Collections

Nurse born in San de Fuca, Washington in 1902. Scrapbook documenting Lurton's 1929 trip to Hawaii, Japan, and China in which she traveled with the University of Michigan baseball team in route to an exhibition game against Meiji University. Also, includes photographs of Lurton's family and friends.

The Corinne K. Lurton scrapbook primarily documents her trip in 1929 to Hawaii, Japan, and China. A few pages contain newspaper clippings documenting the baseball teams game against Meiji University at the Meiji Shrine Grounds, as well as a photograph of Harvey Straub. Lurton also included photos of locations that she visited in China and Japan. Also included in the scrapbook passenger lists containing the names of the University of Michigan Baseball Team members.

The second half of the album consists of photographs of Lurton with family and friends during the 1910s, depicting her travels.

Cornelia G. Kennedy, "First Lady of the Michigan Judiciary," was the first woman appointed to the federal bench in Michigan and the first woman to become a chief judge for a United States District Court. Judge Kennedy was nominated to U.S. District Court in 1970 and to U.S. Circuit Court (Federal Appeals Court) in 1979. Although never actually nominated to the Supreme Court, she was mentioned in connection with vacancies there during the administrations of three different U.S. Presidents. In addition to her court-related duties, the collection reflects Kennedy's service to the Judicial Conference of the U.S. and the Federal Judicial Center as well as the American Bar Association and other professional organizations. The collection also contains materials from Wayne County Circuit Court. This finding aid includes a Summary Contents List and expanded Scope and Content Note to provide a brief summary of the Federal Court System's structure and history as well as notes on some of the organizations comprising the context of a legal career that spanned more than half a century.

The Cornelia G. Kennedy papers span Kennedy's career as a judge, beginning with her election to Wayne County Circuit Court (the 3rd Judicial Circuit of Michigan, which includes the City of Detroit) in 1966. The bulk of the collection documents her service as an active federal judge, from the time of her appointment to Federal District Court in 1970 through her confirmation and service in Federal Appeals Court, until she assumed senior federal judge status in 1999.

The collection is valuable not only in that it documents the professional and some of the private life of a federal judge who achieved many 'firsts' as a woman but also for the collection's contribution to an understanding of the federal court system and the evolution of judicial ethical standards and practices, especially with respect to financial disclosure, confidentiality, and conflicts of interest.

To some extent, the history of information and communications technology during the period is also represented in the collection through its examples of different correspondence media in different eras and through materials pertaining to the advent of computer-aided legal research in court libraries and the use of new technologies in federal courtrooms.

Inevitably, Judge Kennedy's long family history in the practice of law coincided with significant milestones in American history and in the development of judicial administration organizations and policy. Kennedy's father had graduated from law school and begun his legal career with World War I on the horizon. Kennedy graduated from law school as the national economy was transforming itself after World War II, and as the federal court system was beginning a new era in judicial practice and in judicial review of administration.

Description of Series Content

This collection is divided into ten series: Personal and Biographical; Correspondence; Speeches and Writings; Wayne County Circuit Court; U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan; U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit; Judicial Conference of the United States; Federal Judicial Center; American Bar Association; and Other Professional Organizations and Meetings.

Of necessity, some series include materials of multiple formats, located together primarily with regard to conceptual content rather than format and some types of materials are found in multiple series. For example, correspondence can be found not only in the Correspondence series but also within court-related series to the extent that it relates to matters addressed there.

Throughout the collection, Judge Kennedy's own phrasing is used whenever possible to describe file folder contents. Some examples of her original file folders of administrative papers and office files also contain handwritten notes and have been retained in the collection to provide additional information to the researcher. These original folder labels and notations also help to illustrate the use of different terminology in different time frames.

Detroit, Michigan, architect; 1934 graduate of the University of Michigan. Biographical material and descriptions of his architectural work, including photographs; also photographs taken during World War II and report of U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey on Wake Island, Marshall Islands, and Rabaul, New Britain.

A large part of this collection is made up of black and white slides taken during World War II in the South Pacific and color slides taken in 1945 and 1946 during the Strategic Bombing Survey of Wake Island, the Marshall Islands, and Rabaul, New Britain. The collection does not include any information as to whether Gabler was the actual photographer. The slides are identified by a topical code system, which is deciphered as much as possible in this finding aid. Some of the slides are mounted in cardboard mounts and are stored in folders, the rest in glass and metal mounts and stored in a metal box. The finding aid indicates the locations for each topical code.

The book The Allied Campaigns Against Wake Island, the Marshall Islands and Rabaul, New Britain: A Photographic Record, included with the collection, parallels the topics of the slides taken during the Strategic Bombing Survey, but does not duplicate any of the pictures in the slide files.

Dr. Corydon L. Ford was a professor of anatomy and physiology at the University of Michigan Department of Medicine and Surgery (now the Medical School), He taught from 1854 to 1894. The collection contains reports on his faculty activities, scattered correspondence, lecture notes, syllabi, plates, and other papers relating largely to his work in the Medical School; also visual materials.

The Corydon L. Ford papers offer strong documentation of medical education and practice in the last half of the 19th century. The collection is arranged in three series: Teaching Records, Topical Files, and Miscellaneous.

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.

Chief Engineer for General Motors. Instrumental in the development of the hydrogen fuel cell and General Motor’s electric vehicles. Collection documents Marks’s involvement in engineering organizations and his work at General Motors.

The papers of Craig Marks document his involvement with various engineering companies and organizations, such as General Motors, and his contributions to the development of the hydrogen fuel cell. This collection contains the following series: National Academy of Engineering (NAE); General Motors; Publications and Reports; Organizations, Companies and Conferences; and Personal.

Pontiac, Michigan family. Biographical information; letters exchanged between Harry Crawford and his family and friends relating to his experiences in the Spanish-American War and World War I; memorabilia; and photographs.

The Crawford family collection documents the experiences of Harry M. Crawford as a soldier during the Spanish-American War and World War I. It also contains information about the home front in Pontiac, Michigan during those two wars. There are few accounts of battles in these letters; rather the strength of the collection lies in the abundant descriptions of daily life both in the army and in Pontiac during this time period.

The correspondence, which is the heart of this collection, is chronologically arranged and divided into Spanish-American War correspondence (1898) and World War I correspondence (1917-1919). The Spanish-American War correspondence is further divided into correspondence from Harry Crawford to his family in Pontiac and correspondence from family and friends to Harry Crawford. Harry Crawford's letters to his family began in May 1898 when he mustered in at Camp Eaton, west of Pontiac. Crawford continued to write home, on a near-daily basis, from army camps in and around Tampa, Florida. The letters end in September when he returned to Michigan. Most of Harry Crawford's letters pertain to the daily routines of army life during encampment and rumors about the progress of the war. While Harry Crawford was generally supportive of United States war aims, he was critical of the capture of the Philippines (see his letter of August 10). The correspondence from family and friends to Harry Crawford contains information on a wide range of daily activities in Pontiac at the turn of the century. Reactions to the war were supportive on the home front (see especially the letters of G.G. McDonald from July 4 and of George Crawford from July 31). Advice on the art of soldiering from Harry's uncle, Walter Crawford (a Civil War veteran), may be found in a letter dated July 3.

The World War I correspondence is almost exclusively from Harry Crawford. Few letters from home survived but some information about Pontiac during the war, such as the impact of the influenza and the lack of coal during the winter, may be gleaned from Harry's responses to letters from his family. Harry Crawford's letters began in August 1917 from Fort Sheridan in Illinois. They continued through 1918, from France, and concluded in April 1919 when he returned to the United States. Harry Crawford wrote, on average, two to three letters per week. While Crawford spent some time on the front lines, descriptions of actual battles are few. Many of the letters describe the camaraderie with fellow soldiers and several tell of his anticipation of combat. A number of other letters pertain to the material conditions of his daily life (food, lodgings, and clothing). He also described the destruction wrought on the French countryside. Since his letters were censored, Crawford omitted references to specific places in his letters. Some of this specific information is included in a letter to his brother, George Crawford, following the Armistice (see his letter of November 24, 1918).

Assistant chief of the decartelization branch, economics division in the Office of Military Government for Germany (US), 1946-1948; later Republican state senator from Marshall, Calhoun County, Michigan, 1949-1956. Reports, correspondence, memoranda, and photographs concerning his work in Germany; also miscellaneous files detailing his activities in the state legislature.

The collection is arranged into the following series: Office of the Military Government for Germany (US) Economics Division, Decartelization Branch; State Senator's Files; Topical Files; and Photographs.

The Crittenden family papers contain the letters of a Kentucky family living in the California and Nevada frontiers. The material centers on the family of Alexander Parker Crittenden and his wife Clara Churchill Jones, and includes letters from their parents, siblings, and children. The collection also contains diaries, documents and financial records, and family photographs (daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, and other paper prints). The collection documents the murder of Alexander Parker Crittenden as well as family members who fought on the Confederate side of the Civil War and who participated in mining and prospecting in the West.

The Crittenden family papers contain the letters and documents of the family of Alexander Parker Crittenden and his wife Clara Churchill Jones Crittenden. The bulk of the collection consists of personal correspondence between members of the extended family, including Mr. and Mrs. Crittenden, seven of their eight (surviving) children, Clara’s parents and siblings (the Jones family), and Mary Crittenden Robinson (Alexander's sister). In addition to correspondence, the collection contains diaries, documents and financial records, and 96 family photographs (daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, and other paper prints), including one carte-de-visite of Laura Hunt Fair.

The Correspondence series (approximately 1,280 items) covers several topics of interest. The letters by Clara and Alexander Parker Crittenden (hereafter A.P.C.) illustrate the passionate courtship and strained marriage of a couple living in California in the 19th century; Laura Crittenden Sanchez’ correspondence presents a picture of a woman’s life on the 1860s western frontier in California and Nevada; and Ann Northey Churchill Jones’s letters to her daughter Clara provide frank commentary on womanhood. The following summary is a brief description of the collection’s major correspondents and the content of their letters.

The collection includes over 260 letters from A.P.C.to his wife Clara, which span the length of their relationship, from their first meeting until his death. The courtship letters are full of expressions of youthful passion. Especially valuable are A.P.C.'s letters describing San Francisco in the early 1850s, which contain information about the Gold Rush and early statehood, and include discussions about women in California, and troubles he experienced from not having a wife present to care for him. The 1860s letters written from Nevada to Clara in California provide a good account of early Nevada, as well as insight into their deteriorating marriage. However, the twenty letters written during Clara's 1870 transcontinental trip to the East Coast, exhibit an apparently genuine change of heart in Crittenden, who had purchased and redecorated a lavish new home as a surprise for Clara on her return. Almost every letter begs her to cut the trip short and return.

A.P.C.'s eldest son, Churchill, is represented by 62 letters to him from his father, and 62 letters written by Churchill to his parents and siblings, largely from 1858 and 1861, while he was studying at Hanover College. While at Hanover, Churchill developed Union sympathies, which upset his Kentucky-born father. Of note is a letter from A.P.C., who at the time was the leader of the southern wing of the California Democratic Party, to Churchill defending southern rights for secession (December 10, 1860). Churchill wrote six letters while in the Confederate Army. The collection also contains 60 letters from James Love Crittenden. His early letters discuss school life, ante-bellum politics, and family relations. He wrote 10 letters while fighting with the Confederacy.

Clara Jones Crittenden wrote 19 letters in the collection: two to her husband, one to her eldest son, Churchill, and sixteen to her daughter Annie (“Nannie”). The letters to Annie are almost all dated November-December 1864, and reflect the deep gloom Clara felt following the murder of her son Churchill in October 1864.

Laura Crittenden Sanchez wrote 71 letters to her mother, 87 to her sister Nannie, and a few to other family members. They present a view of domestic life on the 1860s western frontier. Of note are Laura’s routine comments that reflect the values of a woman raised to believe in the Southern ideals of gentility and womanhood. However, she also held advanced ideas on women’s rights and divisions of duties in the home. Her husband, Ramon B. Sanchez, shared these beliefs and described his role in housework and his ideas of manhood, in his letter to Nannie Crittenden (July 25, 1862).

This series holds 16 letters from A.P.C. to his daughter Nannie, 6 to her husband Sidney Van Wyck, and many letters of condolence received by the family at the time of Parker’s murder. Van Wyck, who held evangelical beliefs, was deeply concerned about the well-being of his pregnant wife. He sent 117 letters to Nannie between January and May 1870, while she was in San Francisco and was he in Hamilton, Nevada, attempting to strike it rich prospecting for silver. He gave a rich account of life in a snowy Nevada mining town. The collection also includes approximately 40 business letters concerning Sidney's mining interests between 1879 and 1882. After 1874, the collection constitutes letters addressed largely to members of the Van Wyck family, including 8 letters from Nannie's daughter Clara Van Wyck to her brother Sydney Van Wyck, Jr.

Mary Crittenden Robinson, A.P.C.'s older sister, wrote 23 letters to Clara Crittenden, almost entirely in 1863. They are domestic in content, with occasional references to politics and society. Mary also wrote to A.P.C., and to various nieces and nephews, and her children are represented as well: Mary, Kate, and Tod, Jr.

The collection also contains letters from Clara Jones Crittenden's parents and siblings.

Clara's father Alexander Jones, Jr., wrote 5 letters to Clara, including one offering consolation on her husband's murder (November 7, 1870), and 3 to his granddaughter Nannie. Ann Northey Churchill Jones, Clara's mother, sent her seven letters from 1839-1841. She provided a frank commentary on womanhood and discussed childbirth, the proper preparation of breasts for nursing, a mother’s role in fixing children’s values, marital relations and what a wife could do to improve them, and how a woman should deal with an unworthy husband.

Clara's brother Alexander Jones III wrote 21 letters to A.P.C. and Clara (1849, and 1857-1870). These describe frontier Texas, news of the Civil War, and Confederate patriotism. In one notable letter, he described life in Brownsville, Texas, and advised using birth control (January 30, 1860). Clara's sister Mary "Mollie" Farquhar Jones Joliffe wrote 15 letters, 1858-1870, primarily made up of family news. Her wartime letters are a window onto the hardships of Confederate civilian life. William Marlborough Jones is represented by 13 Civil War and Reconstruction era letters, which reflect on the costs of the war to both the family and the nation. Of note is a 12-page account of the war near Jackson, Mississippi (November 7, 1870), and his report on the fall of Vicksburg (July 7, 1863). Sister Rebecca Churchill Jones Craighill, wrote 13 letters (1858-1899) to multiple recipients. In 1866, she composed excellent reflections on the war and criticized a Virginia friend who had eloped with a Yankee officer.

The collection also contains letters from two of Clara’s uncles: 8 from Marlborough Churchill and 2 from George Jones.

The Journals series (2 items) contains an official transcript of a journal of Elizabeth Van Wyck, and a diary kept by Sydney Van Wyck. The Elizabeth Van Wyck journal is a transcript of a reminiscence of her life from age 7 until November 12, 1808, when she was 26. The copy was made in 1925, at the request of Elizabeth's great-grandson, Sidney M. Van Wyck, Jr. The second item is a detailed journal kept by Sydney Van Wyck during his time at school in the 1840s. In it, he described his life at school and many of his family members.

The Documents and Financial Records series is made up of four subseries: Estate Papers, Insurance Papers, Legal and Financial Documents, and Account Books.

The Estate Papers subseries contains 11 items concerning the property of A.P.C. and 24 items related to Howard J. Crittenden. These include A.P.C.'s last will and testament and court records surrounding his murder and the handling of his estate (1870-1875). The Howard J. Crittenden items document Howard's financial holdings at his death and how his estate was divided.

The Insurance Papers subseries (3 items) includes a record of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company (1871) and a fire insurance policy from Pacific Insurance Company for Clara Crittenden (1872).

The Legal and Financial Documents subseries (16 items) consists of bank notes, telegraphs concerning business dealings, receipts for goods and payments, contracts, and personal tax bills. Of note are contracts signing over gold and silver claims in Nevada to Howard Crittenden. These include locations in White Pine, Nevada, such as "Lucky Boy Tunnel" and "Adele mining ground" (1869).

The Account Books subseries (3 items) contains a 12-page account book for A. Hemme (1873), a 20-page account book for S. M. Van Wyck (1873-1874), and a mostly empty National Granit State Bank account book of Thomas Crittenden (1874).

The Photographs and Illustrations series contains 106 photographs of Crittenden family members. These include cartes-de-visite, tintypes, ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, cabinet cards, and several modern reproductions. They depict many of the Crittenden family members, including several Crittenden men in Confederate uniform, Clara Crittenden, Clara Van Wyck, and Laura Fair, among others. See Additional Descriptive Data for the complete list.

In addition to the photograph, this collection also contains an ink sketch of the floor plan of a San Francisco cottage (in the letter dated July 4, 1852).

The Miscellaneous series (9 items) contains school report cards, Laura Van Wyck's application to become a Daughter of the Confederacy (which includes a heroic account of Churchill Crittenden's death in the Civil War), Nannie Crittenden Van Wyck's address book (with contacts in Saint Louis, Chicago, Kentucky, New York, and Brooklyn), a newspaper clipping about mining in Nevada, and 3 unattributed writing fragments.

The folder of supplemental material relates to Robert E. Stewart's publication Aurora Ghost City of the Dawn, Las Vegas: Nevada Publications, 1996, including a copy of the book and 10 photographs taken by Stewart of Aurora and the Ruins of the Sanchez home.

Professor of architecture at the University of Michigan. The series in the collection are: Architectural Research, 1932-1983; College of Architecture and Urban Planning, 1967-1985; Correspondence, 1962-1972; Development Index, 1947-1984; and Published Materials, 1930-1982.

The papers of C. Theodore Larson measure 4.0 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1985. The bulk of materials, however, are from 1951 to 1974. The papers contain five series: Architectural Research; College of Architecture and Urban Planning; Correspondence; Development index and Published materials.