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The collection mostly documents Michigan railroads, focusing on the Ann Arbor Railroad Company (AARR), related lines, and its ferries in many formats. Also included are some organizational records of the Ann Arbor Railroad Technical and Historical Association (AARTHA).

Collection, collected over time by Don Wilson, some of which he was given by other rail fans. The collection mostly documents Michigan railroads, focusing on the Ann Arbor Railroad Company (AARR), related lines, its reorganization, abandonment, and its ferries. Some ferry information is general such as Twin Screw Specs (Box 5), and there is information specific to the M.V. [Motor Vessel] Viking (originally Ann Arbor No. 7) and the City of Milwaukee. Formats include slides, photographs, negatives, photograph printing plates, blueprints, scrapbooks, photograph albums, speeches, notes, newspaper clippings and magazine articles, maps, digital scans and positive prints from those scans, a CD, and miscellaneous, related publications. Also included are some organizational records of the AARTHA. Other railroads documented to various degrees in the collection include: Central Michigan Railroad (CM); Detroit, Caro and Sandusky Railroad (DC and S); Detroit, Toledo, and Ironton Railroad; Grand Trunk Railway (GT); Green Bay and Western Railroad; H and E Railroad [probably the Huron and Eastern]; Manistique and Lake Superior Railroad; Michigan Interstate Railway Company; Michigan Northern Railway Company; Mid-Michigan Railroad; New York Central Railroad (NYC) and St. Louis Railroad (SLRR); New York Central State Railroad (NYCS); Norfolk and Western Railway Company; Northwestern Pacific Railroad; Penn Central Railroad; Southern Pacific Transportation Company; Tuscola, Saginaw Bay Railroad (TSBRR); Toledo, Owosso, and Flint Railroad (TOandFRR); Wabash Railroad, and Wisconsin Central Railroad.

Items of special interest to researchers may include: manifests of the M.V. Viking, February-August 1976, and AARTHA bylaws, meeting minutes, newsletter information, member lists, and other information (Box 1); reorganization information (see Vincent M. Malanaphy folders (Boxes 2, 4), Michigan Interstate Railway Co. and MI Rail System Rationalization Plan information (Box 4), AARR photographs (Boxes 2-3), Pamona Derailment Negatives, undated (Box 5).

Photographs, negatives, and history of a plethora of railroad related topics are found throughout the collection. There are three slide boxes and two note card boxes full of slides on railroads (Slide Boxes 1-5).

Blueprints include line, lever circuit controllers, and station design plans, styling and painting design, system maps, tracks and structures, equipment, station and train car blueprints, and property drawings.

The 2016 addition, Boxes 14-16 and Folder #21 (legal-size), 1.5 cubic feet from Don’s friend Don Maddock was organized by Maddock into the series of Abandonment Petitions and Michigan Interstate Era. Included are paper documents, scans and positive prints of some of Wilson’s negatives, a few other topical files, a CD, and three color photographs. The addition largely documents the reorganization and end of the AARR. Sale papers for the City of Milwaukee are included. Most of the 2019 addition papers are copies. Note: 2016 addition negatives are housed in print file negative preservers, not archival negative sleeves.

Researchers may be interested in knowing that there are several collections and many publications by and about the Ann Arbor Railroad in the Clarke, as well as other collections and published sources documenting other railroad companies.

Processing Note: The collection is organized by size and format, and then in alphabetical and chronological order. A few publications, two general railroad films, and a tote bag were returned to the members of the AARTHA. Some publications (24), both monographs and parts of serials, were cataloged separately and added to the Clarke’s collections. Some of the items are quite acidic or fragile, most of which were photocopied and the originals were withdrawn from the collection (.25 cubic ft. total). In a few cases, where entire folders were composed of very fragile tissue paper records or acidic records, the decision was made to leave the materials as they were without copying them. Numerous abbreviations were used by Mr. Wilson within the collection, which were replicated by the processors. Michigan was often abbreviated MI by Mr. Wilson and is used in this finding aid. See the Scope and Contents Note for abbreviations used for names of railroad companies.

This collection is composed of business, financial and personal correspondence.

This is 27th series of the J.E. Howard collection to be processed. It is arranged by topic, in chronological and then alphabetical order. The collection is completely composed of loose correspondence directed to James E. Howard while he was treasurer of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad Company, as well as the Chicago and West Michigan Railway. Letters are both of a business, financial, and personal nature. Correspondence are with other railroads, businesses, organizations, and various servicemen, as well as within the company itself. There is also a small sampling of notes requesting employment, checks, or references, which are good representations of the time period.

Business letters include, a list made by the D.L. and N.R.R. of businesses and people who were considered reliable and “good” to extend credit to (Box 1). There are also two well-documented instances of safes at the D.L. and N. R.R. stations being broken into and their money bags stolen. Letters explain the thefts as well as the process of having the safes repaired (Box 2). Thefts on the trains are also documented. Among the D.L. and N.R.R. correspondence there is a letter from a W.H. Maxwell, regarding a Mr. Young who seems to be cheating the company in some way. The issue is referred to the legal department (Box 4).

There is also a small sampling of “Red Ticket” requests. Red Tickets refer to the colloquial present day “pink slip.” When an employee was let go he would receive his final pay slip, or a Red Ticket. The employee would then present the ticket for payment. Any company issued material- lanterns, keys, uniforms- would have to be returned before payment was given.

A list of Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit Railroad buildings and their costs, as well as, a balance sheet comparing running expenses of the D.L. and N.R.R. for 1886 and 1887 (Box 1) are among some of the collection’s financial letters. Box 3 documents the Panic of 1893. The panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States and was marked by the overbuilding and shaky financing of railroads, resulting in a series of bank failures.

Box 4 consists of letters and references following the Panic of 1893, and how Howard and the railroads were trying to find new banks to conduct business with.

Howard also served as treasurer for Kalamazoo College and the Baptist Convention in the later part of the nineteenth century. The collection includes correspondence from current and possible students of the college asking for loan information, as well as notes from contributors to the college. The collection also includes correspondence from the Baptist Ministry Society informing Howard of the progress of the new boiler for one of their homes, and the attempts to get members of the church to donate for it (Box 1).

Notable correspondence includes a letter from the Detroit International Fair and Exposition held in September of 1889 (Box 1), verifying vouchers and coupons for the company, and an 1893 World’s Fair watermarked note (Box 4). There are also several letters, spanning the series, informing Howard of cattle and other animal deaths on the railways, and the reimbursements made to the owners after the carcasses were sold. There is a letter from 1888 stating the concern of representation by accountants of the committee canvassing the question of a “National Association of Railway Accounting Officers,” which was to address railways having uniform accounts (Box 1). There are also several letters from the U.S. War Department and U.S. Treasury, referencing payment to Howard for the transport of recruiting officers and undisclosed freight on behalf of the government. As these events took place during 1894 it is believed that the men and materials were a part of the Spanish-American War effort (Box 4). Howard was subpoenaed for the case of “People vs. Lester L. Sweet.” The case appears to have been centered on the validity of a check handled by an agent, Lester Sweet. Many of the letters to Howard ask about the location of a Mr. Newton. Letters about the case were sent from 1889 to 1890.

Notable personal correspondence includes letters from the Michigan Asylum for the Insane in Kalamazoo. The letters detail the care of a Harry Van Vleck (Box 1 and 2). This relationship, if any, to Howard is unknown. The Clarke also houses a collection of a Henry Van Vleck, a Civil War soldier from Kalamazoo County (Mich.), who may be a relative.

Researchers may also be interested in the J.E. Howard Michigan Railroads Business Records, also available at the Clarke Historical Library.

Processing Note: During processing approximately 3 cubic feet of materials, mainly receipts, invoices, or materials which were copied and the copies retained, were withdrawn from the collection.

Collection of research materials on Michigan topics, mostly photocopies, notes, drafts of articles, and correspondence.

The collection consists mostly of photocopies of newspaper articles, magazine articles, information from websites, the Congressional Record, and chapters from reference and other books, on topics of interest to Barnett. Also included are his correspondence and email to various institutions and people asking for information and material, his notes, and typed articles he wrote on various topics. Topics documented in depth include: Ash, Center Line, John Farmer, Upper Peninsula railroads, Magnet Truck, Michigan railroads, the Mackinac Bridge, music and singers who sang songs about Michigan and or cars, the longstanding oleo versus margarine debates and laws, Michigan Central Railroad Co. Head Lights (a publication), Michigan jazz, traffic lights, with biographical materials on W.L. Potts, and Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad Co. maps (oversized transparencies). The materials (photocopies)on Headlights or Headlight Flashes includes: an advertising publication of the Company, which describes the comfort of traveling via the Company's trains and provides city histories with biographies of important families and individuals, as well as photographs of those people, expensive homes, businesses, public buildings, and pastoral scenes. Towns described include: Michigan City (Ind.), 1894; and the Mich. cities of: Albion, 1895; Pontiac, 1897; Benton Harbor and Flint, 1896; and Saint Joseph, 1898. Also included are microfilmed newspaper articles (photocopies), in which the Headlights of various cities were advertised, 1895-1896 and 1941, and 1997-2000 typed transcripts of other similar newspaper advertisements, 1895-1898. Additional subjects include: Agricultural Demonstration Trains of Michigan State University, 1906-1937; buying Michigan, 1795-1796; counties, name changes/considered creation of new counties; the history of county names; dandelions [as an emergency source of post-World War II rubber]; highway lighthouses [precursors to traffic lights]; lynchings; prisoners building Michigan roads during the 1920s; reflectors (roadside); roadside parks [Michigan had the first]; stagecoaches; broadcasting; homestead lands; Hollywood; the Port Huron and Milwaukee Railroad; Sabbath blue laws; Ludington (Mich.); swamp lands; centroids; Iron Range and Huron Bay Rialroad; ferries; population centers; Oldsmar, Florida; David Ward, Deward (Mich.); the Detroit and Charlevoix Railroad Company; Cigar Industry in Detroit, including strikes, unions, and women employees; Cigar Store Indians; crops of Flax and Gingseng and flax industries in Michigan prisons; Michigan Indians mentioned in county histories; Michigan Road Construction Train; Michigan World War I fruit and olive pit gathering campaign to create gas masks; Ragweed and hay fever and the Northern Hay Fever Resort Association, Topinabee, and the Western Hay Fever Association of the U.S., headquartered in Petoskey; General Philip H. Sheridan 's warhorse Rienzi; St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company and its subsidiary units, the Canal Mineral Land Company and the Michigan Pine Land Association; and Windmills in Detroit. Also included is a draft of a book by Graydon M. Meints on lumber baron David Ward that Barnett reviewed. The major topics found in 2021 Addition, Boxes 63-75, include: American Tract Society, Bloomers, Colporteur, Graphite Mining in Michigan, Medical Quacks, Michigan Iron and Land Company, Samuel Geil Maps of Michigan, and Whipping (Military corporal punishment). The 2022 Addition, Boxes 76-79, includes the major topics of Vigilance Committees against German Americans during World War I and Ski Trains. Other topics include: Buffalo Bill Train Accident, Carbon Works in Detroit, Detroit’s Streetlight Towers, Grand Duke Alexis A Romanov Visits Detroit, ‘Hello Girls’ [U.S. Army Signal Corps, World War I], Lindbergh in Michigan, Michigan World War II Veterans Bonus, Wetzel (Antrim County, MI, village), Bomb Mackinaw (which were 1925 practice maneuver plans to prevent enemies from crossing into the straits by dropping bombs from airplanes), and Crawfish. The collection is ongoing.

Processing Note: Abbreviations used by Barnett on folder labels were used and copied by Clarke processors exactly. Acidic materials were copied in 2014.

The collection consists mainly of photographic images of railroad related topics, mostly in Michigan, and related subject files.

This collection consists mainly of film negatives, photographs, some copy prints, and subject files collected and generated by Sam Breck, mostly of railroads, locomotives, depots, towns, historic buildings, both public and private, bridges, freighters or barges, railroad logos, and waterfront scenes in Michigan, but also including Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York (state), Ontario, Canada, and some 1942 images of the mountains and wilderness of Colorado. There are a few images of people, including members of a band, and a downtown art show. The collection is organized by format and topic as much as possible. Several folders of negatives are unidentified and undated. The collection is in good physical condition.

Published materials donated with the collection were separately cataloged.

A photograph collection of Samuel L. Breck, 1960s-1980s, is housed at the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.