Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Conscientious objector during World Wars I and II and founder of the farming cooperative Saline Valley Farms. Correspondence, diaries, notebooks, and other materials relating to all phases of his career, including his work as Y.M.C.A. worker in England, 1916-1917, and as teacher at Central China University, Wuchang, China, 1922-1926; also family correspondence of Philip H. and Almena S. Gray, 1874-1926; also photographs and motion pictures.

The Harold Gray papers have been divided into seven series: Correspondence; World War I era activities; Personal and Miscellaneous; Printed, clippings, and miscellanea; Family and genealogical; Saline Valley Farms; and Visual Materials (photographs and motion pictures). The great strength of the collection are correspondence, administrative files, diaries, and visual materials documenting the operation of the Saline Valley Farms. There is significant, though smaller quantities of papers detailing Gray's opposition to serving in the military during World War I and his career as a teacher in China in the 1920s.

Professor of law at University of Michigan, and specialist in corporation law. Correspondence, speeches, newspaper clippings, notes, and manuscripts of books and articles, relating to his professional career, Ann Arbor, Michigan organizations and issues, particularly progressive political movements and prohibition, including the Michigan Anti-Saloon League, the anti-trust movement, and the 1912 Progressive Party; also photographs.

The Horace L. Wilgus papers include correspondence, speeches, clippings, notes, manuscripts of books and articles dealing with his professional career, the many Ann Arbor organizations and issues in which he was interested: particularly progressive political movements and prohibition, including the Michigan Anti-Saloon League, the anti-trust movement, and the 1912 Progressive Party. The collection also includes University of Michigan Law School course materials, family genealogical information, and a small series of photographs, many of them of his home on Washtenaw Ave. in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Papers of Dr. Jack Kevorkian (1928-2011), medical pathologist, social activist, advocate for the terminally ill patient's right to die and physician-assisted suicide (which Kevorkian called "Medicide"), author, artist, and musician. By his own estimation, Dr. Kevorkian assisted in the suicides of more than 100 terminally ill people between 1990 and 1998. Kevorkian was acquitted in three physician-assisted suicide trials, and a mistrial was declared in the fourth. In a fifth trial, he was convicted of second-degree murder after administering a lethal injection and served eight years in prison. The collection includes materials related to the Kevorkian family (personal and business records, correspondence, photographs, and audiovisual recordings); Jack Kevorkian's research files and files related to Medicide (files related to the physician-assisted suicides and recordings of Kevorkian's consultations with the terminally ill); and miscellaneous papers (his personal and professional correspondence, published works and manuscript drafts, records related to his court trials, photographs, recordings of news coverage and interviews, audio recordings of Kevorkian's music, and images of his art).

The Jack Kevorkian Papers are arranged into five series: Kevorkian Family, Research and Practice, Morganroth & Morganroth, Personal Interests, and Medicide Files.

The Kevorkian Family papers mostly include correspondence, recollections, photographs, and video and audio recordings of family gatherings. The Research and Practice series contains Kevorkian's correspondence on scientific subjects, his research files, and Kevorkian's articles on various medical, ethical, and bioethical topics. Also included are recorded interviews and media segments featuring Kevorkian as well as media reports about his activities and court trials. Materials in the Personal Interests series include sheet music of Kevorkian's musical compositions, recordings of Kevorkian playing music, reproductions of his paintings, publicity regarding exhibits of his art, and a sample of collected books. The Morganroth & Morganroth series includes materials used during the court trials, such as correspondence and Kevorkian's research as well as the script of the HBO film, You Don't Know Jack, annotated by Mayer Morganroth. The Medicide Files series contains the files of the terminally ill patients who had asked him assist in ending their lives and who he helped in doing so. Medicide files include correspondence between Kevorkian and his consulting "patients" and their families, photographs, and forms developed by Kevorkian as well as recordings of consultations.

University of Michigan professor of political science, special advisor to the U.S. Military Government in Germany after World War II, participant in numerous government commissions; papers include correspondence, working files, speeches, course materials, and visual and sound materials.

The James K. Pollock papers represent an accumulation of files from a lifetime of academic teaching and research and an extraordinary number of public service responsibilities to both his state and his nation. The files within the collection fall into two categories: types of document (such as correspondence, speeches and writings, visual materials, etc.) and files resulting from a specific activity or position (such as his work as delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention or his service with the Office of the Military Government in Germany after World War II).

The collection is large and of a complicated arrangement because of Pollock's many activities. When received in 1969, the files were maintained as received; very little processing was done to the collection so that an inventory to the papers could be quickly prepared. The order of material is that devised by James K. Pollock and his secretarial staff in the U-M Department of Political Science. Recognizing the anomalies within the order of the collection, the library made the decision to list the contents to the collection while at the same time preparing a detailed card file index (by box and folder number, i.e. 16-8) to significant correspondents and subjects. While there was much to be said for this method of preparing a finding aid expeditiously, it also covered up some problems in arrangement. Thus series and subseries of materials are not always grouped together as they were created by Pollock. Files on the Hoover Commission and the Michigan Constitutional Convention, for example, come before Pollock's work in Germany after the war. In 1999, effort was made to resolve some of the inconsistencies and obvious misfilings of the first inventory but because of the numbering system used in 1969 and the card index prepared for the files, there are still some problems. Researchers should be alert to these difficulties and take time to examine different parts of the collection for material on a similar topic.

Meeting minutes, financial records, book lists, and clippings; also scrapbook, 1953-1968, concerning the Ann Arbor Public Library; commemorative tenth anniversary volume, 1876, containing message to the women of 1976; also audio cassettes of some meetings. Also contains material on the organization's 150th anniversary, including a presentation from Francis X. Blouin.

The records of the Ladies Library Association of Ann Arbor include minutes of meetings, anniversary and celebratory materials, clippings and photographs, and financial records. The records of the Ladies Library Association of Ann Arbor are arranged in two series: Organizational Records and Audio Cassettes.

Research materials used by Laurie Palazzolo in writing of her book Horn Man: the Polish-American Musician in Twentieth-Century Detroit (Detroit, Mich.: American-Polish Music Society, 2003). The collection sheds light on the history of 20th century Polish-American musical landscape of greater Detroit.

The collection documents the history and repertoire of Polish folk music bands in the greater Detroit area as well as professional careers of musicians. The records date primarily from the 1940's until 1980s. Materials dated 1990s-2000s are primarily transcripts of interviews taken by Gomulka Palazzolo. Records include correspondence, business contracts, performance schedules and programs, sheet music, scanned copies of photographs, copies of Keynote magazine, biographical information and interviews of musicians, performance advertisements, and recordings. The records are arranged into five series as follows: Research files, Detroit Federation of Musicians, Sheet music, Sound recordings, and Visual materials.

University of Michigan alumnus (M.P.H., 1977) and associate professor of epidemiology (1977-1988) who, as a medical officer for the World Health Organization (WHO), helped eradicate smallpox, primarily from India. Includes WHO Global Smallpox Eradication Programme correspondence, reports, photographic material, publications, and posters; and collected publications.

The Lawrence Brilliant papers documents efforts to eradicate smallpox, primarily the joint World Health Organization (WHO) and Government of India smallpox eradication campaign of 1973-1975. Material is dated from approximately 1882-2022 (majority of material found within 1972-1979) and includes correspondence, various kinds of reports and publications, photograph albums and a scrapbook, posters, and microfilm.

Researchers should note that this collection contains images of individuals, including children, suffering from smallpox.

Records of the Law School document the evolution of legal education at the University of Michigan as well as tenures of various deans and faculty. Documentation includes historical and class files; student organizations and activities; planning and construction of Law School buildings; information on William W. Cook and his bequest; topical files; deans' correspondence; reports and minutes. Also included are materials related to the Thomas M Cooley and William W. Cook lecture series and portraits of faculty and students, photographs of activities of the Judge Advocate General's School held at the Law School during World War II, the construction of the Law Quadrangle and Law Library addition, and student activities.

The Law School Records begin in 1852 and span the years through the end of the twentieth century. The records document the history of legal education at the University of Michigan, the administration of the Law School, and the lives of some of the scholars who have studied and taught there.

The physical arrangement of the records reflects the various accessions of material that have been received from the Law School over the years. This finding aid is structured to reflect the intellectual organization of the records - continuing series and like materials have been brought together regardless of when the records were transferred to the library. The Summary Contents List provides and overview of the organization of the records.

There are eight major series in the record group: Historical and Class Files (1865-1974); Deans of the Law School (1852-1999); Faculty Files (1859-1994); Student Files (1894-1996); Law Quadrangle and William W. Cook, (1919-1938); Law School Lecture Series; Committee of Visitors and Audio/Visual Materials.

Records of the philanthropic foundation focused on supporting Jewish and Detroit-area causes. Also includes the personal papers of founders Mandell "Bill" Berman and his wife Madeleine Berman. This collection contains administrative records, meeting information, grant recipient files, correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, and interviews.

The Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation records contain 32 linear feet and 12.2 GB of records from the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation. It also contains personal papers from Mandell and Madeleine Berman further demonstrating their devotion to local and national philanthropic causes.

The records have been organized into 2 series:

The Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation records series contains administrative files, correspondence, meeting agendas, financial documents, and other information related to the work of the foundation. The sub-series contains the files of the executive director of the foundation, information related to grants and projects and administrative records. The records highlight the work of the foundation with major Jewish organizations including the United Jewish Communities, the Jewish Education Services of North American and the Berman Jewish DataBank.

The Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman papers series contains personal materials from the Berman family. Materials include correspondence, papers, photographs, video interviews, and speech transcripts. The series highlights Mandell Berman's service and leadership in major Jewish organizations, the impact of the Berman Center for Performing Arts and the personal history and accomplishments of the Berman family.

The University of Michigan's first professional school; the Medical School record group includes historical and administrative records related to the school and its faculty and administrators, 1850-2010.

The records of the Medical School span over 160 years, beginning in 1850 and continuing through 2010. They include 389.7 linear feet of material, 10 oversize volumes, 9 oversize folders of miscellaneous documents, and 3.3 GB of digital material stored online. The records include dean's correspondence and subject files, executive committee minutes, faculty minutes, annual reports of departments, school accreditation and review files, a variety of special reports and studies, and extensive files on the Replacement Hospital Project (Taubman Center). The record group also contains photo prints depicting faculty, students and facilities, including a remarkable series of photographs taken by J. Jefferson Gibson circa 1893.

The Medical School records have been organized into five subgroups: Dean's Records, Subordinate Administrative Officers, Faculty Records, Audio-Visual Materials, and Miscellaneous records. Within each subgroup there are a number of series and these series may be further subdivided to reflect the date span of the records received in each accession.

The Medical School records have been received in several accessions and the physical arrangement of the records (the number order of the boxes) reflects the various installments in which they were received. The accessions sometimes reflected the tenure of a particular dean or other administrator, but frequently appear to have been somewhat arbitrary transfers of files. Records from individual subgroups, series and subseries often continue across multiple accessions--sometimes with consecutive date ranges, but often with overlapping date spans.

In this finding aid the records are described in their intellectual order -- subgroups and series are brought together irrespective of the particular accession in which they were received. As a result, in the detailed contents listing the box number order will not always be consecutive.