Collections

Battle Creek, Michigan physician, food scientist, founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Correspondence, student notebooks from University of Michigan and Bellevue Hospital, drafts of speeches and lecture notes, newspaper clippings and scrapbooks, and topical files; include material concerning medical theories and practices, especially matters of diet and hygiene, his work with organizations such as the National Vitality League, Race Betterment Foundation, Battle Creek Three Quarter Century Club, Chicago Workingmen's Home and Medical Mission, and Seventh-Day Adventists; also photographs.

The John Harvey Kellogg papers document the career of a medical doctor and health reformer and advocate. The collection provides telling insight to the operation of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The papers span the years 1869 to 1965, with the bulk of the materials covering the years 1874 to 1943. Significantly, there are some collected published items in the collection that date as early as 1832. The Kellogg papers consist of correspondence, lectures, notes, memoranda, clippings, scrapbooks, notebooks, photographs, articles, and book manuscripts. These diverse sources provide ample documentation of Kellogg's life, and are an excellent source with which to examine early twentieth-century medicine in general and Kellogg's important innovations in health reform. The collection is also very strong on the development of the Sanitarium and the "Battle Creek idea" of natural health. Kellogg's zealous efforts to proselytize the world at large on the wisdom of the "Battle Creek Idea" are reflected in the papers. Also included are materials relating to his work with organizations such as the National Vitality League, Race Betterment Foundation, Battle Creek Three Quarter Century Club, Chicago Workingmen's Home and Medical Mission, and Seventh-Day Adventists.

The Kellogg collection came to the Michigan Historical Collections in two primary accessions, one in 1962 and another in 1972. Parts of the collection were reprocessed in 1988 prior to the entire collection being microfilmed. The collection is now divided into the following series: Biographical/Personal; Correspondence; Lectures, Speeches, and Related; Notes and Articles; Subject Files; Clippings/ Scrapbooks; Bound Manuscripts/Published Volumes; and Photographs.

The Letters, Documents, and Other Manuscripts of the Duane Norman Diedrich Collection is a selection of individual items compiled by manuscript collector Duane Norman Diedrich (1935-2018) and the William L. Clements Library. The content of these materials reflect the life and interests of D. N. Diedrich, most prominently subjects pertinent to intellectual, artistic, and social history, education, speech and elocution, the securing of speakers for events, advice from elders to younger persons, and many others.

The Letters, Documents, and Other Manuscripts of the Duane Norman Diedrich Collection is a selection of individual items compiled by manuscript collector Duane Norman Diedrich (1935-2018) and the William L. Clements Library. The content of these materials reflect the life and interests of D. N. Diedrich, most prominently subjects pertinent to intellectual, artistic, and social history, education, speech and elocution, the securing of speakers for events, advice from elders to younger persons, and many others.

For an item-level description of the collection, with information about each manuscript, please see the box and folder listing below.

The Blandina Diedrich Collection is a selection of manuscript items compiled by her son Duane Norman Diedrich and dedicated to her memory. The content of these letters, sermons, documents, and other materials reflect the life and interests of Blandina Diedrich (1903-1996), most prominently subjects pertinent to Christianity, home, and the family.

The Blandina Diedrich Collection is a selection of manuscript items compiled by her son Duane Norman Diedrich and dedicated to her memory. The manuscripts reflect the life and interests of Blandina Diedrich, most prominently Christianity, home, and the family. Items include sermons from prominent ministers or preachers of different Protestant denominations, documents related to church operations and discipline, letters by prominent and everyday persons respecting their faith and beliefs, correspondence of missionaries, and reflections on religion's role in all manner of human endeavor.

The collection is comprised of over 260 letters, manuscript sermons and hymns, documents, and other items. For a comprehensive inventory and details about each item in the collection, please see the box and folder listing below.

The Martha Leach Packard commonplace book contains inscriptions, correspondence, autographs, and ephemera that Packard collected from the 1850s to 1890s. Inscriptions and autographs are written directly into the volume; additional items are pasted or laid in. The volume represents prominent individuals such as politicians and academics, as well as Packard's personal acquaintances.

The Martha Leach Packard commonplace book (200 pages) contains inscriptions, correspondence, autographs, and ephemera that Packard collected from the 1850s to 1890s. Packard used about half of the pages; additional items are laid into the volume.

Most inscriptions and autographs are written directly into the volume, and many are dated at Poughkeepsie, New York. Most entries are dated from the 1850s-1890s, though some letters pasted into the book are dated as early as 1837. Prominent individuals such as politicians, artists, and writers contributed autographs (see list below), and historian Benson J. Lossing provided a personal inscription (p. 39). Packard's other contributors included academics and personal acquaintances, 5 of whom mentioned participating in the Civil War (pp. 77, 145).

Laid-in letters include items by famous persons and personal correspondence to Martha Leach Packard and E. W. Packard. The volume also includes visiting cards, a menu from a dinner at the Stevens House (p. 157), a lock of hair (p. 178), and a swatch of fabric (p. 198). The album was originally published with printed illustrations, mainly portraits of women; some later pages contain cut-out colored illustrations of flowers.

• Benson J. Lossing (inscription, p. 39; letter, p. 200)
• John Jay Hyde (inscription, p. 41; calling card, front endpaper)
• Henry P. Tappan (autograph, p. 45)
• Thomas Nast (autograph on card, p. 61)
• Samuel F. B. Morse (autograph, p. 97)
• William W. Belknap (autograph, p. 99)
• Henry Clay (autograph, p. 115)
• Lydia Huntley Sigourney (autograph, p. 115)
• DeWitt Clinton (autograph, p. 115)
• Francis Napier (letter, p. 193)
• P. T. Barnum (autograph, back endpaper)

The McCreery and Fenton families were prominent Genesee county, Michigan residents some of whose members distinguished themselves in local and state government, as soldiers during the Civil War, and in the United States diplomatic service. Papers include diaries, correspondence and other material relating to the Civil War, local and state politics and aspects of diplomatic service in Central and South America.

The McCreery-Fenton family collection documents the individual careers of family members who served their community and their nation in a variety of roles. Through correspondence, diaries and other materials, the researcher will find information pertaining to the Civil War, to the history of Flint and Fenton in Genesee County, Michigan, and to facets of America's diplomatic relations with some of the countries of Central and South America. Arranged by name of the three principal family members represented in the collection - William M. Fenton, William B. McCreery, and Fenton R. McCreery, the papers also include series of general family materials, business records, and photographs.

Microfilm of a selection of the papers of the McCreery-Fenton families of Genesee County, Michigan. Civil War correspondence and other papers of William M. Fenton of Fenton and Flint, Michigan, Democratic state senator, and lieutenant governor, later colonel with the 8th Michigan Infantry; correspondence, diaries, and other materials of William B. McCreery of Flint, Michigan, Colonel in the 21st Michigan Infantry during the Civil War; and photographs.

This microfilm edition of a portion of the McCreery-Fenton family collection includes only materials relating to the Civil War service of William M. Fenton and William B. McCreery.

The Nixon family papers document the lives of several branches of the Nixon family, including settlers in southern Ohio and women attending Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and Charlestown Female Seminary.

The Nixon family papers consist of 88 items: 84 letters, 3 legal documents, and a ledger. The materials cover the period between 1800 and 1889, with the bulk clustered around 1800-1851. They primarily concern the family's settlement on land in southern Ohio in the 1810s and 1820s and the education and social lives of Warren Nixon's daughters in Massachusetts in the late 1840s.

Thomas Nixon, Jr., and his attorney, Rufus Putnam, wrote most of the correspondence of 1800-1817, which relates to taxes and land values in southeastern Ohio. Several documents concerning the land also date from this period. Beginning in 1818, letters from Warren Nixon, Otis Nixon, and Richard Nichols describe clearing and planting in Morgan Township, Ohio, as well as their everyday lives there. Warren looked down on his neighbors, calling them "a poor ignorant lazy set of beings as ever inhabited the world," and disapproved of their religious practices --"the old women & girls will pretend to preach… and jump round a while and then fall down as if they were dead" (June 22, 1818). In many letters they described their hardships; these included the neighbors stealing their horses (December 3, 1819), the low prices paid for their crops (July 13, 1822), and widespread disease (August 10, 1823). Responses from Thomas Nixon, Jr., advised patience and frugality.

By the 1830s, Warren had returned to Massachusetts, and only Otis Nixon remained in Ohio. Otis wrote the majority of letters during this period to Warren and other relatives. In a letter of May 14, 1841, he described the events in Watertown, Ohio, leading up to William Henry Harrison's election: "We have had Harrison women and Harrison boys, tippacanoe poles, log cabins and hard cider in abundance besides dinners I don't know how many & balls not a few. Many have supposed that Gen Harrison lived in a log cabin and drinked hard cider and therefore would be an uncommon friend to the poor, but such was not the fact." Otis' later correspondence also gives details of his crops, farm buildings, and events within his immediate family circle.

Between 1846 and 1851, the focus of the collection shifts to several of the daughters of Warren Nixon and Salome Rice: Selina (1825-1916), Marcella (b. 1827), and Laurella (b. 1820). The sisters exchanged a series of letters concerning family news, church matters, Charlestown Female Seminary, and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. In her letter of January 25, 1847, Marcella, a Baptist, worries that the "far off Western wilds" are filling with "Roman Catholics… undermining the minds of the young with their false religion." On April 13, 1848, while at Mount Holyoke, she gave an account of Mary Lyon's attitude toward missionaries: "Her whole soul is bound up in the missionary work and she would have her pupils cherish it as she does." Only five items represent the period after 1851. These include several letters from Otis Nixon and his son, George, updating the family on their health and endeavors.

The Pittsfield Township (Washtenaw County, Mich.) records contain school district records for districts 1 through 8 and 8 fractional from 1860-1930, with occasional records dating back to 1830. The collection also contains a wide range of types of township records dealing with assessments, elections, finance, and legal activities, dating from 1832 to 1980. Township Board proceedings (1834-1965, with some gaps) and road records (1835-1887) are also available in digitized versions.

The collection consists of the following series: Pittsfield School Districts records, Miscellaneous Township Responsibilities, Township Administration, Treasurer's records, Assessment Rolls, Tax Rolls, Rolls of Lands Upon Which Taxes Were Unpaid, and Other Assessments.

Michigan family from Adrian and Flint, Michigan. Family papers, sound recordings, and photographs.

The collection is arranged by family name: Tomlinson, Pomeroy, and Raab. The earliest item is an account maintained by Alexander Tomlinson of Sherwood, Michigan. Within the Raab family papers are diaries, 1891-1892, of Florence Raab concerning her life in Adrian, Michigan. In addition, the collection includes papers and audio-tapes of Irving T. Raab reminiscing about his student life at the University of Michigan in the years before 1900. These tapes also concern his life in Flint and career as Presbyterian clergyman. The photographs in the collection are of family members.

Socialist Labor Party member, later member of the League for Socialist Reconstruction. Correspondence, campaign files, audio-tapes, and other materials largely concerning his work with the State Central Committee of the Socialist Labor Party and Socialist Reconstruction, 1928-1992; and collected family materials including letters and memoirs of Levi Muncy, soldier during the Civil War; also photographs.

The Ralph Muncy collection consists primarily of papers relating to his interest in socialist political activities. A smaller portion of the collection documents the involvement of his wife, Lydia B. Muncy, in the socialist cause. Together they also collected materials relating to the history of their families (Muncy-Baird). Included is much original family material dating back into the nineteenth century. The Ralph Muncy papers have been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Topical Files; and Ralph Muncy and Lydia Baird Muncy Personal.