Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

This record group contains the records of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the Women's Association for the Ann Arbor Symphony, and partial records for the Michigan Civic Orchestra Association. The record group includes administrative and functional records, photographs, and audio/visual concert recordings.

The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (AASO) records document the founding and development of the orchestra and the Women's Association for the Ann Arbor Symphony. There are also some records of the Michigan Civic Orchestra Association. The records include administrative and functional records, photographs, and audio/visual concert recordings. The records are arranged into 11 series, History, Board of Directors, Symphony Business, Youth Activities, Fundraising, Publicity, Women's Association of the Ann Arbor Symphony (WA3S) Records, Michigan Civic Orchestra Association, Visual Materials, Scrapbooks, and Audio Materials.

Archives of folklore collected by students in the course "Survey of American Folklore" offered by the University of Michigan Program in American Culture and first taught by Bruce Conforth in 2005. Collected folklore reports compiled by students in American Folklore course based on oral interviews with informants. (Interviews are included on a variety of physical formats--cassettes, microcassettes, CDs, VHS tapes). Reports include essays, transcripts on topics ranging from popular folklore to campus legends and traditions.

The American Culture Folklore and Oral History Archives consists of folklore collection reports prepared by undergraduate students in the American Folklore course offered by the University of Michigan Program in American Culture. Prior to the transfer to the Bentley Historical Library, the folklore reports were organized according to general topics by students in the course and placed in archival folders and boxes under the direction of the professor. That order has been retained. Very often the media and objects included in the report have remained. The collection is meant to directly serve students who may take the Survey of American Folklore class in the future, and indirectly to those who, years from now, may re-discover and research aspects of American folklore that were pertinent during present day.

There is considerable overlap in subject matter between the categories of collecting topics. In the collection, folders for the first set of reports in a series are ordered according to their pre-assigned number (which can be found in the Administrative Files series) and not according to the last name of the student or title. For the second set, however, where no such number exists, the reports are ordered by surname of the student. In this finding aid, only the student's name and title of the report is listed. Further in the series names will appear to be in alphabetical order when the pre-assigned numbers were not continued.

Southeastern Michigan branch of the Labor Zionist Organization of American, now renamed Ameinu Detroit; organizational files include minutes of the Detroit Council, topical files, administrative correspondence, financial records, some local branch materials, publications, and visual and audio materials.

The record group includes documentation of both the Labor Zionist Organization and the Labor Zionist Institute. Some of the records date back to the early 1930s with the bulk of files dating from 1970. Included are minutes, topical files, correspondence, financial records, individual branch records, publications, and miscellaneous photographs, videotapes, and sound recordings. The record group documents the social and cultural programs and activities of one segment of Southeastern Michigan's Jewish community. Documented is the organization's fund raising activities, its interaction with other area groups, and its position on national and international issues.

Records of the administrative office responsible for developing and coordinating affirmative action programs for women, minorities and disabled faculty, staff, and students. Documentation includes topical files, minutes, reports, photographs and audio and video tapes. This record group also includes records of the Commission for Minority Affairs and the Commission for Women.

The records of the Affirmative Action Office span 1969 - 1993 and document the activities of the office and its predecessors, and provide information about affirmative action programs at the university and the status of minority, women, the disabled and other groups on campus. The records have come to the library in a number of accessions.

The Affirmative Action Office record group is organized into five subgroups: Affirmative Action Office, 1969 - 1993; Commission for Minority Affairs, 1971 - 1980; Commission for Women, 1970 - 1985; Council for Minority Concerns, 1979 - 1983; and Advisory Committee on Affirmative Action Programs, 1977 - 1986. The Affirmative Action Office subgroup includes records created or acquired by the Office. The other subgroups represent various university units that were merged into or whose function were taken over by the Affirmative Action Office.

University of Michigan student, producer of the documentary videotape, "Keeping in Mind" about three faculty members forced to leave the University of Michigan because of alleged affiliations with the Communist Party. Includes production files; copy of videotape "Keeping in Mind"; and videotapes of interviews with the three accused faculty, Chandler Davis, Clement Markert, and Mark Nickerson, and interviews with other university faculty and administrators and researchers of the period, notably David Bohr, Elizabeth Douvan, Harlan Hatcher, Marvin Niehuss, and Ellen Schrecker.

The Adam Kulakow Papers and Visual Materials consist of materials which Kulakow generated while producing the documentary Keeping in Mind, an exploration of the effects of McCarthyism on The University of Michigan in the 1950s. The documentary was Kulakow's undergraduate senior honors thesis at the University of Michigan. It focuses on three University of Michigan faculty members (Dr. Chandler Davis, Dr. Clement Markert, and Dr. Mark Nickerson) who were called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1954 to testify regarding their alleged affiliations with the Communist Party and examines subsequent actions taken by the University. Kulakow's work was funded by the University of Michigan, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; the Bentley Historical Library; and the Leo Burnett Scholarship. The documentary premiered on the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus on April 18, 1989. At the premier, the film was shown and afterwards the events on which it focused were discussed by the three professors, who had traveled to Ann Arbor for the event.

The collection is comprised of two U-matic videotape copies of the documentary itself (one of which is an archival master copy, not for research use) and one VHS copy of the documentary (to be used for making copies only); U-matic videotapes of interesting interviews conducted by Kulakow and his production crew with historians and University of Michigan faculty and administrators; and one folder of handwritten Kulakow notes and interview transcripts. In addition to the Kulakow collection, the researcher is advised to consult the Bentley Historical Library manuscript card catalog for other collections which pertain to the incidents documented in Keeping in Mind.