E. C. photograph collection, circa 1907
1 envelope
The collection consists of postcard views of Comins, Michigan, as well as photos of farming, lumbering, and related activities.
1 envelope
The collection consists of postcard views of Comins, Michigan, as well as photos of farming, lumbering, and related activities.
17 linear feet — 28 oversize volumes — 1 oversize folder
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.
8.5 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The Virginia R. Allan Papers have been grouped both according to types of documents covering her entire career (biographical, correspondence, writings and speeches, etc.). These are followed by three series of files pertaining to Allan's activities and organizational affiliations within specific time periods in her career. These chronological divisions (with some overlapping of dates) are 1950s-1972, 1971-1977, and 1977-1985. Although each of these chronological series documents Allan's life-long interest in women's issues, there are obvious highlights to each. The first chronological series - 1950s-1972, is especially solid with material relating to Allan's association with the Michigan and the National Federation of Business and Professional Women, and her service on the President's Task Force on Women's Rights and Responsibilities. The second of these series - 1971-1977 - obviously documents Allan's work at the State Department, her role with the International Women's Year and her participation in the Mexico City Conference in 1975. And the third chronological series - 1977-1985 - contain files pertaining to her participation in the second and third United Nations International Women's Conferences and to her faculty responsibilities at George Washington University.
The collection concludes with a small series -- Groups and Activities -- which contains both material dated after 1985 as well as earlier materials, a series of Personal materials, and a series of Audio-Visual materials that includes photographs, a videotape, and sound recordings.
7 linear feet (in 9 boxes) — 1 oversize folder
The records are primarily of the Office of General Counsel and Legislative Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of America (1883-1933). Additionally, there are later materials (1934-1969) of the organization following the repeal of the prohibition amendment. The record group consists of seven feet of correspondence, reports, speeches and legal files.
3 linear feet — 3 oversize volumes
The records of the American Legion Auxiliary, Erwin Prieskorn Post #46, Ann Arbor, Michigan, date from 1921 to 1992. The record group is divided into three series: Minutes, Administrative, and Scrapbooks.
2.5 linear feet (in 4 boxes)
The Thrift Shop Association of Ann Arbor record group has been arranged into six series: Historical/Background Materials, Minutes of Board and General Meeting Minutes, Committee Records, Topical Files, Photographs, and Chronological Files.
1 volume
1 volume
The Meadville (Pa.) and Scandia (Kan.) photograph album (27cm x 22cm) contains 38 items, including 26 cabinet cards, 8 cartes-de-visite, 1 tintype, and 3 additional photographic prints. The volume's purple-padded covers are bound in cloth, and it has a large metal clasp. A metallic plate shaped as the word "Album" was once affixed to the front cover and is now laid into the volume.
Most of the photographs are studio portraits of individual men, women, and children taken in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and Scandia, Kansas, in the late 19th century; the children pictured are infants and toddlers. Occasionally, the subjects are shown with a drum, a book, a dog, and one man posed on the sill of an artificial window. Two items laid into the volume are outdoor portraits of adults standing in front of a house, with a windmill visible to the side. A piece of tissue paper affixed to one of the cabinet cards has printed line drawings of a girl's face and flowers. The remaining items are a photograph of the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth, Massachusetts; a photograph of a headstone for members of the Smock family; and a black card dedicated to the remembrance of Nancy Anderson (1818-1889), with a brief poem and other details printed in gold.
1 volume
This nineteenth-century album contains 46 once-bound pen-and-ink caricatures on heavy card stock, each card with or formerly with metal eyelets on one short edge. A pencil inscription at the back of the volume reads, "Mr. Albert L. Briggs, Providence, RI," and internal references to Providence, Rhode Island, further suggests that either Briggs or another local resident may have produced the artwork. The figures represented in the volume vary widely and some are more sympathetic or more disparaging than others. The illustrator relied heavily on exaggerated features, stereotypes, and jokes directed at people's physical appearance to provide especially social commentary on race, ethnicity, gender, and class.
At least seven of the illustrations relate to women, including drawings referring to women's rights and various women's roles as mothers, performers, physicians, and cooks. One, labelled "What is home without a mother," may be a reference to a song by the same name published in 1854, and it features a woman with a monstrous face. Another titled "HANNAH LONG" depicts a woman peddling "Quaker Bitters" (probably the Providence, Rhode Island, patent medicine by that name) and may be referring to Hannah Longshore (1819-1901), who graduated from the first class of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1851.
Many of the caricatures focus on impoverished or working class people, showing individuals in tattered clothing or in lower-paying professions such as a farmer, a shoeshine, and a seeming gravedigger. A number of illustrations depict men in various stages of intoxication or alcoholism. Forms of social disorder are highlighted in caricatures of a convict and of a knife-wielding murderer labelled "THE MAN THAT KILLED JOHN GILPIN." Commentary on physical and mental disability are also represented, in drawings of a mentally ill man labelled "Luny" and a man with unaligned eyes and feet labelled "On exhibition."
Other caricatures reflect racial, ethnic, and religious stereotypes. Two racist caricatures depict African Americans, including one of a Black Congressman and one of an Uncle Remus character. Another caricature depicts a recent immigrant, while two are anti-Semitic (those labeled "The Torturer" and "NAME IT"). Two figures depict high religious figures, from Catholic or Orthodox Christian churches; one wears a robe, a fur-brimmed mitre, and snowshoes. The word "KAMSCHASA" is written near the bottom of the robe, likely referring to the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia.
Other caricatures highlight people based on their height, weight, profession (such as a king, a knight, an editor, a lecturer), or social posturing. For example, attitudes like dignity, contentment, nosiness, and bashfulness are spotlighted. Others appear more innocuous, such as illustrations of someone reading the morning newspaper and another of someone taking "Rush's Pills," but underlying subtexts for many of the images likely have additional meaning.
1 volume
This album (8.5cm x 8.5cm) contains 69 tinted gem tintype photographs of men and women of various ages, plus an image of a dog sitting on a chair. Each tintype is placed four to a page, in oval windows about 2.2cm high and 1.7cm across. A few of the people pictured wore accessories such as scarves and hats, and the men, who outnumber the women, appear with facial hair in numerous styles. The album's red leather cover has a raised geometric design on the front and back and previously included a metal clasp.
1 volume
The individual(s) who created this scrapbook pasted items, drew scenes, and wrote entries within the pages of a 1850s blankbook of receipts, seemingly created for use by a Boston shipping or exportation company. Contextual clues indicate that persons added to the volume at later dates, pasting clippings over used pages, and internal evidence suggests at least one compiler may have lived in Maine.
Penmanship exercises and short notes are written on many of the pages, either where no additional content has been added or where clippings have been pasted on top. The names James Randall Reeves and Orren Cunningham appear on some of these pages, as well as place names of Bennington and Windsor, Maine, possibly indicating one of the early owners of the volume. The handwriting appears to match the text that accompanies the original illustrations.
Original drawings made using pencil, colored pencil, and ink can be found throughout the volume, sometimes with dates added, ranging from 1863 to 1869. Remnants of clippings that had previously been affixed to the page indicate that an owner of the volume must have pasted items into the scrapbook at a later date than the drawings were originally produced. Many of the images depict scenes of conflict or relate to two fictional characters, Hezekiah and Ezekiel. The two men appear to be scouts, and the images depict their encounters with villains, Native Americans, and a love interest, Flora. Violence, unrequited love, and emotional disappointment are central themes, and the concept of a "gas of hope" that spontaneously streams from Ezekial's head appears several times when the character experiences excitement or distress.
Newspaper and magazine clippings are pasted throughout the volume. While content varies, many relate to themes of marriage, love, women, family, and memory. Poetry is heavily represented. A fair number of the clippings include jokes, humor, and wordplay. Several are directions for household maintenance or preventing pests, and a number of others relate to scientific topics.
In addition to articles and written text, the compiler also pasted in clipped illustrations from newspapers and magazines. Several feature Union Army officers, most of whom appear to have a connection to New York State. Landscapes of New York City and the Amazon River are also included, as well as several satirical illustrations and animals.
A number of the printed images relate to women, including Tennie C. Claflin, Victoria C. Woodhull, and Elizabeth R. Tilton. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's image appears twice in the volume, including once where he is placed facing Elizabeth R. Tilton and a chain connecting the figures by the nose has been added in by pen (page 14). A short poem written in ink appears below it, reading:
Henry W. B., so buoyant with glee,
And Lizzie R. T., so innocent and free,
As happy as bees in the sweet apple trees
Raised a slight (?) breeze and made the whole world sneeze!
Several pages appear to have been used to copy a portion of an undated letter, which referenced a trip from Portland to Augusta, Maine, on the Maine Central Railroad, attitudes towards funerals, the teaching profession, arguments, and placebos (beginning page 57). Another passage appears to be an essay entitled, "to old Bachelors & maids" (pages 86-88) and a manuscript poem is written on the back inside cover that seems related to scouts and Native Americans.
1 volume
The Irene Levis Roberts album, which has the title "Flowers of Loveliness" imprinted on the cover, includes 9 entries (17 total pages): 8 poems and 1 note. The poetry, mostly written by A. H. Roberts, concerns topics such as nature and the seasons, religion, travel, and death (see below for a full list of titles). The note by Thomas C. Murphy, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Smyrna, Delaware, pertains to the baptism of Irene L. Roberts on performed on March 11, 1855. Colorful crayon scribbles appear over one of the poems and on several of the later pages.
The book contains a series of colored prints show women dressed and decorated as flowers, each representative of a virtue.
1 volume
A currently unidentified shipping merchant operating out of New York, New York, maintained this daybook between 1811 and 1813, recording the daily financial transactions of his firm which was trading with the West Indies, along the Atlantic seaboard, and France, among other ports. Main customers included Hoffman & Glass, Francis Markoe, Thomas Masters, David Finlay, Pratt & Kintzing, and William Heyling among others. Several entries relate to transactions with Elizabeth Heyliger, daughter of trader William Heyliger of the West Indies (July 31, 1811; December 31, 1811; September 1, 1812).
The firm was trading in St. Croix sugar and rum as well as shipping "sundries from New York to St. Croix." Other goods traded included sugar from Brazil and Cuba, mahogany, tea, whiskey, wine, tobacco, flour, corn meal, and other foodstuffs, molasses, coffee, cigars, and fabrics. Business expenses were also recorded, such as costs relating to laborers, ship maintenance and hire, advertising, cartage and wharfage, custom duties and port fees, storage, and insurance. One entry for December 5, 1812, notes the capture of the ship Olive Branch en route from Kiel, Germany, to Philadelphia, and dealing with insurance to cover its loss, possibly in relation to War of 1812 privateering. Another entry dated March 30, 1813, refers to proceeds from Madeira wine, sweet almonds, and ship materials "received by the Ship Swift, Howland master from Liverpool which were taken up at sea, from the wreck of the Spanish Brig General Ballesteros from Madeira."
One color printed illustration of a woman and child seated before a birdcage was clipped and pasted in the volume, and another illustration of women was pasted in and later partially removed.
1 volume
People photographed while reading photograph album
The People photographed while reading photograph album contains 82 portraits of people reading as well as three newspaper clippings regarding the death of a railroad fireman.
The album (26.5 x 21.5 cm) has red velvet covers and a metal clasp. While the album itself and all the photographs in it date to the 19th/early 20th century, these materials were compiled by a noncontemporary individual with an interest in historic images of people reading. Also present are three newspaper clippings related to the accidental death of railroad fireman Joseph Ronk (1865-1888) following a train derailment in Wooster, Ohio, in July 1888.
0.4 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The collection consists of letters of Ellen Botsford Bach written while touring Europe and while attending the University of Michigan. Her other papers include reminiscences of her early life in Ann Arbor before 1900 and a recipe book. The papers of Waldo Bach consist of letters he wrote while serving in the Spanish American War.
1 envelope
The collection consists of individual and group photographs of Baker and family members.
5 linear feet — 1 oversize volume
The collection spans the dates 1904-1926 and contains five linear feet of correspondence, clippings, photographs and scrapbooks concerning Baker's political and business activities.
1 envelope
The collection consists of photographs (copy negatives and prints) of members of the Fuller family, their Ypsilanti Township, Michigan farm, and of well drilling and other agricultural activity. Some of these photographs were taken by Ella Fuller.
6 linear feet
The papers support the work and activities of Margaret Bell as Professor of Physical Education, Chairman of Department of Physical Education for Women, and a physician in Health Services at the University of Michigan from 1923 to 1956, and are divided into two sub-groups of personal activities and those specific to the University of Michigan.
The strength of the papers is found in the correspondence and reports which show the growth of physical education programs for women at the University and the identification of issues important to physical education and health in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, with the correspondence, speeches, and publications of Margaret Bell. Historical records about the Women's Athletic Building and the Women's Athletic Association are also important.
Significant correspondents include: Amos Alonzo Stagg, John Dewey, and Elmer D. Mitchell, as well as other physical education professionals: Elizabeth Halsey, Ernest Jokl, Julian Smith, Ruth Glassow, Jay B. Nash, Charles Harold McCloy, Mable Lee, Vance Blanchard, and Charles Forsyth.
Topics of special note include the article, "Athletic Competition for Women," written for AAU March, 29, 1954, as well as other articles about the physiological effects of exercise and sport for women. During the 1950s and early 1960s college women participated in playdays and sportsdays, rather than the organized intercollegiate athletic programs of the present day. There was concern that women were not physically capable of such strenuous demands of full-court basketball and were limited by the rules to half-court play during the 1950's, with two rovers being added in the 1960's.