1 linear foot (18 volumes)
The record group consists of account books and daybooks of the firm. Included is a record of log purchases, 1845-1853, and accounts of wheat purchased in 1842.
5.4 linear feet (in 7 boxes)
The records of the University Cellar have been arranged into three series: History and background; Administrative records; and Former employees files. The bulk of the records concerns the administration of University Cellar with extensive documentation of its financial operations and labor negotiations with the Industrial Workers of the World. Included are board of directors minutes and minutes of the Store, Retail, and Operations Councils.
8 microfilms (7 linear feet)
The Sebastian S. Kresge Papers are divided into two series: Business Records, and Personal Records. The papers were microfilmed in 1994 and are available for inter-library loan. The collection was filmed in its entirety except for a few folders of financial data, such as stock and business receipts.
25 linear feet — 2 oversize volumes
The collection documents the business, civic, and political interests of Howard C. Lawrence. The series in the collection are: Correspondence; Speeches and speech material; Financial; Business Interests; Charitable and Civic Interests; Clippings; Miscellaneous; Photographs; and Notebooks.
1 linear foot
The collection includes correspondence, reminiscences, and scrapbook of clippings largely concerning Great Lakes shipping, particularly Johnson's work for the Morton Salt Company. Logbooks, cashbook, and time and payroll books detail the operation of the Steamer Covalt. There are also a few photographs.
8 microfilms (3 linear feet)
The S.S. Kresge Company corporate records are arranged topically, and primarily relate to the company's activities in the years 1945-1965. To trace the company's history from 1912-1945, the researcher should use the applicable annual and quarterly reports, the minutes from Meetings and Proceedings of Directors, Shareholders, and Incorporators, and materials from the historical files. The latter contain interesting periodicals and company pamphlets that pertain to the company's history both before and after 1945.
For the postwar years, the researcher should turn again to the annual and quarterly reports, meetings and proceedings minutes, and historical files, but should supplement them with use of minutes from the Executive and Operating Committees, and Sebastian Kresge's correspondence with the company president for the years 1953-1966. The minutes from the Executive Committee almost always contain brief summaries of committee decisions. Property purchases, modernization and construction programs, divided action, personnel (retirements and salaries), and tax matters comprise the majority of areas in which the committee made decisions. Minutes are not available for every meeting of the committee, but there are often notations at the top of existing minutes which indicate that for certain meetings no written record was kept.
The minutes from Operating Committee meetings reflect the postwar concerns with competition from discount stores and the need to increase Kresge sales and merchandise turnover. They are particularly detailed for the years 1945-1950, but thereafter are somewhat frustrating in that the writer often discusses what topics were covered at the meetings but fails to summarize the contents of the discussions. There are included with the minutes occasional reports made by the President and other officers to the committee on various topics. These are particularly interesting; see, for example, the 1946 and 1961 reports on sales problems and new programs. The quantity of minutes from 1959-1963 is considerably smaller than that from earlier years because President Cunningham relied on contacts with individual regional managers and department heads rather than group meetings.
The files of correspondence between Sebastian Kresge, founder of the company and chairman of the board from 1925-1966, and company presidents Frank Williams and Harry Cunningham are very useful for tracking the continued involvement of Kresge in the corporation's affairs, and for documenting major corporate concerns and operations. Among the latter are organizational changes, competition from discount and other variety-type stores, deteriorating downtown store neighborhoods, attempts to purchase competitors Kress and Zayre, trial programs to establish a Kresge credit program for its customers, and the emergence of the K mart idea. There is a limited amount of such correspondence (2"), but it is quite rich in content.
20 microfilms (10.5 linear) — 2 oversize volumes — 1 oversize folder — 0.5 linear feet (papers not microfilmed) — 8 film reels
The Stanley Kresge Papers, an important source for the researcher interested in the history of the S.S. Kresge Company/K mart Corporation; the work of the Kresge Foundation; and the Kresge family, have been divided into six series: Kresge Company/K mart Corporation; Kresge Foundation; Organizations; Personal; Speeches; and Visual Materials. The collection has now been microfilmed to allow inter-library access to the collection. These 21 microfilm rolls comprise the bulk of Kresge's collection. Excluded from the microfilming have been a few folders of restricted financial materials, two oversize ledgers, and, of course, the motion picture films. The following finding aid is a guide to the entire collection with appropriate indication of files and other materials not part of the microfilm edition.
3 linear feet — 2 oversize volumes
The Frank D. McKay collection is divided into the following series: Correspondence; Topical Files; Business and financial papers; Newspaper clippings and scrapbooks; and Photographs.
1 linear foot — 6 oversize volumes
The record groups includes business correspondence, warehouse inventories, acreage and seed reports, financial journal and ledgers, and miscellaneous other records.
5.5 linear feet
Documenting his business and public service activities, the Herman Lunden papers cover the period from the late 1890s to 1929. The collection includes Biographical/Personal material; Correspondence; Kneeland-Bigelow records; and an Alphabetical File.
17 linear feet — 164 oversize volumes — 1 microfilm
The Postum Company records are an incomplete set of employment and financial records covering the period 1895-1931. The records have been described in two series: Payroll and Employee Records and financial and Miscellaneous Records. The records include employee time books, payrolls, invoice and voucher records, trial balances, cash receipts registers, and sales and advertising material.
The collection includes 164 outsize volumes. A unique sequential number (1-166, there is no vol. no. 91 or 92) has been assigned to each volume to aid in identification and location of the volumes. This number is given at the beginning of descriptive entry in the contents list. Some volumes had a number or letter stamped on the spine. This number is listed in square brackets at the end of the item entry.
1 linear foot
This record group covers the years 1890 to 1964 and consists of the diaries and a biographical sketch of Charles D. Phelps, a history of the business written by D. Maynard Phelps, and various business records. The business records series consists of income tax returns, papers pertaining to the sale of the business, and miscellaneous inventories, journals and a ledger.
30 oversize volumes
The records of the firm are exclusively financial and include cash books, advertising books, job books, ledgers, an inventory, and monthly statements of accounts.
0.5 linear feet
The Hanna family collection consists of the diaries and account books generated by various members of the Hanna family of Gladwin, Michigan. Isaac Hanna's diaries comment on his business dealings and activities as a town official. They were transcribed by Esther Munster, daughter of Isaac's son Will, who also provided the biographical information incorporated in this introduction.
1 linear foot
The collection consists of business correspondence relating to mining activities. There is some correspondence with members of the Hayes family, including California Congressman, Everis A. Hayes, and newspaper publisher and fruit raiser, J.O. Hayes. In addition, the collection includes reports of mining developments and disasters in the 1880's and 1890's, documentation of the Germania Mine, information about Hurley Wisconsin, travel diaries, and miscellaneous ledgers.
19 linear feet — 2 oversize folders — 2 oversize volumes
The Henry B. Joy papers consist of correspondence concerning his business activities in Detroit, Michigan, his support of the Lincoln Highway Association, his campaign against the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition), and their interest in the Federal Council of Churches; also business letter books, 1888-1892, and 1902-1903; photograph album, 1915, concerning automobile trip from Detroit to San Francisco; scrapbooks, 1883-1937, containing newspaper clippings and articles relating to the development of the automobile industry, national economic affairs and Republican politics; and collection of printed pamphlets and newsletters, 1927-1936, of conservative individuals and organizations, including the American Coalition, American Liberty League, the Vigilant Intelligence Federation, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Elizabeth Dilling, Robert E. Edmonson, the Industrial Defense Association, the National Civic Federation, and the Union League of Michigan. The collection also includes photograph albums of cross-country automobile trips and of racing cars; also portraits of Joy.
7 oversize volumes
The records of the company are financial in content and include journals, a cash book, a sales record book, and a record of voucher distribution. Most of the records date from the 1880s.
4 linear feet — 1 oversize volume — 44 microfilms
The Salling and Hanson records on microfilm begin with a series of ledger books, complete from 1881 to 1923, except for one volume which was missing. All of the company's financial transactions were transferred to the ledgers (which are arranged by accounts), making them the most complete records of company business. The journals and lumber journals (arranged chronologically) provide records of daily operations. Since these transactions were eventually recorded in the ledgers, only sample years of the journals and lumber journals were preserved. For both series, all records of even numbered years were microfilmed, including records for 1881, the earliest year for which Salling, Hanson records exist. The lumber journals may be of particular interest, since they indicate the amounts of various types of lumber produced and sold. An entire series of time books (1891-1907) was filmed, giving payroll accounts of Salling, Hanson employees. One petty accounts ledger (1917-1927) and one tax record book (1881-1891) complete the Selling, Hanson Company microfilm edition. Records preserved in the original form include 5 index volumes for the time books, trial balances, records of total lumber shipped, and annual reports of two subsidiary companies. In addition, two color-coded surveyor's books and three volumes of daily operations records (containing the only narrative material in the collection) have been preserved in the original.
More than half of the Salling, Hanson records were discarded. In addition to alternate years of the journals and lumber journals, several series of records were entirely discarded. Day books and cash books were discarded because information recorded in them was duplicated in the journals and ledgers. Merchandise ledgers and cash books for the Salling, Hanson Company store were discarded, along with lumber order books and a few miscellaneous volumes.
The Salling, Hanson microfilm series concludes with records of several companies with which Rasmus Hanson was affiliated. Hanson Lumber Company records (1901-1907) consist of one ledger and one journal. R. Hanson and Sons records (1909-1912) consist of a record of cars received. Hanson Land Company records (1914-1927) consist of ledgers, journals, and log records. Grayling Box Company records (1918-1943) consist of journals, sales journals, and payroll books. Finally, Grayling Hotel records (1916-1936) consist of ledger and journal books.
3 linear feet — 33 microfilms
The Stearns papers consist of three boxes of manuscript material and thirty-three rolls of microfilm. Virtually all of this concerns Stearns' complex business dealings. There is no personal correspondence and but a single manuscript folder describing Stearns' political career. The microfilmed material are volumes primarily detailing the history of the Stearns Salt and Lumber Company. The records fall into two distinct groups, those created before 1900 and those done after the turn of the century.
Before 1900 the company's records are very straightforward. They consist of cashbooks, journals and ledgers. The only complication is that there were two sets of ledgers. The ledgers from Ludington apparently are the main records of the firm, those maintained at Bennett, Michigan, were of Stearns' box manufacturing, saw, planing and shingle mills. The records were microfilmed chronologically.
After the turn of the century the firm's record keeping became far more bulky and opaque. For microfilming, these records were divided into six groups: general ledgers and journals, sales ledgers, lumbering operations, payrolls, mill and manufacturing reports, and miscellaneous records (some of firms other than Stearns Salt and Lumber).
The general ledgers and journals are arranged chronologically. There are three types of ledgers (transfer ledger number 1, transfer ledger number 2 and transfer ledger number 3) and two types of journals (a general journal and a journal 2B). Apparently each ledger type and journal 2b had some specific purpose, but all explanatory material has been lost, and the entries are very cryptic. These records were filmed in their entirety.
Because of their bulk, the company's sales records were sampled. Every third account was filmed. A sufficiently large sample remains to allow a researcher to statistically reconstruct the firm's trading patterns.
Stearns kept a separate set of books detailing work in the field. These are grouped together as "Lumbering Operations" records. They include ledgers, journals, cashbooks, and sales records. The volumes are arranged chronologically. Most were sampled. Every third ledger account was filmed. Every other month of the journals was filmed. Because of their complex arrangement sampling of the sales records would have been very difficult, and thus they were filmed in their entirety.
Payrolls were also sampled. Every third month was filmed. Camp payrolls apparently refer to field operations, Ludington payrolls to workers at Stearns' home operations. The "Record of Employees" is a very brief volume giving a great deal of information about Stearns' Ludington office workers and middle level administrators. Marital status, children, club affiliations, property ownership, and financial status are among the items included.
Mill and Manufacturing records are production reports of Stearns' Ludington operations. They were filmed in their entirety. The miscellaneous volumes include a wide variety of documents, all filmed in their entirety. Included are inventory control books, records of land transactions, a sand register, records of the Stearns Warehouse Company, the Epworth League Railway and the M. Reichardt & Son Piano Manufacturing Company.
33 linear feet — 43 oversize volumes — 12 oversize folders
The collection, although still largely unprocessed, has been grouped into different kinds of records. These include correspondence, business records, maps, and photographs.
