Pollock family papers, 1850s-1972 (majority within 1900-1969)

Summary

Creator:

Pollock family.

Extent:

8.5 linear feet

Language:

English

Call Number:

04132 Aa 2

Authors:

Finding aid created by Bentley Historical Library staff. Updated in March 2017 by Olga Virakhovskaya.

Background

Scope and Content:

The Pollock Family Papers contain topical files and correspondence of several generations of the Pollock-Selleck family.

Individual family members' files include essays and articles, diaries, notebooks, journals, and collected ephemera related to the Ann Arbor High School and the University of Michigan cultural and social life and campus events. Also contained within the family files are family photographs, land deeds, obituaries, and other family-related documents. Family correspondence constitutes the majority of files in this collection. Correspondence is arranged in two sub-series: James and Roda Pollock correspondence, and Individual correspondence. James and Roda Pollock correspondence was received arranged chronologically through 1940 (James B. Pollok died in 1934), with several correspondence files that have been arranged by the sender (the Georg family, H. H. Bartlett, and J. Sunderland).

Biographical / Historical:

The family of James Barkely Pollock and Roda Selleck Pollock of Ann Arbor, Mich.

James Barkley Pollock was born in Orangeville, Illinois on November 10, 1863. He attended the Illinois State Normal University in 1891. Pollock received his B.S. in 1893 and his M.S. in 1896 from University of Wisconsin and Sc.D. from the University of Michigan in 1897. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Mechanism of Root Curvature." After a year of study under Professor Wilhelm Pfeffer at the University of Leipzig, Dr. Pollock returned to Ann Arbor. At the time Pollock's research interests were in physiology of plants. He began his career at the University of Michigan as Instructor in 1897, became Associate professor in 1914, and was promoted to a full professorship in 1925. Pollock's research interests gradually shifted to studies of fungi and algae. With the development of better transportation facilities, botanical exploration has been greatly broadened geographically. Pollock was exchange professor at the University of Hawaii from 1922 to 1924 where he made a study of the coralline algae and coral reefs of the Hawaiian Islands. Pollock's research on coral reefs was recognized at the Third Pan-Pacific Science Congress at Tokyo in 1926, with a summary published in the "Proceedings." It also resulted in publication as Bulletin 55 of the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, in 1928, and a paper on the origin of Pearl Harbor in 1929. Pollock was an active member of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters. He served as the Secretary and Editor from 1901 to 1903 and was President in 1906-1907. Pollock retired from the University of Michigan in 1932 as Professor Emeritus and died in 1934. Roda Selleck was born July 6, 1877, to Henry and Cathelia Allen Selleck in Bay City, Michigan. Henry Selleck had a law degree from the University of Michigan (1874) and practiced law in Bay City. Roda's mother, Cathelia Allen Selleck, graduated from Ann Arbor High School and for a time taught at a school located on her family farm in Lima, Mich. Ida Allen Pollock, James B. Pollock's wife, was Roda's aunt. Ida was 5 years older than her niece Roda. Roda Selleck graduated from Bay City High School in June of 1894. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in 1898, Roda embarked on a series of teaching positions with increasing salaries: at Fremont School, Bay City (1898), as a sixth-grade teacher at W.S. Perry School in Ann Arbor (1899-1900), teaching Latin and German at South Haven, Mich. High School (1900), teaching Latin, Greek, Greek History, Roman History, and German at Spokane, Wash. High School (1900-1904), and teaching Latin at Louisiana State Normal School (1905--1907). Roda received her M.A. from the University of Michigan's Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts in 1905. The year Roda was earning her M.A. she was elected to membership in the Women's Research Club of the university. The club's object was an "association of women for the promotion and encouragement of original research work." According to the abstract on the Bentley Historical Library website, "The Women's Research Club of the University of Michigan was founded in 1902 in response to the exclusion of women from the recently established all-male research clubs." It involved membership, monthly meetings, and research reports from the members. Roda served as a school principal at Ionia, Michigan, for three months and taught one semester at Fort Wayne, Indiana and also taught Greek part-time at Ann Arbor High School. In the summer of 1910, Roda became engaged to James B. Pollock, her late aunt Ida's husband. James Pollock married Ida Belle Allen (1872-1906) in 1902. Ida attended classes at the University of Michigan but has not received a degree. The couple had one daughter, Florence Allen Pollock (her married name was Borel). Ida Pollock committed suicide in 1906. Roda and James Pollock had two daughters, Cathelia Elizabeth, born in 1911, and Nina Ruth, born in 1915. During James Pollock's exchange professorship in Hawaii in 1922-1924, the family, including Roda's mother Cathelia Allen Selleck, lived in a hotel in Honolulu with summers at the beach resort of Kahala. Throughout her life, Roda Pollock had always been an astute business-woman. For example, she understood the running of the rental properties that her Grandfather Allen had acquired. She was interested in wise investments from the time she began saving money from her teaching jobs. Roda Pollock was a life-long member of the Republican Party of Michigan, Detroit Museum of Arts Founders Society, Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, Women's Research Club of the University of Michigan, National Geographic Society, Michigan Alumni Association, and Faculty Women's Club, American Museum of Natural History. Roda Selleck Pollock passed away in December 1970. James and Roda Pollock's daughter Cathelia Elizabeth Pollock (1911-2005) graduated from the University High School in 1928. She received her B.A. from the UM School of Education in 1932 and her Certificate in the Curriculum in Social Work in 1934. Nina Ruth Pollock (1915-1985) graduated from the University High School in 1932. She studied art and later architecture at the University of Michigan but has not received a degree. Florence Allen Pollock, in marriage Florence Borel, (1903-1972) received her A.B. in law in 1926 and her LL.B. in 1928 from the University of Michigan. In 1955-1968 she was Assistant to the Dean of the University of Michigan School of Music. Roda Selleck Pollock's aunt Roda E. Selleck (1848-1924) grew up in Utica, taught at the Ypsilanti College, and from 1883 to her death in the early 1920's was a prominent art teacher in Indianapolis.

Acquisition Information:

Donated by Katherine K. Newman (donor no. 9515 ) in three accessions between 2004 and 2017.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Botanists.
Botanists -- Michigan -- Ann Arbor.
College teachers' spouses -- Michigan -- Ann Arbor.
Coral reefs and islands.
Johnston Island.
Wake Island.
Women college students -- Michigan -- Ann Arbor.
Women teachers -- Michigan.
Women teachers -- United States.
Women's resources.

Formats:

Diaries.
Photographs.

Names:

University of Michigan -- Faculty.
University of Michigan -- Students -- Social life and customs -- 1891-1900.
University of Michigan -- Students -- Social life and customs -- 1921-1930.
Women's Research Club (University of Michigan)
Pollock family.
Pollock, Cathelia E.
Pollock, James Barkley, 1863-1934.
Pollock, Roda Selleck.
Selleck, Cathelia Allen.
Copeland, Edwin Bingham, 1873-1964.
Newcombe, Frederick Charles, 1858-1927.
Borel, Florence Pollock.

Places:

Ann Arbor (Mich.) -- Social life and customs.