Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Intended as a living memorial to former students, faculty, and staff who died in World War II, the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project is dedicated to the study of peacetime applications of atomic energy. The records include significant material relating to the origins of the project and extensive documentation of research conducted over the course of nearly fifty years. In addition, the files include correspondence, minutes, reports, development and director topical files.

Records of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project were received in three major accessions and from three major donors: National Executive Chairman Chester Lang, 1958; Assistant Director Leonard Greenbaum, 1972; and Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project, 2000. In addition, one item, a copy of the Phoenix Project logo, was received from Jacqueline Kolle Haring in 2001. The material is described as two accessions and is primarily comprised of records related to fund-raising, research, and administrative functions. Series include files documenting the history of the project, prospects, donors, research grants, and outreach. Researchers tracking a particular topic should note that there is significant overlap between accessions.

The records of the first two accessions measure three linear feet and date from 1947 to 1959. They are primarily comprised of correspondence, speeches, minutes, financial reports, and research files and are arranged into four series: Chester Lang/National Executive Chairman Files; Fund-raising Campaign; Financial Reports; and Early Research.

The records accessioned between 2000 and 2001 range from 1948 to 1997 and add 46 feet of valuable and significant documentation to the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project record group. While large portions of the records relate to development and fund-raising aspects of the project, there are also important correspondence, research, and committee files. In addition, the accession includes a rich group of materials documenting the history of the project, as well as files regarding the national and international involvement of Phoenix administrators and scientists in the nuclear energy field.

The records are organized into the following series: History; Minutes of Meetings; Development Topical Files; Director's Topical Files; Ford Reactor; Organizations; Prospects; Donors; Research; and Audio Materials. It is important to note that since the years covered in the development topical files and director topical files series overlap, the researcher is advised to examine both runs for material on a given subject.

Officially established in 1959, the Office of Research supports and administers large interdisciplinary projects called research centers and administers research institutes. The record group includes individual vice president's files, central office files, staff files, financial records, administrative files, committee and task force documents and reports, special event files, and project and institute files.

The records of the vice-president for research date from 1911 to 2013 and measure 323.5 linear feet, 1 oversize box and 157 MB of digital materials. The records document the activities of the office overseeing grant funded research at the University of Michigan and offer some insight into the range of research undertaken at the university. Records include administrative files of vice-presidents, including correspondence, memoranda, and budgetary material relating to research projects and grants of university units and departments; and photographs.

The organization of the records, particularly the early accessions, reflects the tenure of the successive vice presidents for research. Later accessions included files of associate vice-presidents and senior staff officers as well topically organized files that spanned the tenure of several vice presidents. The records are organized into the following series:

1. A. Geoffrey Newman -- Boxes 1-15, 70-71
2. Charles Overberger -- Boxes 15-69
3. Charles Overberger/Warren Sussman -- Boxes 72-87
4. Linda S. Wilson,-- Boxes 88-100
5. William C. Kelly -- Boxes 102-105
6. Central Files -- Boxes 108-127, 180-210, 266-275, Boxes 277-301, Boxes 311-322
7. OVPR Staff Files -- Boxes 128-134
8. Julie Ellison -- Boxes 135-136
9. Marvin Parnes -- Boxes 137-146
10. OVPR Financial and Administrative Files -- Boxes 147-148
11. Administrative Files -- Boxes 149-150, Boxes 323-324
12. Committees and Task forces -- 151-164
13. Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project and Ford Nuclear Reactor -- Boxes 165 --166, 218-219
14. Special Events, Symposiums, and Promotional -- Boxes 167-170, 275
15. Presidential Initiatives Fund -- Boxes 171-179
16. Contractual Restrictions Requests (PAF-R's) -- Boxes 213-216
17. Michigan Life Science's Corridor -- Boxes 216-218
18. Discretionary Fund -- Boxes 220-264
19. Indirect Waivers -- Boxes 265
20. Research Faculty Appointments -- Boxes 276, Box 322
21. Washington D.C. Office -- Boxes 302-310

Records of University of Michigan office (and its predecessor administrative offices) responsible for external fund raising and development activities, including subject files of development officials Arthur Brandon, Lyle Nelson, and Michael Radock; staff files; and photographs.

The records of the Vice President for Development date from 1948 to the present and measure 39.5 linear feet. They reflect the basic concerns of the office for these four decades: preserving and improving the university's public image and planning major fundraising efforts. Unfortunately, both activities are incompletely documented. In the area of public relations the records tend to discuss how immediate problems will be dealt with, rather than overall conceptions of the university's image. The thought behind the innovative fundraising devices created or employed by the office is sometimes recorded through consultant reports, but in general is not well documented.

The manuscript records have been divided into two subgroups, one representing the records of the vice president (or senior staff person, for those years in which there was no vice presidency), the other containing records created by the development office. The Vice Presidents subgroup has been divided by the name of each person who has held the office: Arthur Brandon, Lyle Nelson, and Michael Radock. Researchers should note that since Nelson and Radock used their predecessor's files for some time before inaugurating their own records, the relationship between office tenure and file dates is not an exact one. The Development Office subgroup contains records of that office and its subsidiary units. Several accessions of Development Office records received in 1989 and 1990 have been grouped together as Development Office subgroup: 1989-1990 accessions.