Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Muskegon, Michigan equipment manufacturer. Correspondence, scrapbooks, printed materials and miscellanea concerning student activities at University of Michigan, the Shaw-Walker Company of Muskegon, Michigan, unemployment during the Depression, State Republican Party affairs, political conservatism, the Muskegon Red Cross, Liberty Bond drives and the United States Shipping Board during World War II, and his activity as an author and patron of conservative writers.

The Louis C. Walker papers have been divided into the following series: Correspondence, Miscellaneous, and Scrapbooks. The container listing describes more fully the subject content of the Correspondence series. Appended to the finding aid is a selective index to some of the more significant correspondents within the collection. Miscellaneous is an amalgam of collected materials and non-correspondence manuscripts mainly arranged by topics of interest to Walker or relating to organizations or projects in which he was involved. Of note here are materials relating to a strike at his company and various other material pertaining to his ideas on job sharing. The collection is largely an accumulation of personal materials and contains very little on the company which bears his name.

Professor of history at University of Michigan; scholar of America's revolutionary era. Correspondence concerning the historical profession, publishing, current events, and personal matters; lecture notes, newspaper clippings concerning personal matters and travels in Europe and India; papers concerning his activities during World War I, particularly with the National Security League.

The Van Tyne collection includes correspondence concerning the historical profession, publishing, current events, and personal matters; lecture notes, newspaper clippings concerning personal matters and Van Tyne's travels in Europe and India. The papers also include material concerning his activities during World War I, particularly with the National Security League. The papers are organized in two series: Correspondence and Professional and Personal Papers.

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.

Detroit banker, alumnus and regent of the University of Michigan; contain correspondence and other papers largely concerning University affairs, including athletics, the Development Council, alumni activities, regental affairs; also papers concerning Detroit city government, Detroit Street Railways, affairs of the Alien Property Custodian in World War I, recollections of University life in 1890's,articles on Hazen S. Pingree and Chase S. Osborn; also scrapbooks, speeches, manuscripts, and genealogical material.

The Stone collection is arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Speeches and Articles; Subject Files; and Clipping and Scrapbooks.

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.

Adrian, Michigan attorney and Republican congressman, 1919-1933 and 1935-1951. Correspondence, 1898-1934, newspaper clippings, 1920-1950, including materials concerning veterans and other constituent affairs, political campaigns, the Republican Party, the influence of the Ku Klux Klan in the election of 1924, and personal affairs.

The Michener collection consists almost totally of correspondence accumulated while Michener served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Although the collection dates from 1898 to 1955, the great bulk of it dates from 1904 to 1934, years when Michener practiced law, served as a county prosecutor, then went off to Congress. The files relate exclusively to the politics of being a congressman, the job of staying in touch with constituents, responding to their concerns, thanking them when they offer support, etc. During each election year, Michener sent out hundreds of form letters. Such correspondence included notes enclosed with nominating petitions; brief notes which accompanied signed petitions; acknowledgments of the signed petitions; letters to newspapers asking them to print enclosed advertisements; letters enclosing campaign cards; form letters urging support at the primary; letters of congratulation; Michener's acknowledgment of congratulations; letters to people from various towns asking them to phone in the election returns; thank you notes to those who phoned in the returns; and so forth. Examples of each type of these form letters have been included in the collection though the bulk of materials has been reduced.

The collection is particularly valuable for material on grass-roots Republican politics, the methods and means by which an individual sought election to Congress and then maintained that position through several successive terms. Michener's correspondence is particularly heavy during election years. Some of the issues discussed by him relate to prohibition in Michigan, the influence of the Ku-Klux-Klan in the 1924 election, and the problems confronting veterans of the Spanish-American War and World War I. The collection is less valuable for the work that Michener did while in Congress. There are few files relating to legislative activities.

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.

Berkley, Michigan insurance executive, poet and composer, and active alumnus of the University of Michigan; contain papers relating to activities of the class of 1911, to his involvement in the University of Michigan Club of Detroit, and to his interest in Michigan football, especially the career of coach Fielding H. Yost; also scrapbooks, and manuscripts of poetry and song lyrics.

The papers of J. Fred Lawton contain material relating to activities of the class of 1911, to his involvement in the University of Michigan Club of Detroit, and to his interest in Michigan football, especially the career of coach Fielding H. Yost; also scrapbooks, and manuscripts of poetry and song lyrics. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Poetry, musical compositions, and other writings; University of Michigan Class of 1911; University of Michigan Club of Detroit; Topical files; Photographs; Scrapbooks; and Sound Recordings.

Detroit, Michigan, attorney and judge, Democratic candidate for governor in 1934. Correspondence, legal case files, family materials, speeches, essays, diary notes, financial materials, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, and transcript of oral interview.

The Arthur J. Lacy collection consists of correspondence and other papers documenting his political activities within the Democratic party and career as a Detroit attorney. The collection has been divided into the following series: Biographical information; Personal letters; Professional correspondence and related papers; Lacy Family papers; Speeches; Early personal materials; Writings, essays, etc.; Financial files; Miscellaneous; Newspapers clippings; Photographs; and Legal files.

The Lacy Collection documents particularly well Lacy's major legal cases (Wilson vs. White, the Ford Stock Tax Case, Mary A. Rackham Estate) and his transition from conservative Democrat to conservative Republican. His letters home from Valparaiso, Indiana and Ann Arbor and his letters to his future wife Beth Garwick give a detailed picture of college life in the 1890's. Major subjects covered in the public papers are the Detroit Domestic Relations Court, problems of taxation and banking in the depression, Lacy's friendship with James Couzens, and the campaigns of 1932 and 1934. A series of notes Lacy wrote to himself from 1915-1928 and 1946-1956 reveal his political ideals, personal morality, and his relationship to his family.

Within the Professional Correspondence and related papers series, the researcher will find correspondence with many notable political and business figures. These include John W. Anderson, William R. Angell, Art Baker, Arthur A. Ballantine, C.C. Bradner, John V. Brennan, Thomas E. Brennan, Prentiss M. Brown, Wilber M. Brucker, George E. Bushnell, Daniel T. Campau, Harvey J. Campbell, John J. Carson, E.R. Chapin, John S. Coleman, William A. Comstock, Calvin Coolidge, Grace G. Coolidge, Frank Couzens, James J. Couzens, John D. Dingell, Patrick J. Doyle, William J. Durant, Henry T. Ewald, Mordecai J.B. Ezechiel, James A. Farley, Homer Ferguson, Woodbridge N. Ferris, Clara J.B. Ford, Edsel B. Ford, Joseph Foss, Fred W. Green, Alexander J. Groesbeck, Edgar A. Guest, James M. Hare, Herbert C. Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover, Kaufman T. Keller, Stanley S. Kresge, David Lawrence, Arthur F. Lederle, John C. Lehr, Fulton Lewis, Percy Loud, William G. McAdoo, William McKinley, George A. Marston, Eliza M. Mosher, Frank Murphy, George Murphy, William J. Norton, George D. O'Brien, Elmer B. O'Hara, Hazen S. Pingree, Mary A. H. Rackham, Horace H. Rackham, Clarence A. Reid, George W. Romney, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alexander G. Ruthven, W.M. Skillman, Albert E. Sleeper, Edward D. Stair, Arthur E. Summerfield, William H. Taft, Joseph P. Tumulty, Arthur H. Vandenberg, A. VanderZee, Murray D. Van Wagoner, Henry F. Vaughan, Carl Vinson, Matilda R.D. Wilson, Clarence E. Wilcox, and R.A.C. Wollenberg.

The Lacy Family papers are rich in detail about life in Michigan in the nineteenth and early twentieth century; the surviving letters document family crises and Lacy's role in them as the oldest and most successful child and later, as family leader. Lacy was the family genealogist and he collected and preserved the family correspondence of his uncles and aunt, some of which date back to the 1850's.

University of Michigan professor of political science, specialist in Philippine Island politics and government, vice governor of the Philippines in the 1930s; correspondence, collected Philippine materials, course materials.

As vice governor of the Philippine Islands during the 1930s, and later as advisor on Philippine affairs to General Douglas MacArthur during World War II, Joseph R. Hayden was recipient of much substantive documentation relating to the American phase of Philippine Island history. Hayden was an astute and discerning scholar of Philippine life and history, and as such used the opportunity of his frequent trips to the Far East to collect materials (official and personal) that he knew would be of value in his teaching and research, and that he also hoped would prove useful to scholars following after him. Although the Hayden papers include some non-Philippine materials, such as his University of Michigan files and those records from his service with the Michigan Naval Division during World War I, the Philippine Collection is the heart of the collection. Comprising more than 75% of the Hayden papers, the Philippine Collection is testimony to Hayden's foresight in drawing together official documents (because of the positions he held) and other records (sent to him because of his known interest in the Philippines). This collection of official reports, minutes of meetings attended, memoranda with government officials, photographs, clippings, and published materials is unique, especially because of the devastation to Philippine public records and historical documents that occurred during the war.