Years ago, the Port Huron Museum had a “House Party” program celebrating the Michigan tradition of the house party (i.e., square dance and music party held in a home). Years ago, I went to the Port Huron Museum to ask about materials from that program. I was ushered into the basement of the museum where I was presented with a couple cardboard boxes full of jumbled papers. I went through everything, using spare change to pay for photocopies. These are some photographs that I had photocopied from the collection that I thought folks might find interesting. I wish the scans were of higher quality but such were my circumstances. 

Some information text remains for some of the below photos, and others need explaining. A few are shots of lumberjacks in their camps. The African-American man was named McKanlass and he had a dance “orchestra” in Port Huron. 

A. Trae McMaken