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Professor of history and director of the Michigan Historical Collections at the University of Michigan; professional correspondence, lecture and research notes, speeches, writings, and personal miscellanea.

The F. Clever Bald collection includes correspondence, speeches, lecture and research notes, and manuscripts of published and unpublished research writings. Of interest is Bald's manuscript of his "The University of Michigan in World War II." Other World War II materials include completed questionnaires which he sent out to Michigan colleges and universities relating to their activities during the war. There are also letters (1944-1946) received from Chester A. Antiau discussing his work with the U. S. Army Information and Education Service during World War II including comments on conditions in Italy and Germany. Other parts of the collection are the letters he wrote while serving in the 111th Ambulance Company. Other files concern his activities with the Michigan Historical Collections, the Civil War Centennial Observance Commission, and the Algonquin Club of Detroit.

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).

Wife of U. S. Senator Julius C. Burrows. Diary, 1860, of two months at Prairie Seminary; and account of a trip to Europe in 1867.

Diary, 1860, of two months at Prairie Seminary; and account of a trip to Europe in 1867.

Francis Butler, a chaplain of the 25th New Jersey Infantry, kept a journal including an extensive account of the bombardment and occupation of Fredericksburg during the Civil War.

Butler's diary opens -- after some brief notations of the terms by which he hired "John H. Boggs (col'd)" as his servant and of his expenditures at Camp Cadwallader -- on December 11th, 1862, with a lengthy description of the bombardment and occupation of Fredericksburg. Butler was stirred by the "sublime sight" of the city under fire, the crossing of the troops on pontoon bridges lit up by pitch fires, and the officers' occupation of the best houses in the city. From his headquarters in a "small, neat, comfortable house," he watched with disapproval as soldiers plunder the city prior to the battle, and he prays with sympathy for "the poor family whose peaceful house is thus invaded," and on the following morning was greeted with the curious sight of soldiers lounging on mattresses lining the sidewalks and reading London quarterlies, awaited what he assumed (correctly) would be a bloody day.

Butler provides an hour by hour account of events in Fredericksburg on December 12th and 13th. His perspective is an interesting one in that he is not involved in the fighting himself, but is able to move freely about the city during the thick of battle in order to minister to the troops, to bring them coffee or to escort the wounded to the rear. Entries for the days following the battle provide an excellent picture of a chaplain's duties, visiting the wounded -- "what strange and dreadful wounds" -- officiating at the burials of men from his regiment, and making detailed notes on the location of the graves in order that families might later recover the bodies, though later in the week, mass burials became necessary. Detailed entries end on December 23rd, and thereafter there is a brief description and pencil sketch of Fortress Monroe, Va., and some pencil sketches of Newport News and of soldiers in camp. In the back of the notebook containing the diary is a register of wounded soldiers of the 25th New Jersey and a regimental return for the morning of December 15th, 1862.

Student at Hillsdale College, soldier during the Civil War with the 64th Illinois Volunteers. Diaries, 1860-1872, describing student life, wartime activities, trip to Europe and the Near East, and western trip containing impressions of Indians and Mormons; also correspondence, various writings, and commonplace book, 1872.

The Francis Wayland Dunn collection consists of diaries, correspondence, writings, and miscellaneous personal materials.

The Francis Wickham diary contains entries for August-October 1796, when Wickham served with the British Royal Navy in Martinique. He wrote about Martinique's wildlife, navy life, travels, and other topics.

The Francis Wickham diary contains approximately 75 pages of entries, covering August 23-October 5, 1796, while Wickham served with the British Royal Navy in Martinique. In his diary, Wickham wrote articulately about the climate, plant and animal life, habits of the British sailors, places he visited, and the ubiquity of illness among the sailors.

In early entries, Wickham showed a particular interest in Martinique's wildlife and climate. He described birds and speculated about their migrations (August 24, 1796), discussed fruits, reptiles, and insects, and in several entries, expressed sadness at the high mortality rate for the British in Martinique, which he attributed to the "vile" climate (September 20, 1796). He also frequently commented on the habits of the British sailors, including their tendency toward melancholy (August 27, 1796), the "riot and debauchery" in which they participated, and their love of "accursed grog" (September 4, 1796).

In later entries, Wickham wrote more frequently about travel and political events. On September 10, 1796, he described a trip to Lamantine, a small town in eastern Martinique, where he visited a market and was offended by several Frenchmen playing billiards on a Sunday. He also noted his surprise about a visit from Sir Hyde Parker, Jr., and gave accounts of several political developments, such as Admiral Joseph de Richery's escape from Cadiz, Spain, and the activities of privateers, whom he called "perfect desperadoes each arm'd with a brace of pistols and cutlass" (September 14, 1796). In late September, he expressed anxiety that he and others would be stationed in a more dangerous climate, and gave an account of magical powers used by a local woman after the poisoning of several slaves (September 23, 1796). In early October, he described his trip to Fort Royal and St. Pierre, Martinique, and a play he attended called "Two Misers." Wickham's last entry in the volume on October 5, 1796, is lengthy; it describes an upcoming exchange of prisoners with the French, as well as the annoyance Wickham and other sailors felt in the presence of Admiral Parker, who had been "order'd from this station."