The Correspondence (0.15 linear feet) series covers the years 1935 to 1993 and contains letters, cards, and telegrams written to Todd Duncan. Interesting artifacts in this series include a letter from Maya Angelou and copies of letters sent from George Gershwin.
The CORRESPONDENCE series (11 linear feet, 1900-1903, 1929-1959) is arranged in four subseries: Correspondence, 1900-1903, 1929-1943; Director's Correspondence, 1946-1951; Editor's Correspondence, 1946-1951; and Director of University Relations Correspondence, 1950-1959. Most correspondence is with newspapers, magazine publishers, other universities, and radio and television broadcasting firms and associations.
The earliest correspondence, 1900-1903, includes letters written to Ralph Ellsworth relating to inquiries asking other universities about their information dissemination activities. Correspondence from 1929 to 1943 is chronologically arranged material sent and received by Roger Morrisey and Wilfred B. Shaw and reflects some of the alumni information activities once handled by the office as well as contact with press agencies and newspapers throughout Michigan and the nation
Director's Correspondence, 1946-1951, and Editor's Correspondence, 1946-1951, are similar in content. These two alphabetically arranged subseries comprise the correspondence of Arthur L. Brandon and Cleland B. Wyllie along with some other staff members. Wyllie served as editor but also handled other responsibilities within the office.
The most substantial subseries is the Director of University Relations Correspondence, 1950-1959, arranged alphabetically by topic. It is primarily the correspondence of Arthur L. Brandon. Topics include academic freedom and anti-communism activities (filed under "subversive activities"), the 250th anniversary of Detroit's founding, Harlan Hatcher's inauguration as president, controversy surrounding the renaming of Michigan State University, atomic research sponsored by the Phoenix Project, the 1955 Salk Polio vaccine testing and announcement, and radio and television broadcasting. General information on university activities and programs appears throughout the files, which also include scattered press releases, articles, and clippings in addition to the correspondence. Newspapers and magazines doing stories on the university, such as Life, are well represented within this subseries.
Sunderland's correspondence consists of both professional and family correspondence.
The professional correspondence, especially for the years 1868-1887, delineates many of the problems and successes of the Unitarian church in the second half of the nineteenth century. Of interest is the correspondence for 1885 and 1886 when Sunderland served as general secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference and western agent of the American Unitarian Association. During this time the theological question known as "The Issue in the West" was debated heatedly in the annual church meetings. On this issue Sunderland differed with many of the other young ministers in the Western Unitarian Conference and supported the retention of a theistic basis for Unitarianism.
Some of Sunderland's correspondents during this period include J.H. Allen, Charles G. Ames, William H. Baldwin, John W. Chadwick, James Freeman Clarke, Robert Collyer, George W. Cooke, Joseph H. Crooker, James De Normandie, William C. Gannett, Edward Everett Hale, Brooke Herford, Robert G. Ingersoll, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Minot J. Savage, Joseph Shippen, Rush R. Shippen and Charles W. Wendte.
In 1895 the British Unitarian Association sent Sunderland to India to report on the educational, social and religious conditions of the Indian people. As a result of this trip to India, Sunderland became a firm anti-imperialist, spending much of the rest of his career advocating independence for India. Sunderland made a subsequent trip to India in 1913. His correspondence files include exchanges with such Indians as Sir J.C. Bose, Sudhindra Bose, Ramananda Chatterjee, Taraknath Das, Mahatma Gandhi, Lala Lajpat Rai, Hajom Kissor Singh, and Rabindranath Tagore.
Among the Americans and Englishmen he corresponded with on the questions of India and anti-imperialism are Charles F. Andrews, Alice Stone Blackwell, W. Copeland Bowie, Will Durant, William Lloyd Garrison Jr., Richard B. Gregg, John Haynes Holmes, Myron H. Phelps, Oswald Garrison Villard and Erving Winslow. He also had contacts with such groups as the Society for the Advancement of India, the Hindustan Association of America and the American branch of the India National Congress.
In addition to Sunderland's professional correspondence, which is relatively weak for the periods 1888 to 1897, 1901 to 1906, and 1912 to 1926, the collection contains extensive family correspondence covering the years 1868 to 1910, with a few scattered letters after that time. Since the professional correspondence consists almost entirely of incoming letters, Sunderland's letters and postcards to his wife and children and the diaries which have been saved for some years are the only source for discovering his thoughts on various issues and events.
In addition to the personal correspondence in this collection, more of Sunderland's letters to his family can be in the papers of his wife, Eliza Jane Read Sunderland, his son Edson Read Sunderland, his daughter Florence Sunderland, and in the Sunderland-Safford family collection, which include the papers of Sunderland's first daughter, Gertrude Sunderland Safford. This last collection is especially rich in Sunderland family correspondence.
4 linear feet (in 5 boxes)
The papers of C. Theodore Larson measure 4.0 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1985. The bulk of materials, however, are from 1951 to 1974. The papers contain five series: Architectural Research; College of Architecture and Urban Planning; Correspondence; Development index and Published materials.
1.5 linear feet (in 2 boxes)
The Current Topic Club records, 1894-1975 consist of 1.5 linear feet in two boxes and are organized divided into three series: Administrative Records, Photographs and Programs.
The Administrative records series includes files on the club's Constitution and Bylaws, Minutes and Correspondence. The Correspondence consists of only a few items, such as thank-you notes. The Minutes are contained in bound books, each book covering a number of years. There are only two gaps in their coverage, October 1898-April 1901, and April 1920-May 1925. The programs series includes copies of all yearly printed programs from 1897 through the 1974-1975 club year. Photographs consist of three group portraits of the Current Topic Club membership made in August 1924, summer(?) 1944--their 50th Anniversary, and May 1973. Each is labeled.
The records of the Current Topic Club are an important source of information for the researcher studying women's activities and interests, because they cover an extended time span in a well-documented manner. The records represent a significant addition to the history of women in Michigan, and also throw light on an important period in the growth of a typical mid-western city.
There were occasions when men were invited to address the group. An important example here was the appearance of Raoul Wallenberg, a student from Sweden who had just graduated from the University of Michigan College of Architecture, and delayed his return home in order to speak to the club at the invitation of Mrs. L. L. Woodard. The minutes for February 18, 1935 record that he discussed the geography and history of Sweden, described Swedish architecture and passed around sketches illustrating his points.
Musical programs and member-prepared skits were a feature of some meetings. They were interested in political events of the day and often signed petitions on pending legislative action, e.g., school taxes, child labor, county agricultural extension service, and state aid to libraries.
In the 1949-1950 club year the members devoted all meetings to women and the women's movement for the first time, and continued this theme in 1950-1951. In earlier years one meeting each year centered around a famous woman.
