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Professor of English in the College of Engineering at University of Michigan, and student of songs and folklore of the Great Lakes. Correspondence, 1931-1956, bibliographic notecards on Great Lakes and Michigan folklore, unpublished manuscript entitled, "The Great Lakes", recordings of Great Lakes folk music, transcribed lyrics for the folksongs, notes, books and newspaper clippings on topics relating to folklore and history of the Great Lakes; and photographs.

The Ivan Walton collection documents Professor Walton's persistent efforts over a period of several decades to gather and preserve the cultural heritage of the Great Lakes, and to make its existence and significance known to his colleagues and the general public.

The collection is organized into eleven major series: Correspondence; Michigan Folklore Society; Field notes and logs; Student class notes; Research materials; Research notes (paper slips); 3x5 card files; Walton manuscripts; Transcripts; Photographs; and Sound recordings. In addition, Box 1 contains the Introductory series that includes the 1979 finding aid to the collection, prepared by Wil Rollman and Cheryl Baker under the auspices of the Michigan Sea Grant Program. Researchers should be advised that the 1979 finding aid contains some inacuracies.

The Penrod/Hiawatha Company collection is mainly comprised of postcards, although some supplemental photographic items directed toward tourists is also included. The postcards, numbering more than 5,000, primarily are of the Michigan landscape and its towns and cities, covering every region of the state. Typical postcard themes dominate, particularly natural scenery, outdoor recreation, and shopping districts. The postcards date from the 1950s through the opening decades of the twenty-first century, although very few display copyright dates. The collection is divided into the following series.

1. Non-Postcard Items (calendars, brochures, booklets): Box 1
2. Non-Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards: Box 2
3. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 1970s-1990s: Boxes 2-5
4. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, mid- to late 1990s: Boxes 5-6
5. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, late 1990s-2000): Boxes 6-7
6. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 2001-2004: Box 8
7. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 2005-2014: Box 9
8. Oversize and miscellaneous: Box 10

As batches of postcards are received every years, it was decided to arrange the items in blocks of time according to the date of their accession. Thus for the researcher interested in a specific city, it will be necessary to examine the listing for each of the series.