Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

U.S. District Court Judge, Eastern District of Michigan; Federal trial court case files, personal and professional correspondence, scrapbooks, University of Michigan student notebooks, and other materials concerning legal activities, Republican Party politics, prohibition, the election of 1924, Sigma Alpha Epsilon affairs; also family materials, including grandfather, John J. Tuttle, Leslie, Michigan, Ingham County official and businessman; and photographs.

The Arthur J. Tuttle Papers are arranged in 13 series: case files, opinions and jury instructions, topical office files, conciliation commissioners, criminal files, correspondence, letterbooks, scrapbooks, University of Michigan, financial matters, miscellaneous biographical materials, Tuttle family materials, and visual materials.

Newspaperman, editor of the Ann Arbor News. Correspondence, reports, photographs, and other materials largely concerning his newspaper career with Booth Newspapers, Inc.

The Stace collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Ann Arbor News and Booth Newspapers; Topical files; and Other materials. The collection documents his career as a newspaperman with Booth Newspapers and the Ann Arbor News.

Detroit German-American business; scrapbooks containing a variety of printed material, photographs, handwritten accounts of sentiments and occasions, and hand-drawn ink illustrations.

The Carl E. Schmidt collection consists of sixteen volumes of scrapbooks documenting the wide scope of Schmidt's interests. These scrapbooks were compiled and numbered by Schmidt himself, although some of the explanatory text was added by a friend, Dr. Tobias Sigel, who was himself a German immigrant and prominent citizen of Detroit. The scrapbooks are filled with a variety of printed material, photographs, handwritten accounts of sentiments and occasions, and hand-drawn ink illustrations. Much of the scrapbooks' text is in German, including many clippings from German language newspapers. The illustrations in Volume II are particularly attractive. They are hand-drawn red and black ink illustrations of fanciful, legendary themes relating to Walhalla.

The following inventory is a general guide to the contents of each volume. For those scrapbooks that were paginated by Schmidt, specific sections of special interest have been noted in the inventory. Volume 2 also has its own, original index. There is one corresponding folder for each of thirteen of the volumes. These folders contain loose items removed from volumes one through eleven, thirteen, and fourteen.

As the inventory shows, Schmidt was most thorough in documenting his recreational and farming interests, and his political activity in Detroit, at the state level, and in the German-American community. There is, however, very little information about his tannery business.

Republican member of the state house and the state senate; president of the University Musical Society. Legislative and campaign files, 1919-1935, detailing his election campaigns, his activities within the legislature, and his various responsibilities as a member of the Republican State Central Committee; general correspondence files, 1922-1960, largely pertaining to his work with the University Musical Society and other civic activities; topical files; family history and memoirs; diaries and appointment books; papers of wife Alva Gordon Sink; and visual materials.

Ypsilanti, Michigan automobile salesman, antique collector for Greenfield Village, and real estate agent for the Ford Motor Company. Correspondence, newspaper clippings, and pamphlet material concerning his work for Ford Motor Company, and his interest in William H. McGuffey and Stephen Foster; and photographs.

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Newspaper clippings; Printed Material; Greenfield Village acquisitions; Real estate acquisitions; and Photographs.

Conscientious objector during World Wars I and II and founder of the farming cooperative Saline Valley Farms. Correspondence, diaries, notebooks, and other materials relating to all phases of his career, including his work as Y.M.C.A. worker in England, 1916-1917, and as teacher at Central China University, Wuchang, China, 1922-1926; also family correspondence of Philip H. and Almena S. Gray, 1874-1926; also photographs and motion pictures.

The Harold Gray papers have been divided into seven series: Correspondence; World War I era activities; Personal and Miscellaneous; Printed, clippings, and miscellanea; Family and genealogical; Saline Valley Farms; and Visual Materials (photographs and motion pictures). The great strength of the collection are correspondence, administrative files, diaries, and visual materials documenting the operation of the Saline Valley Farms. There is significant, though smaller quantities of papers detailing Gray's opposition to serving in the military during World War I and his career as a teacher in China in the 1920s.

Ann Arbor, Michigan, photography firm. Photonegatives, and some photoprints, of images largely relating to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, but including Ypsilanti and other Michigan cities: buildings, businesses, houses, street scenes, community activities, and organizations; also photos of automobiles, storm damage, etc. taken to support insurance claims.

The Ivory Photo collection consists of an impressive array of negatives and prints taken by Ann Arbor photographer Mel Ivory from the 1920s to the early 1970s. Most of the photographs were taken by Ivory for customers, whether the University of Michigan, local businesses, or private citizens. The collection is probably most valuable for its extensive documentation of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, the two areas in which it bulks largest. However, because it spans a relatively long time period, the collection is also useful for illustrating changes in photography as an art and as a business, and for documenting social trends in twentieth-century America. Finally, the collection documents the career of a commercial photographer.

As a photographer for the University of Michigan in the 1920s and 1930s, Ivory took the standard pictures of campus events, buildings, and people, but the value of many photographs from this period is as much aesthetic as informational. Producing cover art for the Michigan Alumnus allowed him to experiment with unusual angles, lighting, and subject matter. (See, for example, photographs of the Clements Library and of students strolling through the Diag in the 1930s.) In stark contrast to these images is a large group of photographs of car wrecks that Ivory took for insurance companies between 1937 and 1969.

Besides providing thorough documentation of the physical plant of the University of Michigan, the Ivory collection evokes the flavor of life on campus in the 1930s and 1940s through photographs of football games and crowds, dance bands, social events, professors at work in laboratories, the Michigan Daily staff at work, and students in classrooms, libraries, and dormitories.

The Ann Arbor subseries includes numerous photographs of houses and businesses, filed by address to facilitate research into a particular building or site, as well as a rich assortment of photographs depicting life in Ann Arbor through more than four decades. There are numerous photographs of men and women at work in factories, stores, and other settings. Some show women at work in unusual settings (as cab drivers for Ace Cab Company, for example) while others depict women in stereotypically female occupations (as secretaries, store clerks, and ditto machine operators). Photographs of drug and department store display windows and of products in grocery stores illustrate trends in merchandising.

The Ivory collection is also remarkable for its documentation of social mores. Wedding photographs taken from the 1930s to the 1960s depict a variety of settings, fashions, wedding rituals, and even fads, such as a 1940 wedding at a roller rink. There is also a small group of photographs of funerals and an extensive series of portraits of children, families, and individuals.

Photographs of a depression-era hobo cooking near a railroad car, of lawn parties and country clubs, of the soap box derby and sports teams reflect diverse aspects of life in Ann Arbor. The home front during World War II is documented in views of an aluminum drive, a blitzkrieg game in a local tavern, a commuter bus with a female conductor, and the Judge Advocate General's school exercises in the Law Quad.

Although the Ypsilanti subseries is considerably smaller than the Ann Arbor and University of Michigan subseries, it contains a number of valuable photographs, such as the Cleary College photographs showing rows of students at typewriters, students relaxing on boarding house steps and in Cleary lounges and recreation rooms, and annual graduation processions. The Washtenaw County subseries contains rural scenes such as farms, country roads, and a county fair. The remaining subseries consist of businesses, street scenes, railroad stations, and a variety of other photographs representing Michigan towns and counties.

A few copy negatives made by Ivory from existing photographs are scattered throughout the collection. A late nineteenth or early twentieth-century anatomy lesson in the Medical School, for example, is filed in the "Colleges, Schools, and other Divisions" section of University of Michigan 5"x7" negatives.

The contents of the various subseries and sub-subseries are for the most part self-evident, but a few words of explanation about the Ann Arbor subseries are in order. "Buildings and Views" consists largely of exterior views of buildings. However, there are many interior scenes of people and activities in the "Churches," "Hospitals," and "Schools" sections. For example, photographs of Ann Arbor churches include views of the pastor and congregation, choirs, recreation rooms, meetings, and athletic teams in addition to interior and exterior views of the buildings. "Schools" contains photographs of sports teams, classroom scenes, social events, and buildings representing Ann Arbor public and parochial schools, but also Ann Arbor Secretarial School and Concordia College.

Researchers seeking images of commercial enterprises will find material in the "Buildings and Views" sub-subseries (listed under the street address in the "Houses and Businesses" section) and in the "Businesses" sub-subseries (under the name of the enterprise).

The "Houses and Businesses" negatives within the "Buildings and Views" sub-subseries are arranged alphabetically by street name and then numerically by address. Most of these photographs are exterior views, but interior scenes of businesses have been filed here in order to keep exterior and interior views of a particular business together. Photographs of products, equipment, people at work, and special events are filed in the "Businesses" sub-subseries when no building exteriors exist or when the address of the business was unknown. Researchers should look both places for photographs of businesses. Although some "see also" references have been added, they are by no means exhaustive. Researchers may also wish to examine the "Motor Vehicles" sub-subseries, which contains photographs of trucks owned by Ann Arbor businesses.

In the University of Michigan subseries, "Buildings and Views" consists of exterior and interior views of buildings, whereas "Colleges, Schools, and Other Divisions" contains photographs of professors and students in laboratories and classrooms as well as group photographs of staff and students.

Resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The collection consists of two photographs of an African American river baptismal service. Also included are photographs of airplanes, a car on a flooded road, and the entrance to Belle Isle Park in Detroit; a photograph of the Ypsilanti, Mich. water tower; and cyanotypes of farm property.

The collection consists of two photographs of an African American river baptismal service. Also included are photographs of airplanes, a car on a flooded road, and the entrance to Belle Isle Park in Detroit; a photograph of the Ypsilanti, Mich. water tower; and cyanotypes of farm property.

John Harris Forster was a geologist, engineer, surveyor, farmer, and chronicler of life in the Americas in the mid-19th century. As he traveled about North and South America, surveying boundaries, inspecting copper mines, mining gold with the California Forty-Niners, or raising hogs, Forster wrote of his experiences in his journals and used them and his acute memory to describe his travels to family, friends, and an interested public. His journals, correspondence, and speeches are a rich source of social history and geographical and architectural information on life in the areas in which he traveled, including the Great Lakes (Michigan and Wisconsin), Far West, and Central and South America. Forster's papers are of considerable interest for their detailed descriptions of the culture and lifestyle of the native populations he encountered, the terrain and climate of the areas in which he camped and surveyed, and the hardships of life in unsettled or recently settled areas.

The John Harris Forster papers are arranged in seven series. Correspondence primarily contains letters written by Forster to various family members, and is arranged chronologically by year. The Thomas Forster series contains materials of John's father, chiefly correspondence and documents pertaining to family and financial matters. Journals and Manuscripts is arranged by year, with titles provided on the contents list. Scrapbook Materials consist of clippings from various newspapers (most of which are unidentified). Forster evidently was a journalist correspondent for these papers, and his columns seem to be excerpts from his journals, with slight modification. His Speeches and Addresses to various Michigan organizations also are based to a large extent on his journals, but there are exceptions, such as the very interesting one detailing life as a Swine-herd in California. Miscellaneous consists mostly of biographical materials and financial documents. Photographs includes portraits and view of the family farm near Williamston, Michigan. For related materials on Forster, including biographical clippings, correspondence to his wife, family documents, and other Forster writings, the researcher should consult the Mullett Family Papers.

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).