Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Professor of mathematics and later of law at the University of Michigan., papers include addresses and essays, family genealogies, class notebooks, and a draft manuscript and source materials for a history of the U-M Law School.

The Edwin Charles Goddard papers consist of addresses and essays on various subjects by Goddard and his wife Lillian; miscellaneous letters; notes and letters on European trip, 1908-1909; family genealogy; outline of an algebra course; University of Michigan law thesis; original manuscript and manuscript material for his history of University of Michigan Law School; Ann Arbor High School and University of Michigan student notebooks on courses by Henry C. Adams, James B. Angell, Isaac N. Demmon, John Dewey, Henry S. Frieze, Charles M. Gayley, Richard Hudson, Elisha Jones, Andrew C. McLaughlin, George S. Morris, Albert B. Prescott, Jacob E. Reighard, Volney M. Spalding, and Victor C. Vaughan. Also included are portraits of Goddard and of his mother, Mary Blodgett Goddard, and her family.

Resident in China from Farwell, Michigan; papers concern her family life in Farwell, and missionary activities; include letters, diaries, and accounts of father, Josiah L. Littlefield, Farwell lumber dealer and visitor to China, 1916-1917; letters, 1918-1928, of husband, Dr. Dennis V. Smith, medical missionary to China, describing in part Chinese politics and civil war, 1918-1920; letters and other papers of Hazel Littlefield Smith, including materials concerning various European travels, and manuscripts of writings about Irish author Lord Dunsany, her father, and Farwell, Michigan; and photographs. Other correspondents of Hazel Smith include world-renowed scientists (Edwin Hubble and William Beebe), from Chinese Princess Der Ling, and from distinguished European writers and actors (Pierre LaMure, Selma Lagerlof, Brian Aherne, and Ronald Colman).

This collection was accumulated by Hazel Littlefield Smith and consists of materials concerning her career and interests and those of her family, specifically her husband, Dr. Dennis Smith, and her father, Josiah Littlefield (1845-1935), a pioneer lumberman and businessman in Farwell, Michigan.

The collection is particularly valuable for three topics: early days (late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) in Farwell, Michigan; missionary life in China in the period ca. 1915-1928; and the travels and writings of Hazel Littlefield Smith. The materials include correspondence, compositions and business-related materials of Josiah Littlefield; correspondence and other materials of Dr. Dennis Smith, Hazel Littlefield Smith (and Josiah Littlefield) concerning conditions in early republican China; and correspondence and other materials of Hazel Littlefield Smith concerning her travels in Europe (1920s-1950s), her management of the family farm near Farwell, Michigan (1940s), and her essays, poetry and other publications, including Lord Dunsany: King of Dreams.

The three principal figures in the collection--Hazel Littlefield Smith, Dennis Smith and Josiah Littlefield--were highly perceptive observers of persons and events. Their letters are rich in detail, whether describing travel experiences or everyday life in rural northern Michigan.

The collection is arranged into six series: Littlefield Family, China-related materials, Hazel Littlefield Smith, Miscellanea, Dr. Dennis V. Smith, and Visual Materials.

Historian and biographer from McMillan, Michigan. Correspondence, notes, and manuscripts concerning the research, writing and publication of "Education in Violence," a biography of Civil War general George H. Thomas; also research materials on other Civil War topics, travel narratives, and miscellanea.

The McKinney collection is comprised mainly of his historical research and writings, mainly on Civil War topics and the career of General George H. Thomas. The series in the collection are: Personal and miscellaneous; Correspondence; Historical research and writings; and Travel writings.

River Rouge, Michigan, high school teacher. Travel letters and related materials detailing trips to most areas of the world; letters include comments on physical conditions, geographic descriptions, and cultural observations; also scrapbooks with photographs and clippings.

The Eunice M. Brake collection consists of travel letters, diaries and photographs relating to her various world travels between 1934 and 1982. In addition to the letters, which make up the bulk of the material, a number of menus, paper games and entertainment programs typical of those used by ocean liners in the 1930s are included in the collection.

The two scrapbooks included with the papers contain numerous personal and commercially distributed photographs from her trips to the Soviet Union and Australia. Included with them are numerous photos of London, Leningrad, Moscow, Athens, and Paris (circa 1934) and Australia, Samoa and Fiji (circa 1937).

The Brake papers (1 linear foot) are arranged geographically by the country or countries of destination and year of trip. Within each folder, the letters are arranged chronologically. All photographs are included with the letters (trips) to which they relate.

The letters were written with the intention of sharing information with family members and friends. The letters were then returned to the author for retention. In some cases, to save time, she made copies of the letters and added different and unique passages onto the end for family members or friends.

These documents are travel letters in which the writer comments on physical conditions and provides cultural observations and geographic descriptions. The letters which were written during the years in Japan and Thailand provide the greatest amount of detail. Brake writes about educational conditions and teaching methods in the Japanese and Thai schools. She describes social and religious ceremonies and customs of both cultures. Many of the letters detail her relation to and interaction with the local people of each society.

Presbyterian clergyman, longtime pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1934-1951; correspondence, copies of essays and book reviews written for religious periodicals, sermons and addresses, mimeographed study notes of talks given in Detroit before the Men's Club for the Study of Religion, religious and literary notebooks, and travel journals.

The series in the collection are: Biographical; Correspondence; Writings; Speeches, sermons, lectures; Miscellaneous notes; Scriptures; Literary Studies; and Scrapbooks, journals, etc.

Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Literature at the University of Michigan; personal and professional correspondence relating to archeological expeditions and discoveries in Iran and the Near East.

The George Cameron papers consist of personal and professional correspondence mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. Very little of the materials relates to his work as founder and professor of the U-M Department of Near Eastern Studies. The bulk relates to his interaction and communication with other scholars in the field. The collection has been arranged into three series: Biographical, Correspondence, and Other materials.

Detroit German-American business; scrapbooks containing a variety of printed material, photographs, handwritten accounts of sentiments and occasions, and hand-drawn ink illustrations.

The Carl E. Schmidt collection consists of sixteen volumes of scrapbooks documenting the wide scope of Schmidt's interests. These scrapbooks were compiled and numbered by Schmidt himself, although some of the explanatory text was added by a friend, Dr. Tobias Sigel, who was himself a German immigrant and prominent citizen of Detroit. The scrapbooks are filled with a variety of printed material, photographs, handwritten accounts of sentiments and occasions, and hand-drawn ink illustrations. Much of the scrapbooks' text is in German, including many clippings from German language newspapers. The illustrations in Volume II are particularly attractive. They are hand-drawn red and black ink illustrations of fanciful, legendary themes relating to Walhalla.

The following inventory is a general guide to the contents of each volume. For those scrapbooks that were paginated by Schmidt, specific sections of special interest have been noted in the inventory. Volume 2 also has its own, original index. There is one corresponding folder for each of thirteen of the volumes. These folders contain loose items removed from volumes one through eleven, thirteen, and fourteen.

As the inventory shows, Schmidt was most thorough in documenting his recreational and farming interests, and his political activity in Detroit, at the state level, and in the German-American community. There is, however, very little information about his tannery business.

Vice-president and secretary of the University of Michigan; correspondence; research materials for his biographies of university presidents; files relating to activities on the Ann Arbor City Council; course notes from classes at the University of Michigan; and photographs.

The Shirley Wheeler Smith papers include a combination of personal and professional materials. Much of Smith's career with the U-M is documented in the official records of the University, most notably in the records of the Secretary's Office and the papers of the presidents under whom he served (Angell, Hutchins, Burton, Little, and Ruthven). Even so, these papers contain much material relating to the business affairs of the U-M. The extensive correspondence files (with partial index) demonstrate wide influence in all phases of University operations as he corresponded with presidents, faculty, members of the board of regents, and other university personnel. Also documented in the collection is Smith's activities with the city of Ann Arbor and with other community organizations.

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Research for writings; Topical files; Ann Arbor City Council; Papers (by date); Personal and miscellaneous; and Photographs.

Professor of history at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago. Correspondence, diary, student essays, and lecture notes.

The Andrew C. McLaughlin collection consists of correspondence concerning his scholarly interests, essays and a law thesis written while he was a student at the University of Michigan, and eight volumes of lecture notes on lectures he gave while at the University of Michigan. There is, additionally, a diary from his visit to Germany in 1893, a scrapbook and other material concerning a visit to England for the purpose of interpreting America to British audiences, and biographical information. Some of McLaughlin's correspondence included Charles K. Adams, John F. Jameson, Pierre Margry, John T. Morse, and Ira Remsen.

Collector of books, maps, artifacts primarily relating to the Harbor Springs area of Michigan. Artifacts include black ash baskets, porcupine quill and birch bark boxes, and miscellaneous stone and metal implements; and miscellaneous collected material.

This finding aid only describes the artifacts and historical documents collected by Earl De La Vergne. The many books he collected have been individually cataloged. The artifacts in the collection include Native American black ash baskets and quill boxes, as well as various stone and metal tools and hardware. The collected documents include a diary of an 1879 trip from Kent County, Michigan, to Emmet County, Michigan, by Etta Carpenter [mimeograph of typescript]; 1902 list of birds seen near Harbor Springs, by O. Widmann and Judge Stephenson; notes relating to Michigan history; photographs; and a citation.