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Political group formed in Wayne, Michigan in 1920, with roots in the old Socialist Party of America. This "Michigan faction" was expelled from Communist Party shortly after its founding in 1919, in part for its "consistent adherence to majority action and repudiation of the Communist Party's minority action concept." The party moved its headquarters to Chicago in 1925 where it maintained an office until disbanding in 1968. Consists mainly of correspondence of National Secretary Al Wysocki.

The records of the Proletarian Party survive in an unusual condition, requiring an organizational scheme with some unusual features to accommodate them. Most of the records were torn up by hand when the party disbanded in 1968, usually into quarters or halves. Perhaps 75% of the records have since then been largely or wholly reconstituted by being pasted onto sheets or strips of paper or occasionally clipped or stapled together; the remainder exist only as fragments. These fragments have been variously treated depending on the series to which, if whole, they would belong. Fragments of general correspondence, if dated, are placed in separate folders of fragmentary correspondence at the end of each year's correspondence files; undated fragments are divided by medium and shape, handwritten fragments in one folder, typescript (mostly carbon copy) fragments into several, depending on whether they represent the top left, bottom left, or bottom right corners, the entire left side, or some miscellaneous portion of the original page. This should make it possible to reassemble individual letters when necessary, assuming that all the component parts still exist. Fragments of mundane official correspondence and other material is not distinguished from non-fragmentary examples of the same, fragments that have lost their date being treated as undated.

Note also that many of the records consist of carbon copies, often made on the verso of other documents of interest (flyers, bulletins, the Constitution of the Proletarian Party, etc.). With one or two exceptions, it is the later use as a carbon that is reflected in the item's organizational placement. Researchers seeking the documents accidentally preserved in this way may need to examine the whole collection personally.

The value of the collection resides chiefly in the correspondence. Taken in bulk, it provides an almost intimate acquaintance with the people and ideas that animated the Proletarian Party during its last ten to fifteen years of existence, as well as recollections of its past. The jargon and mechanisms of the party are well illustrated, as is, poignantly, the inability of either to cope with the refusal of history to cooperate with the party's program, or to accept the weariness its members. The decline of the party is well captured in passages like this (John Davis to Al Wysocki, May Day, 1963): "We are dying on the vine as it were, there isn't many more than a dozen of us left. You can't call this a political party. The bulk of our funds go to the paying of rent for the Headquarters and the Kerr store room. I ma not at all clear about what can be done." Or this, from one of the last two members of the Detroit Local (Phil Drouin to Al Wysoki, 6 May 1964): "I have been trying to get a meeting of the remaining members in local Detroit and the only one that shows up is myself and Bennie so we keep postponing it and contact the other members and they always have excuses so...it looks like local Detroit is finish." To which Wysoki can only reply vainly (9 May 1964): "The local Detroit members are asleep on their revolutionary duties."

For comments on the Sarah Lovell for Mayor (of Detroit) campaign, see general correspondence, April 1957. For Wysocki's exchanges with curious student Arthur Maglin, see general correspondence, May, 1960; with student Douglas Hainline, see May and July 1962. For comments on the correct interpretation of the assassination of J.F.Kennedy, see general correspondence of 29 November and 9 December 1963.

A 1939 handbook for the Protective Order of Dining Car Waiters, which was the Portland, Oregon chapter of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an all-black union.

Materials include membership rosters, mediation agreements, schedules, rates of pay, and inventories.

Administrative files of provosts E. Blythe Stason and James P. Adams relating to annual budget, staffing, liaison with the Board of Regents, and the relationship of the University to the state, alumni, private foundations and the general public.

Professor of forestry in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan, active in conservation movement, first head of the Michigan Game Division and a popular writer on conservation topics; papers consist of correspondence (including Aldo Leopold and Gifford Pinchot and leading conservationists), reports, writings and photographs.

The collection consists of five linear feet of correspondence and articles, and other materials relating to Lovejoy's work on behalf of forest conservation, forestry in general, his work with various state and local organizations, and his career as a writer for different national magazines.

Though the collection dates from 1918 to 1941, it bulks largest (except for the Articles series) in the period beginning in 1931. This was after Lovejoy had left the University of Michigan and after his pioneering work in the 1920s.

Printed books, pamphlets, and serials by John Harvey Kellogg, Battle Creek, Michigan physician, food scientist, and founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, on a variety of medical and health topics and explaining and promoting the remedies and treatments he espoused through his Battle Creek Sanatorium.

Printed books, pamphlets, and serials by John Harvey Kellogg, on a variety of medical and health topics and explaining and promoting the remedies and treatments he espoused through his Battle Creek Sanatorium

Michigan family from Adrian and Flint, Michigan. Family papers, sound recordings, and photographs.

The collection is arranged by family name: Tomlinson, Pomeroy, and Raab. The earliest item is an account maintained by Alexander Tomlinson of Sherwood, Michigan. Within the Raab family papers are diaries, 1891-1892, of Florence Raab concerning her life in Adrian, Michigan. In addition, the collection includes papers and audio-tapes of Irving T. Raab reminiscing about his student life at the University of Michigan in the years before 1900. These tapes also concern his life in Flint and career as Presbyterian clergyman. The photographs in the collection are of family members.

Physicist, University of Michigan professor, dean of the graduate school; correspondence, writings, speeches, organizational files, audio-visual materials.

Although the Ralph A. Sawyer collection includes materials relating to all phases of his career, beginning with his studies at the University of Chicago in 1918-1919, the strength of the files are for those activities outside of the University of Michigan, notably his work with the U.S. Navy laboratories, Joint Task Force One, the American Institute of Physics, and the Optical Society of America. Files dealing with his University of Michigan activities are less complete as these materials will be found with the records of those units which Sawyer headed.

Consist chiefly of correspondence, some addressed to his wife, Edith, and his son, Ivan; poems, notes, and other writings, including his autograph album from Cook County jail, 1917, drafts of poems written while imprisoned at Leavenworth Penitentiary, 1918-23, and a negative photostat of Digest of California criminal syndicalism cases, written by the California branch of the I.W.W.'s General Defense Committee, 1926. Also included are printed poems, flyers, and newspaper clippings, prison documents, and ana. The papers largely concern the period of I.W.W. activism (1917-26), particularly his prison experiences and a report by A. W. Curtis on the Centralia (Wash.) trial of I.W.W. lumbermen; the publication of his pamphlets and books; and the organization, activities, and publications of Technocracy, Inc., a group promoting the technocracy movement (1933-34).

The Ralph Chaplin Papers consist chiefly of correspondence, some addressed to his wife, Edith, and his son, Ivan; poems, notes, and other writings. It also includes his autograph album from Cook County (Ill.) Jail (1917), drafts of poems written while imprisoned at Leavenworth Penitentiary (1918-23), and a negative photostat of "Digest of California criminal syndicalism cases", written by the California branch of the IWW's General Defense Committee, 1926. Poems, flyers, newspaper clippings, and prison documents comprise the printed material found in the collection.

The papers largely concern the period of Chaplin's IWW activism (1917-26), particularly his prison experiences. Also of note are a report by A. W. Curtis on the Centralia (Wash.) trial of IWW lumbermen; papers concerning the publication of Chaplin's pamphlets and books; and the organization, activities, and publications of Technocracy, Inc., a group promoting the technocracy movement (1933-34).