Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Professor of German at the University of Michigan and Columbia; mostly correspondence of Thomas with his family, professional colleagues, publisher, etc.; also some correspondence of his wife after his death; speeches, lecture notes, biographical sketches; papers include material on language studies at Michigan and Columbia, attitudes of academia toward Germans in World War I, accounts of European travels in 1877, 1896, and 1900; Civil War letter of Steven Thomas, Calvin's father.

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Biographical/personal material; Correspondence; Lectures and addresses; Journals/diary; Scrapbooks; Other family members papers; and Publications.

Grand Rapids, Michigan family, involved in furniture making and other businesses, also active in local state and Republican Party politics and businessmen's associations. Papers include family papers and correspondence, business records, scrapbooks and visual materials.

The Sligh family collection consists of the personal and business papers of the four generations of Slighs mentioned in the biographical introduction: James W. Sligh, Charles R. Sligh, Charles R. Sligh, Jr., and Robert L. Sligh. Although there is some overlap, the files have been arranged into seven series, one for each of these three Slighs, one for the Sligh Furniture Company and related family businesses, and one each for Newspaper clippings and Scrapbooks, and Visual Materials.

Saginaw, Michigan, lumberman and businessman, and Michigan State Tax Commissioner, 1912 and wildlife conservationist and sportsman. Papers include extensive correspondence files, business records and photographs.

The William Mershon collection consists of correspondence dealing with Mershon's various activities as a lumberman, Saginaw businessman, and member of the State Tax Commission in 1912. Subjects included in the papers are Michigan wildlife conservation, the Michigan Sportsmen Association, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, the Michigan State Tax Commission, Michigan politics, the Democratic party, personal business investments, lumbering and mining interest, and personal affairs.

The collection also includes diaries, a book of notes on hunting and fishing trips, and various business records such as cash books, time books, ledgers, and journals. These primarily concern his investments and lumbering business. Many of the business records are available on microfilm. The collection also includes photographs.

Genealogical collection for the Houck, Kibler, and Smith families, whose ancestors settled Michigan between the 1840s and 1900s. Includes correspondence, estate records, diaries, photographs, scrapbooks, war records, and other materials.

This genealogical collection traces the roots of three Michigan families. The papers include correspondence, estate records, visual materials, and war records.

Daniel Carlisle family of Buchanan, Michigan; family correspondence, diaries, and photographs.

The Carlisle family collection consists of two feet of material dating from 1860 to 1972. The papers relate to various members of the Daniel Carlisle family of Buchanan, Michigan. The collection contains correspondence between Hannah L. Carlisle and her husband, Daniel Carlisle. Include as well are letters and eight of Hannah Carlisle's diaries, written between 1885 and 1900 and largely concerning her life in Dead wood, South Dakota.

Other family members represented in the collection are William and Phyllis Carlisle and Vivian Carlisle. The letters of William D. Carlisle concern his service in the US Navy during World War II. The letters of Phyllis Carlisle relate both to her student life at the University of Michigan during the early 1940s and to her service in the Waves during the war. The letters of Vivian Carlisle were written while a student at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University during the 1940s.

Other items of interest is a folder of genealogical material and a letter written by Francis A. Carlisle while serving in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, describing his experiences.

Collected materials include Civil War diary (1863) of William Harts, soldier with Co. B, 1st Michigan Infantry; also papers of Leon Bell, member of 339th Infantry (Polar Bears) sent to northern Russia after World War I.

Letterbook (1869-1872) of George Hull, Livingston County, Michigan, farmer and businessman, relating to his grocery business, and letters (1888-1899) to his son Lawrence then attending Lawrenceville School in New Jersey relating to the family's fruit farm at Pleasant Lake; papers of Lawrence's wife, Eliza Darling Hull, student at the University of Michigan; papers of Lawrence and Eliza's son Leroy relating to World War I service; papers of Lawrence and Eliza's daughter Isabelle MacFarlane Hull; diaries of Leroy's wife, Frances Ball Hull, 1915-1919 and 1947-1957; papers of Leroy and Frances's son George M. Hull; papers of Leroy and Frances's daughter Jean Hull Ruhman; photographs; and scrapbooks.

The Hull Family Papers consists of nine series: Family Materials, George L. Hull and Isabelle M. Hull, Lawrence C. Hull and Eliza Darling Hull, Isabelle MacFarlane Hull, Dr. Leroy Hull and Frances Ball Hull, George M. Hull, Jean Hull Ruhman, Audio-Visual Materials, and Scrapbooks. The collection contains letters, diaries, photos, clippings, and ephemera. The strength of the collection lies in its documentation of life in nineteenth-century southern Michigan, the World War I correspondence of Dr. Leroy Hull, the World War II correspondence of George M. Hull, and the 1950s travel correspondence and photographs of Jean Hull Ruhman.

Bishop of the Michigan Diocese of the Episcopal Church, 1906-1923, and advocate of the "social gospel" views of Walter Rauschenbusch. Papers consist of correspondence, notebooks on labor and social issues, and biographical material.

The papers of Charles D. Williams, Episcopal bishop of Michigan, include correspondence concerning personal and church affairs and the social gospel movement, including correspondence with Walter Rauschenbush, Samuel Mather, and Lucretia Garfield; also sermons and addresses, 1885-1923, journals of European trips, 1896, 1917, and 1921, notebooks on social and labor problems, material on the 1908 forest fire at Metz, Michigan (Presque Isle County), and material on the Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio in 1898; biographical writings by his sons, Benedict Williams, his wife Lucy V. Williams, and his secretary, Charles O. Ford; letters of condolence from fellow clergy, including Reinhold Niebuhr; also photographs.

Republican U.S. Senator from Michigan; advocate of the United Nations and bipartisan foreign policy. Correspondence, scrapbooks, diaries, and visual materials.

The Arthur H. Vandenberg collection consists of 8 linear feet of materials (available on microfilm), 25 volumes of scrapbook/journals, and assorted audio and visual materials. The collection covers Vandenberg's entire career with a few folders of papers post-dating his death in 1951 relating to the dedication of memorial rooms in his honor in the 1970s. The collection is divided into four major series: Correspondence; Speeches; Campaign and Miscellaneous Topical; Clippings, Articles, and Scrapbooks; Miscellaneous and Personal; Visual Materials; and Sound Recordings.

Mathematician, professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan. Correspondence and other papers relating to professional and family matters, to his association with the Bethlehem Church in Ann Arbor, and to his involvement with the American Mathematical Society, especially regarding the controversy over loyalty oaths in the 1950s; also letters from family members, notably sister Martha, a school teacher, who comments on her career and her life as a single woman; and letters from son Paul during World War II; and photographs.

The papers of T.H. Hildebrandt consist of seven linear feet of materials spanning the years 1887 to 1978. The bulk of the collection falls between the years 1930 and 1960. The papers have been arranged in ten series: Biographical Material, Bethlehem Church, Compositions, Correspondence, Lectures, Notes, Organizations, Universities, Writings, and Visual Materials.

As Hildebrandt was fairly well known in his field, he corresponded with other eminent mathematicians of his time, including Eliakim Hostings Moore (with whom he had studied) and Maurice Frechet. The Hildebrandt papers are also valuable for other topics: the development of mathematical ideas and the various pressures placed on academics during the Cold War to name both two examples.