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Collection

Genevieve Gillette Papers, 1914-1987 (majority within 1951-1980)

10 linear feet — 1 oversize folder — 52 digital audio files

Online
Ann Arbor, Michigan, Landscape architect, speaker and lobbyist on behalf of conservation and beautification, president of the Michigan Parks Association, and member of the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty during the Johnson Administration. Correspondence, reports, oral history interviews, and other materials concerning her interest in state and national conservation legislation; and photographs.

The Genevieve Gillette collection documents Gillette's concern for the development of Michigan's parks and outdoor recreation opportunities, and her work to promote scenic roads in Michigan and nationwide.

Among the issues most fully documented are the fight to establish and develop Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, acquisition and development of Sylvania Recreation Area and McCormick Experimental Forest, threats to wilderness in the Porcupine Mountains State Park, the controversy over the proposed Mill Creek Metropark, the financing of Michigan's state park system, especially the 1968 campaign to approve recreation bonds, and the development of the Rouge River floodplain near the University of Michigan--Dearborn.

The work of the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Recreation & Natural Beauty (1966-1968), the Michigan Parks Association (1959-1975), and the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission and predecessor organizations (1960-1974) are also documented.

The collection includes very little documentation of Gillette's professional work as a landscape architect, and includes almost nothing relating to her parks and recreation work before the late 1950s.

The collection is divided into three major series--Personal, Correspondence, and Topical file--and two small series--Photographs, Audio tape cassettes.

Collection

Ocha Potter papers, 1898-2008 (majority within 1923-1965)

0.6 linear feet (in 2 boxes)

Online
Ocha Potter was a copper mining engineer and adventurer who also played an important role in the promotion of Keweenaw County, Michigan as a vacation destination during the 1930s and 1940s. Over the course of his career, Potter made important contributions to the field of copper mining, including the development of a safer, more efficient method of stoping and advocacy for the use of the lighter "one-man" alternative to the ubiquitous two-man drill. He also led and undertook many travels and expeditions both for work and leisure, which he documented in photographs. This collection contains three photo albums, documenting Potter's travels to Alaska (1905-1908), Africa and Europe (1930), and national parks in the American West (1923, 1934 and 1936). It also contains a manuscript of his autobiography, family correspondence about the manuscript, and newspaper clippings and ephemera related to Potter's life, career, and involvement with the Copper Country Vacationist League.

Collection contains three photo albums with photographs taken by Potter on his trips to Alaska, Africa, Europe, and the United States. Also newspaper clippings about Potter, ephemera related to Potter's involvement with the Copper Country Vacationist League, family correspondence, manuscript of Ocha's autobiography, and biographical information about him by his granddaughter Julia Fairchild.