Collections

The records of the Casa de Unidad Cultural Arts and Media Center cover the organization's efforts to promote, develop, and celebrate Hispanic and Latino arts and traditions in Southwest Detroit. The record group consists primarily of correspondence, board minutes, grant proposals and reports, newsletters, event and program budgets, event flyers, educational workshop reports and audio material.

The records of Casa de Unidad cover the period between 1980 and 2006. The collection consists primarily of correspondence, board minutes, grant proposals and reports, newsletters, event and program budgets, event flyers, educational workshop reports and audio material. The majority of the material is in English, though a small number of flyers, newsletters, and audio recordings are in Spanish. The collection contains the following series: Administrative Material, Educational/Artistic Activities, Unity in the Community Festival, and Audio Material.

Founded in 2001 as the Center for Religion and Society at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, the Center houses and supports the interdisciplinary minor in Religious Studies, and advances research on religion and its relationship to American society. The Pluralism Project, developed by Claude Jacobs, focused on religion and religious communities in Detroit, Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, Michigan. The Center's records primarily document the Pluralism Project and the files of the director, Claude Jacobs. The collection also contains publications and printed material from religious communities across Michigan.

The Center for Ethnic and Religious Studies records primarily document the Pluralism Project collaboration between the University of Michigan-Dearborn and Harvard University. The records highlight communities within the southeast Michigan and the greater Detroit area in particular, as well as the Pluralism Project itself.

Claude Jacobs' Director's files document his time as Director of the Pluralism Project and professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

The collection also includes Michigan religious communities material includes inspirational/instructional texts, pamphlets, fliers, newsletters, community outreach, and various programs.

Republican member of the state house and the state senate; president of the University Musical Society. Legislative and campaign files, 1919-1935, detailing his election campaigns, his activities within the legislature, and his various responsibilities as a member of the Republican State Central Committee; general correspondence files, 1922-1960, largely pertaining to his work with the University Musical Society and other civic activities; topical files; family history and memoirs; diaries and appointment books; papers of wife Alva Gordon Sink; and visual materials.

Aviator, civilian personnel officer with the U.S. Air Force; chronological and topical files, audio-visual materials, and clippings and scrapbooks.

The Chauncey Spencer collection is an accumulation of personal materials - correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, sound and video recordings - relating to his lifelong interest in aviation, his career with the military, and the career of his mother, poetess Anne Spencer.

Photographs and sound recordings of Alston remarks at the dedication of the Robert Hayden Lounge in the University of Michigan Center for Afroamerican and African Studies in 1988. The Center was renamed the Department Afroamerican and African Studies in 2011. A 1988 discussion between Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Alston, William McAdoo, and member of the Bentley Historical Library staff about African American historical material housed at the Bentley. Interview conducted by William McAdoo (1990, includes transcript) relating to the Inventory of Negro Manuscripts project at the Bentley Historical Library.

The Chrystal G. Tibbs Papers comprise over a half-century of documents pertaining to Tibbs's membership in various chapters of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and to the history of the sorority at large. Founded at Howard University in 1908, A.K.A. was the first sorority established by African-American women and currently has approximately 250,000 members. The collection's four series contain papers pertaining to Tibbs's personal participation in sorority activities (including those related to her tenure in various administrative posts), materials from several Michigan chapters, sorority publications, and audiovisual materials. In addition, the collection contains work done by Tibbs and family members to document the Powell, Webster, and Winchester family history.

The Chrystal G. Tibbs Papers comprise materials accumulated through Tibbs's participation in Alpha Kappa Alpha conferences, chapter meetings, and special interest groups at the local, state, regional, and national level over a span of fifty years. The activities of Michigan-based chapters are particularly well represented. Materials also include personal and professional documentation directly related to Tibbs and her immediate family. The collection is divided into four series: Personal Papers, Professional Career, Powell Family Papers, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

President of the University of Michigan, 1924-1929, educational reformer, geneticist and cancer researcher, also interested in a range of reform movement including birth control, eugenics, international peace, and immigration. Papers include correspondence, speeches and reports concerning all phases of his career as president of the University of Michigan and his civic and reform activities.

The C.C. Little papers document a wide range to topics, events, administrative actions, policy developments during Little's tenure as president of the University of Michigan. The collection contains mainly reports and replies to letters but very little incoming correspondence. However, the researcher may use these replies as clues to other collections in the library which contain the individual correspondent's papers.

The chronological ordering of the papers makes subject access somewhat difficult. To selective indexes of correspondents and subjects found in the papers provide some assistance in using the Little papers. The following discussion of the papers follows the structure of the subject index.

The growth of the university which had begun at the close of World War I continued to be felt during President Little's tenure. New buildings completed earlier were handling classroom and laboratory needs, so attention now turned to living accommodations and the athletic department's needs (Sec. II). The period of the 1920s was one of increased interest in theories of progressive education. President's Little's primary interest was in educational policy arising from such theories. Thus, academic and departmental proposals and reorganizations (Sec. III of the subject index) form a major part of his papers. He made fewer administrative changes (Sec. I of the subject index). The twenties are also remembered as a time of social ferment in the country and this was reflected in campus life, with more attention being paid to regulating student social mores and the use of alcohol and cars (see Secs. I and IV of the subject index).

Although President Little oversaw the reorganization of some administrative offices, his attention was mainly focused on educational policy, his primary interest. This is reflected in materials on admissions policy, freshman orientation, continuing education of alumni, and the re-organization of the university into two separate units.

A few months after President Little took office, the "Day Report", so named because Edmund Day, Dean of the School of Business Administration chaired the committee which drew it up, was completed. It was the result of an exhaustive study of athletics, physical education and recreation in the university and led to changes in the Board in Control of Athletics, development of women's and intramural athletics, and gave impetus to the financing and building of the stadium (opened in 1927).

President Little's concern with developing students of good moral character resulted in regulation of the use of cars and alcohol, thought to be related twin evils, and the initiation of planning for dormitories, where all students would live under university supervision.

The major building projects that came to fruition during the Little Administration were the Stadium and the Women's League Building. Construction work at the Law School and the School of Education represented on-going projects begun in earlier administrations, while plans for a natural science museum were just beginning to take shape.

During President Little's tenure, schools and departments established earlier continued to grow, while some projects, such as the Creative Arts Fellowship, were brought to a close. The financing and governance of the Lawyers' Club presented on-going difficulties. Compensation for and the role of "outside work" in Medicine, Engineering, and Education required continued attention. The university contributed to scientific research through the Hobbs Expedition to Greenland which also showed the value of the university's fledgling radio program in maintaining communication with such distant projects.

With the appointment of Samuel Trask Dana as Dean, the School of Forestry was established in the spring of 1927. At that time the state was faced with the problems of cutover lands and the collapse of the lumbering industry. In 1927 the School of Forestry provided leadership in dealing with these problems by sponsoring two conferences which brought together owners and operators in the lumbering industry, state officials, and forestry experts to consider solutions.

The School of Education continued its growth with the addition of an elementary school building. The completion of that building in 1929 enabled the School to provide K-12 education under the supervision of its faculty. Some attention was given also to providing pre-primary education, but nothing came of this during Little's tenure.

The university and its academic life did not escape the impact of the societal upheavals of the "roaring twenties". Perhaps more so at the University of Michigan because of President Little's active role in several of those issues, as is reflected in his correspondence. He was an officer in the American Eugenics Society, a vocal proponent of both population control and the "betterment of the human race", and also served as chairman of the Michigan chapter of the League of Nations Non-partisan Association.

Community Action on Substance Abuse (CASA) was an Ann Arbor-based, non-profit organization of volunteer parents, educators and service groups. CASA's mission was to educate adolescents in the community about the risks of using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, and to encourage adolescents to live drug free. The records consist of CASA organizational materials – meeting minutes, annual reports and more – publicity and prevention materials, program information, Ann Arbor-area and national substance abuse resources, conference materials, local drug use surveys, fundraising materials, VHS and cassette tapes, and photographs and other items from Ann Arbor's Drug Free Schools drug prevention art contests.

The Community Action on Substance Abuse records consist of CASA organizational materials – meeting minutes, annual reports and more – publicity and prevention materials, program information, Ann Arbor-area and national substance abuse resources, conference materials, local drug use surveys, fundraising materials, VHS and cassette tapes, and photographs and other items from Ann Arbor's Drug Free Schools drug prevention art contests. The records have been arranged into thirteen series: CASA Organizational files, Publicity, Prevention Materials, CASA Programs -- Ann Arbor Schools, CASA Programs -- Ann Arbor Community, Area Treatment Resources, State and National Affiliations, Conferences, Drug Use Surveys, Fundraising, Sound Recordings, Visual Materials, and Ann Arbor Schools Drug Prevention Contest.

Gay rights activist of Ferndale, Mich. Files relating to his involvement with AIDS prevention and gay rights; include minutes of the board and other materials of the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project, 1988-2001; files accumulated from his work with the Michigan Organization for Human Rights; and miscellanea relating to his campaigns for Ferndale City Council in 1995, 1999, 2003, for mayor in 2007, and for Oakland County Commissioner in 2010.

The Craig Covey collection is arranged into two series: Topical Files and Audio-Visual Materials. The topical files are especially important for their documentation of his work in various education and prevention study programs. These include the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project (MAPP for short) and the Michigan AIDS High Risk Education program. Also of important are files documenting his participation in the political and civic life of Ferndale, both within the gay community and as a member of the city council and as Mayor. There is documentation of his campaign for office and his participation in a gay and lesbian neighborhood association, Friends and Neighbors of Ferndale (FANS for short). The Audio-Visual series is comprised mainly of video recordings relating to gay pride ceremonies and activities.

The Dan Sicko Papers comprise the written work and research undertaken by Sicko on the topic of Detroit techno music and its significance for the broader techno genre. The collection's four series contain materials pertaining to Sicko's book Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk, articles written over the course of Sicko's career as a freelance music journalist, popular and scholarly articles written by others, industry-specific and general interest periodicals, and sound recordings of interviews with Detroit-based techno artists, producers, and distributors.

The Dan Sicko Papers comprise over two decades of Sicko's writings and research materials pertaining to the history of Detroit techno music and its role in the electronic music industry. The collection is divided into four series: Writings, Research Materials, Periodicals, and Sound Recordings.