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The A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (TC; also referred to as Taubman College) was established in 1931 as the College of Architecture. However, courses in architecture have been offered at the University of Michigan since 1876, and a department of architecture, formed in 1913, preceded the creation of the college. Since its formation, TC has offered courses and programs in several areas, including landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, real estate, and, of course, architecture. The record group includes dean's administrative files and correspondence, other administrator files, meeting minutes, department and program files, materials from the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), lectures and other documentation on the Raoul Wallenberg lecture hosted by the college, and several photographs and negatives of the college and TC-related events.

The A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (University of Michigan), records document the teaching of architecture and design at the University of Michigan beginning in 1878. The records include administrative files, correspondence committee minutes, reports, photographs and architectural drawings. The records have been received in a number of separate accessions which may include material that continues or complements record series from a previous accession or may overlap chronologically with previous accessions. This finding aid reflects the intellectual structure of the records by bringing like material together across accessions. As a consequence, in the container listing box numbers will not necessarily be in consecutive order.

The records are organized in the following principal series:

1. Minutes of Meetings
2. Dean's Administrative Files
3. National Architectural Accrediting Board
4. Miscellaneous (correspondence and select files)
5. Raoul. G. Wallenberg
6. Dean's Correspondence
7. Doctoral Program Files
8. Topical Files
9. Administrative Files
10. Architectural Drawings
11. Photographs and Negatives
12. Art and Architecture Building Renovations
13. Department of Urban Planning
14. Audio-Visual Material
15. Articles, Reports and Speeches
16. Artifacts
17. Archived School of Architecture Website

Albert Kahn was a Detroit-based architect, active from 1896 to 1942. He founded the firm, Albert Kahn Associated Architects & Engineers, which is today known as Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. He was best known for his industrial design work, including the Ford Motor Company's Highland Park and River Rouge plants; numerous commercial buildings in Detroit such as the Fisher Building, Detroit Athletic Club, and General Motors Building; and much of the University of Michigan's Central Campus, including Angell Hall, the Clements Library, and Hill Auditorium, as well as the Willow Run Bomber Plant near Ann Arbor, Michigan. After Kahn's death in 1942, his architectural firm, Albert Kahn Associates, Inc., has continued to be a worldwide leader in the design of factory buildings that enhance the manufacturing process. The Albert Kahn Associates records are composed of materials produced by Albert Kahn the architect, as well as materials produced by his firm, Albert Kahn Associates, Inc., and include correspondence, company files, photographs, published materials, and architectural drawings.

The Albert Kahn Associates records offer researchers the opportunity to study the correspondence, transcripts of speeches, photographs, and architectural drawings of the preeminent, American, industrial architect, Albert Kahn, and his firm, Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. On March 21, 2003 (the 134th anniversary of Albert Kahn's birthday), Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. (AKA) donated this collection to the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan to ensure the conservation and accessibility of these records. Through this gift, AKA has shown its commitment to preserving the legacy of Kahn, whose factories on five continents influenced the development of industrial architecture and whose commercial, residential and institutional buildings define the character of Detroit and the University of Michigan today. The collection encompasses 166 linear feet (in 180 boxes) of correspondence, transcripts of speeches, newspaper and journal articles, company files, audiovisual materials, photographs and slides, as well as 90 leather portfolios containing photographs of completed buildings, 22 albums of sample architectural materials, 131 books, and 12,731 architectural drawings in 45 flat-file drawers and 114 oversize tubes.

The narrative and visual materials in the collection illuminate the breadth of Kahn's career and highlight the work of his architectural firm, Albert Kahn Associates, Inc., which continued to develop projects after his death, and remains a living institution. In pairing the textual materials with the photographs and architectural drawings associated with Kahn's projects, this collection offers a rich perspective on the master architect himself, illuminating his personal views on his own architecture and its place in a changing and often tumultuous world.

The Bentley Historical Library houses the Michigan Historical collections, which documents the history of Michigan; and the University Archives and Records Program, which maintains the historical record of the University of Michigan. Founded in 1935 as the Michigan Historical Collections, directors of the library include Lewis G. Vander Velde, F. Clever Bald, Robert M. Warner, Francis X. Blouin, Jr., and Terrence J. McDonald. The records include administrative files, correspondence, meeting materials, files on exhibits, archived websites, images, audio-visual media, and documentation of special projects such as the Vatican Archives project.

The records of the Bentley Historical Library were received in six main accessions 1991, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2014. Together the records comprise 79 linear feet, plus two oversize boxes, and oversize folder, three flat file drawers, and more than 16 GB of data spanning the years 1935-2014. The researcher should consult the summary box list on page vii for a quick overview of the materials in the collection.

The Detroit Observatory, an astronomical observatory on the campus of the University of Michigan, was the vision of University of Michigan President Henry Philip Tappan. He recognized the need for institutions of higher education to pursue scientific endeavors. Built in 1854, the Detroit Observatory was named after the Detroit residents who helped finance the building project. Extensive restoration work of the Observatory was completed in 1999.

The Detroit Observatory record group includes administrative materials of the Observatory's later years (post-1994), including documentation on the Observatory's restoration project and materials encompassing the Observatory's publicity and outreach efforts. The collection also contains various historical documents and artifacts such as logbooks and records, photographs and other visual materials, motion pictures, architectural drawings, and publications. The collection includes all of the documents, artifacts, and records transferred to the Bentley Historical Library in 2005. Materials not physically transferred to the Bentley that remain in the Observatory (such as telescopes, clocks, and associated astronomical devices) have not been identified here, but documentation can be found listed in the various inventories and databases found in the administrative series.

This collection contains the following series: Administrative, Publicity and Outreach, Research, Historical, and Publications.

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Landscape architect, speaker and lobbyist on behalf of conservation and beautification, president of the Michigan Parks Association, and member of the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty during the Johnson Administration. Correspondence, reports, oral history interviews, and other materials concerning her interest in state and national conservation legislation; and photographs.

The Genevieve Gillette collection documents Gillette's concern for the development of Michigan's parks and outdoor recreation opportunities, and her work to promote scenic roads in Michigan and nationwide.

Among the issues most fully documented are the fight to establish and develop Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, acquisition and development of Sylvania Recreation Area and McCormick Experimental Forest, threats to wilderness in the Porcupine Mountains State Park, the controversy over the proposed Mill Creek Metropark, the financing of Michigan's state park system, especially the 1968 campaign to approve recreation bonds, and the development of the Rouge River floodplain near the University of Michigan--Dearborn.

The work of the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Recreation & Natural Beauty (1966-1968), the Michigan Parks Association (1959-1975), and the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission and predecessor organizations (1960-1974) are also documented.

The collection includes very little documentation of Gillette's professional work as a landscape architect, and includes almost nothing relating to her parks and recreation work before the late 1950s.

The collection is divided into three major series--Personal, Correspondence, and Topical file--and two small series--Photographs, Audio tape cassettes.

Michigan-based architect, founder of Gunnar Birkerts and Associates, professor in the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning. The collection is comprised of six series: Personal papers, Professional papers, Faculty papers, Project records, Personal Project Files and Personal Correspondence and Files. Personal papers includes biographical information, family photographs, early architectural drawings, and course notebooks and project drawings completed while a student at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart. Professional papers includes transcripts and notes of speeches, lectures and seminars (many of these are also available on audiotapes; some are available on videocassettes). Also included are correspondence, awards, travel diaries with conceptual drawings, newspaper and journal articles and photographs. Faculty papers include course and other materials relating to his career as professor at the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Project files contains textual files, photographs, and conceptual drawings associated with 122 of the buildings and projects designed by Birkerts. Scanned images of some conceptual drawings are available online.

The Gunnar Birkerts Collection offers researchers the opportunity to study the personal, professional and faculty papers and conceptual sketches of one of the masters of American modern architecture, whose career spans the second half of the twentieth century. The collection encompasses 15 linear feet of Birkerts' student work, notes and transcripts of speeches, lectures and interviews, video and audio tapes, writings, correspondence, awards, travel diaries, academic course materials, photographs and project records. Perhaps the greatest significance of this collection lies in its presentation of over 1900 drawings of 122 buildings and projects by the architect's own hand, many of which are valuable, early conceptual sketches.

In its pairing of narrative and visual documents, the Gunnar Birkerts Collection offers a rich perspective on the architect himself, illuminating his views on the creative process and the resulting conceptual designs which have defined his expressive architecture over his illustrious fifty-plus-year career. The Gunnar Birkerts Collection is the architect's deeply personal legacy. He recognizes that, while some of his buildings may be demolished over time, his original conceptual designs on paper are conserved here for future generations to study and enjoy. To this end, he has endowed the Gunnar Birkerts Collection to ensure that his drawings will be preserved and that his place in architectural history can be studied and understood.

The Gunnar Birkerts Collection is comprised of six series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, Faculty Papers, Project Records, Personal Project Files and Personal Correspondence and Files. The narrative and visual documents in these series illuminate the full breadth of the architect's life and work, from his early years as a student at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany in the 1940s to his career in Michigan as an internationally acclaimed architect, esteemed design professor and global lecturer from the early 1950s to the present.

Dean's files of R. A. Stevenson, 1944-1960, with some earlier files of deans Edmund E. Day and Clare E. Griffin; dean's files of Floyd A. Bond primarily 1960-1979, but including earlier and later materials; administrative records concerning faculty matters, alumni activities, students, course offerings, conferences, and programs sponsored by the school, and the operation and construction of the school's building; records relating to special bureaus within the school, particularly the Bureau of Business Research, the Bureau of Hospital Administration, and the Bureau of Industrial Relations; miscellaneous files of Stevenson, including University of Minnesota records, speeches, and board of directors materials from Lear, Incorporated; miscellaneous personal files of Floyd Bond concerning other organizational activities; audiovisual material including photographs and negatives of faculty, conferences and meetings, buildings, and school functions; dean's files of Gilbert A. Whitaker, 1925-1991; architectural records; the Ross School of Business website, 1996-ongoing; and records of Development and Alumni Relations, primarily created by Frank C. Wihelme, including committee meeting material, information related to capital campaigns, and records of the William Davison Institute.

The records of the Ross School of Business (1916-2017), measure 143.2 linear feet, 154.33 GB, 21 oversize items, and 1 archived website. Materials include papers from deans of the business school, committee documents, The records also include audiovisual materials including photographs, slides, videos and sound recordings.

The Ross School of Business (University of Michigan) records documents the administration and operation of the Business School; its organizational structure; news and events; people including deans, faculty, and staff; educational program; fundraising and development; and physical spaces. The records include administrative records of committees, correspondence, topical files, audiovisual material such as photographs and audiotapes, architectural drawings, and the School's website.

Modernist architect based in New York City, 1929-1950, and professor of architecture at the University of Michigan, 1950-1972, where he also carried on an active private practice until shortly before his death in 1990. A graduate of MIT, Muschenheim studied further with Peter Behrens at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and was strongly influenced both by a visit to the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany and by a period working in urban planning with Peter Korn in Berlin. Two major Muschenheim collections exist, one within the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University and another within the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. The Muschenheim collection at the Avery represents primarily his professional career from 1929 to 1957, and the Muschenheim collection at the Bentley concerns his later professional practice and teaching career at the University of Michigan, as of 1950. This finding aid describes both the Avery and Bentley collections.

Staffs of the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library and the Bentley Historical Library have prepared separate finding aids for their respective William Muschenheim collections. These have been merged to provide one integrated finding aid. This integrated finding aid lists all Muschenheim materials held by both repositories. All of the drawings, papers, photographs and other materials for each project are brought together in a single job-number/chronological sequence. The physical location of each item/folder is indicated by "A" for Avery and "B" for Bentley. The combined finding aid organizes the Muschenheim papers into four series:

1. Biographical and Professional Material [Bentley]
2. University of Michigan Teaching Career [Bentley]
3. Publications and research [Bentley]
4. Project Files [Avery and Bentley]

The project files of William Muschenheim are described according to Muschenheim's original filing system in which he interfiled the drawings, correspondence, specifications, and other papers for each job/client. Muschenheim typically assigned each client a single job number no matter how many projects he may have done for the client. There are a total of 130 numbered jobs in the Avery Collection (#1-130, with gaps between jobs 11-17, 25-26, 28-29) and 63 numbered jobs in the Bentley collection (#132-193, there are no materials for 22 of the jobs). There are also nine unnumbered projects (4 Avery and 5 Bentley) and several folders of miscellaneous material.

Each numbered job consists of one or more projects and each project is subdivided by format of material into Drawings, Papers, Photographs, and Presentation Boards as appropriate. There is some variance in the manner in which the two archives have arranged and described project material. The Avery has described its drawings at the item level while the Bentley provides only folder level descriptions for most projects. For this finding aid item level descriptions are provided for selected Bentley projects. Photographs are found in the "Papers" in some Avery project files but are listed separately in the Bentley finding aid.

At both the Avery and Bentley the oversize architectural drawings have been removed from their original folders and stored separately.

The William Muschenheim Architectural Drawings and Papers at the Avery Library span 1929-1957, with bulk dates 1931-1950. Muschenheim's papers document 130 separate jobs, and the visual material consists of 3081 sheets of drawings. The projects mainly represent Muschenheim's work in New York City, but also include work in Albany (NY), Amenia (NY),Bridgehampton (NY), Chappaqua (NY), Hampton Bays (NY), Malverne (NY), Massapequa (NY), Nassau Point (Long Island), Washington (CT), Washington DC, Westhampton Beach (NY), and Woodstock (NY), among other locations.

William Muschenheim had numerous clients which included the following family members: Carl Muschenheim, Elsa Muschenheim, and Frederick A. Muschenheim. In addition to the many clients for whom Muschenheim did alteration work, he also worked with a wide variety of companies. Some of the companies include Bigelow Carpet Company, C.G. Flygare Inc., Excel Metal Cabinet Co., Inc., F. Schumacher & Co., Famaes Development, Hans Knoll, Howard & Schaffer, Inc., Kurt Versen Lamps, Inc., Ledlin Light Designers, Portland Cement Association, and Thonet Brothers, among many others.

The papers and drawings in the William E. Muschenheim collection at the Bentley Library span the years 1923 to 2004, however the bulk of the collection covers the years 1951 to 1985. The papers are primarily comprised of material documenting Muschenheim's research and teaching career from 1950 to 1973 at the University of Michigan, and the private practice he continued in Ann Arbor after leaving New York City. There are limited papers and drawings related to his life and professional work prior to 1950, although the Photographs Series includes beautiful black and white images of many of his important New York projects, and the Publications and Research Series is valuable for articles published in the thirties and the forties showcasing his work. Papers and drawings spanning the years 1929-1957 (bulk dates 1931-1950) are held at the Avery Library, Columbia University.

Muschenheim's early and lasting commitment to the modern movement and to an international view of architecture and architectural education is reflected in the collection, which consists of biographical and professional materials, research and course materials, publications related to his work, project files and drawings, and photographs and slides. The Muschenheim collection will interest researchers drawn to study the work of a pioneering modernist, well known for originality in working with color as an integral part of contemporary design, and those interested in the generation of architects involved in the fifties and sixties with legitimizing the modern period in an academic environment. Additionally, Muschenheim's efforts to illuminate the art of architecture as an important element and expression of culture to a broader segment of society renders the collection important to a wide range of disciplines and interests.

The papers are largely organized according to Muschenheim's original filing scheme, in which he interfiled material related to projects (including drawings) with professional papers, correspondence, and other documents, numbering them sequentially. The Bentley Library collection consists of material numbered 132 to 192. Many large original drawings were removed from folders, flattened, and are stored in drawers. Five series make up the collection: Biographical and Professional Materials; University of Michigan Teaching Career, College of Architecture and Design; Publications and Research; Project Files; and Digitization Project. Users should note that material related to a single project is often scattered throughout the collection. A Supplemental Guide to work produced after 1950 in the additional descriptive data portion of this finding aid. Also appended is Muschenheim's list of projects (numbered 1-189).