Arthur Scott Aiton papers, 1922-1959
1 linear foot
The collection includes correspondence, professional papers relating to his teaching, research, and university activities, and manuscripts of his writings, both published and unpublished.
1 linear foot
The collection includes correspondence, professional papers relating to his teaching, research, and university activities, and manuscripts of his writings, both published and unpublished.
14.4 linear feet
The John W. Aldridge Papers document the professional and personal life of one of the twentieth century's most distinguished literary critics, and a longtime University of Michigan professor of English. The records in this collection measure 14.4 linear feet, and date from 1943 to 2006, with the majority of the records from the period 1950 to 2000. They are primarily comprised of correspondence, lectures and addresses, teaching materials, writings and publications, research notes, clippings, program and topical files, and are arranged into nine series: Biographical Materials, Correspondence, Hopwood Awards Program, Lectures and Addresses, Scrapbooks, Teaching, USIA/Special Ambassador, Writings, and Audio-Visual Materials.
14.3 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The record group consists of seven series: Administrative Files, Projects, Auxiliary, Topical Files, Publications, State and Local Jaycees, and Other Materials.
0.3 linear feet
A large part of Artiaga's papers concern his activities as Governor of Bukidnon Province. These materials, in both Spanish and English, include the minutes of the provincial board, official correspondence, miscellaneous technical reports, and some photographs. The remainder of his papers relate to The University of Michigan and his activities within The University of Michigan Alumni Club of the Philippines in the period of 1950-1957. In addition to his correspondence with Mortimer Cooley, there is a letter written in 1931 regarding the visit of Michigan Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg to the Philippines. There is also information about Frank Murphy, Governor General of the Philippines located in Artiaga's 1933 correspondence with Mortimer Cooley. Some of Artiaga's other correspondents are University of Michigan professors and administrators, including George G. Brown, Mortimer E. Cooley, Ivan C. Crawford, Joseph R. Hayden, James K. Pollock, Alexander G. Ruthven, Shirley W. Smith, and T. Hawley Tapping.
8 linear feet
The Baldwin collection consists of general correspondence and technical correspondence relating to astronomical topics and to the publication of his book The Deadly Fuze. There are also speeches, biographical and autobiographical material, and various materials relating to the proximity fuze. The collection largely consists of photocopies of original materials.
7 linear feet
The Russell Barnes papers span the years 1920-1978. The bulk of the material concerns the period 1941-1953, the years Barnes spent as foreign correspondent for the Detroit News and the three-year interval during which he served in the Office of War Information.
The collection consists primarily of scrapbooks of his news stories, OWT leaflets, collected propaganda, and letters which he sent to his wife Constance, and, less frequently, to his children, Jeannot (Lucie Jeanne) and Jamie (John James Ingalls) while overseas and in New York. The most detailed description of his professional activities can be found in the letters he wrote during the months at the OWI in New York. He discusses the OWI personnel, its reorganization and the conflict with the OSS. The letters from the OWI Cairo and Algiers contain lively discussions of local customs and the rigors of life there, but are constrained by war-time censorship and thus shed less light than might be expected on his role as PWB director. The letters written while he covered the U.N. sometimes reflect the tense atmosphere there and the pressure brought to bear upon newsmen to take a stand on the issues they report. Barnes also discusses the power struggle in the Detroit Foreign Policy Association.
11 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
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.
11 linear feet — 13 film reels (in 4)
The collection has been divided into the following series: Correspondence; Phoenix Project of the University of Michigan; Miscellaneous; Diaries; and Other Bound Records.
A significant portion of the collection is the diaries that Bartlett maintained from 1926 to 1960. Included are detailed diary entries for the period 1934-1935 when he was an exchange professor of botany at the University of the Philippines. While in the Philippines, Bartlett also compiled Philippine English vocabularies and a two-volume Sambali-English-Tagalog vocabulary.
5 linear feet
The Henry M. Bates papers include correspondence, reports, articles, speeches, photographs, and notebooks, relating to Bates' professional career, with material concerning activities of Ann Arbor National Defense Committee; life and career of Lawrence Maxwell, lawyer and U.S. Solicitor General in the Cleveland administration, funding and building the Michigan Union (1911-1918); Republican politics in the 1930's and 1940's; Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to reorganize the Supreme Court in 1937; and campus life at the University of Michigan during the first and second World Wars.
The papers are organized into Correspondence undated and 1886-1949, Michigan Union Building, 1911-1918; Committee of Nine on Mineral Law, 1927-1929; Miscellaneous Papers; and Photographs.
4.4 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
62 reels (in 5 boxes)
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.
3 volumes — 0.3 linear feet
Scrapbooks of Howard King and Ruth Loella Kinney Bidwell, 1909-1940; and Betty Lou Bidwell Morris, 1936-2015. Scrapbooks primarily focus on the academic, family, and social lives of Howard and Ruth Bidwell and their daughter Betty. This includes photographs of their family life, close friends and associates, as well as social activities both on and off campus. Also included are dance, identification, grade report, membership, postal, and school registration cards; announcements of births, engagements, and weddings; honors certificates; invitations and programs for commencement activities, special events, and student organizations. The collection also includes several newspaper clippings from the Michigan Daily (primarily focusing on campus activities and World War II); student and alumnae publications; and other ephemera.
3 linear feet
6 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The Emerson Boyles papers consist of correspondence, newspaper clippings and other materials on Michigan politics, the Republican Party, and his association with Governor Dickinson; a scrapbook, 1885-1889, compiled by Fred A. Pennington; account book, 1904-1905; day book, 1941; log book, 1942, of Beaver Island cabin; and miscellaneous notebooks and photograph albums. The collection has been arranged into three series: Correspondence and other papers; Miscellaneous personal and family; and Photographs.
1 linear foot
The collection is arranged into two series: Correspondence and Topical and University Activities. The correspondence includes a file of letters from former students describing their World War II experiences. There is also a subseries of professional correspondence from 1947 to 1964. This subseries is arranged alphabetically and includes letters from such personages as Langston Hughes, Victor G. Reuther, Elmer Rice, and William W. Whitehouse. The Topical and University Activities subseries relates to Boys varied interests, such as the Art Cinema League, the Faculty Club, and the American Association of University Professors.
3 linear feet
The Arthur Bromage papers provide documentation of his service as Ann Arbor city councilman and other political activities and some of his academic research. The papers include correspondence, speeches, press clipping s and publications.
4 linear feet
The Mary C. Bromage papers are divided into five series: Correspondence, Family History, Newspaper Editorials, Photographs and Topical.
1 linear foot
The Brown family collection is unfortunately a fragment of materials with very few of the papers created by either Arthur or Cora Brown surviving. What remains relate almost exclusively to the legal career of Arthur Brown, in particular to his service to various persons as a collector of bad debts, and to Cora Brown's work with the Americanism Committee of the Daughters of the American Revolution during World War II.
28 linear feet (in 29 boxes) — 2 oversize folders — 12 microfilms
The Prentiss M. Brown Collection is rich and full and offers researchers materials on a variety of local and national topics reflecting the diversity of the man's private and public life. The earliest item in the collection is a letter book dated 1902-04 of James J. Brown, like his son a prominent St. Ignace attorney. The collection then picks up Prentiss M. Brown's entrance to the legal profession in 1917, traces his rise to public office, his work in Congress and with the O.P.A., and then concludes with his later business interests and his crusade upon behalf of the Mackinac Bridge.
The Brown Collection comprises approximately twenty-eight feet of correspondence, letterbooks, scrapbooks, diaries, speeches, topical and legislative files, photographs and phonograph records, and legal case files and business records. Covering the period 1917 to 1973, the papers concentrate most heavily in the years 1932-1942 when Brown was in the U.S. Congress. The greatest gap in the collection is in the period of the 1920s when Brown was making his first bids for political office. Also missing are any extensive files for the time of Brown's O.P.A. directorship. What the collection has on the O.P.A. are largely speeches, scrapbooks, and congratulatory letters.
4.4 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The Ruth Buchanan collection consists largely of letters received from University of Michigan students and alumni serving in the military during World War II and the Korean War. Other letters commending her service during the war were received from Dwight Eisenhower and Chester Nimitz. A smaller portion of the collection includes research material on covered bridges in Michigan. Within her other non-war related correspondence, there is a letter from Jane Addams, Nov. 4, 1931. The photograph series includes portraits and informal photographs of Buchanan in the museum where she worked for thirty years; photos of university students, alumni, and Ann Arbor residents in military service during World War II and the Korean War; photos of NROTC and Navy V-12 students at the University of Michigan during World War II; photos of covered bridges and of Michigan National Guard exercises at Camp Grayling; and a drawing of Elbridge F. Bacon.