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Image collection of the staff, building, laboratory, refinery, Sohio visits, and newspaper clippings of the company.

The collection consists mainly of both strips of black and white photographs and negatives of the Leonard Refineries, Inc. Images include office staff and managers, Ted Bennet, J. Walter Leonard, and Jim Wright; the main building and laboratory, both interior and exterior views with staff; a local photograph contest with a cash prize of $4,000 which was probably awarded by the refinery; a visit by Sohio representatives on December 29, 1959 and January 1960; and some images entitled “Special Effects of the refinery, July 1957.” It is difficult to ascertain what the special effects were from the images. There are also 29 negatives of the Midwest Refinery in Alma. The obituaries (copies) of Vance W. Orr and George House, both refinery staff, 2005, and a newspaper article (copy) about the negative economic effect the closure of the Alma refinery had on Alma, 2005, complete the collection. The collection provides good visual documentation of the refinery and its staff during the late 1950s and 1960. Most of the images are undated.

Records include county binders, permits, photographs, subject files, reports, Department of Conservation Geological Survey Development materials, negatives, slides, and oversized materials.

The collection includes: County Binders (28 cubic ft.); a Permit List (.25 cubic ft.); Permits, 1927-1988 (6 cubic ft.); Photographs, including seven Oversized Photographs, 1909,1974, undated (Approx. 6 cubic ft.); Subject Files, 1925-1982, undated (.25 cubic ft.); Reports, 1950s, 1970-1974, undated (.25 cubic ft.); Michigan. Dept. of Conservation. Geo. Survey Development Materials, 1912, 1932 (.25 cubic ft.); Negatives, ca. 1930-1985, undated (5.5 cubic ft.); and Slides, mostly unidentified and undated (Approx. 1 cubic ft. in 3 slide boxes).

Also included are musty and moldy Photographs and Negatives, 1951, 1982, undated (1 cubic ft.). [These materials need to be fumigated and are housed separately to avoid contaminating the rest of the collection. They should be used with care by researchers.]

The County Binders include drilling reports for section of townships in various counties. They include date, name of drilling company, location of drilling, types of layers the company drilled through, types of minerals, oil, and other materials found, depths at which materials were found, and thickness of the material found, as well as other information. The County Binders are filed in alphabetical order by the name of the county, and then by township name within each county.

Copies of MOGN News and the 60th Anniversary Photo Review are available in the CMU libraries.