Collections

David Wheeler Palmer was a Bridgewater, Michigan school teacher and farmer. His papers consist of diaries, 1846-1864, 1876-1882, and 1887-1892, concerning daily activities and farm life. There are also papers of other family members, including Emmett Newton Palmer, a Brooklyn, Michigan physician, Fred E. Palmer, a surgeon who served in the Spanish-American War, and Louisa Palmer, who was a teacher in Hawaii.

The David Wheeler Palmer collection consists mainly of his diaries and other papers. These diaries, dating from 1846 to 1892 with some gaps, comment in detail on his life, his family, the weather, financial transactions, and local politics. Other portions of the collection include materials of other family members: Palmer's wife Fidelia Randall Palmer; her brother Roswell Randall, Jr.; Emmett Palmer, the son of David and Fidelia; Fred Palmer, the son of Emmett; and Joseph Palmer, the father of David. Of interest are the photographs accumulated by Dr. Fred Palmer while he was serving in the Philippines. These include images of Hawaii on route to the Philippines and of the Santa Mesa facility in the Philippines. Another family member represented in the collection is Louisa Palmer who taught in Hawaii. She was an inveterate traveler who wrote extensive letters describing places visited for her students and family.

Senior and executive vice president of the National Bank of Detroit, later chairman of the board. The collection concerns business activities, personal interests, and travels. Included are business and personal correspondence, journals, travel materials, and other materials relating in part to his interest in amateur radio.

The Ellis B. Merry Personal Papers were assembled by Merry during his lifetime and include a number of documents from his years spent at the National Bank of Detroit. The collection, as arranged by his stepdaughter, Jean Dodenhoff, focuses primarily on his business activities, personal interests and travels. Materials found here include business and personal correspondence, journals, lists, some legal documents and publications, commendation certificates, travel itineraries, chronologies, reports, and memorabilia. There are a significant number of photographs documenting the boards of directors on which he served as well as the bank-related activities in which he participated. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Business Activities; Personal Activities; Personal Journals; Travel; and Photographs.

Grand Rapids, Michigan family, involved in furniture making and other businesses, also active in local state and Republican Party politics and businessmen's associations. Papers include family papers and correspondence, business records, scrapbooks and visual materials.

The Sligh family collection consists of the personal and business papers of the four generations of Slighs mentioned in the biographical introduction: James W. Sligh, Charles R. Sligh, Charles R. Sligh, Jr., and Robert L. Sligh. Although there is some overlap, the files have been arranged into seven series, one for each of these three Slighs, one for the Sligh Furniture Company and related family businesses, and one each for Newspaper clippings and Scrapbooks, and Visual Materials.

Zoologist-botanist, collector of plant and specimens for the University of Michigan in the Middle East and South Asia. The collection includes biographical and personal materials, correspondence, topical files, journals, writings, estate materials, photographs and motion pictures. Much of the collection relates to his travels and collecting expeditions in the Middle East and South Asia.

The Walter Koelz papers document Koelz's travel and work in South Asia and the Middle East in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his life in Michigan, both before and after traveling abroad. The collection has been divided into seven series: Biographical and Personal, Correspondence, Topical File, Journals, Writings, Estate Materials, and Visual Materials.