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Detroit German-American business; scrapbooks containing a variety of printed material, photographs, handwritten accounts of sentiments and occasions, and hand-drawn ink illustrations.

The Carl E. Schmidt collection consists of sixteen volumes of scrapbooks documenting the wide scope of Schmidt's interests. These scrapbooks were compiled and numbered by Schmidt himself, although some of the explanatory text was added by a friend, Dr. Tobias Sigel, who was himself a German immigrant and prominent citizen of Detroit. The scrapbooks are filled with a variety of printed material, photographs, handwritten accounts of sentiments and occasions, and hand-drawn ink illustrations. Much of the scrapbooks' text is in German, including many clippings from German language newspapers. The illustrations in Volume II are particularly attractive. They are hand-drawn red and black ink illustrations of fanciful, legendary themes relating to Walhalla.

The following inventory is a general guide to the contents of each volume. For those scrapbooks that were paginated by Schmidt, specific sections of special interest have been noted in the inventory. Volume 2 also has its own, original index. There is one corresponding folder for each of thirteen of the volumes. These folders contain loose items removed from volumes one through eleven, thirteen, and fourteen.

As the inventory shows, Schmidt was most thorough in documenting his recreational and farming interests, and his political activity in Detroit, at the state level, and in the German-American community. There is, however, very little information about his tannery business.

The Elmer Neill sketchbook, dating between 1893 and 1896, contains pencil, ink, and crayon/pastel drawings likely produced as educational exercises. Also in the volume are manuscript maps of North America, South America, and Africa, as well as calligraphic drawings of birds.

The Elmer Neill sketchbook, dating between 1893 and 1896, contains pencil, ink, and crayon/pastel drawings likely produced as educational exercises. Also in the volume are manuscript maps of North America, South America, and Africa, as well as calligraphic drawings of birds. The drawings in this volume include landscapes, geometric shapes, animals, flowers, a woman outside a log house, a ship, and others. The name Elmer Neill appears once.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. At least one volume was kept by an African American man, Lewis G. Mosebay. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Maxson collection provides a valuable resource for the study of 19th-century visual culture, commercial advertising, and humor in addition to the role of gender, ethnicity, and race in advertising. American businesses are the predominant focus of the collection, though many international businesses are also represented. While trade cards are by far the most prevalent type of ephemera found in this collection, an extensive array of genres are present including die cut scrapbook pieces, photographs, engravings, maps, serials, and manuscript materials.

The 23 binders that house the Maxson collection were arranged by the collectors themselves. Items are organized somewhat randomly in terms of topical arrangement. While pockets of related materials can be found here and there (for instance, the entirety of Volume 16 contains circus-related items while Volume 11 contains an extensive number of Shaker-related materials), for the most part any given subject may appear in any given volume. In some cases, items are clustered as a result of having been acquired together or due to a documented common provenance. Occasional typed annotations written by the Maxsons help provide additional context for certain items.

The Maxson Collection Subject Index serves as a volume-level subject index for materials found throughout the binders. The subjects indexed here are generally representative of both visual and commercial content. In addition to more general subjects, many names of specific people, places, buildings, events, and organizations that appear in the materials have also been listed. Researchers engaging with this collection should be aware that they will encounter numerous examples of racist caricatures, especially ones depicting African American, Native American, Irish, and Chinese people.

Board minutes, annual reports; photographs; also files relating to the construction and expansion of the shelter, to problems of dog control, and concerning local animal control ordinances.

The record group includes minutes of meetings of the board, annual reports, and other subject files relating to animal control and the sheltering of various animals, and to the construction and expansion of the shelter.

The Rewards of merit collection consists of approximately 800 hand-illustrated and printed rewards of merit originating in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Rewards of merit collection consists of approximately 800 hand-illustrated and printed rewards of merit originating in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The collection includes rewards of merit decorated with ink, watercolor, and fraktur art as well as lithographic and chromolithographic rewards. The bulk of materials are dated between 1830 and 1900.

Series I of the collecton contains approximately 200 rewards housed in binders that are primarily grouped around specific students and teachers. Also present is a group 100 examples of early 19th century rewards acquired from dealer Alfred P. Malpa Ephemera.

• 1.1: Early 19th century rewards of merit, 100 items
• 1.2: Abbott, Carrie M. (student), 3 items
• 1.3: Adams, Priscilla (teacher), 4 items
• 1.4: Corbette, Edith (student), 4 items
• 1.5: Garrelson (student) and Smiley (teacher) families, 13 items
• 1.6: Jones family (student), 5 items
• 1.7: Roberts, Charlie (student), 13 items
• 1.8: Shackford, Mabel (student) and Riley, Mary L. (teacher), 3 items
• 1.9: Sturtevant, Florence (student) and Lamb, Clara (teacher), 8 items
• 1.10: Thompson, Susan A. (student), 3 items
• 1.11: Thurley, Gertie (student), 4 items
• 1.12: Thurston family (student & teacher), 5 items

Series II contains approximately 600 19th century rewards of merit housed in binders. Materials are organized by size and include "small" and "large" groupings. Also present are two instructional cards for a rewards of merit system and blank uncut printed rewards of merit sheets.

• 2.1: Small miscellaneous rewards of merit
• 2.2: Large miscellaneous rewards of merit
• 2.3: Uncut rewards of merit

Other students and teachers represented in the collection include the following: O. C. E. Baker, Minnie Bates, Edgar Blanchard, Sarah Bods, Hiram Bradley, Lydia P. Burnham, Sallie Burnham, Eliza W. Burrage, Amelia Burt, Joseph Busk, Frances M. Caulkins, Anna Chamberlain, Eddie Clock, William Duncan, Annie Earle, Della L. Farwell, Leva Ferro, Frances F. Fitch, Abraham E. Fox, Clarissa French, Lillie Gerz, Aletta Green, Isaac Goodchild, Henry S. Gouver, Celia Griswold, L. Hasbrouck, Jane Hayden, Joseph Heaton, Flora Hemmings, George Hibbs, Janell M. Hopkins, Frank Houghton, Katie Houghton, Lydia C. Huntington, Chelsey Hutching, Ellen K. Kanchett, Sidney Keith, Lucy Kendall, Henry Kimball, Edith Konter, Lizzie Kraybill, Euphema J. Lament, Grace Laverny, Walter Leonard, Della Lewis, Bertha Lockwood, Bessie C. Lord, Lilly McDonnell, Maggie S. Mitchell, Lizzie Morse, Llewallyn Moulton, Jennie C. Perry, Hallie A. Purinton, Amanda Reed, John Reed, Mary E. Richardson, Eva H. Roberts, Abbie F. Rupell, W. H. Rutherford, Andy Salisbury, Adolphus Sayre, Ella Sherman, Mary E. Shipman, Emogene F. Spakin, Sophia Strong, Edward Van Soligen, Lizzie P. Whillemore, Cira B. Whitney, Emma Yeaton, Georgie Young, and James Young.

Educational institutions represented include Belknap School, Bennington (Vt.) Graded School District, D.C. Academy, Excelsior School System, Hartford Centre School, Kingston Grammar School, Marblehead Academy, Miss Sanders' Seminary, Mrs. Cranch's Academy, Pollsville Institute, and "Town School No. 12."