The Historical Society of Michigan awarded its 2008 State History Award for Distinguished Volunteer Service to Eastport’s Betty Beeby, citing her work as an illustrator, muralist, author, preservationist and co-founder of the Wilkinson Homestead Historical Society. (Readers of Torch Lake Views know that’s not the half of it. Betty’s greatest contributions to Michigan history lie ahead, as the children she has mentored grow up.)
In case you missed Lisa Perkins’s story in the Traverse City Record-Eagle, you can read it here: Illustrator Makes History.
There is another nice story by Jeff Kessler in this week’s Antrim County News, but there’s no link to it online yet. When there is I’ll put it here.
Betty has been featured or mentioned in a number of posts on Torch Lake Views: Search results for Betty Beeby on Torch Lake Views.
Finally, here are the details from the Historical Society of Michigan website: 2008 State History Awards Presented at State History Conference
The Historical Society of Michigan presented its 2008 State History Awards at the 134th annual State History Conference being held in Grand Rapids, Michigan September 26-28. The awards were presented at the annual awards banquet on Friday evening. The State History Awards are the highest recognition presented by the state’s official historical society and oldest cultural organization, established in 1828.
Fifteen awards were presented this year in a variety categories including Publications: University and Commercial Press, Educator, Publications: Private Printing, Publications: Children and Youth, Communications, Educational Programs, Restoration & Preservation, Distinguished Volunteer Service, Institutions, Special Programs and Events and Lifetime Achievement . . . .
In the category of Distinguished Volunteer Service the Society awarded Betty Beeby the 2008 State History Award. Beeby has made enormous contributions to Michigan history. Her illustrations include thirty book covers for Eerdmans and classics like Whistle Up the Bay and Potawatomi Indian Summer. Visitors to the Fort Michilimackinac Orientation Center will recall her 11′ x 50′ mural of the Mackinac Bridge and Straits of Mackinac. She played an instrumental role in saving the historic Wilkinson Homestead in Eastport from the wrecking ball and turning it into a historic site. Beeby has also saved written and oral documentation of life in northern Michigan. Her recover of a collection of letters from her family barn in Eastport that are now preserved in the Regional Archives at Western Michigan University became the basis of her book Breath Escaping Envelopes, which tells of the hardships faced by several women living through Michigan winters on Grand Traverse Bay from 1870 to 1910. In 1999, Betty headed an effort to preserve a collection of over one thousand glass plate negatives produced by a 19th century Mancelona photographer, Emil Johnson. Beeby’s hard work will provide a lasting legacy to much of Michigan’s past.
Torch Lake Views 
Posted on November 9, 2008
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