Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Michigan-born member of U.S. Army Co. I, 339th Infantry; served with the U.S. Polar Bear Expedition in Archangel, Russia. Collection includes Mielke's service records, a digital photograph of his grave marker, and digitized images of his service diary

The William R. Mielke papers consist of a single series, Military Service, which include his enlistment record, honorable discharge papers, scanned images of his service diary, and a photograph of his gravesite in Lewiston, Mich. The diary details his unit's movements from training at Camp Custer to England and on to Russia. Entries describe patrols, combat experiences, and living conditions among soldiers during the expedition.

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.

Soldier from Frankfurt, Mich., member of Co. M, 339th U.S. Infantry who served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition." Collection includes diary and reminiscences relating to his trip to Russia in 1929 to recover the bodies of members of the Archangel Expedition killed and buried in the Soviet Union.

The papers contain a diary, July-Oct. 1929, describing the search for bodies, memories of the Russian people about the American soldiers, living conditions, and his memories of the area; and a typescript reminiscence, 1969, describing his mission, problems with the Russian authorities, the return of the bodies, and the reinterment ceremony at White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery.

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.

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.

Soldier from Bay City, Mich., member of Co. B, 339th U.S. Infantry who served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition." Collection includes diaries which give an account of his service in Russia with the Polar Bear expedition, including sympathetic references to the Bolsheviks.

The diary, Sept. 1918-April 1919, a photocopy, describes his sympathy for the Russian people and the Bolshevik cause, his impressions of Russian life, housing, crops, food, and marriage, as well as fighting at Seltso, Sept. and Oct. 1918, and Toulgas, Oct. 1918. He also describes the difficulties in which he found himself in March 1919, when he drew up a petition protesting the presence of American troops in Russia after the end of the war. A transcript of the petition is included. The original of the diary is owned by Parrish.

Port Huron, Michigan attorney; officer in the Michigan National Guard beginning in 1905, later Judge Advocate with the U.S. Army during World War I. After the war, Pepper was chief law officer of the MNG where he was advisor during the Flint Sit-Down strike of 1937. Biographical material; correspondence with family and friends concerning in part current events and politics in pre-World War I Canada; correspondence with wife Katherine while serving in France 1918-1919; papers relating to his official responsibilities with the Michigan National Guard, as Judge Advocate, and as member of veterans organizations; include files relating to the Copper Miners' Strike of 1913 and to the Flint Sit-Down strike; also diaries, 1916-1919, of his experiences serving on the Mexican border and in France during the First World War; papers relating to Republican party activities in 1920 and 1924; and photographs.

The Samuel D. Pepper papers cover Pepper's military service and legal career, as well as his relationships with family and friends. The collection provides particularly strong documentation of the impact which Pepper's Michigan National Guard (MNG) service had on personal and professional aspects of his life. The papers are divided into four main series: Personal, Military Activities, Professional and Political Activities, and Photographs.

Soldier from Hart, Mich., member of Co. H, 339th U.S. Infantry who served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition." Collection includes diary, undated narrative, and newspaper clipping from the Hart Journal describing his military training at Fort Custer, Michigan, and his combat experience in Russia; also visual materials.

This collection contains physical files as well as digital material. In this finding aid, the collection has been arranged into two series, Papers and Visual Materials.

The Visual Materials consists of digitized images; the original papers and/or photographs are owned by the donor. The digital items in this collection were digitized from originals by the individual donors before being received by the Bentley Historical Library. Preservation copies of these files with their original file names and CD-ROM file structures intact have been submitted to Deep Blue. Access copies of these digital files can be viewed by clicking on the link next to the individual folder in the Content List below. Within this series, files are listed numerically according to the file arrangement they were given by the donor. The file in this collection is in TIF format. Includes a digitized portrait of Private Roy Paul Rasmussen, Co. H, 339th Infantry, in uniform, ca. 1918.

The Papers, all photocopied reproductions, include a diary, June 1918-July 1919, containing descriptions of his travels, the food and weather in Russia, and actions on the Onega front, especially fighting in and near Chekuevo, Sep. and Oct. 1918 and Jan. 1919, and at Bolshie Ozerki, March and April 1919; and a reminiscence covering the period June 1918-March 1919, probably written from the diary, that also contains a list of casualties in Co. H, descriptions of a numbered series of photos produced by the Red Cross, and two poems, "The Creation of Russia" and "The Day of Do or Die." Also included are newspaper clippings containing letters from Rasmussen describing his first days in Russia. The originals of the papers are owned by Dale Rasmussen, Shelby, Mich.

Saginaw, Michigan, attorney, aide and political advisor to his brother, Governor Wilber M. Brucker. Diaries, notebooks, correspondence and photograph albums concerning in part the political career of his brother.

The collection includes the following series: Diaries; Notebooks containing letters exchanged between Robert and Wilber Brucker; Photograph albums; and Miscellaneous notebooks and other volumes.

Member of Co. G, 339th U.S. Infantry who served in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition" and officer in the Polar Bear Association. Collection includes papers on the committee sent to Russia in 1929, to recover the bodies of men slain during the expedition, including material on their reinterment in White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery, Troy, Michigan, and the dedication of the Polar Bear monument.

The collection includes a copy of a petition, Feb. 1919, from people in Detroit asking for the withdrawal of American troops from Archangel; a diary, July-Sept. 1929, describing his trip to Russia and the search for bodies; correspondence, 1929-1930, regarding the commission and its work; a list of the bodies recovered and a map showing the location of some bodies found around Kodish; papers relating to the reinterment of the dead in White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery; a 1965 memoir of the 1929 commission, and two letters, 1966 and undated, from Arthur Wickham relating his memories of service in Archangel. Also included are bulletins, meeting notes, speeches, eulogies, and programs of the Polar Bear Association and the constitution and bylaws of the Polar Bear Post, No. 436, Veterans of Foreign Wars.