Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Department of History is an academic department within the University of Michigan established in 1845. The department was originally part of the School of Political Science but separated in 1910 and became a separate department within the College of Literature, Science, and Arts. The collection ranges from 1884 to 2011 with the bulk of the material from the 1970s and the 1980s. The records contain information on administrative matters and operations within the department, including correspondence, memos, meeting minutes, committee information, faculty information, and student affairs.

The University of Michigan Department of History records contain a large range of documentation regarding the operation, administration, statistics, faculty, and proceedings of the department. The bulk of the collection originally arrived at the Bentley in 1988 and a large addition was made in 2012. The collection spans from 1884 to 2017, however, the bulk of the content dates between 1970 and 1990. The collection is divided into fifteen series: Awards, College of LSA, Committees, Correspondence, Department, Faculty, Finances, General, Graduate Program, International Relations, Lecture Series, Partner Institutions, Programs, Publications, Student Affairs, and University of Michigan.

Research papers on topics relating to Michigan history and the history of the University of Michigan written by students in the History Department Undergraduate Honors Program.

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.