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Member of the Michigan State Senate, House of Representatives, Ann Arbor City Council, and Mayor of Ann Arbor; records include handwritten notes on policy issues, collected research materials, and news clippings related to Brater’s service as a member of the Michigan State Senate and House of Representatives.

The Brater collection consists of eight series: Environment and Natural Resources, Mental Health, Judiciary, Other Policy Files, Legislative Files, Subject Files, News Clippings, and Other Office Files. The collection's strength lies in its documentation of Brater's activities in the areas of environmental issues and mental illness treatment programs as a member of the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives.

Materials surrounding the career of Jewish American politician, women's rights advocate, and the University of Michigan alumna (1968) Maxine L. Berman who served in the Michigan House of Representatives between 1982 and 1996. The collection contains biographical information, correspondence, legislative documents, collected publications, speeches, an audio recording of an interview, and other materials on subjects such as women's health and reproductive rights, education reform, civil rights, election law, and fiscal concerns.

This collection primarily focuses on Berman's political career during her tenure with the Michigan House of Representatives from 1982 to 1996. Biographical materials include an audio interview of Berman discussing her experience as a delegate to the 1976 Democratic National Convention, materials pertaining to her book The Only Boobs in the House Are Men: A Veteran Woman Legislator Lifts the Lid on Politics Macho Style, photographs, and numerous articles highlighting her career, as well as women in politics.

The collection also includes correspondence, publications, reports, speeches, and other materials primarily focusing on civil rights, education reform, election law, fiscal concerns, and women's health and reproductive rights. Of particular note are materials pertaining to the death penalty and assisted suicide; the performance, curriculum, and operation of charter schools; legislative redistricting; voter registration and campaign finance reform; financial mismanagement at the House Fiscal Agency; the Balanced Budget Amendment; and issues surrounding women's health and reproductive rights including the legalization of abortion and related issues surrounding informed and parental consent.

Other materials in the collection touch upon issues surrounding informed consent for breast cancer treatment options, the accreditation of mammography facilities in Michigan, flag burning, and family values, including materials focusing on the Michigan Department of Social Service's (DSS) attempt to reunite incest victims with their offenders.

Mayor of Birmingham, Michigan, 1970-1971, and Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives, 1974-1984. Biographical material, speeches and articles, subject files relating to her public service activities, and photographs.

The papers of Ruth Braden McNamee cover her career in politics from 1964 to 1984 and include four inches of material. Most of the material is from her service as mayor of Birmingham (1970-1971) and as a state representative from Oakland County (1974-1984). The papers have been divided into four series: Biographical/Personal, Speeches and articles, Birmingham city government, and Michigan house of representatives. There are also several photographs which remain with the papers in a separate folder at the end of the collection.

Most of the collection is made up of legislative newsletters, press releases, and speeches given by McNamee. In the last two series, there are also interesting files on: Birmingham's fair housing ordinance, the first passed by referendum in a white community in the country; the 1970 Birmingham-Detroit mayoral exchange between McNamee and Roman Gribbs; the August 1970 riot in Birmingham which led McNamee to declare a state of emergency, impose a dusk to dawn curfew, prohibit public gatherings, and contemplate requesting National Guard forces; the Precious Metals Recovery Act; her 1984 vote against a US constitutional convention; and correspondence with the Millikens, mostly Helen, on the Equal Rights Amendment.