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The Blanchard family papers document the lives and careers of several members of the Blanchard, Cobb, and Proctor families from the mid-nineteenth century through the late twentieth century. Includes visual materials, publications, personal writings, and extensive correspondence files.

The Blanchard Family Papers document the professional achievements and personal lives of several generations of a scientifically minded and artistically gifted family. The papers focus heavily upon the eminent plant pathologist and nematologist Nathan A. Cobb, his wife Alice Vara Cobb, their daughter, biologist Frieda Cobb Blanchard, and her husband, herpetologist Frank Nelson Blanchard (the latter two of whom were professors at the University of Michigan). In addition to the photographs, drawings, correspondence, journals, and writings of these four individuals, the collection is rich in family correspondence, diaries, and personal papers from other members of the Cobb and Blanchard families (and their forebears and branches, including the Bigelow, Proctor, Ross, White, and Randall families). The Blanchard Family Papers will be of value to researchers interested in a variety of topics: scientific endeavors and methodologies (and in particular those related to agronomy, nematology, botany, and herpetology); the visual arts and the development of photography in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; colonial and provincial life in Australia and Hawaii (respectively); and the daily affairs of American (and Michigan) families throughout the twentieth century. The Blanchard Family Papers consist of seven series: Nathan A. Cobb, Alice Vara Cobb, Frieda Cobb Blanchard, Frank Nelson Blanchard, Blanchard and Cobb Family Letters, Other Family Members, and Isaac G. Blanchard.

Harry B. Benford was professor and chair of the department of naval architecture and marine engineering at the University of Michigan. The Benford collection includes professional correspondence and topical files relating to his work, teaching, and research.

The Harry B. Benford Papers consists of correspondence and topical files relating to his work, teaching, and research.

Kalamazoo, Michigan newspaperman; papers relating to his career in journalism and to his trip to the Far East in 1940.

The Walsh papers includes scattered materials relating to his career as a newspaperman. The bulk of the collection concerns the flight of American newspapermen aboard a clipper plane to the South Pacific prior to World War II. Other materials relate to the history and operation of the Kalamazoo Gazette. Items of interest include research material concerning Dr. William E. Upjohn and the history of the Upjohn family. There is also correspondence received, 1929-1930, supporting the newspaper's editorial position regarding enforcement of the 18th Amendment. Some of the correspondents in the collection include: Caroline Bartlett Crane, Fred W. Green, Frank Murphy, Chase S. Osborn, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Arthur H. Vandenberg, and Wendell L. Willkie.