Search

Youth camp founded in 1921 by member of University of Michigan Student Christian Association to provide outdoor experience for underprivileged youths, management assumed by University of Michigan Institute for Human Adjustment in 1944 and later by the School of Education when emphasis changed to serving physically handicapped children. Records document management of the camp including reports on camp activities and research conducted at the camp.

The records of the University of Michigan Fresh Air Camp are comprised of materials documenting the functions, operations, policies, and events of the camp. Records range from the early 1920s to the late 1970s, but are strongest in the periods from approximately 1937-1950 and especially 1967-1972. Researchers will take particular interest in the annual reports and other materials found in the Reports series, which document the activities of the camp and include pertinent historical information. Records documenting a grant received by the school in the late 1960s through the Federal Education Profession Development Act also provide an excellent overview of the camp's philosophy at that time.

The last will and testament of Horace H. Rackham provided for the establishment of a trust fund to provide for the health and welfare of individuals, particularly the sick, aged, the young, the poor, and other underprivileged. Much of the trust money went to the University of Michigan to be used for a building for the graduate school and an endowment to be used for different kinds of research. The Fund also awarded grants to agencies involved in child welfare, community culture, education, health, philanthropy, and science. The Fund distributed money from 1934 until about 1941. The series in this record group consist of administrative and executive files, and project applications and grant files.

The records of the Horace H. Rackham and Mary A. Rackham Fund document the continuing generosity of Horace Rackham and Mary Rackham to numerous charitable, educational, and scientific organizations and causes. The records contain the files of the Fund's trustees and directors and provide insight and information about such topics as the administration of a philanthropic fund-giving organization during the mid-1930s, the kinds of gifts made, the relationship among the Fund's trustees and officers, and the relationship between the Fund and the grant recipients. Because of the size of the gift, most of the documentation within the record group details the close ties between the Fund and the University of Michigan. These files concern not only the establishment of the Rackham endowment to the University, but also the different scientific and educational grants made. Additionally, these files detail the construction of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies building in Ann Arbor and the Rackham Educational Memorial building in Detroit.

The records of the Fund cover the period of 1929-1950 though they bulk largest for the period of the Fund's greatest activity, 1934-1940. The record group has been separated into two series: Combined Administrative and Executive Office Files and Project applications/grants.