The Allen Sherzer collection consists of visual and other materials of Allen Sherzer and members of the Sherzer family. Include is a photograph, 1880s, of the Delta Upsilon fraternity that included William H. Sherzer and a photograph, 1940s, of a University of Michigan reunion group. From his World War I service, there are French and German language posters, a scrapbook of clippings and postcards, and negatives, 1917-1918, taken during his World War I service with the 301st Field Artillery, at Fort Niagara, N.Y., Camp Devens, Mass., and in France. Of special interest is a motion picture, ca. 1928-1930, depicting University of Michigan student activities and Ann Arbor scenes.
In 2009, a preservation tape, DVD use copy and master and streaming digital files were made of the motion picture.
Allen F. Sherzer was born on December 12, 1890, in Houghton, Michigan. He soon moved to Ann Arbor when his father William Sherzer began teaching geology at the University of Michigan.
In 1892 the family moved to Ypsilanti when William Sherzer joined the natural science faculty of Michigan State Normal College. After graduation from Ypsilanti Central High School in 1908, Allen Sherzer attended Michigan State Normal College for two years and then enrolled in the University of Michigan College of Engineering, from which he received a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering degree in 1913.
For the next three years Sherzer held a number of different jobs in the Upper Peninsula and Canada, most of them involving work on hydro-electric power projects. In 1916 he went to Oswego, NY, to join the Kingston Foundry and Machine Co. He served in the field artillery during World War I, returning to Kingston in 1919. The following year he came back to Ann Arbor as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University. He was promoted to associate professor in 1924 and to full professor in 1931. He died August 6, 1962.
