Collections

William Albright--organist, composer, and University of Michigan faculty member--was born in Indiana in 1944 and died in 1998. Albright earned three music composition degrees from the University of Michigan before becoming a member of the composition faculty at the U. of M. School of Music. Albright is probably best known for his piano and organ performance. He helped to bring about a revival of ragtime, and sought inclusion of ragtime and other types of popular music in many of his compositions. He composed for many single instruments--especially the organ--and ensembles, and for orchestra. He also composed hymns, and was the music director for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He studied composition with Ross Lee Finney, George Rochberg, and Olivier Messiaen, among others, at Michigan and at summer workshops, and organ with Marilyn Mason. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, programs, professional files, University of Michigan School of Music files, and scores and recordings of William Albright works (including notes, sketches, and manuscripts) and works by his friends, students, and teachers.

The William Hugh Albright Papers consist of 77 boxes of musical scores, recordings, and textual documents such as correspondence and lecture notes. Albright's extensive collection of scores and recordings by his friends, students, and mentors is also included. His own works are represented by recordings, original handwritten scores and published versions, and by penciled notes and sketches. The William Hugh Albright Papers are divided into ten series: Photographs, Biographical Materials, Correspondence, Programs, Professional Files, School of Music, The Magic City, Scores, Recordings, and Videocassettes.

Nabeel Abraham was a professor of anthropology and director of the Honors Program at Henry Ford Community College and an Arab American activist. Nabeel Abraham papers primarily document his focus on Arab American and Middle East issues.

The Nabeel Abraham papers primarily document Abraham's interest in and research on Arab American and Middle East issues. Also present are records of his time as a student at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan and his career at HFCC.

Teach-in organized by University of Michigan students. Held from November 2-4, 1975, this three-day teach-in investigated the role of technology in corporate and government "control." Specific topics included: assassinations, corporate manipulation, subversion of the forces of dissent, police repression, surveillance and dataveillance, and mind control. DVD and streaming files from original EIAJ 1/2" open-reel videotapes of speakers at all sessions.

The collection consists of nineteen original recordings on 1/2-inch EIAJ reel-to-reel videotapes of the teach-in and one folder with teach-in schedules and outlines as well as handwritten notes taken during the sessions (writer unknown). In 2009 preservation and use copies of the tapes were made including a Beta SP preservation master, a DVD copy and a streaming file. The original tapes were in relatively good condition, though there are occasional problems with audio and video levels in the recordings and occasional tracking and dropout problems during dubbing. The derivatives were created on a one-to-one basis with the original.

Only a selection of the streaming files are currently on-line. Others can be mounted by sending a request the Bentley Historical Library reference staff (bentley.ref@umiclh.edu)