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Articles, Conferences, Addresses, and Meetings, 1949-1970

Articles, Conferences, Addresses and Meetings, 1949-1970 [boxes 1-14]. Arranged chronologically regardless of type of material, this series is comprised of heterogeneous files. Correspondence, lecture notes, topical files, printed material, speeches, and rough drafts are filed by date of creation or presentation. Donahue created a new folder for each correspondent and for each time she delivered a speech; hence these files include multiple copies of addresses given at different times and places to various groups. This heterogeneity and redundancy may present problems for the researcher, but the preservation of original order (in all its diversity) gives the researcher a sense of Donahue's productivity and industry. One caveat: the bulk of the materials from 1949 to 1954 (boxes 1-3) were part of a later accession to the Institute of Gerontology archives. These are interfiled with the material processed earlier. Given the diversity of materials in this series, the best way to make sense of the materials is to refer to Donahue's curriculum vita (in the front of box 1) and to her appointment calendars (in box 14) to discern which topics might be covered in any time span.

Wilma T. Donahue Papers, 1945-1990 (majority within 1949-1982)
Collection

Wilma T. Donahue Papers, 1945-1990 (majority within 1949-1982)

26 linear feet (in 27 boxes)

Gerontologist, faculty member at the University of Michigan, first with the Bureau of Psychological Services, later with the Institute for Human Adjustment, and as co-director of its successor unit, the Institute of Gerontology. Files detailing her participation at various meetings and conferences, her other professional activities and affiliations, research projects files, University of Michigan administrative and teaching materials, and videotapes of presentations at 1979 conference, "White House Conferences as Agents of Social Change", also photographs.

The Wilma T. Donahue papers document her career as a teacher, researcher, and administrator at the University of Michigan. The papers span the years 1945-1990 with the bulk of the material falling within the two decades bound by 1949-1969. The Donahue papers are a subset of the Michigan Historical Collections/Institute of Gerontology Joint Archives in Gerontology and can best be understood as an integral element of that larger set.

The Donahue papers provide a clear insight to the development of the field of gerontology as an academic discipline and as an area of concern for policy makers and the general public. The earliest files reflect Donahue's training as a psychologist as it relates to her research on testing, returning veterans, and the blind. In the late 1940s Donahue and Clark Tibbitts began to research and publish articles on the aging population in America. Donahue's papers reflect this new interest as the focus of her writings now turns to issues of aging: housing, mental and physical health, adult education, and the economics of retirement. These issues dominated Donahue's research for twenty years and her papers document her increasing stature as an influential figure in gerontology at the state and national levels, especially her involvement with the University of Michigan Annual Conferences on Gerontology, the Michigan Commission on Aging, and her "cutting edge" research on housing the aging.

The collection came to the library in different accessions and from different sources. Although there is some overlap, the files as received represent distinct series. These series are Articles, Conferences, Addresses and Meetings, 1949-1970; Professional Activities and Affiliations, 1953-1970; Research Projects, 1955-1971; University of Michigan: Administration and Teaching, 1946-1968; Videotapes: White House Conferences as Agents of Social Change, 1979; International Center for Social Gerontology; and Miscellaneous.

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