Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Amateur archeologist and historian from Niles (Berrien County), Michigan. Biographical and personal material; correspondence; publications; talks, radio interviews and other public presentations; archeological site notes and reports; research sources and notes; maps; photographs; and files relating to his activities with the southwest chapter, Michigan Archeological Society; contain materials relating to his interest in the archaeology, Indian anthropology, and history of the area around Berrien and Cass Counties; also papers documenting his relationship with professionals in various disciplines at the University of Michigan Museums and elsewhere.

The collection touches on most aspects of Green's life from 1940 to 1967. Material on his business activities is, however, minimal. It is his archeological and historical work that the collection documents most thoroughly. Green's correspondence is full of reports, inquiries, and discussions about the theoretical and practical facets of archaeology, focusing largely upon fossil and artifact finds in southwestern Michigan; the letters also illuminate the occasionally trying relationship between professionals and amateurs in the field. The practical aspect of archaeology is documented, too, in an incomplete assortment of Green's site notes. Green's historical research interests are well represented in his correspondence, as well as in some interesting source material and notes on Ft. St. Joseph and on Jesuit missions in Berrien County. Most of Green's writings on both archaeology and history--in the guise of formal papers and informal presentations--are included. A large number of newspaper clippings provide an overview of the activities and achievements of both Green and the Southwest Chapter of MAS. Chapter activities are also documented in its newsletter, its annual reports, and its miscellaneous mailings.

The collection contains virtually nothing on Green's life to 1932, thus omitting his work on the Franz Green Mound. From 1932 through 1939 only scattered portions of correspondence exist. Documentation is substantial, though still not complete, for the years 1940 through 1967; in places letters are obviously missing from the correspondence file, no draft exists of Green's 1961 paper, "An Adena-type Gorget in Michigan," and neither his filmstrip nor a final draft of the narrative for it is extant. Neither Green's large artifact collection nor his library is represented. The collection contains virtually nothing about his farming activities or his family.

The Amos Green Papers have been arranged into nine series: Biographical and Personal, Correspondence, Publications and Presentations, Archeological Fieldwork: Site Notes and Reports, Research, Maps, MAS Southwest Chapter, and Photographs.

Pioneer Michigan geologist, assistant to state geologist Douglass Houghton on the Michigan Geological Survey, 1837-1842, completed portions of U.S. Land Survey of the Upper Peninsula begun by Douglass Houghton, 1845-1846. Later active in family's land business and lumber trade. Papers consist of notebooks containing field notes, sketches and maps; private journals covering Michigan geological expeditions and other trips, including the peninsula coast survey, Lake Superior and Upper Peninsula surveys and surveys of Wayne, Monroe and other counties; also weather memoranda, 1835-1864; miscellaneous accounts; and other papers largely relating to geology.

The collection consists primarily of Hubbard's pocket-size field notebooks. The notebooks are arranged, for the most part, chronologically for the period 1837 to 1893. Several notebooks that do not fit the chronological sequence are placed at the end of the series of notebooks. The notebooks for the years 1837 to 1840 have been bound, probably by Hubbard, into larger volumes. For convenience the later notebooks have been grouped into "volumes" by the library. Each "volume" is in a separate case. The notebooks contain personal journals, geological notes, and meteorological registers, along with sketches of landforms, scenery, and people, geological sections, and maps.

A few loose papers are found at the end of the collection.

The most extensive notebooks are those written between 1837 and 1840, when Hubbard was working for the Michigan Geological Survey, and in 1845 and 1846, when he was conducting the combined land and geological survey of the Upper Peninsula. In addition to the main sequence of notebooks for those years (volumes 1-8 and 10-12), that period is represented by separate meteorological registers (volumes 18 and 22), separate geological field notes for the 1840 expedition to the Lake Superior region (volume 21), and three reports on Hubbard's 1846 surveys (volumes 23-24 and loose papers).

This finding aid contains two appendixes. The first, compiled by the initial cataloger of the collection in 1958, specifies where many of the topics indexed in the card catalog for this collection can be found in the series of notebooks. The second contains an inventory of the maps found in the collection.

Several portions of the collection have been published.

The notebooks for May 23-August 8, 1840 (volumes 7-9 and parts of 21) have been published as Lake Superior Journal: Bela Hubbard's Account of the 1840 Houghton Expedition}, edited by Bernard C. Peters. Marquette, Mich.: Northern Michigan University Press, 1983. [MHC call number EA/91/H875/L192]

The "Catalogue of the Geological Specimens, Hubbard & Ives Survey, 1846" (volume 23), the "Report on the Geology &c. of District Surveyed by Messrs. Higgins & Hubbard, 1846, Lake Superior, with Catalogue of Minerals, Sections, etc." (volume 24), and the "Report upon the Geology & Topography of the District on L. Superior Subdivided in 1846 by Hubbard & Ives" (loose material) have been published in Report on the Geological and Mineralogical Survey of the Mineral Lands of the United States in the State of Michigan .., by Charles T. Jackson. Washington, D.C.: Printed for the House of Representatives, 1849. (31st Congress, 1st Session, House Executive Document 5, Part 3) [MHC call number EA/153/U58/M583]

The reports of Hubbard's surveys for the Michigan Geological Survey, based on his notes have been published in Geological Reports of Douglass Houghton: First State Geologist of Michigan, 1837-1845. Lansing, Mich.: Michigan Historical Commission, 1928. [MHC call number EA/153/MG345/G345]

Hubbard's autobiography has been published as Memorials of a Half-Century. New York: Putnam's, 1887. [MHC call number EA/60/H875/M533]

Other Bela Hubbard papers are found at the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.

Journalist, historical researcher from Kalamazoo, Michigan; Correspondence, research articles and notes, and photographs.

The Weissert collection includes correspondence, 1893-1947, including letters from Joseph Bailly, Clarence M. Burton, Gurdon S. Hubbard, Chase S. Osborn, Albert E. Sleeper, and George Van Pelt. There are also speeches, and writings mostly on Michigan history topics, including Indian history and the history of Kalamazoo and Barry County. The series of research notes illustrates the variety of Weissert's interests: historical personalities, forts, Michigan cities, and early state history. The photographs and snapshots pertain to Weissert's interest in Michigan history, especially homes, churches, mills, hotels, businesses, and other sites primarily in western Michigan, but also including Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac Island. There are also photographs of Michigan pioneers, particularly from the Hastings, Michigan area.