Collections

The collection includes publications, meeting minutes, and photographs related to the American bicentennial.

The collection consists largely of publications regarding the American Revolution bicentennial, the celebration of the bicentennial in Michigan, and Michigan Week before and during the bicentennial, 1963-1968 and 1971-1989. Materials include magazine and newspaper articles (copies), newsletters, reports, a few photographs and meeting minutes, and other materials from federal, Michigan, and local bicentennial councils and commissions. A large, although incomplete, run of the Bicentennial Times [Wash.: American Revolution Bicentennial Administration], 1974-1976 (Scattered) is also included, as are a number of special or collectors’ editions of bicentennial newspapers, fliers, bulletins, a calendar, and an issue of Superman Salutes the Bicentennial, 1976. Most of the materials were mailed to John Cumming, who later donated them to the Clarke.

Processing Note: Numerous, miscellaneous generic advertising fliers were withdrawn from the collection during processing because they were of minimal importance in documenting the bicentennial.

The collection consists of photographs, mostly of school children Cornell taught in Weidman and possibly in Mecosta, Michigan, 1928, 1950, and undated.

The collection consists mainly of photographs taken by Cornell of her students and neighbors, and some of Cornell with students, including: formal and informal class photographs of kindergarteners through second graders, children playing on school swings and teeter totters, girls with their dolls, children and a family swimming, and girls posing in nice dresses and boys pulling small wagons at the Boyer’s home, 1928, 1935-1936, and 1948-1950. Some of the groups of children in classes and some individuals are identified. Also included are photographs of a terrible winter storm in Weidman, Michigan, in 1936; Grandma Hayes’ 90th birthday with flowers and a large birthday cake with candles, undated; an unidentified river, undated; Mecosta, Michigan’s one block downtown, Methodist Episcopal Church, and high school; and students posing by the Weidman Elementary School, and the building itself, 1928, and 1935-1936.

The photographs are all in good condition. Some were or still are attached to black, loose photograph album pages. The photographs vary in size from large 1948 class photographs measuring 8 inches x 10 inches, to individual portraits of students, circa 1928, measuring 1 inch x 2.5 inches. All the photographs are black and white, and some have a sepia tone.

Collection includes 264 glass-plate negatives of people, some identified as living in Clare or Isabella County, Michigan, and some miscellaneous images, undated [1880-1920].

Collection of 264 glass-plate negatives measuring either 4 inches x 6 inches or 4 inches x 5 inches, mostly unidentified, and all undated [1880-1920]. Included in the collection are portraits and group images of men, women, and children, as well as some buildings, instruments, a band, camping with tents, and horses and buggies. A few identified images are Godon Ripenburg of Clare, Michigan, the Clare Bakery, two Fish family gravestones of Isabella County, Michigan, John D. Oren of Michigan, and the ferry "Manistee." The creator is unknown. There are also two positive images, one of a seated woman cut down into an oval shape on a broken glass plate. The other is a small, partial black and white print of a church and factory taken from negative #97.

Federal census for Michigan show John D. Oren (born about 1868) lived in Duplain, Clinton County, Michigan, in 1910 and in Seneca, Lenawee County, Michigan, in 1930; David Fish (born about 1833) lived in Denver Township, isabella County, Michigan, in 1900; and Gordon Ripenburg (born about 1883) lived in Clare, Michigan, from 1910 to 1918.

Collection includes Isabella County, Michigan, farmstead and and barn surveys, photographs, maps, and drawings for six townships.

The collection includes farmstead and barn surveys of some of the Isabella County, Michigan, townships. The surveys were completed by volunteers between 1993 and 2017 and include colored photographs, some maps and drawings, township, section, date, address, owner’s name, common name of farm, types of buildings, their condition, notes on details, type of land plan, size, and condition of barn listing its architectural features, names or advertisements, foundation, and a sketch of the farm layout. Also included are some unidentified black and white and colored photographs.

Surveys of farmsteads and barns in Coldwater, Deerfield, Denver, Fremont, Gilmore, Nottawa, and Union townships of Isabella County, Michigan, were completed by 2000 and compose this collection. Townships that have not yet been surveyed include: Vernon, Wise, Sherman, Isabella, Broomfield, Chippewa, Rolland, Lincoln, and Coe.

The collection includes minutes and correspondence related to the Academic Senate, its committees, and chairpersons.

The strength of the collection is the Meeting Minutes of the Academic Senate and its related committees. Other materials found in the collection include: curriculum change requests; Dean’s Advisory Councils meeting minutes; resolutions; correspondence; special reports; recommendations; course syllabi; the Senate Constitution; and miscellaneous materials. Some Meeting Minutes are only represented in the collection in cassette form. Pre-Senate materials, 1940-1964, are also included. Folders with contents described as “Materials” includes a mixture of meeting minutes, correspondence, reports, calendars, etc. See separate finding aid for additions to the collection.

For additional Senate Records see Richard Wysong papers (He served as Chair of the Senate in the 1960s).

Processing Note: The published reports of the CMU President have been removed from the collection and separately cataloged.

In order to facilitate future use by the Academic Senate, Boxes 1-14 and 25 were processed and left in the original order in which they were kept in the Senate office prior to being transferred to the Clarke in May and June 2002. Boxes 15-24 were processed differently, having been compiled from vertical files and prior donations from various sources.

Collection of the history of the department and jail, and related clippings (copies), mainly compiled in 2001.

This collection consists of a typed history of the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department and Jail, gleaned from meeting minutes, records, and the remaining folders, which consists mainly of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, newspaper clippings (copies), 1960-2011, mainly compiled by Banta in 2001.

The collection documents exhibits, speakers, and various other events held at or for the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University (CMU), which Cole helped coordinate, 2003-2013

The collection documents exhibits, speakers, and various other events held at or for the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University (CMU), which Cole helped coordinate, 2003-2013. Included are invitations, postcards, brochures, news releases and clippings, images (photographs and digital prints), CDs of images (prints were made from the CDs), and related materials. Researchers may also be interested in the official records of the Clarke Historical Library or the collection of John Cumming, both of which are housed in the Clarke Historical Library.

Processing Note: Duplicates, financial information, general correspondence, lists of people to whom invitations were sent, reading materials, and acidic newspaper clippings (which were photocopied) removed from the collection totaled .75 cubic foot. Photocopies of the clippings were retained in the collection.