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Student papers, 1930-1987 prepared for classes in history at the University of Michigan (primarily Michigan history class taught by Lewis G. VanderVelde, but also including research papers for classes taught by Sidney Fine and others); topics concern Michigan social and political history; Michigan biography and bibliography; and local community history.

The student papers are organized alphabetically by author in two series, which are similar in date range and topics covered. Topics of papers concern Michigan social and political history; Michigan biography and bibliography; local community history and University of Michigan history. A topical index to the papers is available in the first box of the collection.

Historian of Michigan’s lumber industry; correspondence and research materials.

The collection consists of three series: Correspondence; Research materials; and Miscellaneous. The correspondence dates from 1928 to 1940 and includes letters received in response to various queries. The research materials include notes relating to his interest in Michigan lumbering, the development of lumbering within such cities as Deward, Roscommon, Saginaw, Meredith, Seney, and Muskegon. One of Leech's principal research interest was the life and career of "Silver Jack" John Driscoll.

Detroit, Michigan, attorney, Republican regent of University of Michigan; regent’s files; political materials; and personal miscellanea.

The Cudlip collection contains files relating to his activities as regent of the University of Michigan, 1963-1972, to his work as delegate to Michigan's Constitutional Convention, 1961-1962, and as general counsel for the Michigan Bankers Association, 1932-1953. In addition, there is personal and political correspondence, 1922-1985, detailing in part with his involvement in Republican Party affairs, especially his friendship with Michigan Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg and his support of Vandenberg's candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in1940. Other files include speeches relating mainly to banking during the depression; an essay, entitled, "Pages from the diary of a lumberjack"; and notebooks from his University of Michigan Law School classes, 1923-1926.

Traverse City, Michigan, free-lance writer and conservation editor of Field and Stream magazine; correspondence, manuscripts of writings, diaries, topical files, and photographs.

The collection includes correspondence, manuscript articles, and conservation columns; materials collected by the Michigan Writers' Program concerning Michigan logging; also diaries, speeches, newspaper clippings, notebooks, genealogy, photographs, and miscellaneous material concerning Titus' interest in conservation, forestry, and fishing.

Timber manager of the Kneeland Bigelow Company of Bay City, Michigan. Autobiography; correspondence, 1899-1924 (scattered); Kneeland-Bigelow Company records, 1912 and 1923-1929; subject files relating to his interest in conservation, reforestation, forest fire prevention, local Republican party affairs, road improvement, and the development of the northern Lower Peninsula as a tourist and recreational region.

Documenting his business and public service activities, the Herman Lunden papers cover the period from the late 1890s to 1929. The collection includes Biographical/Personal material; Correspondence; Kneeland-Bigelow records; and an Alphabetical File.

John J. Loughray's collection of materials relating to the history of Northern Michigan, particularly Roscommon County and logging activity.

The John J. Loughray collection contains photographs, postcards, printed histories, plat maps, and reminiscences relating to the history of Roscommon County, Mich., particularly Houghton Lake, Prudenville, and Roscommon as well as the logging industry. Visual materials include photographs of logging activities and locations within Northern Michigan and Loughray and his family and maps of Roscommon County. The collection also includes a documentary video, "Sawdust and Shanty Boys: Logging the Saginaw Valley White Pine," copyright 2006. The materials are arranged alphabetically by area/subject name.

Fred Dustin was a Saginaw, Michigan, building contractor, deputy state oil inspector, 1903-1905, and archaeological surveyor and writer on Michigan archaeology and history. The papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, sketches, diaries, and record books concerning his interest in the archaeology of Michigan, including the archaeological survey of Isle Royale, 1929-1930, and the survey and mapping of the Ogemaw County Earthworks in 1931; also material relating to the history of Saginaw and to Dustin's interest in the archaeology of the Michigan Indian; and photographs. Correspondents include Wilber M. Brucker, Fred L. Crawford, Woodbridge N. Ferris, William B. Mershon, William A. Smith, Albert W. Tausend, Charles E. Townsend, Arthur J. Tuttle, Arthur H. Vandenberg, and Murray D. Van Wagoner.

The Fred Dustin Papers contain correspondence, diaries, record books, writings, field notes, photographs, and other materials that document Dustin's life and interests in Michigan archaeology and history. The papers consist of seven series: Autobiographical and Biographical, Correspondence, Archaeology, Papers and Miscellaneous, Diaries, Record Books and Ledgers, and Photographs and Scrapbook.

Ludington, Michigan, business firm established by Justus S. Stearns. Topical files relating to business interests, including papers concerning their conviction on charges of receiving illegal refunds from the Pere Marquette Railroad, and relating to the sale of their property in L'Anse to the Ford Motor Company; and also microfilm of records of business operations at Ludington and one of their subsidiary firms at Bennett in Lake County, Michigan.

The Stearns papers consist of three boxes of manuscript material and thirty-three rolls of microfilm. Virtually all of this concerns Stearns' complex business dealings. There is no personal correspondence and but a single manuscript folder describing Stearns' political career. The microfilmed material are volumes primarily detailing the history of the Stearns Salt and Lumber Company. The records fall into two distinct groups, those created before 1900 and those done after the turn of the century.

Before 1900 the company's records are very straightforward. They consist of cashbooks, journals and ledgers. The only complication is that there were two sets of ledgers. The ledgers from Ludington apparently are the main records of the firm, those maintained at Bennett, Michigan, were of Stearns' box manufacturing, saw, planing and shingle mills. The records were microfilmed chronologically.

After the turn of the century the firm's record keeping became far more bulky and opaque. For microfilming, these records were divided into six groups: general ledgers and journals, sales ledgers, lumbering operations, payrolls, mill and manufacturing reports, and miscellaneous records (some of firms other than Stearns Salt and Lumber).

The general ledgers and journals are arranged chronologically. There are three types of ledgers (transfer ledger number 1, transfer ledger number 2 and transfer ledger number 3) and two types of journals (a general journal and a journal 2B). Apparently each ledger type and journal 2b had some specific purpose, but all explanatory material has been lost, and the entries are very cryptic. These records were filmed in their entirety.

Because of their bulk, the company's sales records were sampled. Every third account was filmed. A sufficiently large sample remains to allow a researcher to statistically reconstruct the firm's trading patterns.

Stearns kept a separate set of books detailing work in the field. These are grouped together as "Lumbering Operations" records. They include ledgers, journals, cashbooks, and sales records. The volumes are arranged chronologically. Most were sampled. Every third ledger account was filmed. Every other month of the journals was filmed. Because of their complex arrangement sampling of the sales records would have been very difficult, and thus they were filmed in their entirety.

Payrolls were also sampled. Every third month was filmed. Camp payrolls apparently refer to field operations, Ludington payrolls to workers at Stearns' home operations. The "Record of Employees" is a very brief volume giving a great deal of information about Stearns' Ludington office workers and middle level administrators. Marital status, children, club affiliations, property ownership, and financial status are among the items included.

Mill and Manufacturing records are production reports of Stearns' Ludington operations. They were filmed in their entirety. The miscellaneous volumes include a wide variety of documents, all filmed in their entirety. Included are inventory control books, records of land transactions, a sand register, records of the Stearns Warehouse Company, the Epworth League Railway and the M. Reichardt & Son Piano Manufacturing Company.

Records of the Mitchell and McClure Lumber Company of Saginaw, Michigan and Duluth, Minnesota. Correspondence and financial papers concerning company land and lumbering enterprises, and later activities in home building, silo construction, and silage production; records of A.J. Stevens & Co. and McClure-Stevens Land Company of Gladwin, Michigan also business files and diaries of company co-founder, William C. McClure.

The record group is divided into the following series: Mitchell and McClure Lumber Company; William C. McClure materials; Other Business Enterprises; and Financial records. In addition to the records of the company, the record group includes documentation of other enterprises, such as home building and silo construction and silage production. There are also some records of the A.J. Stevens Land Company of Gladwin, Michigan. The William C. McClure series is important for the run of personal diaries maintained by McClure in the period of 1872-1903.

Grand Rapids Michigan businessman and politician, active in lumbering and banking in Wisconsin and Michigan, Democratic party official, head of Board of World's Fair Managers for Michigan, overseeing state's exhibits at 1893 Columbian Exposition. Collection primarily documents business activities with some material on World's Columbian Exposition, as well as personal and family material.

The Weston collection primarily documents the career of Isaac M. Weston. Included are smaller series of papers of his brother and father. The collection includes correspondence, topical files, business and legal papers, and photographs. Of note are materials concerning Michigan's exhibit at the World Fair in 1893 and papers concerning lumbering and land interests in Michigan and Wisconsin.