Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

University of Michigan chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity for Black college students. The Epsilon chapter was founded in April 1909. History, administrative records, topical files, reports, and photographs largely relating to the chapter and activities of African American students at the University of Michigan. Also included is some material related to the chapter's 2009 centennial celebration.

The records of the Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha include correspondence, minutes, photographic material, publications, reports, and topical files.

The records—which document the activities and experiences of African Americans at the University of Michigan—also provides a rich source of information about the history, activities, and administration of the Epsilon Chapter, particularly during the 1920's, 1980's, and 1990's. Also documented is the chapter's centennial celebration in 2009.

Correspondent with the Detroit News, director of the Psychological Warfare Division, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Forces, during World War II. Scrapbooks with clippings of newspaper articles; copies of propaganda leaflets directed to German soldiers and civilians during the war; reports, correspondence with family, and printed matter relating to war-time service; and photographs.

The Russell Barnes papers span the years 1920-1978. The bulk of the material concerns the period 1941-1953, the years Barnes spent as foreign correspondent for the Detroit News and the three-year interval during which he served in the Office of War Information.

The collection consists primarily of scrapbooks of his news stories, OWT leaflets, collected propaganda, and letters which he sent to his wife Constance, and, less frequently, to his children, Jeannot (Lucie Jeanne) and Jamie (John James Ingalls) while overseas and in New York. The most detailed description of his professional activities can be found in the letters he wrote during the months at the OWI in New York. He discusses the OWI personnel, its reorganization and the conflict with the OSS. The letters from the OWI Cairo and Algiers contain lively discussions of local customs and the rigors of life there, but are constrained by war-time censorship and thus shed less light than might be expected on his role as PWB director. The letters written while he covered the U.N. sometimes reflect the tense atmosphere there and the pressure brought to bear upon newsmen to take a stand on the issues they report. Barnes also discusses the power struggle in the Detroit Foreign Policy Association.

Papers of the Squier family of Battle Creek, Michigan. Include letters and diary of John E. Hickman, Civil War soldier in Co. C, 13th Michigan Infantry; letters and miscellanea of Theodore L. Squier, Sr., University of Michigan undergraduate student, medical student and instructor ca. 1914-1921 and Nina La Barge Squier, student in the University of Michigan Nurses' Training Program, 1919-1920; and letters and miscellanea of several family members who served in WWII. Also some records of the American Manufacturing Company of Battle Creek, Michigan.

The Squier Family Papers are organized into nine series, eight series of documents related to specific members or branches of the family and one series of photographs.

Detroit, Michigan businessman and civic leader. Business correspondence relating to Weber's activities as a dealer in timber lands, his role as a member of the Art Commission in the development of Detroit, Michigan's Cultural Center, his involvement in the construction of the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and his activities during World War I; and correspondence and class notes of his sons, Harry B. and Erwin W. Weber, while attending University of Michigan; also photographs, including family portraits, aerial views of Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, photographs of the construction of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge, and glass negatives of family vacations in Upper Michigan, Ontario, and Quebec; and maps of land and timber holdings

The William C. Weber papers cover 28 linear feet (30 boxes), outsize folders, and 15 outsize volumes. Besides information on timber and mineral lands in Michigan, the important aspects of the Weber papers include information on the development of the Cultural Center of Detroit and Weber's very controversial role in it, items on the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and the development of the Border Cities, and the papers of his two sons, especially the letters they wrote as students at the University of Michigan and their class notes and examinations.

There is one foot of materials related to the Cultural Center (Box 19 and outsize folders) and another of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge (Box 20 and outsize folders).

Architectural site plans and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center are also found in the outsize unbound material.

The collection includes maps relating to Weber's his land holdings in northern Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, including maps of land survey, of timber estimates, and tax and title status for Michigan lands, maps of Windsor subdivisions, maps of coal mining region around Caryville, Tennessee and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center.