Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

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.

Ann Arbor, Michigan attorney who spent her career fighting sex discrimination in education, sports, and politics. The collection contains oral history interviews, tribute statements, and photographs collected on the occasion of renaming the Women's Center of Southeastern Michigan after Jean Ledwith King and for the creation of a documentary, "The Power of One: Celebrating Jean Ledwith King," by John Owens.

The Jean Ledwith King Oral History Collection is composed of visual materials collected by John Owens to celebrate King's life and work in 2011, when the Women's Center of Southeast Michigan was renamed in King's honor.

Papers of Josh Mack, an African American education specialist, civic leader, and former Detroit Board of Education member. The collection includes biographical materials, articles and press releases, correspondence (including some from former Michigan politicians), curriculum guidelines from the Wayne County Attention Centers, a small amount of photographs, an audio recording of a Testimonial event, a digital file comprising of several television interviews and news clips, and other collected materials pertaining to Mack's professional career and civic duties.

The collection primarily focuses on Mack's tenure as an education specialist, Detroit Board of Education member, and as a civic leader, particularly in Detroit's North End neighborhood.

Records include biographical materials, articles and press releases about Mack's professional career and civic activities, correspondence, writings, curriculum materials --primarily from Mack's tenure as an administrative coordinator with the Wayne County Attention Centers,--and collected items pertaining to Mack's professional activities and his interest in education, job training, and counseling services for minorities. Also included several digital news clips and interviews.

Project funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to document the health care experiences of African Americans in southeastern Michigan consisting primarily of oral history interviews with African American health care practitioners and administrators covering the period 1940-1969; background files relating to the project, and oral history interview transcripts and audio recordings. Interviews discuss biographical details, desegregation efforts in Detroit area hospitals, and social conditions facing African Americans.

The records of the Kellogg African American Health Care Project have been kept in the original order in which they were received and have been divided into two chronological series: Phase I and Phase II, reflecting the two separate accessions that were received. The interviews in the Phase I series were conducted in 1997 and accessioned by the Bentley Historical Library in 1998, while the interviews in Phase II were conducted from 1997 through 1999 and accessioned by the library in 2000. Both of these series have a similar order and arrangement, differing mainly in who was interviewed; in addition, there is some updating of administrative papers in the 2000 accession. Both series are divided into two subseries: Administrative Files and Interviews. A description of the subseries for both of the series is below.

The Administrative Files subseries contains the organizational and background materials for the project including copies of the signed consent forms. This subseries gives several access tools for the interview portion of the collection as well as detailed information regarding the interview methodology. A Master Index and a Tape Index allow access by topic to both the transcripts and the tape-recorded material. Material related to follow-up research and further studies is also available.

The Interviews subseries contains the transcripts and tape recordings of the individual interviews. This subseries is organized alphabetically by the name of each person interviewed. A biographical sketch is provided for each individual and in some cases, copies of publications, photographs or computer-generated images of the participant, resumes, and news clippings are also included. In the Phase I series, the cassette tapes containing the interviews are included within each person's file. In the Phase II series, the tapes are stored separately.

1. Anderson, William G.
2. Ayala, Reginald
3. Boddie, Arthur W.
4. Brakefield-Caldwell, Wilma
5. Bryant, Jr., Henry Clay
6. Burton, Alice
7. Cain, Waldo L.
8. Collins, James W.
9. Cooper, Claude H.
10. Cooper, Vivienne B.
11. Dillard, Gladys B.
12. Gaines, Jr., George D.
13. Gant, Leon
14. Glass, Herman J.
15. Goodwin, Della M.
16. Harris, Joseph B.
17. Iacobell, Frank P.
18. Jefferson, Horace L.
19. Jenkins, Sidney B.
20. Johnson, Arthur L.
21. Keith, Rachel B.
22. Lawson, William E.
23. Love, Josephine H.
24. McCree, Suesetta
25. Maben, Jr., Hayward C.
26. Mason, Berna
27. Mottley, Dorothy
28. Northcross, Jr., David C.
29. Northcross, Ophelia B.
30. Peebles-Meyers, Marjorie
31. Raiford, III, Frank P.
32. Roberson, Jr., Rev. Garther
33. Roberson, Rev. Dr. S.L.
34. Smith, Elsie
35. Starks, Fannie L.
36. Swan, Lionel F.
37. Tanner, Natalia M.
38. Todd, Oretta Mae
39. Webb, Irma Clara
40. Whitten, Charles F.
41. Wright, Charles H.
42. Young, Watson

Lawrence L. Witt was a Detroit native who served in the Army Air Force during World War II and was a prisoner of war (POW) for eleven months after getting shot down over Nazi Germany. His daughter Laura A. Edge later researched her father's story and wrote a book about his and other airmen's experiences as prisoners of war in WWII. Correspondence, various documents relating to military and prisoner of war experience, and audio-visual materials including oral histories of several WWII veterans.

The Lawrence Witt and Laura Edge papers document Witt's experiences during and after World War II, as well as his daughter's research on his and other airmen's experiences as prisoners of war in Nazi Germany. Most series consist of folders (both original and digitized copies) originally ordered and numbered by Laura Edge.

Organization dedicated to furthering "the art of playing the Hammered Dulcimer" founded in 1963 by Elgia C. Hickok in Michigan. Records include correspondence, minutes, newsletters, programs, event flyers, and oral histories, sound recordings of interviews and meetings, and photographs.

The Original Dulcimer Players Club records document the group's organization and activities from its founding in 1963. The records are arranged into six series: Administrative materials, Publications and events, Articles and newspaper clippings, Miscellaneous, Visual materials, and Audio materials.

Papers of Pun Plamondon, activist, writer, and journalist who in 1968 co-founded the White Panther Party with John Sinclair. Papers include material related to Plamondon's political activism in the late 1960s-early 1970s, material related to the White Panthers Party, the Rainbow People's Party, and Plamondon's relationship with John Sinclair, as wells as material related to law suits against Plamondon and his trials, most notably United States v. U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, et al. and the State of Michigan v. Craig Blazier and Lawrence R. (Pun) Plamondon. Also material related to his autobiographical writings.

The Pun Plamondon papers mostly include material related to his political activism in the late 1960s-early 1970s, legal trials, and imprisonment.

Richard Solomon was a professor of political science at the Univerity of Michigan, a White House staffer who worked on "ping-pong diplomacy" under Henry Kissinger during the Nixon administration, and a scholar of Chinese history and politics. This collection consists primarily of interviews with Chinese refugees and subsequent computer data printouts and analysis of these interviews.

This collection is organized into two series: Interview Materials and Professional Materials, and primarily documents interviews conducted by Solomon and his associates, likely for Solomon's dissertation on Chinese political culture. The majority of the materials are written in Chinese, although there are some interview transcriptions, interview analyses, and reports written in English.

The Interview Materials series is divided into two subseries: (1) Interviews; and (2) Data and Analysis. The Interviews subseries is comprised of interview responses and transcripts; various tests, evaluations, and score sheets; and handwritten materials. The Data and Analysis subseries is comprised primarily of computer data printouts, although it also contains some reports authored by Solomon on changing Chinese culture, as well as a magnetic data tape.

Researchers may find the folder "Interview Materials, General," located in Box 3 of the Interviews subseries, helpful in understanding some of the abbreviations used throughout the papers, the reasoning behind the interviews, and how the interviews were written up. Some commonly used acronyms are: "RT," which stands for Rorschach Test; a T or H preceding a number stands for either Taiwan or Hong Kong; "Trad-Mod" stands for "Traditionality - modernity," which was an attitude scale used by Solomon to quantitatively measure degrees "of modernity."

The Professional Materials series is comprised of a single folder titled "Ping Pong" that contains handwritten notes and various newspaper clippings related to the Chinese ping pong team's visit to the United States in 1972.

University of Michigan Professor Emeritus of English whose area of expertise included Arthur Miller. Topical files containing correspondence, clippings, notes, and publications associated with various American figures. Also included are 14 sound recordings consisting of lectures delivered by and about, as well as interviews with, Miller.

The Robert A. Martin papers primarily consists of topical files containing correspondence, clippings, notes, and publications associated with various American figures, such as dramatist Arthur Miller and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Also, included are 14 sound recordings that include lectures delivered by and about, as well as interviews with, Miller.

Noted Michigan-based modern architect and former Professor and later Dean of the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Metcalf's work includes over 150 buildings in Michigan and Ohio. The material in this collection spans the years 1942 to 2017, and includes architectural drawings, presentation boards, client files, photographs and slides, correspondence, newspaper clippings, journals, articles, and teaching material.

The Robert C. Metcalf papers include architectural drawings, presentation boards, presentation books, client files, photographs, slides, and negatives of Metcalf's work on residential, commercial, and community projects. The collection provides comprehensive documentation on virtually all of the projects undertaken by Metcalf. Projects are documented from design to construction and often subsequent additions and renovations. The materials in the collection are organized into three series: Project Files, General Files, and Visual Materials.

The General Files series includes personal material such as an audio interview with Robert Metcalf (2010), a date book (1974), and Metcalf's undergraduate student work from the University of Michigan (1942-1950).