Collections

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.

This collection is comprised largely of the World War II letters of United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Donald R. Caird (of Southeast Michigan) to Margaret I. MacDonell (of Phoenix, Arizona). Lieut. Caird's correspondence spans his Army Air Forces flight and instrument training at bases in Texas, Arizona, and California, 1943-1944; and his services as a pilot instructor at Merced, California, and Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1944 to 1945. His letters include information about work and everyday life on base, but primarily focus on his courtship with Margaret MacDonell, their marriage on December 7, 1943, the birth of their first son, and other aspects of their relationship, household, and newly forming family.

This collection is comprised largely of the World War II letters of United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Donald R. Caird (of Southeast Michigan) to Margaret MacDonell (of Phoenix, Arizona). Lieut. Caird's correspondence spans his Army Air Forces flight and instrument training at bases in Texas, Arizona, and California, 1943-1944; and his services as a pilot instructor at Merced, California, and Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1944 to 1945.

Correspondence Series: In his letters, Donald Caird commented on his training, on the flying students, his own instructional methods, his administrators ("the brass"), weather conditions that had an effect on flying, his quarters, clothing and laundry, frustration with changing instructional requirements, vehicles and transportation, the GI Bill (March 22, [1945]), playing golf, bowling, and watching basketball and football games.

The most prevalent content in the Caird's correspondence pertains to his courtship with Margaret I. MacDonell, their marriage, the birth of their first son, and other aspects of their relationship, household, and newly forming family. He wrote about attending mass and confessional; planning before their December 1943 wedding; anticipating the birth of "shack rat"/"Roscoe" (i.e. Donald Caird) in November 1944; discussing Margaret's pregnancy, health, and medical treatments; working with real estate agents to find a house for Margaret and Roscoe near his Air Forces bases; wondering and reflecting on Roscoe's growth; trying to help manage finances; and planning for furloughs. He frequently discussed the next times he would be able to connect with Margaret. A small number of other correspondents contributed to the collection, including, for example, a couple of letters from Donald R. Caird's mother Ella Caird, enclosed in his letters of January 1944, and a letter from Dr. D. H. Moulton of Chico, California, on Margaret Caird's physical condition and pregnancy (June 13, [1944]).

A selection of Lieut. Caird's letters bear illustrated, printed letterheads, including those of the Hotel Tioga, Merced, California, "The Gateway to Yosemite"; "GARDNER FIELD", California (June 13, [1944]); and "New HOTEL OAKS", Chico, California (summer 1944).

Documents Series: The six partially printed documents contain records of Donald R. Caird's training at Thunderbird Field II, near Phoenix, Arizona, with aircraft types (all Stearman Aircraft Company PT-17s), flight times, and instructor names, December 8, 1942-January 19, 1943.

Printed Items Series: The printed items include five invitations/announcements/memorials, three newspaper clippings, and one printed pamphlet. The announcements include an invitation to the ordination of Rev. Alfred P. Caird (1915-1980) at Saint Basil's Church, Toronto, Ontario, September 29, 1941, along with a smaller announcement card for Rev. Caird's "First Solemn Mass" at Detroit, Michigan, October 5, 1941. The announcements/memorials include three variant printings memorializing Ella C. Caird following her death on July 5, 1962 (William Sullivan & Son Funeral Home, Royal Oak, Michigan). The three undated (World War II era) newspaper clippings regard the marriage of Dorothy Rohrbacher to Ted Levandowski, the birth of Donald Caird on November 21, [1944], and a pictorial announcement about the newly organized Ria Club Alumnae (including Margaret McDonell in a group portrait). The collection's single pamphlet is: Steve Caird, et al.The Greatest Generation: Caird Stories Volume 2 . Artifact Uprising, [21st Century].

Michigan State Police officer, 1923-1941, Michigan Civil Defense Director during World War II, State Police Commissioner, 1947-1951, Republican candidate for governor, 1954, served on Michigan Liquor Commissioner and as Detroit Recorders Court judge. Papers include extensive documentation of his service as Director of Civil Defense and State Police Commissioner and his political activities.

The Donald S. Leonard collection is a valuable resource to researchers studying topics of law enforcement and civil defense and Michigan state politics and government. The Donald S. Leonard collection has been arranged into seven series: Personal and Correspondence, 1925-1966; Civil Defense; World War II Era, 1941-1946; Michigan State Police, 1929-1952; Detroit Police Department, 1952-1954; Political Files, 1950-1956; Organization and Activities Files; Audio-Visual Materials; Committee on Equal Educational Opportunities. Leonard also taught law course at the State Police Recruit School and Metropolitan Police Academy of Michigan.

Founder and director of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an organization that later merged with the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan to form the Institute for Social Research. Correspondence, reports, memoranda, articles, lectures, and an unfinished manuscript pertaining to research on war bond sales for the U. S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1943-1946; also papers on subsequent research on social behavior and psychology conducted at the University of Michigan.

The Dorwin Cartwright Papers reflect Cartwright's career as researcher of war bond sales for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics during World War II and his later activities as professor and staff member of the Institute of Social Research. The papers contain some correspondence reflecting his transfer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the University of Michigan, but include primarily reprints of Cartwright's articles and reports while on the staff at the University. The papers also contain some of Cartwright's lectures and an unpublished manuscript in which he summarized his research on war bond sales. Accompanying the war bond materials are several promotional advertising posters from World War II.

This collection is made up of letters that Private First Class Edgar Denton of La Grande, Oregon, wrote to his friends Frank and Murdle Smith while serving with the United States Army during World War II. Denton discussed his enthusiasm for rifle and machine gun training and concern for his wife and children.

This collection is made up of 4 letters that Private First Class Edgar Denton wrote to his friends Frank and Murdle Smith of Summerville, Oregon, while serving with the United States Army during World War II. He wrote his first two letters from Camp Hood, Texas, and Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, while training for combat and awaiting deployment to Europe. He discussed his enthusiasm for rifle and machine gun training, commented on his correspondence with his wife Peggy, and requested news of mutual acquaintances in Oregon. Writing from Europe in late 1944 and early 1945, Denton expressed his belief that the war would soon end and referred to his hospitalization in England after suffering wounds in the hip and back.

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.

The Edward H. Lockwood papers contain letters documenting Lockwood's service with the Y.M.C.A. in Guangdong Province, China during the years of the Sino-Japanese conflict and Second World War.

The Edward H. Lockwood papers contains 23 letters, 19 of which were addressed to his friend Joe Kidd, a teacher and headmaster at Saint Luke's prep school in Wilton, Conn., and two each to his family and T.T. Poon, a Chinese official of the Y.M.C.A. Though few in number, these letters provide outstanding documentation of one man's service with the Y.M.C.A. during the years of the Sino-Japanese conflict and Second World War, and of the hardships inflicted on the Chinese civilian populations during the war.

Lockwood was highly educated and his letters are both impassioned and informative, though not always very long. His descriptions of Shaoguan during the war are particularly interesting, providing not only an American's impressions of the Chinese, but fine descriptions of the destruction, the refugees, and of Chinese efforts to keep their higher education system intact, even in exile. His occasionally blasé, occasionally anxious response to life beneath the bombs is intriguing and, at times, almost amusing.

The pre-1940 correspondence is particularly marked by a sense of frustration over American dithering in the face of Japanese aggression. Having twice lost all of his possessions when forced to flee before the Japanese, and having been witness to the devastation of war, Lockwood's feelings are easily understandable, though his particular mix of political perspectives is peculiar, to say the least. While excoriating the implicit racism of American foreign policy in Asia, for example, Lockwood offered only mild opposition to European fascism. While he was repelled by British imperialism, his feelings seem to have been largely attributable to an antipathy for their "antiquated," elitist social system, more than for its effects on the colonized nations.

Lockwood's personal life is not particularly well documented in this correspondence, however some information on his relationship with his eldest son, Richard (Dick), can be deduced. Several of Lockwood's letters to Joe Kidd include mention of his opinions on Dick's life choices, or give his opinions on Dick's growth into manhood, his career directions (or lack thereof), and his pacifism. That Lockwood was often separated from his wife and children is evident: while there seems to have been genuine affection in the family, work with the Y.M.C.A. seems to have been Lockwood's first priority. Finally, Lockwood's first letter to T.T. Poon contains his reflections on his quarter century of service with the Y.M.C.A. in China and just as interesting, his ideas on how he had been changed by China.

Counselor in religious education at the University of Michigan. Correspondence and biographical material; official reports; radio scripts; articles on the religious education of college students; scrapbook, 1933-1943; preliminary reports of a survey of college religious life published in 1942; materials relating to a survey of University alumni who entered religious vocations; and materials relating to Japanese-Americans in Ann Arbor, Michigan during World War II; also correspondence of several of Blakeman's predecessors as counselor in religious education; materials on the Student Christian Association, the Spring Parley, 1930-1942, the Michigan School of Religion, the Michigan Pastors' Conference, 1940-1947, the Michigan Child Guidance Institute and the Conference on Religion, 1940-1941; and photographs.

This collection consists of letters written from Edwin Freeman to Prescott Barrows while serving in the United States Army in World War II. The letters are written from an army base in Greenville, Mississippi and from an army post in India.

This collection includes 26 letters written from Edwin Freeman to Prescott Barrows in 1942 from an army base in Greenville, Mississippi and an additional 9 letters written to Prescott Barrows from a posting in India in 1945. Many of the letters are written on illustrated army stationery.

The Greenville letters largely portray Freeman's dissatisfaction with army life. He describes the drills, several meals, constant homesickness, and the fact that he is ill-suited to military life. He talks of going on leave to Greenville, and includes racist remarks about the "colored girls" there, in addition to disparaging remarks about southerners in general. A pervasive theme throughout the letters is Freeman's love of classical music which forms a bond between the two men. He talks of composers and favorite classical pieces, and frequently details his efforts to hear classical music while on the base, even describing a fistfight he initiated when another man tried to turn off the radio during a classical program.

The India letters reiterate these themes, with the addition of local weather, more racist comments about the "black Indians," and a colorful description of a Hindu religious festival. Of particular interest is a letter dated 10 May 1945, in which Freeman writes of receiving news both of Germany's defeat and of Roosevelt's death, which causes widespread dismay. He has strong and racist feelings about the Japanese. In a letter of 28 July 1945, he mentions seeing film footage of a liberated Japanese concentration camp and his and the other men's rage at the state of the men and this evidence of "inhuman cruelty." On another occasion, he sees former Japanese POWs passing through on their way back to the States. Because of their condition, he feels the Japanese fully deserve the atomic bomb and other horrors besides.

Editor and publisher of the Ironwood, Michigan, Daily Globe. Photographs and slides relating to Ironwood and surrounding area, including street views, parades, lumbering and mining activities, local events and disasters, building projects, and miscellaneous; also newspaper clippings.

The collection consists of photographs and slides relating to Ironwood and surrounding area. These images include street views, parades, lumbering and mining activities, local events and disasters, building projects, and miscellaneous. The collection also includes newspaper clippings of his editorials and other articles relating to his newspaper career and civic interests.