The Dearborn Historical Museum serves as the archives of the City of Dearborn. The Museum’s archives at the McFadden-Ross House contains thousands of photos, reference books, maps, documents, and more. The archives hold several decades of Dearborn business directories and (nearly) every high school yearbook for Dearborn-area schools.
Public research hours at the archives are 10am – 4pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, or by appointment. To contact the Museum with a research request or to make a research appointment, please contact museum@dearborn.gov.
Some research projects can be completed for the public free of charge, but more advanced projects–or projects requiring photos or documents to be copied or scanned–require payment to the Museum. Below is a list of services and fees:
Photocopies/microfilm copies – 0.50 each
Photo duplications (personal use) – 5.00 each
Photo duplications (commercial use) – 40.00 each
Oversized photocopies (map size) – 17.00 each
Scanning services – 12.50 each
Long-term research (e-mail & phone) – 25.00
For information on how to pay archival fees, click here.
Some of the most used items and collections at the Dearborn Historical Museum archives include:
1. City Government Photo Negative Collection containing hundreds of thousands of images from the 1940s until 2006
2. Polk City Directories from 1926-2001 that feature information on every Dearborn building
3. Yearbooks covering nearly every year at Dearborn high schools since the 1920s
4. Salina School Archive containing years of yearbooks, Torch magazines, and photos
5. 1979 Survey card collection containing photos of every structure built in 1929 or earlier that was still standing in Dearborn
6. Newspaper microfilm for nearly every Dearborn newspaper
7. Files on most Dearborn elections
8. Library books and news clippings on Arab Americans
9. Genealogical files on Dearborn families
10. Early records on Dearborn government
11. Papers of Mayor Orville Hubbard
12. Extensive business photo collections
13. Dearborn maps
14. Dearborn organization records
15. Oral Histories
Dearborn Historical Museum 