Straits Cultural Center

05/28/2026

The lights are being installed!

05/26/2026

The Bridging History Event is less than two months away. We will be honoring Timmons and Rearick families. The event will include a presentation, historic displays, a Bridge Tower tour auction and dinner for all guests.

The event requires advance ticket purchase, which can be found on the MHS website as a Bridging History Event Ticket. We hope to see you.
https://www.michmackhs.org/donate

05/25/2026

Happy Memorial Day from everyone at the Michilimackinac Historical Society.

05/22/2026

Here are some boys who I'm sure were as excited for the weekend as boys are today. From the MHS collection.

05/20/2026

The Humble Toothbrush

Who would have guessed the earliest toothbrushes were produced in China in 1498? Their handles were made with bamboo and their bristles out of boar’s hair. One did not use toothpaste, but rather the bristles were rubbed gently against the teeth, which were then rinsed with herbal rinses. In the West, toothbrushes were not used until trade with China became more common. The earliest European-style brushes used boar hair bristles that were as soft as possible, while some even used feathers. These items, though, were an expensive novelty, and most people continued to use toothpicks or pieces of cloth to clean their teeth. Toothbrushes only became more readily used after 1780 when the Addis Ltd. company, founded by William Addis in Clerkenwell, England began mass production of the device.

The toothbrush in our the MHS collection is a bone-handle brush made before the 1920s. Bone-handle brushes were carved from a cattle femur and fitted with boar hair bristles. The more affluent would sometimes purchase brush handles made of other materials like ivory or metals, but bone was the most common and stood up well to everyday use. Regardless of class, boar’s hair was used almost universally until the 1930s, when a shortage occurred because of the war. All brushes were mass-produced by mostly European companies, as American companies did not begin producing them until 1885. The brushes, like today, came in a number of angles, said to make it easier to reach stubborn back teeth. Round head brushes appeared as early as the late 19th century in London. Even toothbrushes in the 19th century were throwaway items used only a few times before being discarded. Most preferred cheaper brushes because of this habit, and hundreds of brushes have been found in rubbish heaps across the United Kingdom and America.

This artifact and many others can be sponsored for display on the MHS website at:

https://www.michmackhs.org/sponsor-an-artifact

05/16/2026

This month, the MHS is featuring Chief Ledagie. Ledagie, or the more common spelling of Ladiga, was a Creek Chief who was born in the Eastern Mississippi territory on land that would become Jacksonville, Alabama. At the time, the area consisted of a series of villages and larger settlements called the Upper and Lower Towns. Ledagie was not a powerful chief, but his family held vast and valuable tracts of land. This and the impending threat of American westward expansion are what led him to become involved in treaty negotiations. Ledagie was in service to the powerful principal chief, Tvstanagi Rakkē or Big Warrior, whose home was located in Upper Town, which served as the Tribe’s council house.

Ledagie is best remembered for acting as Tystanagi’s representative in the signing of the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832, in which all Creek land claims east of the Mississippi River were ceded to the United States, and for the establishment of Jacksonville. In return, his family was granted a house in Benton County. A year later, he sold part of his new settlement for $2,000 to Charles White Peters, who expanded Jacksonville. His feelings on this treaty are not directly recorded, but he disapproved of the outcome. His descendants continued to fight for the return of their land, with the most famous of these cases being Ladiga v. Roland in 1844.

The exact time and occasion of Chief Ledagie’s portrait sitting is unknown, though it was most likely at a Creek delegate protest in Washington, D.C., which he attended. His portrait was painted by Charles Bird King around 1825.

You can sponsor Ledagie and many more portraits on our website:
https://www.michmackhs.org/sponsor-a-chief

05/15/2026

05/13/2026

Today, we are featuring local artist Deanna Draze.

Michigan Made
330 N. State Street
Downtown St. Ignace

05/11/2026

Updated Flyer

05/11/2026

We are open again for the summer season and a few new items have been added. Come down and take a look.

Michigan Made
330 N State Street
Downtown St. Ignace

05/10/2026

A photograph postcard of two mothers and their children from our collection.

Happy Mother's Day from all of us at the Michilimackinac Historical Society.