Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan fostered the role of the arts and humanities through collaborative cultural partnerships and community projects in the Ann Arbor and Detroit area. The program aimed to enrich public life and to enlarge the university's educational mission. These records contains notes, correspondence, publicity, audiovisual materials, presentations, and other material documenting the administration, public programming, and community partnerships undertaken by the Arts of Citizenship program. Also included is a website capture taken July 18, 2005.

The Arts of Citizenship (AOC) Program documentation consists of notes, correspondence, publicity, audiovisual materials (audiocassettes, digital materials, videotapes), and other material documenting the daily administrative activities, public programming, outreach, research, and community partnerships. The record group is divided into three series: Administration, Project Files, and Website. These series represent the original order of materials as received upon accession. The researcher should note that the records do not provide an in-depth portrayal of AOC, but rather information about the operation, functions, and details on specific projects undertaken by the program.

As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Institute for Social Research, individuals connected with the history were interviewed. Excerpts of the videotaped interviews were used to produce "In the Public Interest: Fifty years of Social Research." Includes videotaped interviews with ISR personalities and typed transcripts of the interviews. For some interviews only a transcript is available. A copy of the final product excerpted from the interviews is included along with digital materials containing copies of the transcripts.

During 1997-1998, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of ISR, a series of filmed interviews were conducted by Erik Austin with individuals connected with the history of ISR. The interviews were excerpted and used to produce the videotape history In the Public Interest: Fifty Years of Social Research. Documentation from this project includes a copy of the final video, videotaped interviews with individuals associated with ISR, and typed transcripts of the interviews. The records are arranged as two series: Videotapes and Transcripts.

The Videotapes series (29 VHS tapes) includes a copy of In the Public Interest: Fifty Years of Social Research a copy made from a 1956 University of Michigan television program featuring Angus Campbell, and 27 videotapes of interviews from 1997-1998. The Transcripts series contains written transcriptions of the interviews, along with a digital convenience copy of the written text. The digital material contains the text of the interview transcripts in Microsoft Word, PDF and TXT formats. Researchers should note that there are some interviews for which only a transcript is available. As such, the transcript series is more comprehensive than the videotape series.

The Inter-Cooperative Council at Ann Arbor is an organization established to coordinate the activities of cooperative houses founded and operated by University of Michigan students. Their records are comprised of minutes, office files, and newsletters, as well as organization-level topices and related research. The collection also contains records of student cooperative, the Socialist House.

The records of the ICC at Ann Arbor cover the years 1932 to 2012 and are divided into ten series: Minutes, Office Files, Printed Materials, Events and Programs, Organizational Topical Files, Correspondence Files, Collected Research Materials, House Records, External Organizations, and Audio-Visual Materials.

Researchers should note that because of the differences between ICC office organizational systems and the individual processing archivists working on the collection, topics and materials might be found in multiple series.

Research materials used by Laurie Palazzolo in writing of her book Horn Man: the Polish-American Musician in Twentieth-Century Detroit (Detroit, Mich.: American-Polish Music Society, 2003). The collection sheds light on the history of 20th century Polish-American musical landscape of greater Detroit.

The collection documents the history and repertoire of Polish folk music bands in the greater Detroit area as well as professional careers of musicians. The records date primarily from the 1940's until 1980s. Materials dated 1990s-2000s are primarily transcripts of interviews taken by Gomulka Palazzolo. Records include correspondence, business contracts, performance schedules and programs, sheet music, scanned copies of photographs, copies of Keynote magazine, biographical information and interviews of musicians, performance advertisements, and recordings. The records are arranged into five series as follows: Research files, Detroit Federation of Musicians, Sheet music, Sound recordings, and Visual materials.

Papers include correspondence, diary, clippings, and photographs relating to his experience as a prisoner; correspondence relating to his Purple Heart award and the Prisoner of War medal. Also included a memoir by Sidney Esensten about his experience as an American P.O.W. during the Korean War.

Visual materials include photos relating to his experience as a prisoner; videotape entitled "P.O.W.--Americans in Enemy Hands" (1986), which includes interview with Fletcher; videotape of 1990 presentation by Fletcher and three Tuskegee Airmen, African American World War II aviators, describing their military experiences, and an undated videotape "Priority: P.O.W."

Sherwin T. Wine was the iconoclastic founder of Humanistic Judaism and an openly gay rabbi who established the Birmingham Temple and formed the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the Center for New Thinking (a community forum for discussion of current events and issues), and various groups devoted to free thought and humanism. Papers include biographical content, correspondence, writings, educational and worship materials, sound recordings, visual materials, and various organizational records.

The Sherwin T. Wine papers illustrate the intellectual traits and organizational acumen of a man who devoted his life to the establishment of a new branch of Judaism and the advancement of humanistic values and rationalism. The collection will be of value to those individuals who seek a deeper understanding of Wine as a person as well as the founder of Humanistic Judaism. Writings, correspondence, and clippings detail the process by which Wine broke free from the traditions of Reform Judaism to found a new denomination. Materials from the Birmingham Temple and other Secular Humanist Judaism organizations trace the development and expansion of the movement. Content related to the many other groups with which Wine was involved reveal an individual able to organize and inspire others to act at local, national, and international levels.