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Materials collected by Helen Blair Lamar and subsequently donated to the Blair Society for Genealogical Research and pertaining to the Austin Blair family of Michigan and related family lines, the Hanks family and the North family. The collection, arranged by family name and then by individual, includes original with some typed transcripts of family letters, diaries, legal documents, poetry, personal items, and visual materials.

Helen Blair Lamar kept the papers of the Blair, Hanks and North families for many years. After her death they were given to the Blair Society for Genealogical Research, which in turn donated them to the Bentley Historical Library. This collection exemplifies the slightly random character of family papers accumulated over several generations. There is a wide variety of material on a large number of individuals. In an attempt to keep things as clear as possible, the majority of the papers--manuscript, typescript and printed--have been arranged by FAMILY GROUPS which are subdivided by Personal Name and arranged by generation. This is followed by a small second series of miscellaneous PRINTED MATERIALS. A substantial third series of VISUAL MATERIALS includes Scrapbooks, Photographs, Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes, Tintypes and Glass Plate Negatives.

Civil War officer, banker, Republican State Representative and Senator from Jackson, Michigan. Correspondence, special orders, notes, business papers, and miscellaneous items, primarily relating to his Civil War service as Colonel of the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, and to a possible appointment to the U.S. Senate in 1894; also notes on the management of the Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company, 1895-1903, diary of a European trip, 1897, and photographs.

The papers of William H. Withington consist of correspondence, special orders, notes, and miscellaneous items relating to his Civil War service as Colonel of the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry; business records of the Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company, correspondence and other material concerning his political career as Republican state legislator and state senator.

This collection is divided into four series: Civil War Activities, Personal Papers, Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company Records, all of which are arranged chronologically, and Newspaper Clippings.