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Professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Michigan, director of the Michigan Geological Survey, and chancellor of Syracuse University, popular lecturer and writer on scientific topics and as a Methodist layman who worked to reconcile traditional religious beliefs to nineteenth-century developments in the fields of evolutionary biology, cosmology, geology, and paleontology. Papers include extensive diaries, field notes and maps from travels and geological expeditions, correspondence, speeches, articles and other publications and photographs.

The papers of Alexander Winchell are those of an orderly man who carefully documented his own life through well-organized correspondence, diaries, notebooks, and scrapbooks. Winchell kept thorough evidence of his activities, writings, lectures, and thoughts, for most of his life. The only area that seems poorly documented is his university teaching. The collection does not appear to include significant material relating to relationships with students in the classroom.

"Alexander Winchell, an editorial tribute," published in The American Geologist (Feb. 1892, MHC call number DB/2/W759/A512), includes a year-by-year account of Winchell's life, based on the papers, and probably written by his brother N. H. Winchell. Although there are no footnotes in this work, it provides a useful summary of Winchell's activities and clues to the existence of documentation in the collection.

The collection is divided into six major series: Biographical, Correspondence, Diaries and journals, Writings and lectures, Reference and research files, and Scrapbooks; and three smaller series: Visual materials, Processing notes, and Card files.

Winchell's bibliography is located in Box 1 (the most complete copy is in the "Permanent memoranda" volume), and drafts of many of his writings are found in Boxes 8-14. Copies of many, but not all, of Winchell's publications are found in the MHC printed collection. The card catalog includes details for all separately cataloged items. There are also three collections of pamphlets that are not inventoried: two slightly different bound sets prepared by N. H. Winchell after Alexander Winchell's death (MHC call numbers DA/2/W759/M678/Set A and DA/2/W759/M678/Set B) and a two-box collection of pamphlets collected by the University Library (MHC call number Univ. of Mich. Coll./J/17/W759).

Professor of German at the University of Michigan and Columbia; mostly correspondence of Thomas with his family, professional colleagues, publisher, etc.; also some correspondence of his wife after his death; speeches, lecture notes, biographical sketches; papers include material on language studies at Michigan and Columbia, attitudes of academia toward Germans in World War I, accounts of European travels in 1877, 1896, and 1900; Civil War letter of Steven Thomas, Calvin's father.

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Biographical/personal material; Correspondence; Lectures and addresses; Journals/diary; Scrapbooks; Other family members papers; and Publications.

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.

Member of the Michigan Daughters of the American Revolution; scrapbooks, journals, photograph albums, and genealogical material.

The Clara Hadley Wait collection includes scrapbooks, notebooks on art, travel journals, DAR materials, photograph albums, and genealogical material. The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, correspondence, copies of her articles, and other materials relating primarily to her civic activities, including description of her activities with the D.A.R. during World War I. The genealogical material consists of information gathered by Clara Wait about her ancestors. The collection includes a European travel diary, 1893, of her husband, William H. Wait.

University of Michigan professor of zoology and museum curator, participated in or and led several research expeditions to the Philippines, member of the First and Second Philippine Commissions and involved in several Philippines business ventures; records includes notes, correspondence, publications and photographs relating to research expeditions, service on Philippines Commissions business activities, of special interest are notes of a trip taken to Mindoro and Palawan in July of 1910 and papers pertaining to the special Wood-Forbes Investigating Mission to the Philippines in 1921.

The Dean C. Worcester papers filed at the Bentley Historical Library consist of correspondence, subject files, newspaper clippings, publications, and photographs pertaining to his activities in the Philippines. Of interest are notes of a trip taken to Mindoro and Palawan in July of 1910 and papers pertaining to the special Wood-Forbes Investigating Mission to the Philippines in 1921. The collection includes correspondence with William Howard Taft and Leonard Wood.

Physician and first Dean of Women at University of Michigan. Correspondence, largely of a personal nature with her niece Sarah Searing; biographical information; scrapbooks with notes and letters about travels abroad; and photographs.

The collection consists of materials accumulated by Dr. Mosher's niece Sarah Searing. It includes both letters received from Eliza to her niece, general family correspondence, and other Mosher materials which came into Sarah Searing's possession upon the death of Dr. Mosher. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Personal and biographical; Writings, speeches and lectures; Miscellaneous; Travel; Clippings and scrapbooks; Realia; and Photographs.

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.

School teacher, Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction; correspondence, subject files, photographs.

The collection is comprised of three series: Correspondence, Other Papers; and Photographs. Included in the collection are scrapbooks, diaries, autograph books, and other materials relating to his public life and various travels. The photographs include portraits of Pattengill and Pattengill family members; group portraits of reunions of students taught by Pattengill in Ithaca, Michigan; and a photo of the Pattengill home in Lansing, Michigan.

Norris family of Ypsilanti and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Papers of Mark Norris, Ypsilanti businessman and postmaster; papers of his wife, Roccena Vaill Norris, local teacher and woman's rights advocate; papers of their son, Lyman, attorney and regent of the University of Michigan, 1883-1884; papers of Lyman's son, Mark Norris, Grand Rapids attorney and Grand Master of the Knights Templar in the United States; papers of Lyman's daughter Maria Norris, Grand Rapids physician; papers of Mark's son, Abbott Norris; and related papers of other family members, notably the Whittelsey family of Connecticut.

The Norris family papers consists of three linear feet of correspondence, business papers, and scrapbooks. The bulk of the papers are letters among various family members which contain a wealth of information about 19th century daily life, social conditions, business affairs, and local and state politics. This collection is especially useful in researching: women's history; Norris family and kinship interrelationships; early area settlement and local history; university student life at the University of Michigan and elsewhere; 19th century economic conditions and political issues; and 20th century Freemasonry.

New York State and Ann Arbor, Michigan family; family correspondence, business papers, student notebooks, photograph albums.

The Patterson family papers have been arranged as much as possible by family member name. To avoid confusion and because the name George Washington Patterson was passed down from father to son, the series names have been given a Roman numeral to distinguish one family member from another.