Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Landscape architect, speaker and lobbyist on behalf of conservation and beautification, president of the Michigan Parks Association, and member of the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty during the Johnson Administration. Correspondence, reports, oral history interviews, and other materials concerning her interest in state and national conservation legislation; and photographs.

The Genevieve Gillette collection documents Gillette's concern for the development of Michigan's parks and outdoor recreation opportunities, and her work to promote scenic roads in Michigan and nationwide.

Among the issues most fully documented are the fight to establish and develop Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, acquisition and development of Sylvania Recreation Area and McCormick Experimental Forest, threats to wilderness in the Porcupine Mountains State Park, the controversy over the proposed Mill Creek Metropark, the financing of Michigan's state park system, especially the 1968 campaign to approve recreation bonds, and the development of the Rouge River floodplain near the University of Michigan--Dearborn.

The work of the Citizens' Advisory Committee on Recreation & Natural Beauty (1966-1968), the Michigan Parks Association (1959-1975), and the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission and predecessor organizations (1960-1974) are also documented.

The collection includes very little documentation of Gillette's professional work as a landscape architect, and includes almost nothing relating to her parks and recreation work before the late 1950s.

The collection is divided into three major series--Personal, Correspondence, and Topical file--and two small series--Photographs, Audio tape cassettes.

Republican Governor of Michigan, 1962-1969; Presidential candidate, 1968; Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 1969-1972. Papers consist of extensive correspondence and subject files from his tenure as governor, campaign material, and files relating to service at HUD and his other political activities, includes photographs, films and videotapes and sound recordings.

The papers of George Romney document the many faceted career of an automobile executive, governor of Michigan, candidate for President, cabinet officer, and activist on behalf of volunteerism. In this electronic version of the finding aid to the Romney papers, there are six subgroups of materials. These are Gubernatorial Papers covering the period of 1962 to 1969, Pre-gubernatorial Papers covering the period before taking office in 1963, Post-gubernatorial Papers covering the period after 1968, records of Romney Associates (a group established during his bid for the presidency), Visual Materials covering mainly the period up to 1969, and Sound Recordings also covering up to 1969. There is some overlapping of dates, particularly around the time when Romney was first elected governor in 1962 and the period when he joined the Nixon administration in 1969. The researcher should also note that the papers of Lenore Romney are not part of this finding aid.

Detroit, Michigan, attorney, Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1955-1974, and member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Congressional papers, arranged by term, include legislative files, bills files, topical files, schedules, sound recordings, photographs, motion pictures, and scrapbooks. The collection details relationship with colleagues and constituents and pertains to committee activities, legislation sponsored, and issues of the day. Topics of interest include civil rights, the war in Vietnam, Sleeping Bear Dunes, the humane slaughtering of animals, the economy and the fiscal policy of the federal government, women's rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, economic problems of women, and the need for national health insurance legislation.

The Griffiths collection consists primarily of correspondence exchanged with constituents and lobbying groups on matters of pending or proposed legislation and on topics of current interest. The collection's great value is its documentation of the workings of this one congressional office and its perspective on the issues confronting the nation in the period of 1955 to 1974. With the Democrats in control of the Congress, these years witnessed legislative efforts to use the power of the Federal Government to rectify the ills of society on matters of civil rights, assistance to the poor, health care for the aged, environmental protection, and so forth. It was also a time of strife in society resulting from the war in Vietnam, tension among the races, and the Watergate crisis. The Griffiths collection documents these issues with letters from constituents and her response to the concerns of the people.

Beyond general issues, the Griffiths papers have importance for their documentation of the specific contribution of this one woman member of Congress, who served for twenty years, and who was rewarded by her colleagues with increasingly responsible committee positions. Especially significant was her appointment to the powerful Ways and Means Committee under the chairmanship of Wilbur Mills. Griffiths' files from her work on W and Means Committee detail the major pieces of tax reform legislation of the 1960s, notably Griffiths' efforts to legislate some equity into the benefits accorded to American women.

The Martha W. Griffiths papers, with few exceptions, have been maintained in the arrangement scheme used by the Griffiths office.