various mining and lumbering strikes, corporate paternalism, unionization and community service. The exhibition will include extensive interpretive text, images, artifacts and media to paint a broad picture of the role labor has played and still plays in the lives of many workers and their communities.

To see the exhibition, please call to make a reservation, as due to Covid-19 the gallery is restricted to 6 visitors at a time.  To make a reservation please call 906-227-2549.

The Beaumier UP Heritage Center is a museum and educational center on the campus of Northern Michigan University. It celebrates the history and culture of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

As part of WNMU-TV13's Festival 21, the Beaumier UP Heritage Center co-sponsoring "Pelkie: 100 Years of Finnishness in Michigan's North Woods", a 3-episode series produced by Dr. Michael M. Loukinen. The series premieres on TV this coming Monday, March 15, at 8pm on WNMUTV 13 PBS, where it can be watched in its entirety. 

Through the oral history of its residents, "Pelkie" focuses on the multigenerational Finnish migrant communities in the Western Lake Superior region, areas called 'havens in the woods'. In these havens, Finnish immigrants formed communities while working in the mines. As the mining industry faced labor strikes, Finnish immigrants started logging and establishing small dairy farms. 

Episode 1. From Copper Miners to Farmers, 1hr 6 min
The Sturgeon River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. had deposited rich soil in the Pelkie area for eons. Lumberjacks and farmers cleared the land to make way for farms and the railroad connected them to the world. Mutual helping traditions led to a farmer's co-op, Finnish Lutheran churches sprang up and even a socialist hall was built. It was a thriving dairy farming and logging community.

Episode 2. Third Generation: Cows, Kids, and Barns, 58 min
Second and third-generation Finns worked on the farms as kids, which instilled in them a good work ethic and good social responsibility values. They had the freedom to run and play, and there was a strong culture of visiting and sauna among neighbors. Kids initially spoke Finnish in one-room schools. As the second and third generations matured, by seeking work and education, they migrated.

Episode 3. A Farewell to Dairy Farming, 44 min
Children and grandchildren of the Finnish immigrants move away to go to school and many found work in Detroit. They married non-Finns outside of the community and many did not return. Finnish culture weakened in Pelkie. At the same time milk prices bottomed out and big box stores outside of Pelkie outcompeted the Co-op. Mennonites and strangers moved in while some Finnish Americans remained.

The producer of “Pelkie” Dr. Michael M. Loukinen taught sociology at NMU for 40 years while he also worked intermittently on this series.

The Beaumier UP Heritage Center is a museum and educational center on the campus of Northern Michigan University. It celebrates the history and culture of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center

The Beaumier UP Heritage Center is showing "Sirkka" on Friday, February 26 at 9pm as the next installment in our Heritage Documentary Series. This showing is in collaboration with WNMU-TV, to celebrate UP culture and history safely during the ongoing pandemic. You can catch the film live at 9pm on February 26, or stream it for 30 days on WNMU's passport app, found here.

"Sirkka" documents the life of Sirkka Tuomi Holm, a first generation American and child of Finnish migrants. During her century of life, Sirkka witnessed a momentous Finnish-American history. Sirkka was a lifelong progressive activist: she sparked attention from the FBI and also became an accomplished writer. The film, produced by Kristin Ojaniemi and the Finnish American Heritage Center, is a testament to her life, and is a capsule of Finnish-American culture and history over the past 100 years. 

The Beaumier UP Heritage Center is a museum and educational center on the campus of Northern Michigan University. It celebrates the history and culture of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.