Collections

Records of the University of Michigan College of Engineering include histories, correspondence and topical files of deans; minutes of the executive and other committees; faculty records, including minutes of meetings and faculty biographies; miscellaneous student and alumni records; photographs, microfilm, digital files, and archived website.

The College of Engineering records date from 1860 to 2014 and measure 118.5 linear feet, 3 oversize folders, and 1,196 GB. The records document the internal activities of the College of Engineering, both administrative and academic, the role of the college as a unit of the University of Michigan, and research developments and trends over the years. Correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, financial records, and other material reflect changing research interests within the field of engineering as well as the curriculum development that has accompanied technological advances. Of particular interest are the files relating to outside work by faculty members, a question of enduring concern within the college. The records reflect the relations of the College of Engineering with private industry, especially through the documentation of funding from outside sources and the involvement of professors in outside research.

The University of Michigan's first professional school; the Medical School record group includes historical and administrative records related to the school and its faculty and administrators, 1850-2010.

The records of the Medical School span over 160 years, beginning in 1850 and continuing through 2010. They include 389.7 linear feet of material, 10 oversize volumes, 9 oversize folders of miscellaneous documents, and 3.3 GB of digital material stored online. The records include dean's correspondence and subject files, executive committee minutes, faculty minutes, annual reports of departments, school accreditation and review files, a variety of special reports and studies, and extensive files on the Replacement Hospital Project (Taubman Center). The record group also contains photo prints depicting faculty, students and facilities, including a remarkable series of photographs taken by J. Jefferson Gibson circa 1893.

The Medical School records have been organized into five subgroups: Dean's Records, Subordinate Administrative Officers, Faculty Records, Audio-Visual Materials, and Miscellaneous records. Within each subgroup there are a number of series and these series may be further subdivided to reflect the date span of the records received in each accession.

The Medical School records have been received in several accessions and the physical arrangement of the records (the number order of the boxes) reflects the various installments in which they were received. The accessions sometimes reflected the tenure of a particular dean or other administrator, but frequently appear to have been somewhat arbitrary transfers of files. Records from individual subgroups, series and subseries often continue across multiple accessions--sometimes with consecutive date ranges, but often with overlapping date spans.

In this finding aid the records are described in their intellectual order -- subgroups and series are brought together irrespective of the particular accession in which they were received. As a result, in the detailed contents listing the box number order will not always be consecutive.

Bacteriologist with the laboratories of the Michigan Department of Health, 1920-1951, and resident lecturer in epidemiology at the School of Public Health of the University of Michigan. Files relate to her discovery and testing of a vaccine for whooping-cough; files concerning activities with the American Public Health Association and the Michigan Public Health Association; consultant's files relating to her work with vaccination programs in foreign countries under the auspices of the World Health Organization; correspondence, course and research materials; and photographs related to her career; also papers of her father, Milton Kendrick, a Free Methodist clergyman.

The Pearl L. Kendrick papers date from 1888 to 1979 and measure seven linear feet. The papers are arranged in nine series: Personal, Correspondence, Correspondence--Foreign, Michigan Department of Health, University of Michigan, Consultant Files, Professional Associations, Speeches and Articles, and Visual Materials. The collection is strongest in its documentation of the national and international network of public health practitioners, physicians, and scientists who corresponded with each other about their studies of various diseases and their prevention, in particular whooping cough. This voluminous correspondence reflects Kendrick's reputation as one of the world's foremost experts on pertussis. The collection is relatively weak in its documentation of Kendrick's work as an instructor at the University of Michigan.