Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Collector of books, maps, artifacts primarily relating to the Harbor Springs area of Michigan. Artifacts include black ash baskets, porcupine quill and birch bark boxes, and miscellaneous stone and metal implements; and miscellaneous collected material.

This finding aid only describes the artifacts and historical documents collected by Earl De La Vergne. The many books he collected have been individually cataloged. The artifacts in the collection include Native American black ash baskets and quill boxes, as well as various stone and metal tools and hardware. The collected documents include a diary of an 1879 trip from Kent County, Michigan, to Emmet County, Michigan, by Etta Carpenter [mimeograph of typescript]; 1902 list of birds seen near Harbor Springs, by O. Widmann and Judge Stephenson; notes relating to Michigan history; photographs; and a citation.

Elizabeth Sparks Adams was a member of the Michigan Historical Commission from 1941 (when she was appointed as the first woman commissioner by Governor Murray D. Van Wagoner) until 1996. She and her husband, Judge Donald E. Adams, were also active in the Democratic Party, specifically in Oakland County and Waterford Township. Mrs. Adams also actively researched and collected materials on family and local history. The collection consists of files accumulated throughout her life, particularly during her service with the Michigan Historical Commission and the Michigan Democratic Party. Also included are clippings, correspondence, legal documents, and photographs related to family and local history.

The papers are divided into seven series: Personal Papers, Michigan Historical Commission, Michigan Historical Collections, Miscellaneous, Democratic Party, Compiled Information, and Collected Materials.

Senior and executive vice president of the National Bank of Detroit, later chairman of the board. The collection concerns business activities, personal interests, and travels. Included are business and personal correspondence, journals, travel materials, and other materials relating in part to his interest in amateur radio.

The Ellis B. Merry Personal Papers were assembled by Merry during his lifetime and include a number of documents from his years spent at the National Bank of Detroit. The collection, as arranged by his stepdaughter, Jean Dodenhoff, focuses primarily on his business activities, personal interests and travels. Materials found here include business and personal correspondence, journals, lists, some legal documents and publications, commendation certificates, travel itineraries, chronologies, reports, and memorabilia. There are a significant number of photographs documenting the boards of directors on which he served as well as the bank-related activities in which he participated. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Business Activities; Personal Activities; Personal Journals; Travel; and Photographs.

Governing body of the Episcopal church in western Michigan, established in 1874; records include bishops' files, diocesan organization and committee files, photographs, scrapbooks, diocesan historian files.

The records of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan are a rich resource of material, not only for the programs and activities of the Episcopal Church in western Michigan, but also for their documentation of the role of the church in the life of the various communities served by the diocese.

Records from the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan first came to the Bentley Historical Library in 1972. Since then, the diocese has made several significant additions to their records. In 1999 the record group was reprocessed with the aim of drawing together like materials. The record group now consists of twenty-two separate series. These are: Bishop's Files, Chancellor, Treasurer, Diocesan Historiographer, Standing Committee Files, Miscellaneous Files, Diocesan Record Books, Publicity Files, Defunct Parish and Mission Churches Files, Diocesan Committee Files, Diocesan Organization Files, Diocesan Financial Records, Visual Materials, Sound Recordings, Scrapbooks, Western Michigan University (WMU) Ministry Files, Women's Organizations, Miscellaneous office and staff files Bulletins of Church Services, Church of Christ the King, Miscellaneous parish materials, and Miscellaneous diocesan materials.

A pioneer Detroit, Michigan family, established the Ferry Seed Company and other business enterprises, active in civic and cultural affairs. Papers document the family and its business, cultural, political and philanthropic activities.

The Ferry family papers document the rise to prominence of this family who first gained their fortune as seed merchants. The papers also reveal the workings of other Detroit businesses, the development of the Detroit Institute of Arts, turn-of-the-century Michigan politics, and the suburban development of Grosse Pointe. The papers span the years 1758 to 1989 with the bulk of the materials covering 1855 to 1959. The collection consists of: account books, ledgers, journals, and business reports; blue prints, deeds, titles, abstracts, and mortgages; correspondence (business and personal); appointment books, diaries, scrapbooks, and clippings; receipts and tax returns, photographs, and printed miscellanea. It is important to note that the Michigan Historical Collections does not house all extant Ferry materials. The donor, Dexter M. Ferry, III, retains possession of several early account books, ledgers, and journals related to D.M. Ferry & Co.; he also kept some family correspondence and virtually all photographs.

The Ferry family papers arrived at the Michigan Historical Collections in an order based on when the donor reviewed the materials. In the course of reprocessing, this order was altered, and an arrangement assigning primacy to the generation of Ferry who created the document was followed. This reprocessing has resulted in three series: Historical and Background, materials predating Dexter M. Ferry; Dexter M. Ferry; and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. The few problems presented by overlap between generations are duly noted in the contents list. Within these generational series the materials are arrayed in business, personal, philanthropic, and political subseries. Given the natures of the family and the family business, the researcher should note that murkiness exists between subseries divisions. In general these dividing principles work well. They preserve Dexter M. Ferry, III's original order at the folder level while facilitating access by independent researchers.

The strengths of the Ferry collection are myriad. The family correspondence provide unique insight into a family which grew wealthy but remained close-knit. Especially interesting are the long runs of correspondence between Dexter M. Ferry and his mother, Lucy Ferry Crippen, and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. and his mother, Addie Miller Ferry. The former run reveals much about the fluid society of late nineteenth-century Detroit, and the latter reflects the pressures of more rigidly defined social strictures. The correspondence between Ferry, Jr. and his sisters, Blanche Ferry Hooker and Queene Ferry Coonley, are illuminating on the handling of the family business in the changing economic climates of the twentieth century.

Some facets of the development of the Detroit business community are well documented as the family invested heavily in local real estate and business. The strengths of the present collection revolve around the Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. materials relating to business and finance in Detroit from 1920 to 1950, particularly the banking community's reaction to the crisis of the Depression. The links between automobile touring, the good roads movement, and the development of ancillary industries to support the burgeoning automotive industry are fairly well documented by Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.'s papers. Young Ferry's close association with the development of the Detroit Institute of Arts is extremely well documented and these papers provide a case study of twentieth century patronage.

A somewhat refracted view of Michigan politics at the turn of the twentieth century is provided through the scrapbooks and clippings on Dexter Ferry's failed campaign in 1900 for governor of the state. The papers are stronger in their documentation of Dexter Ferry, Jr.'s political involvement with the local governance of Grosse Pointe. Here the details of community control are thoroughly covered by correspondence, reports, and minutes.

Residents of Englishville and Grand Rapids, Michigan; family papers.

The collection is comprise of two series: Correspondence and Other family papers. Included is business and family correspondence of Abby Field, a worker with the Church of Christ of Englishville and Grand Rapids, Michigan. There is also correspondence of Myron and Susan Field Buck, Sylvester Field and Flora Bennett. Beyond correspondence, the collection includes a scattering of newspaper clippings, legal papers, diaries, and other materials relating to personal affairs, farm life and the Civil War.

Records of the business enterprises of Oren Stone of Stony Run (later South Grand Blanc) and Flint, Michigan. The firms were known variously as Flint Woolen Mill, Stone Woolen Mill and Stone, Atwood and Co. Also includes daybooks and ledgers detailing the operation of his general stores in Stony Run and Flint, Michigan, and letter books, invoices, journals, cashbooks, order books, ledgers, and other business records from the woolen mill business.

The records of the business enterprises of Oren Stone consist of 232 volumes and a folder of miscellaneous loose items. Beginning in 1851 when Stone was working in Stony Run, the records extend up to 1910. The collection includes some of the records of Stone's mercantile activities in Stony Run and Flint primarily in the 1850's and 1860's. The great bulk of the collection, however, pertains directly to the activities of the Flint Woolen Mills. Since 1867, these have been arranged by type of record, including letterpress books of correspondence, invoices, order books, cashbooks, inventories, ledgers, journals, and daybooks. Some of the records relate to specific activities within the mill such as knitting, carding, spinning, weaving and finishing, and dyeing.

Editor and publisher of the Daily Tribune; scrapbooks of newspaper columns and editorials, personal scrapbooks, diary, and miscellaneous.

The collection is comprised of four series: Biographical; Newspaper career; Miscellaneous; and Scrapbooks. The Biographical series is important for Miller's diary of his life and career in the period of 1932-1954. The diary provides a detailed description of the operation of the newspaper during the depression with comments on state and national politics. The Newspaper career series includes scrapbooks of his editorials and his "Personally Speaking" column. The Scrapbook series includes clippings, programs, scattered photographs, and memorabilia from his career and personal activities.

Upper Peninsula (Michigan) trapper and woodsman as well as an Ann Arbor, Michigan, resident. Consists of a diary with brief comments on daily life and reminiscences as well as detailed passages about lumbering and wildlife in the region of Dickinson County and Iron County (Michigan).

The Floyd V. Ames papers consists of a diary with brief comments on daily life and reminiscences. Contains detailed passages about lumbering and wildlife in the region of Dickinson County and Iron County (Michigan).

Professor of Latin and classical studies at the University of Michigan, 1889-1927, led several archaeological expeditions to Antioch, Carthage and Karanis; papers include correspondence, diaries, photographs and other material relating to his career at Michigan and the expeditions.

The Kelsey papers consist of Correspondence, Papers, Diaries, and Photographs relating to his career at the University of Michigan. There is also a small amount of material on Archaeological Forgeries found in Michigan and photographs and other materials of his son, Easton Kelsey. Subjects include the papyri acquisition of the University library, archeological expeditions to the Near East, and the University Musical Society. In his correspondence written while abroad, Kelsey frequently comments on the world scene with mention, for example, of political conditions in Turkey and the controversy surrounding the Lausanne Treaty.