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.

Recording secretary of the Central Committee of the Michigan Democratic Party, 1962-1967. Correspondence, working files, printed material, photographs and audio-tapes dealing with the organization and management of the state Democratic Party, Lansing and Ingham County, Michigan, party politics, various political issues, Michigan participation in the national Democratic Conventions of 1960 and 1964, and the Michigan Senate Campaign of 1966.

The Nye papers, though containing virtually no personal material, is strong on state Democratic politics, especially as relates to her work as recording secretary and her involvement in party affairs in Lansing and Ingham County.

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Personal / Biographical; Correspondence; Lansing and Ingham County Democratic Party; Michigan Democratic Party; Party Conventions; Miscellaneous Democratic Party materials. The collection documents her political activities on the local, county, and state level and includes memoranda and correspondence with three Democratic state chairmen: Neil Staebler, John Joe Collins, and Zolton Ferency. In addition, her files include State Central Committee minutes, directories and other information on party publications, such as the Democratic Digest. Her files also contain material on various political campaigns of the 1950's and 1960's, and on various national Democratic Conventions, including notes and tape recordings of the meetings of the Michigan caucus at the 1964 convention.