Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

African American Detroit poet and librarian, and founder of Broadside Press in Detroit, Michigan which supported and published black and African American poets and authors. Poet laureate of Detroit, 1981. Materials consist of personal and business correspondence, topical files, photographs, drafts and publications, audio recordings, and film reels.

The papers document the personal and professional life of Dudley Randall as an independent African American poet and founder of the Broadside Press in Detroit, and span the years 1900-2002. Material includes drafts and publications of original works, correspondence, photographs, sound recordings on audiocassettes and audio reels, and films featuring Randall, his family, and poets connected to the Broadside Press. Series in the collection may have overlapping subjects, as original folder contents were maintained. Folders are arranged first by date, and then alphabetically by original title where applicable. The collection is divided into four series: Biographical (1900-2002), Broadside Press (1939-1999), Topical Files (1908-2002), and Writing (1933-1983).

University of Michigan group established in 1946 devoted to production of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Records include production files with programs, photographs, reviews and newspaper clippings, and scattered production notes and memoranda; topical files relating to the Society, its friends organization, and its publication; slides of productions; Society newsletter, "Gasbag"; posters; phonorecords, tapes, and videos of productions.

The records of UMGASS have been divided into ten series: Slides, Topical Files, Production Files, Posters, Memorabilia Volumes, Magnetic Tape Recordings, Sound Recordings, Audiotapes, Videotapes, and Scrapbooks. Because materials on one production can include photographs, scrapbooks, recordings, or slides- all of which live within different boxes of the collection -- a directory has been compiled in the Production Files series. The directory lists the year and title of the UMGASS production for which the library has materials and a lettered key exists that denotes the physical existence and location of materials within the collection.

Michigan Theater Foundation was formed in 1979 when it purchased the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Mich., a historic landmark built in 1928 and restored by the fundraising efforts of the Foundation. The record group comprises administrative records, including files of the Executive Director, Board of Trustees and administrative committees; grant proposals, materials related to fundraising, theater restoration, renovation, and membership campaigns; descriptions of programs, series, and individual events taken place at the theater; publicity photographs, audio- and video (VHS) recordings, and outsize posters and calendars of events.

The records date to the period of the Michigan Theater Foundation's intensive fundraising campaign to preserve the Michigan Theater and the first 15 years of its life after the theater reopened its doors in 1986.