Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Michigan Republican Party official, 1961-1969, assistant chairman of the national Republican Party, 1963-1964 and 1969-1970, candidate for, U.S. senate in 1964, and co-chair of ERAmerica, a national organization promoting the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Papers consist of correspondence, reports, speeches, organizational records of ERAmerica, scrapbooks and photographs.

The Elly McMillan Peterson papers document the career of a Republican party activist and official, an advocate of the Equal Rights Amendment, and candidate for the U.S. Senate. The papers, comprised largely of correspondence, reports, and memoranda, are organized into seven series: Republican Party Activities, ERAmerican, Other Organizational Activities, Personal/Biographical, Speeches, Photographs, Scrapbooks/Clippings.

Detroit, Michigan, attorney, Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1955-1974, and member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Congressional papers, arranged by term, include legislative files, bills files, topical files, schedules, sound recordings, photographs, motion pictures, and scrapbooks. The collection details relationship with colleagues and constituents and pertains to committee activities, legislation sponsored, and issues of the day. Topics of interest include civil rights, the war in Vietnam, Sleeping Bear Dunes, the humane slaughtering of animals, the economy and the fiscal policy of the federal government, women's rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, economic problems of women, and the need for national health insurance legislation.

The Griffiths collection consists primarily of correspondence exchanged with constituents and lobbying groups on matters of pending or proposed legislation and on topics of current interest. The collection's great value is its documentation of the workings of this one congressional office and its perspective on the issues confronting the nation in the period of 1955 to 1974. With the Democrats in control of the Congress, these years witnessed legislative efforts to use the power of the Federal Government to rectify the ills of society on matters of civil rights, assistance to the poor, health care for the aged, environmental protection, and so forth. It was also a time of strife in society resulting from the war in Vietnam, tension among the races, and the Watergate crisis. The Griffiths collection documents these issues with letters from constituents and her response to the concerns of the people.

Beyond general issues, the Griffiths papers have importance for their documentation of the specific contribution of this one woman member of Congress, who served for twenty years, and who was rewarded by her colleagues with increasingly responsible committee positions. Especially significant was her appointment to the powerful Ways and Means Committee under the chairmanship of Wilbur Mills. Griffiths' files from her work on W and Means Committee detail the major pieces of tax reform legislation of the 1960s, notably Griffiths' efforts to legislate some equity into the benefits accorded to American women.

The Martha W. Griffiths papers, with few exceptions, have been maintained in the arrangement scheme used by the Griffiths office.

Records of various officers of the Michigan Conference of the National Organization for Women collected by one-time state presidents Margot Duley-Morrow and Alicia Perez-Banuet. Presidential files of Duley-Morrow, Nan Frost-Welmers, Shirley Monson, Lynn Hierholzer, Gloria Woods, and Alicia Perez-Banuet; files of state chapter developer Rhonda Drinan, and Macomb County chapter president Doris Little; contain correspondence, newsletters, clippings, mass mailings, agendas and minutes, photographs, and other materials concerning the formal and personal aspects of this feminist organization. Topics covered include the Equal Rights Amendment, the Project for Equal Education Rights, Women's Assembly III, and other issues pertaining to women's rights.

The Michigan NOW record group includes administrative records, files of individual presidents, newsletters from local chapters, records of the Michigan NOW PAC (Political Action Committee), and topical files of subjects of interests to the Michigan Conference such as the ERA, educational equity, and abortion rights.

The organization of the collection is rather artificial, both because the documents were in extremely poor order upon their accession and because there is only the broadest unity to the collection's components. The records have been grouped under the name of the individual most responsible either for their creation or for their accumulation and preservation. There were two individuals primarily responsible for these records coming to the Bentley Library. They were Margot Duley-Morrow (two-term president, 1981-1983) who donated records in 1984 and Alicia Perez-Banuet (president, 1997-1998) who donated materials in three major accessions.