The Audubon Book as it appeared on Nov. 17, 2010. It will stay turned to the turkey page through Sunday, November 28. (Photo by the writer.)

It’s not the same page as last year. But it really is the same book, which is on display in the Audubon Room at the Hatcher Library. Yes, the room is named after the book, which was the first one ever acquired by the UM library system.

Last year, a turkey page for Thanksgiving was just a coincidence. This year it was not – I asked for it to be turned to that page. It’s actually not a trivial request. There are eight volumes the library is displaying with a page-a-week approach. And right now the turkey page is out of sequence, page-wise. Next year, it will be out of sequence volume-wise. So this could very likely wind up being just a two-year turkey tradition.

That’s all the more reason for Ann Arborites to make a pilgrimage over to the UM campus and visit the Audubon Room in the Hatcher Library. The Hatcher Library is the large academic building with its front steps facing north on the UM Diag. To get to the Audubon Room, head right through the front door, past the checkout desk on your right, all the way to the rear, then turn left. You’ll go up a ramp. At the top of the ramp, there’s a giant image of John F. Kennedy that’s part of a Peace Corps display. Turn left at Kennedy and you’ll see signs for the Audubon Room.

Hours of the Audubon Room:
Monday – Friday  8:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday 1 – 7 p.m.

Thanksgiving Week:
Closed Thursday and Friday
Saturday 1 – 5 p.m.
Sunday  1 – 7 p.m.

Even though I’ve already had a slice of the Audubon turkey this year, I’m planning to make another visit before the page gets turned after Nov. 28. [The library is, of course, all set up for keeping leftovers – it's sort of like their whole mission.]

Thank you, Peggy, for indulging my taste for turkey pictures this year. And thanks also to Mary Morris, who handles community engagement for the UM Library.

Dave Askins is editor and co-founder of The Ann Arbor Chronicle.

Monday's weekly ritual of turning to the next page of "Birds of America" revealed the female turkey page for Thanksgiving week. A pure coincidence. Really. (Photo by the writer.)

Earlier this fall, the University of Michigan Record published an article on the dedication of the new Audubon Room, which was created on the ground floor of Hatcher Library as a venue for displaying items from the UM library special collections.

That room takes its name from the first book of any kind – special or otherwise – acquired by UM in 1838: “Birds of America,” illustrated by John James Audubon.

In that UM Record article, written by Kevin Brown, one line that captured The Chronicle’s attention was this: “[Peggy] Daub said fingerprints and grime along the edges of an opening page of the book, depicting a turkey, were not removed to celebrate the attention the book has drawn over the years.”

But October seemed early to try for a Thanksgiving connection. And so we shelved the idea of writing about the Audubon Room. But then, earlier this week through The Chronicle’s back-channel connections at UM library, we heard about a strange coincidence that had put turkeys back in the library news. It was the kind of coincidence that made us put on our investigative journalist hats – was it really a coincidence, or was it a special collections conspiracy?

The Monday Page-Turning Ritual

On the phone, Peggy Daub, who’s director of the UM Special Collections Library, confirmed what we’d heard: Every Monday morning since the Audubon Room had been dedicated, the special collections staff had been turning the book  “Birds of America” to the next page.

The poults in Audubon's "Birds of America"

And Monday of Thanksgiving week, the page that had come up was the one depicting the female turkey with her poults. [The first page of the book, which had not been cleaned, was a male turkey.]

When we pressed Daub to confirm that yes, really, that was just the next page to be turned, that it wasn’t arranged just for Thanksgiving, Daub checked with the staff member who actually turned the pages. Yes. Daub did allow that for Veteran’s Day a page had been displayed out of sequence, but that the natural sequence of pages has resumed after that holiday.

Asked whether the page-turning task required white gloves or similar precautions, Daub suggested that there was a “white glove myth.” In fact, she said, gloves tend to detract from manual dexterity needed to do the page turning. So staff just use clean hands for turning pages.

Other Display Items: Galileo’s Letter

The Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library is closed Nov. 26-27 for Thanksgiving, but has Thanksgiving weekend hours from 1-5 p.m. So readers who want to see the turkey page before it’s turned on Monday will have a chance to have a look at it.

Some of the other items currently on display in the Audubon Room include a letter written by Galileo with diagrams of bright objects – the document was written in August of 1609, so it’s just over 400 years old.

This is not a manuscript depicting how Bo Schembechler drew up the x's and o's for the "end around" play. It's a closeup of the letter written by Galileo in 1609, which is currently on display in the Audubon Room.

Angeline Hazime saw even the performance artist (?) outside Hatcher Library as a prospective recruit for her Take the Walk campaign.

Outside Hatcher Library, a guy decked out completely in black and dark gray – from his patent leather dress shoes, to his overcoat, to his fedora, to a black knit face covering – stood silently, paging every once in a while through a USA Today newspaper. It was the day after Black Friday, and The Chronicle was beginning an afternoon walk from the UM Diag westward along the Liberty Street corridor.

Outdoor performance was the common thread of the walk. The theme started with that apparent performance art piece, continued to a standard bell-ringing number at a Salvation Army kettle, was punctuated by the “Michael Jackson guy” in the alley adjacent to the Michigan Theater, and finished with news of an appearance next Saturday at Downtown Home & Garden by Santa and Mrs. Claus.

The apparent performance art outside Hatcher Library was interrupted first by what appeared to be a tourist couple, who used him the way tourist couples use the Eiffel Tower – as a photographic backdrop. She sidled up right next to the newspaper reader for the shot. That seemed to embolden Angeline Hazime to approach him as well. She was recruiting walkers and collecting signatures of support for the Take the Walk campaign, which is an AIDS fundraiser sponsored nationally by the band The Hansons.

She reported the result of her interaction with the newspaper reader: he’s not Taylor Hanson; it’s not an experiment; he’s not a mime. But he was cold, and disappeared inside Hatcher.

Across from the Diag in front of Nickels Arcade, we watched a bell ringer for a good 15 minutes worth of uninterrupted bell ringing. But Melissa Cole, of Manchester, did pause the bell for a quick chat with The Chronicle.

Melissa Cole rings her bell for the Salvation Army outside of Nickels Arcade on State Street.

She said she’d started at 11:30 that morning and was scheduled until 8 p.m. So she was almost halfway through with her bell-ringing day. This is her first year as a bell ringer for Salvation Army after responding to an ad she saw in The Ann Arbor News, and she’ll be ringing every day except Sundays through Dec. 25.

She conceded that the first night after a day of ringing, she heard the bell in her head as she went to sleep, but she’s used to it now.

Cole said that in her experience so far, mall and grocery store locations generate the most donations, but folks outside Nickels were being generous. People who had the means were being extra generous this year, she guessed, because they knew that there were a lot of people out there who needed help.

Around the corner and down the street a bit, the echoes of Billie Jean meant that The Chronicle was in for a treat from Brian Woolridge, who many readers will recognize more easily as “the Michael Jackson guy.”

He was set up in his customary location in the alley adjacent to the Michigan Theater, dancing to Jackson tunes from his boom box.

During a break, he said that he’d lost his job at the end of September and was applying for positions in grocery retail, but that things looked pretty grim on the hiring front. He said he’d try to come back tomorrow (Sunday, Nov. 30), but wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it.

Brian Woolridge mid-performance, dancing to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean in the alley next to the Michigan Theater.

Don’t count on him deviating from Michael Jackson’s body of work just for the holidays. But on reflection, Woolridge said he might pop a Jackson Five Christmas CD in the box.

On the way out of downtown, we spotted Christmas trees for sale at Downtown Home & Garden, which we took as a sign that Mark Hodesh was winning the war against the sparrows.

Hodesh wasn’t around but Charlie Slick was, and he gave us a heads up that he’d be playing Santa Claus from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the store on Dec. 6. Asked if he’d ever played Santa Claus before, he conceded that he hadn’t, but assured us he was a natural performer. And perhaps more importantly, he said, “I love Christmas!!”