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Collection

Emil Lorch Papers, 1891-2004 (majority within 1891-1963)

18 linear feet — 14 oversize folders

Professor of architecture at the University of Michigan; includes correspondence, professional organizational activities files, documentation, photographs, and architectural drawings accumulated during his work with the Michigan Historic Buildings Survey

The Emil Lorch papers are valuable for their documentation of the career of this important architectural educator and for that material about Michigan architecture and historic structures that Lorch accumulated in the course of his professional study and organizational involvement. The collection includes extensive correspondence with many of the country's leading architects, most notably members of the "Chicago School," and architectural educators, and manuscript and photographic documentation resulting from Lorch's involvement with the Michigan Historic Buildings Survey and various restoration projects, including Mackinac Island.

Collection

Historic American Buildings Survey photographs, 1965

0.3 linear feet

Photographs by Allen Stross for the Historic American Buildings Survey, Central Michigan Project; include exterior and interior views of buildings in Battle Creek, Brighton, Charlotte, Eaton Rapids, Grand Rapids, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marshall, Mason, Ovid, Vermontville, and Williamston; also data sheets describing the buildings.

This is a collection of photographs taken by Allen Stross for the Historic American Buildings Survey, Central Michigan Project. Included are exterior and interior views of buildings in Battle Creek, Brighton, Charlotte, Eaton Rapids, Grand Rapids, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marshall, Mason, Ovid, Vermontville, and Williamston. Accompanying the photographs are data sheets describing the various buildings. The photographs are arranged by location of building. Each building has a code number which refers to a survey reports. These reports will be found in the last two folders of the collection.

Collection

Kenneth C. Welch Papers, 1915-1972

13.6 linear feet (in 15 boxes)

Grand Rapids, Michigan, architect and planner. Correspondence, writings, working files, and photographs for out-of-state and Michigan projects, primarily in Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, and East Lansing; professional materials relating to problems of urban planning, the design of department stores and shopping centers, his general interest in lighting designs, traffic patterns, and parking areas, and to his work with the Lake Michigan Region Planning Committee, the American Institute of Architects and the Michigan Society of Architects; also Welch family materials, including record, 1915-1925, of the Welch Manufacturing Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The Welch papers include a small amount of biographical and personal material, but the bulk of the collection documents his work on architectural, design and planning projects in Michigan and across the country - many having to do with shopping malls, business districts and urban redevelopment. The collection is arranged in eight series: biographical materials; correspondence; personal, financial, and family materials; professional information files; Michigan project files; out-of-state project files; articles and speeches; and photographs.

Collection

Michigan Bell Telephone Company Photographs, 1949-1983

63 linear feet (in 93 boxes)

Photographs (positive and negative), slides, and transparencies taken by the company's photographers to document company activities, products, services, employees at work and at leisure, company exhibits and commemorations, and the response of the company to natural disasters and civil disturbances.

In 1993, Michigan Bell as a corporate entity was subsumed within the Ameritech Corporation. As a by-product of this reorganization and the downsizing resulting from it, the company agreed to deposit with the Bentley Historical Library its extensive archive of photographic images. Totalling approximately one million images, the Michigan Bell Telephone Company photo archive consists of negatives, copy prints, and color transparencies taken in the period since World War II (the bulk beginning in 1949). The collection does not include photos taken since 1983; interspersed throughout, however, are numerous images from before 1949.

The collection has been maintained in the order received with two principal series: Positives and Negatives.

The content of the photographs in the two series varies considerably. Naturally the collection documents the products of the company (phones and other communication devices) and the services provided (e.g. employees at work or the company reacting to a specific customer need). These photos were taken both to inform the general public as accompaniment to press notices and advertising copy and as a communications vehicle within the company, informing employees through the company news publication, Tielines, of activities going on in other divisions of the company or among the various regional Bell offices.

More importantly perhaps, the collection has value for its documentation of events and activities that are common to all large companies. These include images relating to: 1. The activities of employees within the corporation at their work (office workers, repairmen, operators, various support personnel, managers, etc.); 2. The activities of employees outside their work routine as members of corporate social groups (i.e., the company baseball or ice hockey team), at home engaged in leisure time activities, or involved in company-sponsored charitable or public service functions; and 3. Commemorations of specific milestones or events (company parade floats, area office open houses, corporate displays at public events such as fairs, etc.).

In addition, the collection documents the extraordinary and unforeseen as the phone company reacts to events and emergencies not within its control (floods, tornadoes, fires, the 1967 Detroit riot, strikes, and the like) or as a participant in history-making events (the announcement in Ann Arbor of the success of the Salk polio vaccine or the preparation involved in the 1980 Republican National Convention that convened in Detroit).

Collection

Sam Sturgis photograph collection, 1860s-1970s

10 linear feet (11 boxes including 1 oversize box)

Photographs collected by Sam Sturgis and Hazel Proctor of Ann Arbor, Michigan; including businesses, street scenes, buildings, people, and activities in Ann Arbor, Brighton, Chelsea, Dexter, Dixboro, Manchester, Saline, and Ypsilanti, Michigan. (Copy negatives and copy prints.)

The Sam Sturgis collection consists of photographic prints and copy negatives of Washtenaw and Livingston County life from the 1860s through the 1970s. Collected by Ann Arbor photographer Sam Sturgis and Ypsilanti banker Hazel Proctor from a variety of known and unknown sources, the collection represents many aspects of life in Ann Arbor, Brighton, Chelsea, Dexter, Dixboro, Manchester, Saline and Ypsilanti. Main subject categories include churches, schools, businesses, buildings, University of Michigan buildings, staff, students and campus life, streets, panoramic views, rivers, recreation and family life, including residences, men, women, and children. Evolving modes of transportation, such as railroads, interurban streetcars, automobiles, and airplanes are also depicted.

Prints and negatives are divided into two parallel series, with negative use restricted to Bentley staff for preservation and security purposes. Each series is arranged alphabetically by city or town and, within each geographical grouping, in the order in which Sturgis collected the items. Sturgis began donating his collection to the Bentley in 1966, and, as items continue to be received, numbering is continued within each geographical grouping, in the original collecting and numbering order established by Sturgis. While some numbers were originally intended by Sturgis to designate the origins of the item, if known, this information has also been added to the item description under the heading "source" to facilitate patron and staff use. The Bentley does not hold a complete set of prints and negatives. Information on the current availability of both prints and negatives is included in each item listing.

Each photograph has a unique identifying number. The "Sturgis Number" consists of a one or two-letter series code, followed by a numerical number with decimal or alphanumeric number, such as AA 267.21 or AA 35A. the collection is arranged by city as follows

City Sturgis Code Number of Images
Ann Arbor AA ca. 1500
Brighton BB 148
Chelsea C 156
Chelsea-Manchester CM 119
Dexter D 124
Dixboro DI 45
Manchester M 123
Saline S 57
Ypsilanti Y 150

An item list of all photographs with description, date (if known), source and photographer, if known, follows the summary contents list on page three of the introduction.

Information on whether the photograph has been published and therefore has further information provided elsewhere is also included in each item description. Unless otherwise noted, all photographs listed as "published" have been published in a series by the Ann Arbor Federal Savings Bank (AAFSB), with editorial supervision by Sam Sturgis and Hazel Proctor. Availability of the respective print and negative concludes each item entry.

The following books, published by the AAFSB in the early 1970s, are annotated with Sturgis' photograph numbers and may be used as a partial guide to the collection. While two copies of each publication are available for consultation in the reading room, only one of each set has annotations. Descriptive captions in these publications as well as the annotated numbers may differ from actual photograph numbers and other information about the photographs. Any reference to these annotations should be verified with the item lists and vice versa to assure accuracy because of occasional inconsistencies. The AAFSB publications with Bentley call numbers are listed as follows:

  1. Proctor, Hazel. Old Ann Arbor Town. 1974. Copy 1 annotated. EC 2 A216.5 P964
  2. Sam Sturgis. Memories of Old Ann Arbor Town, 1967. Copies 1 and 2 annotated. EC 2 A613.5 S935
  3. Proctor, Hazel. Old Brighton Village. 1974. Copy 1 annotated. EC 2 B856.3 P964
  4. Proctor, Hazel. Old Chelsea Village. 1972. Copy 2 annotated. EC2 C516.5 P964
  5. Proctor, Hazel. Old Dexter Village. 1973. Copy 1 annotated. EC 2 D526.5 P964
  6. Proctor, Hazel. Old Manchester Village. 1974. Copy 2 annotated. EC 2 M268.5 P964
  7. Proctor, Hazel. Old Saline Village. 1975. Copy 1 annotated. EC 2 S165.5 P964
  8. Proctor, Hazel. Old Ypsilanti Town. 1974. Copy 2 annotated. EC 2 Y86.5 P964
Collection

St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church (Plymouth, Mich.) records, 1856-1985

4 linear feet

Church organized in Plymouth, Michigan in 1856; congregational minute books, 1856-1947; board of stewardship minute books, 1959-1967; announcement books, 1931-1960; subject files relating to the church's history, its administration, buildings, pastors, and activities; church publications; visual materials; and sound recordings.

The records of the St. Peter's Evangelical Church cover the period of 1856 to 1985 with the majority of the materials falling within the years of 1916 to 1960. The early records are in German, but most of the records from about 1920 are in English. The record group contains documents pertaining to the founding and history of the church, as well as its articles of association, bylaws, and constitution. Financial reports from 1939 to 1952, general correspondence, membership records, publications, announcement books, and records of the meetings of the Church Council and various committees from 1856 to 1961 are also included. There are photographs and pictures of the various pastors who have served the church over the years. Other audio/visual materials include slides, and cassette and reel-to-reel tapes.

The record group is arranged in ten series: Record Books, History, Operational, Buildings, Pastors, Congregation, Church Activities, Publications, Visual Materials, and Sound Recordings.

Collection

William L. Mills Papers, 1920-1988 (majority within 1950-1957)

1.3 linear feet (in 2 boxes)

Dearborn, Michigan newspaper publisher; candidate for mayor of Dearborn in 1957. Papers relating to the Dearborn Independent newspaper; collected materials detailing the career of Dearborn mayor Orville Hubbard; campaign files documenting Mills' unsuccessful bid to unseat Hubbard in 1957; and photographs.

The Mills collection, approximately 1.3 linear feet of correspondence, clippings, photographs, and related materials, covers the period of 1920 to 1988. The great bulk of the collection dates from the years of the late 1940s to 1957.

Although Mills was a newspaper publisher for a long period, the Mills collection relates only in part to this phase of his life. The great majority of materials concern his unsuccessful campaign against Orville Hubbard in 1957. Of interest are the series of articles that Mills wrote, titled "How Dearborn got a dictator mayor."

A series of photographs that Mills collected are of especial importance. Many of these do relate to the activities and operation of the Dearborn Independent, to the cities of Dearborn and Fordson, and to Mills' extensive ties with the Ford Motor Company and the Ford family.