Search

The collection documents the activities and interests of Bernice Watson before, during, and after serving in the 64th Michigan Legislature, 1947-1948.

The collection documents the activities and interests of Mrs. Watson before, during, and after serving in the 64th Michigan Legislature, 1947-1948.

The collection consists of commencement programs and related materials.

Collection includes commencement address, 1990; general information, 1963-1974; script, 1976; and programs, 1893-2022 (1900 and 1923 programs are missing). The collection was part of the CMU. Vertical Files. Bound volumes of programs from the 1990s on came from the Alumni office. Additional commencement addresses and information may be found in the CMU. Office of the President papers. The collection is ongoing.

The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography consists of over 100,000 images in a variety of formats including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, cabinet photographs, real photo postcards, stereographs, and mounted and unmounted paper prints. The collection is primarily made up of vernacular photographs of everyday life in Michigan taken by both professional and amateur photographers from the 1840s into the mid-twentieth century. In addition to supporting local history research, the collection has resources for the study of specific events and subjects. Included are images related to lumbering, mining, suburbanization; the industrialization of cities; travel and transportation; the impact of the automobile; the rise of middle-class leisure society; fashion and dress; ethnicity and race; the role of fraternal organizations in society; and the participation of photographers in business, domestic, and social life. The collection is only partially open for research.

The subject contents of different photographic format series within the Tinder collection vary, depending in part upon how each format was historically used, and the date range of that format's popularity. For example, cartes de visite and cased images are most often formal studio portraits, while stereographs are likely to be outdoor views. Cabinet photographs are frequently portraits, but often composed with less formality than the cartes de visite and cased images. The postcards and the mounted prints contain very diverse subjects. The photographers' file contains many important and rare images of photographers, their galleries, promotional images, and the activities of photographers in the field. See individual series descriptions in the Contents List below for more specific details.

Included throughout are images by both professional and amateur photographers, although those by professionals are extant in far greater numbers.

Family papers include miscellaneous materials of Abbie, Ben, Faith, and Russell Johnston.

The Family Papers include miscellaneous materials of various Johnston family members. Family members well represented in the collection include: Abbie Johnston, Ben Johnston, Faith Johnston, and Russell Johnston. Abbie Johnston was the daughter of H. D. (Hugh Day) Johnston, who was the eldest brother of John Yates Johnston. Russell Johnston was the grandson of H. D. through his son, Ben.

Of particular interest in the collection is Faith Johnston’s Reminiscences of Central, 1944, which describes Central Normal School’s professors, including Professor Larzelere, Miss Woldt, Dr. Rowe, Mr. Grawn, and Mr. Warriner, as well as the burning of the Administration building, known as Old Main, on December 7, 1925. Also of interest is her My Golden School Days, 1919-1922, which is a scrapbook (copy) of her days at Mount Pleasant High School.

Faith also wrote several books, copies of which may be found in the Clarke Historical Library, including Anchor Post, which details the lives of Faith and John Y. Johnston. (This information is from the collection.)

An Addition, added in 2013, includes a thank you note to Mae K. Woldt of the CMU Department of Biology from C.C. McDermid, with five black and white, some tinted, photographs of his garden, a letter to Faith from K.M. Fox, in Vienna, including Italian postcards, 1930; and six cards of lovely dried, pressed flower arrangements from Jerusalem, undated.