Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The last will and testament of Horace H. Rackham provided for the establishment of a trust fund to provide for the health and welfare of individuals, particularly the sick, aged, the young, the poor, and other underprivileged. Much of the trust money went to the University of Michigan to be used for a building for the graduate school and an endowment to be used for different kinds of research. The Fund also awarded grants to agencies involved in child welfare, community culture, education, health, philanthropy, and science. The Fund distributed money from 1934 until about 1941. The series in this record group consist of administrative and executive files, and project applications and grant files.

The records of the Horace H. Rackham and Mary A. Rackham Fund document the continuing generosity of Horace Rackham and Mary Rackham to numerous charitable, educational, and scientific organizations and causes. The records contain the files of the Fund's trustees and directors and provide insight and information about such topics as the administration of a philanthropic fund-giving organization during the mid-1930s, the kinds of gifts made, the relationship among the Fund's trustees and officers, and the relationship between the Fund and the grant recipients. Because of the size of the gift, most of the documentation within the record group details the close ties between the Fund and the University of Michigan. These files concern not only the establishment of the Rackham endowment to the University, but also the different scientific and educational grants made. Additionally, these files detail the construction of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies building in Ann Arbor and the Rackham Educational Memorial building in Detroit.

The records of the Fund cover the period of 1929-1950 though they bulk largest for the period of the Fund's greatest activity, 1934-1940. The record group has been separated into two series: Combined Administrative and Executive Office Files and Project applications/grants.

Michigan Visiting Nurses was created by the integration of the Visiting Nurse Association of Huron Valley into the University of Michigan Health System beginning in 1998. The Visiting Nurse Association of Huron Valley formed in 1980 with the merger of the Ann Arbor Visiting Nurse Association (AAVNA) and the Ypsilanti Visiting Nurse Agency (YVNA). The Ann Arbor association was formed in 1896 with the establishment of the University Hospital Circle of the King's Daughters, name later changed to the Ann Arbor Public Health Nursing Association. The Ypsilanti Agency was founded in 1941. Records include: Secretary's record books and files consisting of minutes, reports, and related organizational documents; scrapbooks; financial records; and subject files.

The Michigan Visiting Nurses (MVN) records cover over 100 years of public health nursing in Washtenaw County, documenting the changing nature of this service and its associated agencies over the course of the twentieth century. The MVN records are organized into four series: Ann Arbor Visiting Nurse Association, Ypsilanti Visiting Nurse Agency, Visiting Nurse Association of Huron Valley, and Michigan Visiting Nurses.