Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Willis C. Patterson, the first African American professor at the University of Michigan's School of Music, was an active faculty member from 1968 to 1999. He was a professor of voice and associate dean for academic affairs. Patterson directed the Men's Glee Club from 1969 and 1975 and spent summers as a faculty member at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan. While maintaining an active concert career and fulfilling teaching duties, Patterson organized a Black American Music Symposium and compiled several works on African American composers. Patterson played an active role in securing funding and mentorship for students of color and disadvantaged students both at Michigan and in the Ann Arbor community. The collection includes some biographical material, but focuses mainly on his professional career, musical career, and collection of works by African American composers. It includes correspondence, research, photographs, clippings, publications, and topical files.

The Willis C. Patterson papers include some biographical material, but focuses mainly on his professional career, musical career, and collection of works by African American composers. The collection includes correspondence, publications and research material, photographic material, posters, student records, clippings, and topical files.

Wayne Dabney is a photographer, video producer and political activist from Ann Arbor. A personal friend of writer and activist John Sinclair, Dabney was active in the Rainbow People's Party. He resided at the Argus House commune in Ann Arbor in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, he produced and hosted "Wayne's Cultural Clinic," a public access television program that consisted of musical performances and interviews with people involved in arts and politics, which aired on CATV in Ann Arbor. This collection contains episodes and related episode notes, as well as a pilot for a different program entitled "People and Places." It also contains select issues of The Communicator, the newspaper of UAW Local 735, of which Dabney was the editor in the mid-1990s.

The bulk of this collection consists of 22 U-matic videorecordings of episodes of “Wayne’s Cultural Clinic,” (1981-1984) a public access television program that aired on Ann Arbor Community Access Television (CATV), along with notes associating various interviewees with specific episodes. A master tape is also included for the pilot of a different program produced by Wayne Dabney entitled “People and Places.” Episodes range from 30 to 60 minutes in length.

The collection also contains selected issues of The Communicator, a publication of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 735, of which Dabney served as editor in the mid-1990s. The issues are dated primarily between 1994 and 1996, with the exception of a single 2007 issue for which Dabney was not the editor. There is also a campaign flyer promoting Dabney for an office within his UAW chapter.

Organized in 1879 to "cultivate the public taste for music," the Society sponsors concert series, opera, dance and theater performances at the University of Michigan. The records consist of director's files of Albert A. Stanley, Charles A. Sink, Gail Rector, and Kenneth Fischer; include correspondence relating to performances and management of the Society; ledgers and account books, board of directors minutes and packets; files concerning the Choral Union, the University of Michigan School of Music, the Henry S. Frieze Memorial Organ Fund, and Hill Auditorium; also visual materials and audiotapes of Board meetings.

The records of the University Musical Society document its founding in 1879, governance and administrative restructuring through the years, its activities sponsoring musical, dance and theatrical performances on campus, and its role in music and arts education. The records include directors' correspondence files, board of directors minutes, ledgers and financial records, photographs, sound recordings and videotapes.

Intellectually, the records are organized into eight series: Directors' Correspondence, Financial records, Historical file, Board of Directors, Committees, Topical File, Contracts, Photographs, President's Correspondence, Staff Files, Executive Directors' Files, and Motion Pictures (film, videotape and digital materials).

The records were received in several major and numerous small accessions and the physical arrangement of the records (the order in which they are arranged in boxes/folders) reflects this. In this finding aid, the records are described in term of their intellectual organization regardless of the particular accession in which they were received. As a result, the box number order in which the descriptions are displayed in the contents list will not always be consecutive.

Music, theatre, and dance education unit of the University of Michigan. Also represented in this collection are its predecessor organizations, the Ann Arbor School of Music and the University School of Music, and its departments. Includes records of students and instructors, correspondence, topical files, and materials related to student and faculty performance groups. Archived versions of the School's websites provide additional documentation of academic programs, research, events, people, and policies.

The School of Music, Theatre, & Dance (University of Michigan) records document music education in Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan and student and faculty musical production beginning in 1885. The records include student ledgers listing names, tuition, and instructors; correspondence and clippings, 1924-1953, concerning the University Band, including correspondence of William D. Revelli; files relating to musical programs, particularly the Michigan Singers' Spring Tour, the Union Opera, and Musket productions; minutes of the executive committee and faculty; and digitized audio and video recordings of performances, including performances at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, by the Michigan Youth Ensembles, and other groups associated with the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Also included are files associated the Department of Dance and Department of Theatre and Drama.

1. Topical Files -- Boxes 1-5, 25-30, 35-41, online
2. Student Ledgers -- Volumes 1-7
3. Dean's Files -- Boxes 6-8, 30-31
4. Faculty Records -- Boxes 9-24
5. Donor Files -- Box 31
6. Executive Committee -- Boxes 32, 34
7. Department of Dance -- Boxes 44-46, online
8. Department of Theatre and Dance -- Box 33
9. Archived Website -- online
10. Audio recordings (original audiotapes and digital recordings) -- Boxes 42-43, online
11. Video recordings -- online

Professor at University of Michigan School of Music, papers largely related to the Music School's Honors Program and Crawford's teaching career.

The Crawford papers in the main date from 1949 to 2001. Historical material collected by Crawford dates from 1893 to 1915. The Crawford papers measure 3.75 linear feet. They consist almost exclusively of records from the School of Music's Honors Program, which Crawford administered in the 1960s, and Crawford's teaching material. The collection has been divided into four series, School of Music Records, Teaching Material, Other Professional Material, and Collected Historical Music Material.

Resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Consists of a motion picture containing scenes of the old Washtenaw County, Michigan, courthouse and surrounding buildings; groundbreaking for the new courthouse; and the dedication of the new courthouse, including a parade and an appearance by Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams.

This motion picture contains scenes of the old Washtenaw County, Michigan, courthouse and surrounding buildings; groundbreaking for the new courthouse; and the dedication of the new courthouse, including a parade and an appearance by Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams.

John and Leni Sinclair were leaders of the counterculture movement in Michigan, organizers of radical social, political, and cultural endeavors primarily in the areas of music, poetry, graphic design, and community welfare projects. Papers and photographs (1957-1979) relating to all phases of their careers, including participation in the Artists' Workshop in Detroit, the Rainbow Multi-Media Corporation, the White Panther Party and its offshoot, the Rainbow Peoples Party; also materials concerning the legalization of marijuana, radical politics, and prison reform. Also material, 1979-2000, relating to John Sinclair's work as a writer, performer, radio show host and music promoter.

The John Sinclair papers came to the library in 1979. Jointly donated by John and Leni Sinclair, this initial accession, covering the period 1957-1979, included textual material, sound recordings, and photographs relating to all phases of their careers, including participation in the Artists' Workshop in Detroit, the Rainbow Multi-Media Corporation, the White Panther Party and its offshoot, the Rainbow Peoples Party; also materials concerning the legalization of marijuana, radical politics, prison reform, and rock and jazz music.

The Sinclair papers provide a rich and unique source for the study of America's radical movement in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Beginning with a remarkable series of correspondence that includes letters from Abbie Hoffman, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and Jerry Rubin, and continuing on through extensive subject files, the collection details the cultural, political and business activities of a man whose energy and charisma made him a local and national leader of the counterculture. In addition, the collection documents the support and creativity of his wife and partner, who as writer, photographer and publicist helped to showcase the lifestyle which he symbolized.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, John Sinclair added to his papers with materials relating to his career as a writer and performer. In the winter of 2000, he donated a second large accession relating mainly to the period since leaving Detroit for New Orleans.

The Sinclair collection has been divided into four subgroups: Textual Files, Printed Material, Sound Recordings, and Visual Material.

Professor of music at the University of Michigan, and founder and first violinist with the Stanley Quartet. Correspondence relating to music and musical performance and to his career at the University of Michigan; publications; photographs; scrapbooks containing clippings, programs, correspondence, and an occasional photograph; files relating to his violin performances and work with the Stanley Quartet.

The Gilbert Ross papers serve to document Ross' growth and development as a violinist, as well as the growth and development of the Stanley Quartet. With the exception of the alphabetical correspondence files the collection is in chronological order, wherever feasible. Some overlap of dates exists in the clippings files as well as the scrapbooks. The papers are arranged in eight series reflecting the various events and activities in Ross' life. These include: Correspondence, Teaching Career, Publications, Violin Performance, Stanley Quartet, Photographs, Scrapbooks and Notebooks, and Printed Music.

Ann Arbor, Mich. musicians and music teachers, and businesspeople. Correspondence, clippings and memorabilia, photographs, and a scrapbook collected by Edith Staebler Kempf relating to the Kempf, Widenmann and Staebler families of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

This collection consists of a scrapbook, 1880-1897, on musical performances of Reuben H. Kempf and his wife Pauline Widenmann Kempf; and miscellaneous correspondence, clippings and memorabilia.

It also includes a photograph of the cast of University of Michigan Junior Girls' Play, 1921 and a print made in 1960 of 1894 photo of the Lyra Gesangverein of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

University of Michigan student organization founded to promote interest in jazz through concert and lecture series. Audio-tapes of lectures, photographs, posters, announcements of concerts, newsletters, grant files, and scattered correspondence.

The Eclipse Jazz records include photographs, sound records of the various lectures and concerts, posters and flyer notices of concerts, and miscellaneous administrative materials, such as grant applications, correspondence, and newsletters of their activities.