Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Papers and photographs collected by Robert D. Aldrich relating to the history, people and institutions of Concord village in Jackson County, Michigan; include correspondence, diaries, account books and other papers of Concord residents; records of Concord social organizations, businesses, schools, and church and governmental bodies.

The Robert D. Aldrich collection consists of materials--manuscript, printed, and photographic--documenting the history of Concord, Michigan, in western Jackson County. The collection spans the period from the arrival of the first settlers in 1831 to the 1980s. There are a few items dating back into the eighteenth century (as early as 1783) since the papers of some pioneer families predate their arrival in Concord. The bulk of the collection, though, falls in the period since the Civil War.

The collection documents every facet of life in Concord. Included are the papers of numerous Concord citizens consisting of personal correspondence, diaries, account books and newspaper clippings about them. In addition, Aldrich collected the records of various Concord businesses and organizations, as well as some church, school, and governmental records.

The collection has been divided into two series: Manuscript and Printed Materials, and Visual Materials. Both series are arranged alphabetically either by personal name or name of organization, or by general subject area, such as Circus, Underground Railroad, etc.

Hamburg, Livingston County, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, family. Correspondence, newspaper clippings and photographs of the Lohmiller, Twichell, and Hollister families.

The papers of the Twichell family document three generations of the extended Twichell families. It includes extensive correspondence files, reminiscences of life on turn-of-the-century Michigan farm and of student life the University of Michigan, files relating to the family businesses including boardinghouses in Ann Arbor, and photographs of family members, towns in Michigan, and University of Michigan students. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence, Alphabetical Files, Photographs, and Sound Recordings.

Detroit, Michigan, attorney and judge, Democratic candidate for governor in 1934. Correspondence, legal case files, family materials, speeches, essays, diary notes, financial materials, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, and transcript of oral interview.

The Arthur J. Lacy collection consists of correspondence and other papers documenting his political activities within the Democratic party and career as a Detroit attorney. The collection has been divided into the following series: Biographical information; Personal letters; Professional correspondence and related papers; Lacy Family papers; Speeches; Early personal materials; Writings, essays, etc.; Financial files; Miscellaneous; Newspapers clippings; Photographs; and Legal files.

The Lacy Collection documents particularly well Lacy's major legal cases (Wilson vs. White, the Ford Stock Tax Case, Mary A. Rackham Estate) and his transition from conservative Democrat to conservative Republican. His letters home from Valparaiso, Indiana and Ann Arbor and his letters to his future wife Beth Garwick give a detailed picture of college life in the 1890's. Major subjects covered in the public papers are the Detroit Domestic Relations Court, problems of taxation and banking in the depression, Lacy's friendship with James Couzens, and the campaigns of 1932 and 1934. A series of notes Lacy wrote to himself from 1915-1928 and 1946-1956 reveal his political ideals, personal morality, and his relationship to his family.

Within the Professional Correspondence and related papers series, the researcher will find correspondence with many notable political and business figures. These include John W. Anderson, William R. Angell, Art Baker, Arthur A. Ballantine, C.C. Bradner, John V. Brennan, Thomas E. Brennan, Prentiss M. Brown, Wilber M. Brucker, George E. Bushnell, Daniel T. Campau, Harvey J. Campbell, John J. Carson, E.R. Chapin, John S. Coleman, William A. Comstock, Calvin Coolidge, Grace G. Coolidge, Frank Couzens, James J. Couzens, John D. Dingell, Patrick J. Doyle, William J. Durant, Henry T. Ewald, Mordecai J.B. Ezechiel, James A. Farley, Homer Ferguson, Woodbridge N. Ferris, Clara J.B. Ford, Edsel B. Ford, Joseph Foss, Fred W. Green, Alexander J. Groesbeck, Edgar A. Guest, James M. Hare, Herbert C. Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover, Kaufman T. Keller, Stanley S. Kresge, David Lawrence, Arthur F. Lederle, John C. Lehr, Fulton Lewis, Percy Loud, William G. McAdoo, William McKinley, George A. Marston, Eliza M. Mosher, Frank Murphy, George Murphy, William J. Norton, George D. O'Brien, Elmer B. O'Hara, Hazen S. Pingree, Mary A. H. Rackham, Horace H. Rackham, Clarence A. Reid, George W. Romney, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alexander G. Ruthven, W.M. Skillman, Albert E. Sleeper, Edward D. Stair, Arthur E. Summerfield, William H. Taft, Joseph P. Tumulty, Arthur H. Vandenberg, A. VanderZee, Murray D. Van Wagoner, Henry F. Vaughan, Carl Vinson, Matilda R.D. Wilson, Clarence E. Wilcox, and R.A.C. Wollenberg.

The Lacy Family papers are rich in detail about life in Michigan in the nineteenth and early twentieth century; the surviving letters document family crises and Lacy's role in them as the oldest and most successful child and later, as family leader. Lacy was the family genealogist and he collected and preserved the family correspondence of his uncles and aunt, some of which date back to the 1850's.