Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Grand Rapids, Michigan businessman and politician; correspondence, business papers; scrapbooks, and photographs.

The Frank D. McKay collection is divided into the following series: Correspondence; Topical Files; Business and financial papers; Newspaper clippings and scrapbooks; and Photographs.

Republican attorney general of Michigan, 1951-1954, general counsel of the Department of the Army. World War I letters, papers detailing work as chairman of the committee on emerging problems of the Michigan Constitutional Convention; miscellaneous genealogical material, and diaries and memoranda books; scrapbooks concerning political career, especially his service as state attorney general; and photographs.

Only a few papers survived Millard. Correspondence, most interesting for his letters written in France during 1917, and a small body of papers from his committee chairmanship at the 1961 state constitutional convention, highlight the collection. A large number of newspaper clippings about his career, and many awards and citations he received, are also available. A few items regarding his military career, his political activities and his membership in the Masons can also be found.

A large number of photographs and albums are also found in the collection. Included are five scrapbooks, 1955-1961, covering the period when Frank Millard was general counsel in the Department of the Army. These scrapbooks are 70-80 percent photographic, and the remainder consist of clippings, programs, correspondence, schedules and itineraries. Another scrapbook covers the years 1912-1914 when Millard was a student at the University of Michigan. It also contains three pages of earlier material dated 1901-1910. This scrapbook is more than half photographic in content with the rest consisting of programs, clippings, and memorabilia.

Teacher, Inspector of Schools in the Philippine Islands (1901-1905), and Presbyterian clergyman. Papers include biographical information, education and teaching materials, church miscellanea, diaries, correspondence and photographs.

The papers of Frederick G. Behner measure one linear foot and are contained in two series: Papers and Photographs. The Papers series is further divided into biographical information; education and teaching; church; personal materials; correspondence; and general materials.

The Biographical Information consists of photocopies of accounts that Behner's son, Frederick G. Behner, Jr., wrote using his father's diaries and oral accounts. The Education and Teaching file includes Behner's teaching certificates (1893-1895), his university papers from North Central College, his students' papers from the Philippine Islands, and some papers from Xenia Seminary School. His university papers are on a number of subjects, as are his students' papers, and are interesting as they reflect many social and political facets of the turn of the century.

The Church papers include his licensure and requests from various churches asking Behner to work at their church. The Personal file series includes Behner's diaries for the years 1901 through 1905 and chronicles his journey from Ohio down to the Philippine Islands, his years of teaching there, an extended trip home with major stops in Palestine and Europe, and his wedding. The 1901 diary is accompanied by a partial transcript. Also included a published volume of transcript of diary titled "One Man's Journey to the Philippine Islands: the Thomasite Adventure, 1901-1905." The Correspondence series (1896-1904) is very brief and arranged chronologically, containing only several letters. One letter of interest explains the purpose of the schools in the Philippine Islands; another is a permit to carry a shotgun. The General Materials series is also very brief; it contains two steamship liner booklets with notations by Behner and a certificate indicating that Behner was a member of the National Geographic Society.

University of Michigan microbiologist; correspondence, student notebooks, San Francisco Plague Commission records, research files and laboratory notebooks, visual materials

The Frederick G. Novy collection documents the career and research interests of this noted bacteriologist, including information from the period of time when he was a member of the San Francisco Plague Commission (1901).

The collection has been divided into the following series:

1. Biographical/Personal
2. Correspondence
3. University of Michigan Student Notebooks
4. University of Michigan Medical School
5. San Francisco Plague Commission
6. Research Files/Laboratory Notebooks
7. Reprints and Writings
8. Miscellaneous; and Visual Materials.

Ann Arbor, Michigan based hydraulic engineer known for his multiple arch dams, hydroelectric plants, and for developing the Hazen-Williams hydraulic tables, designed and consulted on numerous water power and dam projects. Papers include biographical files, material relating to construction of dams and power plants on the Huron River and elsewhere, and papers relating to Michigan Engineering Society.

The papers of Gardner Williams, 1900-1931, include biographical material; papers relating to the history of Michigan Engineering Society; project files detailing construction of Huron River power plants and dams at Argo, Barton, Geddes, Superior, and French Landing; other Michigan project files for dams and plants in Sault Ste. Marie and elsewhere; Detroit Edison consultation materials; engineering reports by, or including comments of, Williams; and photographs.

The Williams papers came from the offices of Ayres, Lewis, Norris and May, Ann Arbor engineering firm. Obviously a fragment, they cover only the period of 1900 to 1931, with photographs spanning the dates 1900 to 1945.

The collection begins with a folder of biographical material and a folder regarding the history of the Michigan Engineering Society. Except for these, the collection divides into four series: Power Plants and Dams, the Detroit Edison Company, Engineering Reports, and Photographs.

Major general in the U.S. Army, physicist, and inventor. Correspondence, personal account books, reports, military orders, student notebooks (U.S. Military Academy and Johns Hopkins University), notes and other material largely related to his scientific interests, particularly in telegraphy and trans-oceanic cables; also diaries kept while a West Point cadet, one of which contains a family history and autobiography; Ph.D. thesis in physics from Johns Hopkins University; and photographs.

The George Owen Squier papers include correspondence, personal account books, reports, military orders, student notebooks (U.S. Military Academy and Johns Hopkins University), notes and other material largely related to his scientific interests, particularly in telegraphy and trans-oceanic cables; diaries kept while a West Point cadet, one of which contains a family history and autobiography; Squier's Ph.D. thesis in physics from Johns Hopkins University; and photographs.

The Squier collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Inventions and Research; Military Career; Miscellaneous / Personal; and Education (West Point and Johns Hopkins).

Letters to his wife, Mary Soule, written while serving as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War; Civil War diary, 1863-1865; a letter from Byron Stoddard of the Sixth Michigan Infantry; correspondence, 1890-1904, with J. C. Leonard who collected materials for University of Michigan Museums throughout the western part of the United States; literary manuscript of Annah May Soule; and photographs.

Portraits and photographs of Soule and his wife, Maryy Soule; group photograph of the officers of Company D, Sixth Michigan Infantry, 1861; and album, ca. 1865, of Civil War soldiers, most of whom were members of the Sixth Michigan Infantry.

Resident in China from Farwell, Michigan; papers concern her family life in Farwell, and missionary activities; include letters, diaries, and accounts of father, Josiah L. Littlefield, Farwell lumber dealer and visitor to China, 1916-1917; letters, 1918-1928, of husband, Dr. Dennis V. Smith, medical missionary to China, describing in part Chinese politics and civil war, 1918-1920; letters and other papers of Hazel Littlefield Smith, including materials concerning various European travels, and manuscripts of writings about Irish author Lord Dunsany, her father, and Farwell, Michigan; and photographs. Other correspondents of Hazel Smith include world-renowed scientists (Edwin Hubble and William Beebe), from Chinese Princess Der Ling, and from distinguished European writers and actors (Pierre LaMure, Selma Lagerlof, Brian Aherne, and Ronald Colman).

This collection was accumulated by Hazel Littlefield Smith and consists of materials concerning her career and interests and those of her family, specifically her husband, Dr. Dennis Smith, and her father, Josiah Littlefield (1845-1935), a pioneer lumberman and businessman in Farwell, Michigan.

The collection is particularly valuable for three topics: early days (late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) in Farwell, Michigan; missionary life in China in the period ca. 1915-1928; and the travels and writings of Hazel Littlefield Smith. The materials include correspondence, compositions and business-related materials of Josiah Littlefield; correspondence and other materials of Dr. Dennis Smith, Hazel Littlefield Smith (and Josiah Littlefield) concerning conditions in early republican China; and correspondence and other materials of Hazel Littlefield Smith concerning her travels in Europe (1920s-1950s), her management of the family farm near Farwell, Michigan (1940s), and her essays, poetry and other publications, including Lord Dunsany: King of Dreams.

The three principal figures in the collection--Hazel Littlefield Smith, Dennis Smith and Josiah Littlefield--were highly perceptive observers of persons and events. Their letters are rich in detail, whether describing travel experiences or everyday life in rural northern Michigan.

The collection is arranged into six series: Littlefield Family, China-related materials, Hazel Littlefield Smith, Miscellanea, Dr. Dennis V. Smith, and Visual Materials.

Professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan, friend and booster of U-M athletics and athletes; correspondence, speeches, class materials, and photographs.

The collection is comprised of three series: Correspondence, course materials, and other papers; Photographs; and Sound Recording. The photographs are of Losh family members, photos relating to University of Michigan athletics and other interests. There are also photos of Hazel Losh teaching in the classroom. The Sound Recording is of Professor Thomas Slavens interviewing Professor Losh about her life and career. A transcript has been made of this recording.

Benzonia and Ann Arbor, Michigan; papers of individual family members, detailing in part activities in the Philippines, 1907-1912. The collection also contains photographs and albums of images from the period when they lived in the Philippines.

The Hubbell Family Papers date from 1859 to 1983 and measure one linear foot. Included in the collection are genealogical material, and correspondence and other papers of individual family members.