Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Student papers, 1930-1987 prepared for classes in history at the University of Michigan (primarily Michigan history class taught by Lewis G. VanderVelde, but also including research papers for classes taught by Sidney Fine and others); topics concern Michigan social and political history; Michigan biography and bibliography; and local community history.

The student papers are organized alphabetically by author in two series, which are similar in date range and topics covered. Topics of papers concern Michigan social and political history; Michigan biography and bibliography; local community history and University of Michigan history. A topical index to the papers is available in the first box of the collection.

Traverse City, Michigan, free-lance writer and conservation editor of Field and Stream magazine; correspondence, manuscripts of writings, diaries, topical files, and photographs.

The collection includes correspondence, manuscript articles, and conservation columns; materials collected by the Michigan Writers' Program concerning Michigan logging; also diaries, speeches, newspaper clippings, notebooks, genealogy, photographs, and miscellaneous material concerning Titus' interest in conservation, forestry, and fishing.

Detroit Free Press outdoor writer and later faculty member in the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources. Files of Detroit Free Press outdoor pages and conservation articles, clippings, and photographs, correspondence, and notes on Michigan conservation history, pesticides, pollution, plants and animals, hunting and fishing, parks, rivers and lakes, conservation writing, and ecology; also manuscript of history of conservation in Michigan with background information; and materials gathered for intended biographical study of Michigan conservationists.

As a long-time observer of the Michigan conservation scene, Van Coevering collected a wide range of materials to document the history of hunting, fishing, and wildlife management, the development of state parks and forests, political development of the Department of Conservation and Conservation Commission, concerns about pollution and pesticide poisoning, and other conservation and environmental matters in Michigan. This collection is made up of his writings and background materials on all these topics.

The collection contains only a part of Van Coevering's papers. His "personal" papers were destroyed by his widow after his death. Included here are "historical" papers collected in the course of his work as an outdoor writer. The papers include press releases, clippings, memoranda, reports, and other documents collected by Van Coevering as well as correspondence. Van Coevering's outgoing correspondence is generally of the information-seeking type, and provides little insight into his ideas.

The collection is divided into five major series: Publications, Reference file, School of Natural Resources file, Michigan conservation history file, and Photographs. There is also a small folder of obituaries and other personal information in Box 1. In 1996, the library received an addition to the collection. This 1996 accession from Frank Angelo includes the manuscript of "A Brief History of Conservation in Michigan," and the accompanying research as well as background research for a proposed history of prominent Michigan conservationists.

Papers, of the Josiah Littlefield family of Monroe County and Farwell, Clare County, Michigan. Correspondence, typescript of autobiography, and excerpted typescript of University of Michigan student diary, 1867-1871, of Josiah Littlefield, surveyor, lumberman, and conservationist; also letters of other members of the Littlefield and Hall families; and photographs.

The Littlefield family collection documents several generations in the life of a family which migrated from Grafton, New York about 1830, and came to Michigan, settling first near Ash in Monroe County and later in Farwell in Clare County. The collection (311 items) spans the period of 1834 to 1935, and consists almost entirely of letters among family members, though there is a small group of printed items dealing with University of Michigan activities and life in Farwell, Michigan. Included with the papers are the correspondence, autobiography, and excerpted diary of Josiah Littlefield. There is also correspondence of Littlefield's wife, Ellen Hart Littlefield, his mother, Mary Hall Littlefield, his daughter, Ellen Littlefield Elder, and his uncle, Edmund Hall.

The correspondence comprising the collection includes several recurring subjects: schooling, medical treatment, social customs, religious matters (selecting ministers, sermons, and church activities), agriculture (types of crops grown and prices received), food prices in Michigan, fashions of domestic furnishings (see Josiah Littlefield folder: September 13, 1874, September 24, 1874, October 4, 1874 and January 1, 1874 from Ellen Hart Littlefield; Mary Hall Littlefield folder: October 14, 1874 from Josiah Littlefield; Ellen Hart Littlefield folder: March 3, 1875 from Lucy Hart and October 5, 1873, letter from Josiah Littlefield; see Ellen Hart Littlefield folder: April 25, 1875 from Jessie Hart Williams).

Interesting though brief descriptions of Oberlin College in the 1830's occur in letters from Edmund Hall (see Martha Smith Hall folder: February 15, 1840 from Edmund Hall; and Mary Hall Littlefield folder: May 21, 1836 and October 11, 1836 from Edmund Hall). Mr. Hall apparently became involved in abolition activities in Michigan in the mid 1840's. A listing of seven speeches scheduled for September or October, 1844 is in the first Edmund Hall folder.

In the area of women's history, parts of the collection cover several topics of interest in addition to those referred to as recurring subjects. Martha Smith Hall, Josiah Littlefield's maternal grandmother left her husband E.F. Hall in New York state about 1830 and migrated to Michigan with her children. She managed to establish a new home and raise and educate her family without any economic help from her husband. (see Martha Hitchcock folder: February 2, 1854 from E.F. Hall, October 12, 1855 from Carolina A. Kinsley; see Edmund Hall folder: August 13, 1855 and August 21, 1855 from Carolina A. Kinsley, October 20, 1855 from Martha Hitchcock, and October 2, 1855 to Mrs. Kinsley from Edmund Hall).

Reference to a case of post-natal depression so severe that it culminated in temporary insanity and the killing of a child occurs in the Josiah Littlefield folder (January 15, 1875 from Ellen Hart Littlefield). Descriptions of another serious post-natal depression are contained in the Josiah Littlefield folder (January 15, 1875 from Ellen hart Littlefield and May 21, 1877 from Margaret Hart).

Professor of forestry in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan, active in conservation movement, first head of the Michigan Game Division and a popular writer on conservation topics; papers consist of correspondence (including Aldo Leopold and Gifford Pinchot and leading conservationists), reports, writings and photographs.

The collection consists of five linear feet of correspondence and articles, and other materials relating to Lovejoy's work on behalf of forest conservation, forestry in general, his work with various state and local organizations, and his career as a writer for different national magazines.

Though the collection dates from 1918 to 1941, it bulks largest (except for the Articles series) in the period beginning in 1931. This was after Lovejoy had left the University of Michigan and after his pioneering work in the 1920s.

Saginaw, Michigan, lumberman and businessman, and Michigan State Tax Commissioner, 1912 and wildlife conservationist and sportsman. Papers include extensive correspondence files, business records and photographs.

The William Mershon collection consists of correspondence dealing with Mershon's various activities as a lumberman, Saginaw businessman, and member of the State Tax Commission in 1912. Subjects included in the papers are Michigan wildlife conservation, the Michigan Sportsmen Association, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, the Michigan State Tax Commission, Michigan politics, the Democratic party, personal business investments, lumbering and mining interest, and personal affairs.

The collection also includes diaries, a book of notes on hunting and fishing trips, and various business records such as cash books, time books, ledgers, and journals. These primarily concern his investments and lumbering business. Many of the business records are available on microfilm. The collection also includes photographs.