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This collection primarily includes the Beyster Land Company records and the John Beyster & Sons Company records. Both companies were primarily active in the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. The Beyster Land Company was responsible for developing manufacturing and industry properties in the Detroit, Michigan area. The John Beyster & Sons Company was a business for lumber, lath, shingles, and box manufacturing. Record types include correspondence, tax documents, architectural plans, and business ledgers. The collection also includes a small number of materials related to the Beyster family, such as a family tree, photographs, and estate papers.

This collection primarily includes records from the Beyster Land Company and John Beyster and Sons Company. The records present in the collection begin in the 1880s, shortly after the end of the Industrial Revolution. The Beyster Land Company was involved in land and property acquisition, as shown by the volume of property records in the collection. At least one of the property documents includes a racial covenant, which restricted certain racial groups from buying or occupying land. Other business records include correspondence, tax documents, property information (including deeds and mortgage records), private and business ledgers, audits, patent information, building plans, and automobile records. Along with the business records, the collection encompasses a small portion of family records, including a family tree, photographs, and the will and estate records of John Beyster.

The Billings family collection contains correspondence, invitations, ephemera, and other items related to Marcia Billings of Denver, Colorado; Owego, New York; and Brookville, Pennsylvania. Much of the material pertains to her social life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Billings family collection (2.5 linear feet) contains correspondence, invitations, ephemera, and other items related to Marcia Billings of Denver, Colorado; Owego, New York; and Brookville, Pennsylvania. Much of the material pertains to her social life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Correspondence series (551 items), which comprises the bulk of the collection, includes several Civil War-era letters to Mary Pearsall from her friend Emily Jewett, as well as other earlier items addressed to Marcia Billings. Most items concern the social lives of Billings's friends and family members in Denver, Colorado; Owego, New York; and Brookville, Pennsylvania, in the 1880s and 1890s. A series of 5 letters from September 1890 pertains to Colorado travel, including newspaper clippings with information for tourists. Two letters enclose photographs (January 19, 1909 and April 2, 1913) and one picture postcard shows a view of a town (August 14, 1911). Later items include letters by Marcia's husband, Benjamin Thomas, and letters to her mother, Gertrude Billings.

The Diaries series (4 items) is made up of a diary that Marcia Billings kept in 1870, the diary of an unidentified writer covering the year 1909, and 2 books containing records of correspondence and personal finances.

The School Papers series (17 items) consists of a Denver High School report card for Marcia Billings, 4 lists of examination questions from geography and grammar exams, 8 manuscript essays, and a card with the program from a "Friday Evening Club [Soiree]" held at Warren's Dancing Academy on November 30, 1882. The series also contains 3 sets of graded notes by Helen C. Jones, October 5-7, 1896, on arithmetic, history, and physiology.

The accounts and receipts in the Financial Records series (6 items) pertain to the personal finances of Marcia Billings and Benjamin Thomas.

The Photographs (6 items), taken in the early 20th century, show unidentified women. The series includes a group of photographs whose images are no longer discernible (counted as 1 item).

The Illustrations series (3 items) contains a colored drawing of a young girl sewing, a colored drawing of a woman holding flowers, and a sheet with sketches of farm animals and people.

Invitations, Responses to Invitations, Cards, and Ephemera (94 items), mainly addressed to Marcia Billings, concern events such as marriages, birthday celebrations, and casual outings. Ephemeral items include lists of dances from social events.

Printed Items (39 items) include over 30 newspaper clippings, most of which concern social events, elopements, and deaths; others contain poetry, cartoons, and news stories. Other printed items are advertisements, a poem entitled "The Mark of a Man-Child," and a poem entitled "The Type-Writer," which contains a printed illustration of a woman typing.

The Realia items are a ribbon, a sock, and an accompanying poem about a "Sock Social" held by the Ladies Aid Society.

An orthopedic surgeon in the United States Army, author, inventor, and University of Michigan alumnus (B.S. and M.D. 1899). Corbusier served in the China Relief Expedition, the Philippines Campaign, the Mexican Border War, and World War I. The collection contains biographical information, correspondence, writings by Corbusier, collected articles and clippings, photographs and glass plate lantern slides, loose scrapbook materials, and a photo album. Materials document Corbusier's experiences during the China Relief Expedition, the Mexican Border War, the Philippines Campaign, and World War I. The collection also contains a small amount of materials focusing on his time as a student at the University of Michigan, as well as to his medical and military careers.

The papers of Harold Dunbar Corbusier include a range of materials focusing on his medical and military career with the United States Army Medical Corps and the Medical Department of the U.S. Army Reserves between 1900 and ca. 1945.

The Biographical series included his biography, a diary reflecting on his childhood experiences at Fort Mackinac in Michigan, a typed manuscript highlighting his experiences during the Boxer Rebellion in China. Also included here are his professional publications and collected articles, event programs and invitations.

The Correspondence series primarily includes letters to his then fiancé Louise Shepard, as well as letters from military and governmental departments, hospitals, and other military and medical associations. images The Visual Materials series includes glass plate slides and a photo album with images of Chinese landmarks and troops from the eight nations fighting against the Boxers. Also included are photographs mostly focusing on the China and Philippines campaigns, and loose scrapbook materials (mostly clippings) focusing on China and Asia in general.

The Bird family papers are made up of correspondence, documents, ephemera, and other materials related to members of the Bird family of East Smithfield, Pennsylvania.

The Bird family papers are made up of correspondence, documents, ephemera, and other materials related to members of the Bird family of East Smithfield, Pennsylvania. A number of letters written between George Niles Bird and Frances Rowe depict their lengthy, occasionally difficult, courtship in the late 19th century. Letters from other friends and family members are interspersed, including a letter from Hope Rowe recounting the funeral of President James A. Garfield (October 9, 1881).

Nancy N. Bird's correspondence consists primarily of incoming personal letters. Nancy's cousins wrote many of the letters, with the family's religiosity influencing much of their writing. The Bird family papers include many of Nancy N. Bird's speeches, including a series of talks delivered to fellow members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) between 1886 and 1912. She discussed temperance, religion, and topics of local interest, including the history of Smithfield, Pennsylvania. Nancy N. Bird's printed materials consist primarily of ephemera, programs, and newspaper clippings, largely related to her work with the WCTU and to the Bradford Baptist Association. Also present are three items written by Nancy: a short book entitled A History of the Sunday Schools in East Smithfield, PA. Since 1822, and two copies of The History of the Baptist Church of East Smithfield, PA. Other materials related to Nancy include journal pages, a photograph, and Sunday School papers.

Helen Bird's letters, written to her mother, chronicle her year at the West Chester Normal School, 1912-1913, and include frequent complaints about the atmosphere, the people, and the food.

Materials relating to George Bird consist primarily of incoming correspondence from friends and from his cousin Geraldine ("Jerry"). Jerry, who financially supported George during his time at Pennsylvania State University, also offered advice and updates on her academic life at Cornell University, while George's friend Eugene Edgar Doll discussed his experiences at the University of Chicago and his patronage of the arts. The collection also includes reports from George Bird's early studies and from his time at Pennsylvania State.

Personal letters from other members of the Niles and Bird families include early letters from Hannah Niles to her husband Samuel, and letters addressed to George N. Bird, his wife Frances, and their daughter-in-law Carrie. Two printed letters from "Robert and Bernie" in Impur, India, describe the country and their educational and missionary work; on January 7, 1921, they mentioned Gandhi's non-cooperation movement.

The collection contains diaries and journals, account books, and albums. The diaries include an 1844 unsigned journal, Hannah Minor Niles' 1866 diary, Nancy Niles Bird's 1851 diary, and Carrie M. Bird's 1921 diary. An account books tracks John Bird's expenses between 1846 and 1858, and a record book kept by Nancy Niles Bird includes the meeting minutes from the Soldiers Aid Society during the Civil War and household accounts. George Bird's autograph album covers the years 1879-1881 and Nancy Niles Bird's scrapbook, kept between 1850 and 1925, contains newspaper articles about her mother Hannah, members of the Bird family, and acquaintances from Pennsylvania and Kansas.

Other miscellaneous items include a printed map, a document related to the military chapel at Ellington Field, Texas, genealogical items, and manuscript poems.

Bird family of Truago (now Trenton) in Wayne County, Michigan, later founders of Clayton in Lenawee County, Michigan. Papers, 1837-1857, of Chauncey Bird, including account of flight in 1811 from Litchfield, Connecticut, to escape persecution by Masons; papers, 1835-1873, of Reuben E. Bird, largely concerning operation of Clayton general store; and diary, scrapbook, and other papers of John E. Bird, state attorney general and supreme court justice.

Papers of the Birney, McClear (variant spellings), and Hankerd families collected in part by Marian T. Hankerd of Pleasant Lake, Michigan. Genealogies and family history; correspondence and other papers of James Birney and his wife Bridget McClear, Irish immigrant settlers to Bunker Hill in Ingham County, concerning family matters, his experiences in the California gold fields, politics and Catholic Church activities; letters of Terrence McCleer from the California gold fields; Henry Birney family letters and account books; Henrietta Township, Jackson County, Michigan, materials, including township records and assessments, and records of Henrietta Farmer's Club; Bunker Hill Township, Ingham County, Michigan, assessments; scattered records of SS. Cornelius and Cyprian Catholic Church in Bunker Hill; and related photographs.

The Birney Family collection documents the lives and activities of three inter-related families: the Birneys, McClears (variant spellings), and Hankerds. Covering the years 1835-1972, the collection consists of family correspondence, legal papers, personal and financial ledgers, and clippings; materials relating to Bunker Hill Township in Ingham County and Henrietta Township in Jackson County; and collected materials pertaining to SS. Cornelius and Cyprian Catholic Church in Bunker Hill.

The collection has been arranged into nine principal series: Family / Genealogical James Birney Family, the Henry Birney Family, the Patrick Hankerd Family, Henrietta Township, Bunker Hill Township, SS. Cornelius and Cyprian Catholic Church in Bunker Hill, Photographs, and Robert Stack research papers.

Correspondence and other papers of Alde L. T. Blake, including exchanges with Jane Addams, Ben Lindsey, Governor Woodbridge N. Ferris, and Anna Howard Shaw, and other materials documenting Alde Blake's suffragist activities. Scrapbooks of William F. Blake largely concerning family history and business interests, and his correspondence; a volume containing copies of private and unofficial letters written by William Blake to various persons during his tenure as U.S. Consular Agent. A volume with copies of letters sent by Robert Blake in his capacity as U.S. Consular Agent serving in Canada, including detailed commercial report about London, Ontario in 1873. Freeman N. Blake's Law School notebook. Also, included a genealogical tree of Kutsche family. Correspondence, notebooks, wills, certificates, and other materials relating to other Blake, Kutsche, and Tuck family members. Visual materials include two photo albums, as well as numerous photographs (some oversize), daguerreotypes, and one tintype. Photographs include photos of Anna Howard Shaw, Jeanette Rankin, and others following a lecture by Dr. Shaw; also group photos, possibly of woman suffrage groups.

The Blanchard family papers document the lives and careers of several members of the Blanchard, Cobb, and Proctor families from the mid-nineteenth century through the late twentieth century. Includes visual materials, publications, personal writings, and extensive correspondence files.

The Blanchard Family Papers document the professional achievements and personal lives of several generations of a scientifically minded and artistically gifted family. The papers focus heavily upon the eminent plant pathologist and nematologist Nathan A. Cobb, his wife Alice Vara Cobb, their daughter, biologist Frieda Cobb Blanchard, and her husband, herpetologist Frank Nelson Blanchard (the latter two of whom were professors at the University of Michigan). In addition to the photographs, drawings, correspondence, journals, and writings of these four individuals, the collection is rich in family correspondence, diaries, and personal papers from other members of the Cobb and Blanchard families (and their forebears and branches, including the Bigelow, Proctor, Ross, White, and Randall families). The Blanchard Family Papers will be of value to researchers interested in a variety of topics: scientific endeavors and methodologies (and in particular those related to agronomy, nematology, botany, and herpetology); the visual arts and the development of photography in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; colonial and provincial life in Australia and Hawaii (respectively); and the daily affairs of American (and Michigan) families throughout the twentieth century. The Blanchard Family Papers consist of seven series: Nathan A. Cobb, Alice Vara Cobb, Frieda Cobb Blanchard, Frank Nelson Blanchard, Blanchard and Cobb Family Letters, Other Family Members, and Isaac G. Blanchard.

The Blanche and Lena Smith letters consist of the correspondence of the Smith sisters as young women living in the Western United States including their time spent at a sanitorium in Colorado Springs.

Although most of this correspondence relates to Lena and Blanche Smith, the earlier letters include six excellent courtship letters from their mother to their father, while she was still in Connecticut and he was in Chicago. There are a handful of letters from Fannie's sister Jennie and other relations, and from Horace's Aunt C. Manning Watson, and her daughter Elizabeth. Most of the letters are from Blanche's friends and Lena's boyfriend Will Brown; there are also a significant number from the sisters, written from Colorado Springs, back home to their parents. In addition to over 500 letters, there is a large amount of ephemera, including school papers, sketches, unidentified photographs, invitations, and some items relating to tuberculosis.

Miss Fannie had a wonderfully forthright writing style. She informed Horace, "I do not want to deceive you, and I tell you frankly, that we are poor but respectable, and that we work for what we have" (1876 April 16). Fannie had learned dressmaking, and was prepared to support herself if necessary. Although she liked to tease Horace, she also seemed to write straight from her heart. For instance, she reflected on the continuing impact of her father's death: "I thought I shed as many tears as I could when he died, but I have found I was mistaken for there are times when I miss him as much if not more than at first. And if he had lived I don't think I should have ever have left home seeing I was the youngest and the only one left, and he was lame and thought so much of his home, and of having me stay there" (1876 May 3).

Both Horace and Fannie's complaints about their health foreshadowed their daughter's tuberculosis. Horace had "weak lungs," and when they were courting, Fannie informed Horace that "I think sometimes I am troubled by Catarrh, but not as bad as I was before I went West, the climate helped me I think for I did not doctor for it any. I am so afraid it will lead to Consumption if not taken care of at first I was frightened about myself once but it was more imagination than anything else" (1876 May 17).

For her part, Blanche maintained a fairly straightforward, patient view of her illness, which was often tinged with humor. She described her doctor in San Francisco as "just like all the other doctors in Calif. thump you a little, ask you a string of questions just for show, & charge you $10.00" (1904 December 2). Once she was in Colorado, she wrote her parents. "You know I don't want to keep any thing from you, but I do hate to fill up a letter with my aches & pains. I can stand it better than being punched twice a day" (1904 December 30).

She kept true to her word about not wanting to keep anything from her parents. She wrote frankly about the Ranch -- "The only thing I think is wrong about the place is their emptying all the old slop right out on the ground about 20 ft. from my tent..." -- and her inner workings: "I eat all I possibly can & have quite a time keeping my bowels in order. I drink 6 glasses of milk & take 6 raw eggs a day" (1905 January 5, January 20).

Both sisters also kept their parents well-informed about each other's good and bad behavior. Lena often got frustrated with her needy sister, and after working all day, did not always want to sit with her, or devote her time to writing letters home or to her boyfriend back in Friend, Will Brown. Blanche complained about feeling lonely, and that Lena was spending too much time with various men. One man "always turns up just at the right time. If Will Brown knew half she was doing I think he would make sure of her inside of a month. Some of her actions surprise me, and that's saying a good deal" (1906 January 15). In her last letter to her father, marked "Private," Blanche was still sharply voicing her concern about her sister's behavior (1906 March 9).

Blanche may well have been jealous of the attentions paid to her sister, and of the men who took up Lena's free time. Her reports, however, were probably not exaggerated. One letter in the collection, from "Sam," to Lena, includes this startling bit: "I do love you Lena today as much as any time we were together and I do hope all will go well as we had planned. Do you still hope the same?" (1904 May 24).

Will Brown began writing to Lena in 1902, and after reading his prolific letters it is easier to sympathize with the errant Lena. Will was constantly traveling on business, and would write Lena tedious descriptions of where he was, what he was doing, and what his prospects for the future were. The fact that all of his plans for getting ahead in business fell through, year after year, probably did not enhance Lena's reading experience. In June of 1905 she evidently berated Will for his writing style, but although he admitted "I have felt that my letters to you were not what they should be," he excused himself by saying he thought Blanche would probably be reading the letters too, so he did not want to get too personal (1905 June 22). Lena even confided in her father about Will, telling him, "I'm afraid I feel more each day that I'm getting out of the notion of marrying anyway -- that I'd rather take care of myself again," indicating that caring for Blanche was taking its toll on her sister (1906 February 9).

Will never did get very romantic, and his overall tone was more one of defeat. Even a turn as a successful hotelier in Loveland, Colorado, was brought to a screeching halt by an appendectomy, which left Will in terrible debt and unable to work for several months. He released Lena from her engagement, and although she was entertaining a very familiar correspondence with Billy Taylor, whom she had met in Colorado, and complaining again about Will's letters and the long delay in their plans, Lena did eventually marry Will Brown (1907 November 9, 1908 July 5).

Blanche corresponded with friends she had made at various stages in her life. Lulu Hall, Carrie Roehl, and the Browns were all people she had met while living in Friend. Her California friends included Babe Sinclair, Miss Rich, Isis Gasaway, Freda Wisner, and Charles Putnam, a boy she had probably gone with in San Francisco. Charles seems rather immature, and Blanche evidently found him too "spoony" and got tired of him writing about how much he loved her (1905 April 17). Charles thought she was only discouraging him because of her sickness, and relied on that old but effective trick, jealousy, to warm her up again. After nonchalantly describing various events he had attended as the escort of "Miss C.," Charles apparently began hearing from Blanche more regularly.

Isis and Freda both got married while Blanche was in Colorado. Isis still lived with her family, which she found a bit disconcerting. She confided in Blanche, "as it is, it just kind of seems like Sherm just came here to stay with all of us. Don't tell anybody but the only time it really seems like I'm married is when I go to bed with Sherm" (1906 February 17).

After she moved into the cottage in Colorado Springs, Blanche received a few letters from Fred Davis and Bob Ferris, two "lungers" she had met at the ranch. Fred, who had moved on to the Adam Memorial Home in Denver, wrote, "I am so tired of these institutions. I long -- oh how I long for a home with a little h where I can put my feet on the parlor furniture and hoist the curtains above see-level and go to the pantry and detach choice bits from the cold turkey left from dinner and -- oh just holler" (1906 January 23).

In the last few months of her life, Blanche met and began going to see Mrs. Carpenter, a Christian Scientist who changed the way Blanche thought about her illness. "It isn't our body that's sick, its the thought," she informed her parents (1906 January 26). Lena thought the influence of Christian Science might do Blanche some good, for Mrs. Carpenter "told Bee that fear was one of her greatest troubles -- that because she had this trouble she was scared all the time for fear she wouldn't get well" (1906 February 9). Putting her faith in God as a healer freed Blanche from her fear. In her last letter to her "Popsie" before her death, even as her limbs were swelling up "large & hard," Blanche wrote: "Christian Science is wonderful and O, so much good is done by it. I feel such a decided change going on, all over my body & I know its God's healing power. He is healing me every day papa & I want you to know it. Think it & declare it every day for your thots will do me so much good" (1906 March 9). Within three weeks, Blanche had died.

Founder of the Van Leuven Browne Hospital School for Crippled Children and advocate for improved educational and work opportunities for children with physical disabilities. Contains materials related to the Van Leuven Browne Hospital School for Crippled Children and Browne's other initiatives for children with disabilities. Correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, and publications; includes copies of novels and magazines related to disabled children that were authored by Browne.

The Blanche Van Leuven Browne papers document Browne's advocacy for children with physical disabilities. Highlighted in the collection is her work with the Van Leuven Browne Hospital School for Crippled Children between 1907-1917. Collection includes Browne's correspondence, Hospital School patient registers, schedules, and other administrative information, as well as photographs, glass plate negatives, clippings, and publications related to the school. The collection also contains copies of the novels written by Browne, "A Story of the Children's Ward" and "Easter in the Children's Ward," and other materials she published.