Collections

The Deardorff family papers consist of 109 letters, 6 V-mail envelopes, 2 Christmas cards, and 1 newsletter. Dale Deardorff wrote most of the letters from his military posts to his parents and sister, Jane, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and to his brother Bob in Virginia. Donald Price wrote 4 letters from Texas and Italy. The collection provides details of the daily lives of soldiers as they trained for and fought in World War II.

The Deardorff family papers consist of 109 letters, 6 V-mail envelopes, 2 Christmas cards, and 1 newsletter. Dale Deardorff wrote most of the letters from his military posts to his parents and sister, Jane, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and to his brother Bob in Virginia. Donald Price wrote 4 letters from Texas and Italy: 1 to Jane and 3 to his Aunt Anna Deardorff, who was also living in Gettysburg. A man with the last name of Geiman wrote 1 postcard to Erle and Ipha Deardorff.

When Dale was in basic training at Camp Croft in South Carolina, he wrote letters to his parents nearly every day. This pattern continued when he was stationed at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland and at an undisclosed location in New England. Once Dale was shipped to England, his correspondence home became more sporadic. His letters primarily provide information about his daily training activities, the weather, family affairs, and the soldiers' recreational activities. He often mentioned spending time at USO centers. Dale described the physical features of the locales where he was stationed in great detail.

Many of Dale's letters contain enclosures. On August 3, 1943, he recounted his first experience on an obstacle course and included a sketch of the course. Dale also attached a photograph of himself with a friend, taken while his friend's family was visiting, to his letter of August 14, 1943. Two newspaper articles regarding obstacle courses, including the one at Camp Croft, are enclosed with Dale's letter to his father on September 12, 1943. On September 15, 1943, Dale wrote a short message to his mother, referring to the USO calendar of events on which he was writing. A small calendar, in which he kept the addresses of his friends from basic training, accompanied Dale's letter of November 26, 1943. The front cover displayed an image of a pin-up girl. Many of his letters are on postcards and illustrated stationery from Camp Croft, the USO, the 31st Infantry Training Battalion, and the U.S. Army.

Don wrote 4 letters from his military post in Laredo, Texas, and from Italy, where he was stationed during the war. The short message from Laredo is on an illustrated postcard and was addressed to Jane. In it, he briefly described the city and the people. His later messages were directed to his Aunt Anna. They provide details about the daily life of a soldier in the Army Air Corps. In his last letter, Don mentioned meeting a few British soldiers and shared details about the time he spent with them.

The final postcard, from "Mr. Geiman," is an invitation for Mr. and Mrs. Deardorff to attend a service flag dedication at a church.

The collection contains 6 empty V-mail envelopes addressed from Dale to his parents and postmarked from England. In addition, the collection includes 2 Christmas cards, both from Dale. One is for Jane and the other is for his parents. Also part of the collection is a newsletter from Dale's battalion at Camp Croft, dated July 10, 1943. It consists of articles related to various events and to people in the battalion. On the last page, Dale wrote a short note to Jane, explaining that she might enjoy reading the stories.

Papers of a soldier in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition."

The album contains ca. 350 photographs, including scenes of ports, camps in England and France, the countryside of Russia, Murmansk, men on patrol and in camp, battle casualties, battle damage and construction on the railroad, Russian people, village scenes, fortifications, allied soldiers, airplanes, repair of railroad cars, and the voyage home. These photographs are described in a printed list distributed by John E. Wilson.

[See North Russia pictures/taken by John E. Wilson for Wilson list]

Photograph collection of a soldier with the 168th Co., United States Army Transportation Corps, serving near Murmansk, Russia in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1919, the "Polar Bear Expedition."

This collection contains digital records; the original papers and/or photographs are owned by the donor. The digital items in this collection were digitized from originals by the individual donors before being received by the Bentley Historical Library. Preservation copies of these files with their original file names and CD-ROM file structures intact have been submitted to Deep Blue. Access copies of these digital files can be viewed by clicking on the links next to the individual folders in the Content List below.

In this finding aid, the files have been arranged into one series, Photographs. Within each series, files are listed numerically according to the file arrangement they were given by the donor. The porginal files in this collection are in TIF format. Access copies were made in jpeg format.

Files include digitized photographs of ports, camps in England and France the Russian countryside, Murmansk soldiers on patrol and in camp, battle casualties, battle damage and construction on Russian railroads, airplanes, and other subjects, ca. 1918-1919. Many of these photographs are described in a printed list distributed by John E. Wilson, which can be found online in the "Finding Aid for the North Russia pictures, taken by John E. Wilson."

University of Michigan microbiologist; correspondence, student notebooks, San Francisco Plague Commission records, research files and laboratory notebooks, visual materials

The Frederick G. Novy collection documents the career and research interests of this noted bacteriologist, including information from the period of time when he was a member of the San Francisco Plague Commission (1901).

The collection has been divided into the following series:

1. Biographical/Personal
2. Correspondence
3. University of Michigan Student Notebooks
4. University of Michigan Medical School
5. San Francisco Plague Commission
6. Research Files/Laboratory Notebooks
7. Reprints and Writings
8. Miscellaneous; and Visual Materials.

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.

This collection is made up of autobiographical manuscripts, correspondence, documents, and family photograph albums related to James B. Pond, Sr. and Jr. Some of the items pertain to Pond's service during the Civil War and both father and son's lecture business.

This collection is made up of autobiographical manuscripts, correspondence, documents, and family photograph albums related to James B. Pond, Sr. and Jr. Some of the items pertain to Pond Sr.'s service during the Civil War and both father and son's lecture business.

The Pond Family Papers series includes one box containing miscellaneous correspondence ranging in date from 1896-1932, Civil War related material, autobiographical sketches, family photographs, and personal photograph albums.

The Civil War related material includes a few items relating to James Pond's Civil War service in the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry, among which are a typescript of official reports relating to the massacre at Baxter Springs, Kansas, a printed poem on the massacre, and a printed notice of the death in the 1880s of William T. Brayton of the 3rd Cavalry. Pond also collected other reminiscences of the war, including an autobiographical account of Mrs. Horn, wife of a Missouri surgeon, which includes a description of Quantrill's raiders pillaging town and taking her husband prisoner, and a memoir of Edward P. Bridgman, a soldier in the 37th Massachusetts Infantry who served with John Brown in 1856, and may have known Pond.

More than half of this series consists of autobiographical manuscripts, parts of which, at least, were published as magazine articles. Most of these focus on his early years (prior to 1861) when he and his family were living a marginal existence in frontier Wisconsin and when he was a young man in search of a livelihood. The collection includes three major manuscripts, each present in several copies or versions, all of which are related to each other - "A Pioneer Boyhood," "The American Pioneer: My Life as a Boy," and "Pioneer Days" - plus there are less polished manuscripts of childhood and Civil War reminiscences. All appear to have been written initially in 1890, though some copies were apparently made several years later. In addition, there is an autobiographical sketch "How I got started in the Lecture Business" in which he describes his part in Anna Eliza Young's "apostatizing" and entering onto the lecture circuit.

The collection also contains 5 photograph albums. These volumes contain over 800 personal photographs taken between 1896 and 1902, including many pictures of family members at leisure both indoors and outdoors and Pond's business acquaintances from his lecture agency. Travel photographs include views of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as a group of pictures taken during a visit to England, Switzerland, and Germany in 1901. European items include a series of colored prints, located in Volume 4. The albums contain images of locomotives, railroad cars, and steamships. Volume 1 contains images of the inauguration of William McKinley and Volume 2 contains images of crowds gathered for a GAR parade in Buffalo, New York. Throughout the albums are glimpses of various lecture tours and clients including John Watson (Ian Maclaren) and Anthony Hope in Volume 2 and Francis Marion Crawford in Volume 3. Other notable figures include Sam Walter Foss and William Dean Howells in Volume 1, Charles W. Blair and Edward William Bok in Volume 3, and Sir Henry Morton Stanley, Charles William Stubbs, Robert Stawell Ball, Horace Porter, Frank Thomas Bullen, and Israel Zangwill in Volume 4. In addition to the albums, there are loose photographs of family, James B. Pond Jr., and the Adventurers' Club of New York. Oversized photographs are housed in Box 3.

The Pond Lecture Bureau Papers series consists of one box containing client files (arranged chronologically), loose photographs, and ephemera. Much of the content consists of correspondence between clients/prospective clients and photographs of clients (likely for promotional material). This series spans from 1877 to the 1940s covering periods of ownership from both James B. Pond, Sr. and Jr. Some of these clients are as follows: Henry Ward Beecher, Reverend Joseph Parker, Thomas DeWitt Talmage, Leon Pierre Blouet, Reverend John Watson (Ian Maclaren), William Winter, Edward Rickenbacker, Harry A. Franck, Gunnar Horn, Maurice Brown, and Major Radclyffe Dugmore. Unidentified oversized photographs and a scrapbook are housed in Box 3.

University of Michigan College of Engineering graduate (Class of 1916); engineer and army officer in World War I. Photograph album containing photos and memorabilia relating to Abbott's student activities; letter to his mother dated August 1918, with impressions of Europe during the war.

This collection includes a letter to Abbott's mother, dated August 1918, containing his impressions of England and France written shortly after his arrival in Europe, as well as a photograph album, circa 1910-1915, relating to student life at the University of Michigan.

The album of photographs and memorabilia relates to student activities, especially athletics, the Michigan Union Opera, Phi Delta Chi, Phi Kappa Sigma, Triangles, and Vulcans.

Photograph collection of a soldier with the 167th Co., United States Army Transportation Corps, serving near Murmansk, Russia in the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1919, the "Polar Bear Expedition."

Photographs of ports, camps in England and France the Russian countryside, Murmansk soldiers on patrol and in camp, battle casualties, battle damage and construction on Russian railroads, airplanes, and other subjects. Most of these photographs are described in a printed list distributed by John E. Wilson.

Battle Creek, Michigan and Washington, D.C. family including C.W. (Charles William) Post, cereal manufacturer, and anti-union activist and founder of Post City, Texas; and his daughter Marjorie Merriweather Post, executive of General Foods Co., wife of U. S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, art collector, philanthropist, socialite, and Washington D.C. hostess. C.W. Post papers, largely concern labor-management relations, unionism, the Postum Company, currency reform, advertising, and matters of food and hygiene; Marjorie Merriweather Post papers document her social activities and travel, philanthropies art collections, and the maintenance and preservation of her homes and other possessions.

The Post family collection includes papers of businessman and food processor, C. W. Post, largely relating to labor-management relations, unionism, the Post Company, currency reform, advertising, and matters of food and hygiene; and papers, photographs, and sound recordings of his daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, General Foods executive and philanthropist, relating to social activities and engagements, philanthropies, and the maintenance and preservation of her homes and other possessions.

The C.W. Post papers consist of manuscript items and printed works created by C.W. Post and retained by his daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post. The papers are arranged alphabetically by subject.