Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The collection consists of digital materials for 28 oral history interviews with state political figures, most of them active in the period of 1950 to 2000. The interviews are conducted by individuals knowledgeable about state political history. The content of the interviews are both about the individual's career and about the issues and personalities of the time. These interviews are with political and labor leaders, past members of the state legislature, a Detroit mayor, and a member of the state constitutional convention of 1961-1962.

Oral history project focused on elder public health and community health nurses. Project leader Stephanie Myers Schim completed a dissertation based on the interviews. Administrative files on the project, background material on interviews, audio cassette tapes, transcripts of some interviews, and articles on the project including the dissertation "Leadership Expression of Elder Community Health Nurse Leaders in Michigan."

The Michigan Leaders in Community Health Nursing oral history project material consists of three series: Documentation and Research, Publication and Dissertation, and Audio Materials. The records date from 1986 to 1997.

The Michigan Alliance of Cooperatives videotapes include recordings of programs, oral history interviews, and panel discussions on topics of concern to cooperatives. Most of the tapes are professional broadcast U-matic videocassettes and master broadcast U-matic videocassettes with a few VHS cassettes. Cooperative leaders represented on the tapes include Fred Thornthwaite, Cecil Robert Crews, Luther Buchele, Jack McClanahan, and Joseph L. Hansknecht among others.

The Michael O'Brien collection of taped interviews consists of 60 cassette tapes conducted over the period of 1987 to 1990. Most of the interviews were conducted over the phone.

Secretary of the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Transportation Authority (AATA). Minutes, 1969-1973, financial statements, reports, and photographs of the AATA largely concerning the problems of mass transportation and the development of the "Dial-a-Ride" system; also papers concerning the development of streets and automobile parking facilities in the city.

The Marjorie C. Brazer Papers covers the period of 1955 to 1983 and has been arranged mainly by the name of organization in which Brazer participated. The largest portion of the collection - Ann Arbor Transportation Authority - consists of minutes, policy and long-range planning documents, and subject files detailing the process by which the bus service for Ann Arbor was established, and the beginning of the Dial-a-Ride program. Other smaller organization files in the collection pertain to the Citizen's Association for Area Planning, the Detroit Committee for Neighborhood Conservation and Improved Housing, the Huron High Bi-Racial Committee, the League of Women Voters (Detroit), the League of Women Voters (Ann Arbor), and the Washtenaw County Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity. One file - Washtenaw County Political Campaigns - concerns Lloyd Ives' 1959 Ann Arbor mayoral campaign and Brazer's own 1968 campaign for county supervisor.

Of interest is the documentation of an oral history project undertaken by Brazer in 1983 and pertaining to the establishment and operation of the Rackham endowment to the University of Michigan. This materials is arranged into the Rackham Endowment Oral History Project series. The series includes oral history audiocassettes and administrative files for the project. Brazer's work on this project resulted in her Biography of an Endowment, published in 1985 by the Bentley Historical Library.

The collection also contains family school yearbooks.

Oral history interviews collected as part of a project of the University of Michigan Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, on "U.S.-Philippine Interactions as Reflected in Oral Histories."

The collection contains four series of oral history interviews, all recorded on audiocassettes. The series are: Forrest McGill, Petra Fuld Netzorg, Michael P. Onorato, and Bienvenido Santos.

Oral history project conducted by Lembi Kongas entitled "Twentieth Century Farm Women: A View from Southern Michigan: Oral History Project, 1975-1978"; include audio tapes and transcripts of interviews; background materials; and published volumes, 1992, entitled "Farm women in the Twentieth Century: A view from southern Michigan."

The Kongas collection consists of the results of the project to document the lives of farm women living in Southern Michigan. The collection includes tapes of oral interviews, transcripts of the interviews, background materials, and miscellaneous photographs and slides.

The Law School History Oral History Interviews contain transcripts and audio cassette tapes of interviews with University of Michigan Law School faculty discussing their background, education, careers, and the Law School.

This record group consists of three series, Oral History Transcripts, Oral History Audiocassettes, and Oral History Computer Discs. The series contain audiocassettes, bound copies of the transcripts and subject indexes, and a small number of computer discs with transcript files. Transcripts and cassettes are arranged alphabetically by interviewee.

The interviews typically include discussions of the interviewees' backgrounds and education, and subsequent commentary on legal education. The administration of the law school is well covered in these interviews which also add significant detail to the operation of the University as a whole.

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.

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