Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Journalist, foreign correspondent; correspondence, material accumulated as a journalist, articles, clippings, and other writings; and photographs.

The Stanley Swinton papers include correspondence; dispatch files; notebooks relating to the death of Mussolini, the Malayan insurgency in the late 1940s, and the Indonesian revolutions; notes of interviews with Seni Premot of Thailand, Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, Ho Chi-Minh of Vietnam, Konrad Adenauer of West Germany, Joao Goulart of Brazil, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, and Kim Jong Pil of South Korea. The bulk of Swinton's writings will be found in the collection, either in draft or in clippings of his articles. The series in the collection are Correspondence; Newspaper career; Writings, speeches, etc.; Personal and miscellaneous; Photographs; and Printed Material.

Aviator and airplane designer, founder of Meyers Aircraft Company, Tecumseh, Michigan. Personal materials, business papers, biographical material, photographs and miscellanea; include letter from Howard Hughes, Sept. 10, 1947.

The Meyers papers include both business and personal material. Materials relating to Meyers' contributions in aviation are likely to be of interest to researchers. Included is correspondence from the 1930s through the 1951s with the Civil Aeronautics Administration concerning development of the OTW, 145, and 200. There is also extensive material relating to design, testing, and production of Meyers aircraft. The papers also may be of use to researchers interested in the fate of the small manufacturer. Those papers of a personal nature reflect Meyers' interest in fishing and in aviation as a hobby as well as business. In addition, the papers throw light upon social and political attitudes of the period. Of interest here is material concerning legal action against Mrs. Meyers, a former member of the Young Communist League, who was deported during the 1950s.

Law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy, and Washington, D.C. attorney. Diary, 1943-1944, relating to the Supreme Court, and miscellaneous notes, correspondence and newspaper clippings; also papers of Justice Murphy collected by Gressman, including notes of cabinet meetings, and of conferences and telephone calls; and correspondence, 1937-1949, between Frank Murphy and Felix Frankfurter.

The collection consists of two kinds of materials: papers of Frank Murphy that Gressman accumulated as clerk to the Supreme Court Justice; and Gressman's own papers. The greater part of the collection are the papers of Frank Murphy, dating from 1935 to 1948, with the bulk of the files falling in the period of 1939 to 1941, when Murphy was US Attorney General and the first year of his tenure on the Supreme Court bench. Always conscious of history, Murphy made valuable notes on the cabinet meetings he attended and his meetings and conversations with various public figures. These individuals include Hugo Black, Louis Brandeis, William J. Donovan, Carter Glass, Charles E. Hughes, Cordell Hull, Joseph P. Kennedy, John L. Lewis, Sir Robert Menzies, Manuel Quezon, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Francis B. Sayre, Harlan F. Stone and Sumner Welles. Also of importance are the several files of letters exchanged between Frank Murphy and Justice Felix Frankfurter.

Gressman's own papers are much smaller, but these also relate to his association with Frank Murphy, including notes that he made preparatory to writing a proposed biography of Murphy. Gressman's diary on his time spent as Murphy clerk of the Supreme Court is dated July 1943 to April 1944.

Edmond Francis DeVine was a lawyer and an Ann Arbor, Michigan native who served as Prosecuting Attorney for Washtenaw County in the 1950s and was a World War II veteran. The collection consists of diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials related to DeVine's high school, military, and legal careers.

The Edmond DeVine papers consists of diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials related to DeVine's high school, military, and legal careers.

Student papers, 1930-1987 prepared for classes in history at the University of Michigan (primarily Michigan history class taught by Lewis G. VanderVelde, but also including research papers for classes taught by Sidney Fine and others); topics concern Michigan social and political history; Michigan biography and bibliography; and local community history.

The student papers are organized alphabetically by author in two series, which are similar in date range and topics covered. Topics of papers concern Michigan social and political history; Michigan biography and bibliography; local community history and University of Michigan history. A topical index to the papers is available in the first box of the collection.

Roger Barney was an Episcopal priest serving first in New Hampshire, later as a Navy chaplain during World War II, with Parishfield Community in Brighton, Michigan, and as associate rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor. Jane Lockwood Barney worked with the Institute of Gerontology and as advocate on behalf of the elderly. The collection includes personal correspondence, sermons, and subject files relating to their education, his service during World War II, and their ministry at Parishfield.

Roger Barney's papers date from his youth in the late 1920s up to his death in 1978, and document his personal interests and activities, his education, his time in the armed forces during World War II, and his professional life as an Episcopal minister. Likewise, the papers of Jane Barney date from the 1930s to the early 2000s, and document her education, her family life, and her work with the University of Michigan's Institute of Gerontology and other organizations concerned with senior citizens. The collection is comprised of the following series: Roger Warren Barney Files, Jane Lockwood Barney Files, and Correspondence.

Social scientist, director of the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan. Papers include project files, survey research data and reports, and printed material, largely from his work with the Division of Program Surveys, Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the office of War Information during World War II; Office Of Strategic Bombing Survey, I.S.R. project files; and transcript of oral interview, 1970.

The Rensis Likert Papers document his work as one of the pioneers of survey research, first with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, then with the Office of War Information, Office of Strategic Bombing Surveys and finally at the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center and Institute for Social Research. The papers include biographical information on Likert; transcripts of oral history interviews with Likert; reports, background information, correspondence relating to various survey projects.

The Likert papers were received and initially processed in four accessions in 1975, 1982,1990 and 1995. Material in later accessions sometimes continued or complemented records series in prior accessions. The papers are boxed in an order that reflects the dates the accessions individual accessions were received. In this finding aid the disparate parts of series received in multiple accessions have been together to reflect the intellectual arrangement of the collection. As a result, the box-folder sequence in he contents listing are not always consecutive.

The materials in the 1975 accession (boxes 1-20) of the Rensis Likert Papers cover the period of 1939 to 1953 and largely concern Likert's work at the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Office of War Information during World War II and his subsequent work in the early development of the Survey Research Center.

In 1982 the family of Rensis Likert donated an additional three feet (boxes 21-23) of materials. Notable items in this accession concern Likert's work as assistant secretary and treasurer of the Psychological Corporation (1934-1935); consultant to the Newell-Emmett Company (1935); survey researcher with the Morale Division of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey unit (ca. 1944-1946); and activities with other professional organizations (ca. 1938-1949)

The third accession of the Likert papers (box 24-29) came from the library of the Institute of Social Research of the University of Michigan. The files pertain to all phases of Likert's professional career, and thus the researcher should use these papers in conjunction with the materials in the previous accessions. The final accession (box 29) was received form several sources.

Amateur photographer; sixty-two reels of film shot by Benz on various trips.

When the University of Michigan Media Resources Collection was accessioned by the Bentley Historical Library, a number of films were discovered in the vault that were not related to that collection. Within that material were travel films shot by Fred E. Benz. These films document Benz's travels around the world between 1929 and 1950. The films had been edited together and were probably used by Benz for presentation to local groups and as home entertainment.

The Fred E. Benz Collection contains sixty-two, 400 foot reels of silent 16mm film. It is made up of eight series, one for each trip taken. The series are: Africa, Australia/New Zealand, Guatemala, Havana, Mexico, Russia, South America, and a World Cruise. The contents of each reel are described in the finding aid. Benz has included handwritten descriptions of the images found on the Russian and World Cruise series attached to the inside lids of each can of film. Benz was careful to document most of the locations with a handwritten note displayed before the camera. When cities or natural markers are noted in the finding aid, the identifying information was taken from that supplied by the film maker on the screen or from his notes in the can lids. The spelling of geographic locations in the finding aid reflect the information on the film and not current spellings.

Short notes found with the Mexican footage indicate it was the result of two different trips. The reels retain their original numbering because the numbered reels (1,2,3,4) appear to comprise one trip and numbered/lettered reels (1a, 3a, 4a) comprise the second trip.

The value of the collection is that it captures moments in time, documenting lifestyles, architecture and modes of travel which no longer exist or have evolved over time. Footage exists of London on the eve of war and Shanghai one year before being destroyed by the Japanese invasion.

Perhaps the greater value lies in the depiction of the indigenous lifestyles captured on film. Benz, as an amateur photographer, was interested in the common events that he experienced as he traveled. The collection features extensive recordings of people working or playing, and children of different cultures going about their daily activities. The films show barren huts in remote areas of Russia in the 1930s, families living under stone bridges outside of Buenos Aires, life-saving competitions in Sydney and the plethora of street markets found in most cultures and countries that he traveled through.

Because these are travel films, the scope of the footage included often extends beyond the geographic area used to identify the series. For example, the Australia footage includes material filmed on various Pacific islands, the Asian continent and Japan. The Russian trip contains footage of England and Northern Europe, and the South American films contain shots of the departure from New York. Each series should be examined for additional geographic content.

Special attention should be given to the Mexican series containing film recordings of Mt. Rushmore with construction only partially complete. Included as well are extensive shots of bullfighting in addition to other Mexican scenes. Also of note is the extensive depiction of women throughout all of the series. On the canister containing reel 5 in the Russia series is a receipt from United States Navy Department stating that this reel was being forwarded to Chicago for study of the shots of Kirkenes, Norway.

The color in the Africa, Guatemala, Havana, Mexico and South America series is excellent. The wide, clean, lush cityscapes of Havana and Capetown are richly captured in color and give an indication why they were popular travel destinations at this time.

In addition to the eight travel series, the collection also included one reel of World War II footage assembled by Castle Films from public domain footage. This type of film was sold through camera stores and mail order houses and Benz probably purchased a reel for his own use. The identifying writing on the film can is in Benz's handwriting and clearly belonged with his collection.

Foreign correspondent with the Chicago Daily News; correspondence, photographs, and scrapbooks of his news articles.

The collection includes correspondence, scrapbooks, photograph albums, and other material concerning his newspaper career, especially his reporting of the war in Ethiopia, the outbreak of war in France, 1939-1940, and the "Hungarian Rebellion" of 1956. The collection is organized in to three series: Correspondence, undated and 1931-1970; Career and personal materials; Photographs, 1925-1960s, including a photo album from the Hungarian revolution; and Scrapbooks, 1928-1973.

Civil engineer, served as Michigan state highway commissioner, chairman of the Mackinac Straits Bridge Authority and president of Portland Cement Company. Papers primarily document work with highway commission and Mackinac Straits Bridge Authority.

The papers, 1928-1968, of G. Donald Kennedy document his career in civil engineering, his participation in professional organizations, his activities as a state official, and as a supporter of the Michigan Democratic Party. The collection Includes correspondence, speeches, minutes, reports, articles, clippings, and photographs. The files relate to his work as municipal engineer in Pontiac, Michigan, with the Mackinac Straits Bridge Authority, the American Association of State Highway Officials, the Automotive Safety Foundation, and the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority. The collection also includes papers relating to highway and airport construction, to economic mobilization during World War II, the Willow Run Bomber Plant, state Democratic Party matters, particularly the campaign visits of President Roosevelt to Michigan in 1936.