Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Ann Arbor German-American family, owners of the Allmendinger Organ Company which later became the Ann Arbor Organ Company. Correspondence, scrapbooks, family genealogy, photographs concerning family affairs, materials on Helene Allmendinger's radio show, examples of spirit messages received by Helene Allmendinger from deceased family members; information pertaining to the Ann Arbor Organ Company, and family members still living in Germany.

The collection is divided into the following series: Family records and correspondence; Helene Allmendinger papers; Ina Allmendinger papers; Ann Arbor Organ Company; Harriet Birch papers, Other family members; Miscellaneous, and Photographs.

John F. Shepard family; diaries, photographs, recipes and correspondence concerning family matters and nineteenth century farm life; also professional correspondence, student notebooks and lecture notes of John F. Shepard.

Although the Shepard family papers (1807-1934) cover three generations, the bulk of the materials are from John F. Shepard. The earliest correspondence is primarily addressed to his father Arthur, and to his grandfather John from family members and relatives. The letters deal with health, crops, and relatives. There are also letters from John F. Shepard's wife Berenice to her mother Mary Barnes (maiden name Van Valin) and from Berenice's father Charles to her mother. The Barnes and VanValins lived in Marshall, Michigan.

The John F. Shepard papers include professional correspondence from 1911 to 1934, mostly relating to University building plans. There are also minutes (1921-1925) of the Committee of Five on the Comprehensive Building Program, as well as Shepard's student notebooks from philosophy and psychology courses taught by James R. Angell and James H. Tuft at the University of Chicago, and by Alfred H. Lloyd and Walter B. Pillsbury at the University of Michigan.

The photographs are mainly of his wife's family, many from the late nineteenth century.