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The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography consists of over 100,000 images in a variety of formats including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, cabinet photographs, real photo postcards, stereographs, and mounted and unmounted paper prints. The collection is primarily made up of vernacular photographs of everyday life in Michigan taken by both professional and amateur photographers from the 1840s into the mid-twentieth century. In addition to supporting local history research, the collection has resources for the study of specific events and subjects. Included are images related to lumbering, mining, suburbanization; the industrialization of cities; travel and transportation; the impact of the automobile; the rise of middle-class leisure society; fashion and dress; ethnicity and race; the role of fraternal organizations in society; and the participation of photographers in business, domestic, and social life. The collection is only partially open for research.

The subject contents of different photographic format series within the Tinder collection vary, depending in part upon how each format was historically used, and the date range of that format's popularity. For example, cartes de visite and cased images are most often formal studio portraits, while stereographs are likely to be outdoor views. Cabinet photographs are frequently portraits, but often composed with less formality than the cartes de visite and cased images. The postcards and the mounted prints contain very diverse subjects. The photographers' file contains many important and rare images of photographers, their galleries, promotional images, and the activities of photographers in the field. See individual series descriptions in the Contents List below for more specific details.

Included throughout are images by both professional and amateur photographers, although those by professionals are extant in far greater numbers.

The collection includes 3,100 black and white and colored slides of Michigan railroad companies, vehicles, tracks, wrecks, depots, workers, and Michigan towns.

The slide collection includes approximately 3,100 mostly black and white, but with some colored 35 mm slides of Michigan railroad companies, their cars, engines, tracks, wrecks, depots, workers; Michigan towns on railroad lines, and the people, organizations, events, and buildings in them; logging camps, their crews, trains, kitchens, big wheels, and river jams; ships and boats; special trains and train cars; and miscellaneous. Towns well documented in the collection include: Charlevoix, Deward, Ellsworth, Flint, Gaylord, Honor, Midland, Petoskey, and Traverse City, Michigan. Lumber companies well documented in the collection include: Stephan’s Lumber Company, Waters, Michigan, and Yuill Bros. Lumber Company, Vanderbilt (Mich.). Two negatives of an unidentified railroad depot and an inventory to the slides completes the collection.

Michigan is abbreviated “Mich.” in the box and folder listing.

The collection includes 20,000 images, in various formats, of mostly Michigan railroad-related topics, as well as people, scenic views, bays, towns, fires, inside and exterior views, Camp Custer, World War I and II military, and lumber camps.

This is a collection of 41,1056images in various photographic formats, booklets, CDs, and databases of digital images and information. Most of the images were taken or collected by Mr. Conn although some small groupings of images were given to him by other senior railroad enthusiasts over time. The collection is physically organized by format and intellectually by topic. Most of the topics are railroad-related, engines, companies, lines, stations, and others are of people, scenic views, bays, towns, fires, inside and exterior views, Camp Custer, World War I and II military, lumber camps, notably, Day Lumber Company, Emmet Lumber Company, Yuill Brothers Lumber, and some unidentified lumber camps, the Cadillac Handle Company and the Antrim Iron Company.

The first part of the collection includes original images or scans (either positive or negative) that have been made into slides or negatives. This includes 13 boxes of slides (1 slide box), slide negatives and negatives (approximately 5.5 cubic feet in 6 boxes), a few photographs, glass-plate negatives of various sizes (2 cubic feet in 4 boxes), and booklets of reproduced images (approximately .5 cubic foot in 1 box). These materials are organized by format and then by alphabetically by topic. Most of the items are undated. Dates noted by the photographers are 1913-1914, 1916, and 1918. A few miscellaneous items, possibly related to the photographers have been retained in the collection (see Box 12, Photograph, 1918, and Letter, 1916.)

While most of the collection is in very good condition, a number of the slides suffer from peeling emulsions and cracks, as well as other damage, which are noted on each individual negative’s sleeve. Also, because of the damage the glass-plate negatives sustained, not all of them were scanned.

The second part of the collection includes databases of the digitized images and identifying information about the images. A copy of the database called Michigan Railroad.accdb is divided into Conn and Conn Neg, and a copy of the TIFF files, called MichiganRailroad, which is organized by subject, are both available in the Clarke reading room (as of October 2012) as well as on the archivist’s office computer. The TIFF files are organized by general subjects so the link between the two databases is not always obvious to a non-railroad enthusiast. Mr. Conn reused identifying numbers, so everything related to one location has the same number, which may mean multiple railroads in one city. There is also a hard drive for preservation purposes.

Processing Note: Only a few extremely badly damaged glass-plate negatives were withdrawn with Mr. Conn’s permission from the collection.

Collection of reports, Right Track Reports, manifests, and other materials documenting the history of the Ann Arbor Railroad Company and its car ferries.

The collection consists of Wilson’s typed reports, Right Track Reports, 1980-1981, and other materials, mostly originals, that he collected from various sources, mostly documenting the history of the Ann Arbor Railroad Company and its ferries. Most of these materials are various types of communications or regulations. The scrapbooks of newspaper clippings from various newspapers, 1962-1985, are acidic on black pages, and were originally housed in binders. The scanned newspaper clippings are largely the same information, but are in good condition. Most of the materials are in stable or good condition. Those that were acidic were photocopied.

The 2013 Addition consists of Car Ferry Manifest, Kewaunee Boat Landing, June-December 1975 (Boxes 7-8, .75 cubic ft.).

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.

The Kirtland D. and Jessie Davis papers contain 15 letters from Kirt to his fiancé and later wife Jessie, while he is away building new railroad lines in southern Michigan for the Michigan Central Railroad Company.

The Kirtland D. and Jessie Davis papers contain 15 letters from Kirt to his fiancé and later wife Jessie, while he was away building new railroad lines in southern Michigan for the Michigan Central Railroad Company. He described his work, his social life, the scenery, and the towns of southern Michigan during the late 1880s. The letters are endearing and often comical, providing occasional glimpses into the couple's personal lives.

The collection includes papers, volumes, photographic materials, keys, and blueprints. The focus of the collection is Michigan ferries and the Ann Arbor Railroad Company ferries, but other ferries and boats are also documented, as well as railroads, towns, related topics, and people.

The papers are divided into two main series: Captain Bacon’s personal materials (approximately .5 cubic foot), and Ferries, Ferry-Related Materials (the rest of the collection).

Captain Bacon’s personal materials include mostly correspondence about ferries, shipping, shipping history, his dismissal, Benzie Area Historical Museum, his membership cards, photographs, and legal documents.

The Ferries and Ferry Related Materials include employment agreements and memorandum between company employees and the company, usually the Ann Arbor Railroad Company related to ferries; Ann Arbor Boat Company organizational records, 1916-1958; photographs, blueprints, correspondence, certificates of inspection and enrollment, sales records, reconstruction records, licenses, financial records, casualty records, log books, marine shop time books, keys, specifications for parts, mostly propellers, oil and lubrication books, and other materials documenting numerous ferries including the Ann Arbor No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, No. 7, Arthur K. Atkinson (originally Ann Arbor No. 6), Badger, City of Midland 41, City of Green Bay, City of Milwaukee, Viking (originally Ann Arbor No. 7), Wabash (originally City of Green Bay), and the Grand Haven; Ann Arbor Railroad Company organizational records re: trains and ferries, 1895-1992, undated; Benzie Area Historical Museum and Historical Society materials; Correspondence from Superintendents of Steamships; information on various railroads, ship building companies; information on Benzie, Elberta, and Frankfort, Michigan; Information Bacon was going to include or not include in his book; various I.C.C. (Interstate Commerce Commission) dockets, decisions, and applications concerning railroads and car ferries; Michigan-Wisconsin Transportation Company materials; related court cases, particularly about abandonment of the ferries or parts of railways; materials documenting Michigan and other railroad reorganization or rationalization plans; various annual reports; newspaper clippings (copies) of many ferries, railroads, and related topics; numerous reports; job information, lists of positions and duties. Other materials document (somewhat) unions, such as BRAC (Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks); administration units, and officers, such as the Association of Maritime Officers.

Besides I.C.C. and railroad plans railroads are also documented in stock certificates, passes, calendars, tariffs, and other materials. Specific railroads well documented in the collection include the Ann Arbor Railroad Company, Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company/ Chessie System, and the Detroit, Toledo, and Ironton Railroad Company. Other railroad companies for which at least one item is found in the collection include: Escanaba and Lake Superior, Grand Truck Western, Green Bay and Minnesota, Manistee and North-East, Manistique and Lake Superior, and Pere Marquette, and Conrail.

Photographic materials includes photographs, negatives, postcards, and slides, and is comprised of three main subgroups, railroads, ships (ferries and other boats, ships), and lumbering. The Ships section is by far the largest portion of photographs focusing mainly on car ferries. Car Ferries across Michigan are featured, notably the: Ann Arbor Car Ferry 1-7, Arthur K. Atkinson, the Badger, Viking, Ludington Car Ferry, Sparta, and several from Wisconsin. The collection is extensive and covers the time period between 1880s to the early 2000s. Many of these images were in acidic photograph albums or scrapbooks from which they were removed. There are also some oversized photographic materials. Slides are found in Box #25. Lumbering is documented solely through photographs, 1899-1915, undated.

Oversized materials include various car ferry records, photographs, some maps showing railroad property and lines, and blueprints (9 Oversized folders), as well as other materials. The blueprints are mainly ferry propellers, shafts, valves, deck arrangements, and other parts. The blueprints are housed in a map cabinet due to their size.

Ferry keys are found in two small boxes (Boxes #23-24).

In Box 15, item 1, the license for Art Frederickson is really unusual. Art was an Ann Arbor captain who was well known on the lakes. He and his wife, Lucy, wrote several books on the car ferries and sold shipwreck maps in the 1960s-1970s. Their collection was sold to the Institute for Great Lakes Research (now the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes) at BGSU. Seven books about ferries, trains, ships, and shipwrecks by Arthur C. Frederickson are separately cataloged and in the Clarke’s book collection.

In Box 15 the last item, Development and Design of Lake MI Car Ferries, Paper Presented, 1948, by Art Zuehlke, who was the man at Manitowoc Shipbuilding. There is a memorial to him at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Collection is at the museum.

Spelling Note: There were inconsistencies in the collection as to how car ferries or carferries are spelled, as well as Michigan, Mich., or MI, and the way company names are abbreviated. These inconsistencies were continued in the Box and Folder listing. If Bacon titled a folder with an acronym, such as BRAC, that is how it is presented here, with a note to explain what BRAC is. Sometimes vessels were listed as M/V or M.V. (motor vessel) or S.S. or S/S (steam ship) and sometimes not.

Processing Note: Approximately 18 cubic ft. of duplicates, materials that were fragile, acidic, or moldy, and had to be photocopied, materials that included social security numbers, any materials of investigations and grievances of ferry employees, Bacon’s personal bills, medication directions, and any reading, blank, or peripheral materials were withdrawn from the collection. In addition, a large number of publications 121 items were separately cataloged as books, manuals, or serials, and added to the Clarke publications collection.

Allergy Note: Please note that some of the materials have a musty smell to them, especially most of the oversized volumes. Researchers with allergies should use these materials with care.

Forms part of the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive. This collection includes various almanacs dating from 1871 to 2005. There is particularly strong representation of publications by the W.T. Rawleigh Company from the early- to mid-twentieth century.

This collection forms part of the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive. It includes various almanacs, dating from 1871 to 2005. There is particularly strong representation of publications by the W.T. Rawleigh Company from the early- to mid-twentieth century.

The collection includes photographic materials, papers, photographs, and postcards, mostly of the Traverse City, Michigan, area and other cities, towns, lumber camps, mines, and locks in Michigan.

This collection consists mostly of glass-plate negatives, film negatives, and glass positive slides; arranged in order by format and size. Some papers, photographs, and postcards complete the collection. Ormond S. Danford, a lawyer in Traverse City, Michigan, collected these materials. At least some of the photographs and glass-plate negatives are signed by S. E. Wait. It is possible that some of the unsigned images in the collection were created by Wait, but this cannot be verified. There are also a few items from at least one other unidentified photographer in this collection. In Box 15 a number of people in the photographs of Traverse City and the Traverse City State Hospital folders are identified as members of the Berkwith family. This would indicate that whether or not Wait originally photographed the Berkwiths, the family gave or sold their photograph collection to Danford.

Series I consists of 256 glass-plate negatives, Boxes 1-9 (4.5 cubic feet), and each plate measures 6.5 x 8.5 inches unless otherwise noted. Only one of the images is dated, 1900; the rest probably date from 1850 to 1900, but are undated. Most of these negatives are formal portraits in which the people photographed are dressed in their very best clothes. Plaid dresses were very popular as were lacy scarves for ladies and girls. One little boy is proudly dressed in a kilt and tartan (Glass-plate negative #68). Most of the men are in three piece suits with small ties, and sport beards and mustaches. These portraits were taken in the same studio setting with the same furniture and props. Single portraits of men and of women, and group photographs of family members, children, and women, and one of two men boxing with boxing gloves, are also in the portraits. The few portraits which are exceptions to this show props in the background, are not centered, show partial images of other people in the background or are double portraits. One portrait of a woman (#101) has suffered extreme emulsion damage and loss. A scanned print has been generated for use and the glass-plate negative, while retained in the collection, should not be used by researchers. One portrait is clearly that of Myron E. Haskell (#35), Assistant Postmaster of Traverse City, as shown in Old settlers of the Grand Traverse Region, p.15. Most of the images probably date from the 1860s-1900 based on hair styles and clothing. Five portraits may date from the 1850s because of the earlier hair styles and clothing (#17, 51, and 94, which are portraits of women; and #34 and 46, which are portraits of men).

Five glass-plate negatives in this group are not portraits. These include: #29 Five floral wreaths; one labeled Hose Co. No. 3, one labeled G.A.R.-In Memorium McPherson Post No. 118-Traverse City, 8 x 10 inches; #79 Aerial view of houses, trees, and some industrial buildings. “S. E. Wait Photo” in lower right corner, 5 x 8 inches; #80 Trees in foreground on hills, town in background, 5 x 8 inches; #88 “Traverse City from Bill Org’s heights.” Trees with water in background. Emulsion peeling off right side, some already lost, 5 x 8 inches; and #89 “London Rally Decorations. Aug. 5th, 1900. Cong’l [Congregational] Church, Traverse City, Mich. S. E. Wait, Photo.” Interior view of church from rear with pews, walls and ceiling draped with various flags, 5 x 8 inches. (A positive of the interior of the Congregational Church is in Box 15.)

Most of the glass-plate negatives are in pretty good shape. Some plates suffer from various degrees of emulsion damage, scratches, and/or have edges or sections broken off them. A few have black outlines around the person in the portrait. Many appear to have had paper pasted on their backs at one time. Most group images were photographed with the plate horizontally, while one or two people are usually photographed on the plate vertically.

It would be logical from the assumed date of the images in Series I, 1850-1900, to assume that Wait, probably the only local photographer at the time, photographed and developed these images.

Series II consists of the remainder of the 240 glass-plate negatives and 100 film negatives in Boxes 10-13 (2 cubic feet). The film negatives are mostly undated, but some of the glass-plate negatives are dated between 1891 and 1916. The glass-plate negatives and some of the film were interfiled in the original boxes and so have not been separated into different series. Sizes of glass-plate negatives vary from 6 x 2 inches to 2.75 x 4 inches. The topic matter varies in this series and includes: images of towns, boats, people, horses and buggies, lumbering and logs, a stuffed eagle, cottages, and a wedding, as well as views from boats looking towards shore. Again, most of these are in good condition with minor scratches or emulsion damage to the plates. There are also images of published drawings, poems, and paintings where the published date is 1879-1894; as well as images taken of two stereoscopic view, one of which is identified as the Chicago Fire, 1871, taken by J. H. Abbott, Photographer (in Box 12). Some of the glass-plate negatives are identified by location name, including: Traverse City, Karlin, Hawkins’ Point, Cannon Creek, Old Mission Point, most of which are located near Traverse City, and various places on Mackinaw Island, Fort Mackinaw, Marquette Ore Docks, and two of Lighthouse Point (perhaps at St. Ignace). Many of the glass-plate negatives are not dated, but those with dates range from 1891 to 1916. Some are signed by S. E. Wait.

The 100 film negatives, all undated and all turn of the century 1899/1900, are in Box 13, folders 4-10 and vary in size from 4 x 5 inches to 4 x 4 inches. The negatives came from a set of identified boxes. The first box (Folder 4), identified as Minnie and Frank’s wedding trip, include 18 film negatives all 4 x 5 inches, all undated, mostly of the Soo Locks, Mackinaw Island, Fort Mackinac and buildings. Folders 5 (measuring 4 x 5 inches) and Folder 6 (Measuring 3 x 6 inches) were identified as Bangilt Cottage and Duck Point and include 16 undated, unidentified film negatives mainly of people by cabins and houses in the woods and nature views. Folder 7 includes 4 negatives of various sizes identified as the Onsmore Home and Boat. The same house is in three of the images and may be the Onsmore home. The remaining image is of people in a row boat called the Sea Gull. Folders 8-10 include 60 undated negatives of varying size from the Copper Country Trip box. These negatives are mostly of people and a town, although there are two of mining equipment. The last five images in Folder 10 are images of published photographs including a statue of Fr. Marquette, Lake Linden’s Congregational Church, Hancock’s Congregational Church, and Red Jacket Shaft, C. and H. Mining Co., Calumet.

Box 14 is Series III and includes 37 positive Lumberjack slides. The original box was identified as Lumberjack Slides-S. E. Wait. The slides are made by two pieces of glass held together with black paper, sometimes with tape. Some of the slides are identified, some have “U.S. Department of Agriculture” printed on them, others have handwritten notation, others have published text, including some from Chicago, and some slides are unidentified. Sometimes the slide with the text is reversed and very difficult to read. Some of the slides have ornate detail around the edges indicating that it was purchased rather than created by Wait. It is possible that Wait photographed some of the images while employed by the Agriculture Department, and they were later available for purchase by the public. The slides mostly document lumbermen, ox and horse teams, loads of logs, lumber camps, interiors of buildings, people in and by camps, lumberyards and sawmills, lumber locomotives and trains, machinery in mills, floating logs, log jams, lumber teams, sawyers, a cook house, and a lumberjack bunkhouse. At least one slide (#3 in Box 14) is of a log jam on the St. Croix River, St. Croix Falls, WI, 1886. Identified site locations are: Chorron’s Camp, west of Grayling; near Traverse City; Saginaw; and Queen Dam on Middle Branch of the Cedar [River]. A load of logs is identified as “Fine Norway Pine” and another as “The White Pine King” giving age: 423 years, height: 207 feet, and feet scaled: 29800.

The last box, Box 15 (.5 cubic foot), is Series IV and includes Papers, Photographs, and Postcards mostly documenting Traverse City, Elk Rapids, Fife Lake, Michigan. Dated materials range from pre-1898 through 1969, but most of the materials are undated. Of note here are the Aetna School Board District Meeting Minutes, 1877-1912 (1 volume) of Mecosta County, Michigan; Grand Traverse Historical Society Meeting Minutes, May 20, 1954-March 27, 1969; and photographs of Traverse City and its State Hospital, 1895, and undated, in which members of the Berkwith family are identified.

The Stinchfield family papers contain the correspondence, business records, financial and legal documents, photographs, and genealogical papers of the Stinchfield family, founders of a successful lumber business in Michigan in the mid-19th century. The collection also includes materials related to social and family events in Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, through the mid-20th century.

The Stinchfield family papers consist of the correspondence, business records, financial and legal documents, photographs, and genealogical papers of Jacob W. Stinchfield, his wife Maria Hammond Stinchfield, and their descendants. The collection's correspondence and documents are organized by generation, reflecting their original order. The earliest items in the collection (Generation I series) include real estate transactions involving Jacob Stinchfield of Lincoln, Maine, dating from 1837. Beginning in the 1860s, after the family’s move to Michigan, the records include correspondence, accounts, and other financial records relating to the lumber business, begun by Jacob and continued by his son Charles Stinchfield. The materials provide information respecting the management of men in lumber camps, logging in winter weather conditions, methods of transportation, the challenges of rafting logs downriver, and other lumber business operations in volatile market conditions. Jacob and Charles Stinchfield’s partner, and frequent correspondent, was David Whitney, Jr., a wealthy Detroit businessman.

The Stinchfields expanded their company to include railroads (to facilitate their logging operations) and mineral mines. Many documents in the Generation II series, including manuscript and printed maps, concern land development in Michigan, where the family owned a farm in Bloomfield Hills, and in the West, especially Wyoming. The family traveled extensively and corresponded about their experiences in Europe, Asia, and the western United States. The Civil War is represented with small but significant holdings -- among them, a September 21, 1864, note written and signed by President Abraham Lincoln, requesting a fair hearing for a furlough (probably for George Stinchfield), and a February 14, 1863, letter from Vice President Hannibal Hamlin to Jacob W. Stinchfield, assuring him that George McClellan would not be ordered back to the command of the army.

The collection's twentieth-century materials (Generation III and Generation IV series) consist largely of the personal correspondence of Jacob Stinchfield’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The life of Charles Stinchfield, Jr., is well documented, from his schooling at St. John’s Military Institute in Manlius, N.Y., and a brief time at Cornell University, through his roles in the family business, his marriage, and the raising of his three children. Interactions between Charles Stinchfield, Jr., and his father, Charles Stinchfield, a demanding and energetic businessman, are also well represented in the collection. The materials reveal relationships between family members and their servants, and spiritualists' attempts to contact Charles Stinchfield III, who died of appendicitis in 1933 at the age of 15. Later papers provide descriptions of the social life of a wealthy family in the early and mid-20th century, at their residence in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and at their country home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

The Genealogy series, compiled largely by Diane Stinchfield Klingenstein, contains extensive background research on family members, copies of Ira and George Stinchfield’s Civil War records, transcriptions of letters written by Charles Stinchfield on a journey west in 1871 (not otherwise represented in the collection), and a typewritten draft of Diane Klingenstein’s family history, "One bough from a branch of the tree: a Stinchfield variation."

In addition to materials organized by generation, the collection includes photographs, scrapbooks, pastels, realia, and books. Many of the photographs are individual and group portraits (both studio and candid) from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The images include many exterior views of the land and buildings of the family’s country home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (Stonycroft Farm, ca. 1910), and of the Stinchfield residence in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (ca. 1940s). Early 20th-century lumber camps and railroads in Oregon and mining camps in Nevada are represented in photographs and photograph albums. The collection contains photos from trips to Japan (ca. 1907), the American West, and Europe. The collection's scrapbooks include newspaper clippings, invitations, and photographs, mainly concerning the life of Diane Klingenstein in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, during the 1930s and 1940s.

The Stinchfield family papers contain three pastel portraits of unknown subjects. The Realia series includes a bone ring likely made by George Stinchfield when he was a prisoner on Belle Isle, Virginia; a ring bearing Ira Stinchfield's name and regiment, in case he died during the Civil War; hospital identification and five baby pins for Diane W. Stinchfield (1925); a variety of additional Stinchfield family jewelry; and several wooden, crotched rafting pins, apparently from Saginaw, Michigan.

The Books series includes a copy of The Pictorial Bible, given to Charles and Mary from Father Fish, June 12, 1879, and a selection of 9 additional publications, which are cataloged individually. A comprehensive list of these books may be found by searching the University's online catalog for "Klingenstein."

The Henry C. Gilbert papers consist of a substantial body of personal and business correspondence documenting a long and successful public career. As attorney, Indian agent, political hand, and Colonel of a regiment of Civil War volunteers, Gilbert served his state and nation for over twenty years.

The Henry C. Gilbert papers consist of a substantial body of personal and business correspondence documenting a long and successful public career. As attorney, Indian agent, political hand, and Colonel of a regiment of Civil War volunteers, Gilbert served his state and nation for over twenty years, giving his life in the cause. His letters, mostly addressed to his wife, Hattie (Harriet), are extremely literate, tinged with a good natured sense of humor, though occasionally a black humor, and a deeply felt affection for family and nation. At his best, Gilbert is a passionate, keenly observant writer who never minces his words or hides his opinions. His forthrightness and firmness of opinion come through in nearly every letter, as does his sense of fun and fair play.

The Gilbert papers are arranged into several series. The first four boxes comprise the main run of correspondence, both professional and personal, written between 1826 and his death in May, 1864. The correspondence begins in earnest after Gilbert's move to Michigan. The early part of the collection is dominated by letters stemming from his work as prosecuting attorney for Branch County, providing a limited indication of crime and criminality in rural western Michigan in the 1840s. There are three extensive reports on Branch County merchants prepared by Gilbert in 1845 that give an indication of their viability for credit agencies.

Gilbert's employment as an Indian agent is somewhat sketchily documented, though there is a very nice series of five letters written while Gilbert was distributing annuity payments in the upper Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula in the fall of 1853. The best of these includes a nice description of the Indian village at Cross Village at the northern limit of the Lower Peninsula. Unfortunately, Gilbert's letters from the field tend to be somewhat sparse of detail, and are generally shorter than average.

For many researchers, the heart of the Gilbert papers is the 210 letters written while he was colonel of the 19th Michigan Infantry. These letters form a complete and detailed history of the activities of the regiment from its formation in July, 1862, through the death of Col. Gilbert at the Battle of Resaca on May 13, 1864. Although the regiment was in the rear during much of this period, assigned to reserve duty with the Army of the Cumberland in Kentucky and Tennessee, they nevertheless provide an important perspective on the war, as well as on the attitudes, motivations, and duties of an officer. Gilbert was ideologically driven, and less concerned for self-glorification or promotion than for the ardent and ceaseless pursuit of the war against secession and slavery. While he did not follow the radicalism of his cousin, Theodore Dwight Weld, he was a moderate abolitionist and held progressive views on race relations. Some of his best letters are filled with a strident patriotism and calls to sacrifice for the survival of the Union.

The significance of Gilbert's Civil War letters lies in their documentation of the activities of the army of occupation in Kentucky and Tennessee. Although the 19th Michigan was not involved in many major battles prior to Resaca, Gilbert's letters paint a vivid picture of the brutality of the guerrilla conflict in East Tennessee and the resulting devastation. Gilbert leaves no doubt that he considered the situation to be an inevitable result of civil war and a necessity in meeting the political goal of ending the war and slavery. His transformation from a stern disciplinarian into a more ruthless and rigid commander under the pressure of guerrilla violence is a particularly interesting feature of the collection.

In one letter and in his diary, Gilbert provides an account of the Union debacle at the Battle of Thompson's Station and of his capture by Confederate forces. Information on his imprisonment at Libby Prison in Richmond is sketchy, but between his diary entries for this period and five letters a strong sense emerges of the physical and psychological hardships he endured. His toughness, though, resulted in his very rapid return to active duty.

Among other miscellaneous items of note in the collection is a humorous description of Gilbert's visit to the home in of Theodore Dwight Weld and Sarah and Angelina Grimké in Belleville, N.J. (1849 July 22). To his annoyance, Gilbert, the smoking, coffee guzzling carnivore, found that the lot of them were on the Graham system, eschewing meat, caffeine, and tobacco. Of equal interest are two exceptional descriptions of séances with one of the Fox sisters, held in Detroit in 1853 (1853 August 26, 29). Gilbert is at his literary best in conveying the emotional power of these séances and the mechanics of the séance itself.

Box 5 of the Gilbert papers contains correspondence and records relating to the Southern Michigan Railroad, 1848-1852. As the only one of three railroad lines planned for Michigan to be completed in the 1850s, the Southern Michigan Railroad established an important communications and commercial link between the eastern and western parts of the state. As President, stock holder, and chief lobbyist in Lansing, Gilbert was instrumental in securing passage of a bill in 1849 to help finance the construction of the line.

The Southern Michigan Railroad series contains a considerable body of detailed information regarding the laying out and financing of the line, including 74 letters received by Gilbert between June, 1849, and December, 1851, contracts, time sheets for laborers, surveys for right of way, and information on stocks and dividends. Additional information on the railroad can be found in letters from Gilbert to his wife, filed in the main correspondence series.

Finally, the Champion-Warner series relates to Gilbert's financial entanglements with his father-in-law, Reuben Champion, with whom he was often at odds. Most of these items are deeds and legal documents relating to the grist mill in Lima, Ind.