Collections

The papers consist mostly of Louise Parkhill MacGillivray's family correspondence, and family diaries, a journal of vacations at Lake Superior, legal papers, examples of necrophotography, and other materials. Also included is a scrapbook about the affair of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, 1936. Oversized folders include Mount Pleasant High School diploma of Louise E. Parkhill, 1918, and sixteen pages from Louise E. Parkhill MacGillivray’s photograph album, 1913, 1918-1920, undated [1913-1919, 1923] with one page containing the 1960 obituary of Eleanor Parkhill, Louise’s mother.

The collection consists mostly of family correspondence to and from Louise, concerning family news and social or business matters, 1879-1979 and undated; diaries of Louise and other relatives, 1875-1960 (scattered); a journal of vacations at Lake Superior, 1971-1974; legal papers; genealogical materials; photographs, some of which document dead relatives in their coffins (necrophotography); and miscellaneous. The Letterbook of Burt L. Parkhill, 1894, was later made into a scrapbook of information about the affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in 1936. Oversized folders include Oversized Folder 1 Mount Pleasant High School diploma of Louise E. Parkhill, 1918, measures 16 x 21 inches on paper, signed by George E. Ganiard, Hannah S. Vowles and C.S. Larzelere, among others. The lower left edge is damaged. Oversized folder #2 includes sixteen pages from Louise E. Parkhill MacGillivray’s photograph album, 1913, 1918-1920, undated [1913-1919, 1923] with one page containing the 1960 obituary of Eleanor Parkhill, Louise’s mother.

The scrapbook pages are in chronological order. Each page measures approximately 12x16 inches. All pages have edge damage and some acidification. Each page has numerous black and white photographs glued on and handwritten notes. Some people, locations, and dates are identified. Undated photographs were dated from CMU publications. The 1913 photographs include identified members of the all-girl MGG Club, including Louise. Two pages of Spring-Summer 1918 photographs she titled “Up the Chippewa” are of friends, and family, including her identified sister, Vera, canoeing and enjoying the Chippewa River and each other’s company. There is one page of photographs of family and friends dated March 29, 1919. There is one page of photographs of family and friends dated April 3, 1919 titled “Down on the Farm,” meaning at home. No farm specific photographs are included. There is one page titled The [Ice] Storm of April 23, [1919] which refers to a well-documented local area ice storm. There is only one photograph of the ice, while the rest on the page are of family and friends. One photograph is titled “Mama and Bunty (the rooster), showing a woman holding a rooster. There is one page of the CNS Operetta “Little Snow White”, in which Louisa starred as Little Snow White, feature portraits of the cast in full costume, with several individual identified individual portraits, all identified. Louise was described as having “endeared herself to all with her pleasing voice and manner” (Central Normal Bulletin, May 1919). There are two pages of August 27, 1919 photographs showing Louise and friends, or family, visiting and swimming at Epworth Heights, a private Methodist summer community located near Ludington. There is one page of the Normalonians, a CSN performance group, presenting “A Night in Romany” with Louise and company in costume. This performance was announced in Central Normal Life, January 29, 1920 with Louise noted as a returning member, and it was performed on March 5, 1920 (Central Normal Life, March 9, 1920). There is one page of “a Rose” pageant with several of Louise and company in costume. “The Rose Maiden,” in which Louise had a solo role, was announced in Central Normal Life, December 8, 1920.) Based on the summery outside photographs, it was likely performed in late May 1920. There is one page that is a mix of undated photographs. There are several of Louise in mortarboard and gown. She is listed in the CNS commencement program of June 1920, thus dating those photographs. The remaining photographs are of young men and women, some in costumes, who are identified. Their names match those who performed the Music Dept.’s “Chimes of Nomrandy” opera in June 1919, thus dating those photographs (CN Bulletin, June 1919). Three pages of undated [1923] photographs show Louisa in a commencement mortarboard, gown, and academic robe in Ann Arbor. There are photographs of the Washtenaw County Court House and the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium and Angel Hall. There is one photograph of Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan. The obituary is for Louise’s mother, Mrs. Eleanor Parkhill who died at age 97 in Mount Pleasant in July 1960. The widow of the late Burt L. Parkhill, Eleanor was survived by her children: George B., Louise P.[arkhill] MacGillivray, and Miriam P. Affeldt.

Papers and a plethora of photographic materials of Dick Moehl, documenting his interest in, preservation, restoration and tourism projects and successes with Michigan lighthouses, lighthouse groups and related organizations, Boy Scouts of Troop 4, Ann Arbor, and the Mackinaw area. Some of these materials continue or expand the GLLKA organizational records collection, which is separately cataloged and housed at the Clarke.

The collection consists of papers and a plethora of photographic materials of Dick Moehl, 1902-2017, and undated, documenting his interest in, preservation, restoration and tourism projects and successes with Michigan lighthouses, lighthouse groups and related organizations, Boy Scouts of Troop 4, Ann Arbor, and the Mackinaw area. The collection is organized by size and format, then alphabetically by topic within series. Some of these materials continue or expand the GLLKA organizational records collection, which is separately cataloged and housed at the Clarke. The major series of the collection include: Dick Moehl materials (mostly in Box 1); Subject files; Slides of Michigan lighthouses; and Oversized materials.

The Subject Files include: extensive documentation of Dick’s activities, allied organizations, and interests, including: Troop 4 Boy Scouts, awards, honors, history and lighthouse work, Eagle Scout projects and programs, GLLKA organizational records, records of the many historic, preservation, and tourism organizations Dick was associated with, St. Helena and Round Island light station projects and history, lighthouses (Michigan, national) preservation, restoration, dedication or re-dedication or re-opening events, Mackinaw/c city, Island, and County history, tourism, and current events, and general Michigan history or tourism topics or events.

Slides of Michigan lighthouses and Boy and Girl Scouts helping preserve and restore lighthouses, cruising, Michigan tourism, nature, Soo Locks, Mackinac Bridge, 1981, 2009, and undated.

There is also a slide box (Box 29) of thirteen Sony8 videocassettes, mostly of events at St. Helena Lighthouse, undated, 1989-1991, perhaps as late as 1993. These video cassettes can be viewed by connecting a Sony 8 or high 8 camera to a television screen.

Oversized Materials include: two lighthouse photograph albums, 1985 and 1986; and five Oversized folders of posters, notably a color photograph poster of the Boy Scouts at St. Helena Light with a pile of collected trash, 1993, drawings, including children’s art, a pennant, and architectural drawings of Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse Barn, by Northwest Design Group, Richard Newman, Architect, Preliminary Drawings A1.1-A1.3, S1.2, prepared for Mackinac State Historic Park, September 2004.

The 2018 addition to the Richard Moehl Collection, Acc# 76135, Boxes #30-34 and Oversized Folder #6, 1942, 2016, and undated includes: paper awards and certificates, notebooks and logs, correspondence concerning Moehl’s achievements and certifications, and photographs; five plaques awarded to Moehl; four trophies, The oversized folder includes a special tribute and a certificate.

Processing Note: During processing numerous duplicates and peripheral materials were removed from the collection (29.5 cubic feet). Over 3 cubic feet of personal materials and camera equipment were returned to Mrs. Moehl. Over 75 catalog entries were created for monographs and serials that were added to the Clarke’s collection. Also, some postcards and miscellaneous newsletters were added to the Michigan postcards collection and vertical files.

The papers consists of business, personal, and biographical materials, and Buck's Civil War diaries.

The collection includes biographical, business, and personal materials. His diaries describe his Civil War experiences describe his march from Detroit to the Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, camp life, equipment, cavalry pickets, and fighting at Chattanooga and Trenton, Tennessee, among other places. The 1855 diary is of a trip from Illinois to Nevada. Bookkeeping journals, receipts, and indentures relate to the sale of merchandise in Paw Paw. The Ida Oil Well Co. Treasury book is from Kent County, Ontario, Canada.

A photograph of Buck in uniform may be found in the Clarke Photograph file and two shoulder straps of the rank of Captain and one cap badge should be in the Display Items boxes.

The collection includes correspondence, mostly to Professor Robert and Mrs. Helmle from their son, Robert, while Robert served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France and Germany during World War I.

Most of the collection consists of correspondence, postcards, photo cards, and photographs, sent to Professor and Mrs. Helmle from Robert. Robert’s letters mostly date from when he was in Europe. His letters from Berlin (Germany) vividly describe the unemployment and inflation there. Additional correspondence is from other friends and relatives.

Papers include biographical materials, photographs, diary, business correspondence, including a 1927 letter from Helen Keller, financial records, real estate materials, political materials, blueprints of his home, a photograph albums, and two scrapbooks.

Oakman’s financial records document land sales throughout metro-Detroit. His correspondence is mostly real estate related or regarding the Union Trust Company, although there are a few personal letters, mostly in the 1887-1921 and 1928-1944 folders. The correspondence is extremely acidic and fragile and should be handled with care. Of special note is a letter from Helen Keller (1880-1968) on behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind, Inc. (1927) and with the Dodge Bros., Inc. (1926). The correspondence was apparently kept in both alphabetical and chronological folders, resulting in this mixed arrangement.

The political materials document his Republican activities and interests. Of note here are the two letter press books which date from when he served as Pingree’s secretary when Pingree was campaigning to become Governor of Michigan. Most of this typed correspondence discusses how, where, and with whom to start Pingree Clubs in numerous Michigan towns.

The biographical information provides an interesting picture of Oakman’s career.

Two photograph albums show the Oakmans on vacation, at home, with friends, and their yacht. Among their friends were Francis, Dan, Horace, and John Dodge and Gar Wood. Two oversized scrapbooks, 1892-1944 and 1924-1946, include correspondence, greeting and holiday cards, programs, and newspaper clippings about the Oakmans.

The collection consists of the organizational records of the church including legal documents, meeting minutes, financial records, membership records, and other materials.

The collection nicely documents the history of this small church. There is no personal information about the pastors or members except for birth, marriage, and death dates.

The Certificates of Dismission and Reception is a record of members who joined or left the church with names and dates. The Church Registers include lists of pastors, deacons, communicants, members who were baptized, marriages, and deaths in the church, with names and dates. Most of the remaining volumes include minutes for the church’s annual membership meetings, board of trustee meetings, or the meetings of various church organizations. Correspondence and miscellaneous papers are very miscellaneous and scattered.

Researcher Note: A number of the papers and volumes in the collection have suffered water, mud, or mold damage. The collection should be used with care by researchers with allergies and because of the fragility of a number of the volumes due to rotting and severe acidification of the pages and covers.

School district records, teacher attendance records, related materials.

The collection documents the history of Lynch School, notably in district record books, 1895-1930, and teachers attendance records of students, 1900-1937. The collection was fumigated, ph-balanced, and perfumed in September 1999.

The collection includes school district record books, teachers' daily attendance and scholarship record books, financial records, and related materials.

The school record books, 1884-1964, and undated document the history of the schools, students, and teachers in Ocqueoc Township, Presque Isle County, Michigan, with school district record books, Teachers’ Daily Attendance and Scholarship Record books, financial records, and student report and health related cards, and related materials. Specific schools documented in the collection include, Crow Dam, Glawe, Godin, Gordon, Hammonds Bay, Moltke Township, Union District, Vilburn, Silver Creek, Ocqueoc Unit and Ocqueoc Township schools. Also included are financial records of Ocqueoc Township, 1905-1964, which relate to schools.

Processing Note: Volumes are not in strict chronological order, they are organized by township and then by decade. Volumes were fumigated, ph-balanced, and perfumed in September 1999. Some are now in oversized folders or in boxes.

The collection documents the international women's rights organizations, including the National Council of Women and International Council of Women, both of which Wright served as president, and Wright's career as a writer, lecturer, reformer, pacifist, and feminist.

The collection is of great use to any person researching American, European, and International women’s rights organizations, including the ICW and NCW, among others; the women’s rights movement; pacifism; working women; literature on the women’s movement and prominent members of the movement, particularly May Wright Sewall. Other topics of interest are the Paris Exposition (1900) and the Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), both of which she attended in connection with women’s rights meetings. His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Pu Lun of China who visited the ICW meetings in Indianapolis and became a patron to the girls’ school in documented in Vol. 4. Vol. 6 has a letter from Sewall to the Empress Frederick in Dresden, 1892. There are also materials describing the Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen ocean liners on which she sailed to meetings in Europe.

While most of the collection is in English, there are materials in Greek, French, German, Italian, and Danish. Issues no. 313, 314, and 316 (1893) of the first women’s suffrage journal in Greece, the title of which is translated as The Women’s Journal, are in v. 7. These are the only issues of the journal believed to be in the U.S. [This information from scholar Karen Offen in April 2006], and include an article about and photograph of Sewall.

Note: Photographs and newspaper etchings are scattered throughout most of the scrapbooks.

This collection of family papers includes photographic materials, papers, family trees, and newspaper or magazine clippings of the Copeman and Reimer families and their friends and family from the Mount Pleasant, Michigan area.

This collection of family papers includes photographic materials, papers, family trees, and newspaper or magazine clippings of the Copeman and Reimer families and their friends and family from the Mount Pleasant, Michigan area. The collection is organized by series, alphabetically, and chronologically. Overall, the collection is in very good condition with some acidification, one glass plate negative with a broken corner, and tintypes which are a bit warped with minor edge damage. The major series of this collection are Copeman, Reimer, and Simonds. Nina Copeman is the main person in connection in the Copeman papers due to her historical family research. Much of the series consists of photographic materials including multiple formats of photographs from ambrotypes and tintypes through color photography. Papers consist of family correspondence, including about family history, materials related to their relative Linda Ronstadt, and the Henry Baldwin Copeman family farm in Crawford, Michigan. The Reimer series also consists of family photographs and materials, with photographs of reunions and family headstones in Palo and Mount Pleasant cemeteries. The Simonds series consists of photographs of family and their grocery store located in Mount Pleasant. The rest of the collection consist of family photographs and materials from the related Brownell, Ettinger, and Preston Families, as well as materials related to Palo Schools, Central State Teachers College, later Central Michigan University, history, and postcards with substantive notes between family members and photographic postcards of family members. The Oversized folder contains photographs of the Henry Baldwin Copeman Farm and Copeman and Reimer family trees.

Researchers should note that materials related to the family’s homestead in Idaho, Kenneth and Taimie Preston’s college photographs, Kenneth Preston’s work with the Civilian Conservation Corp, and Henry B. Copeman’s remaining diaries (including all Ku Klux Klan entries) were donated to the University of Idaho by the donor. The remaining material related to the family’s lives in Idaho were donated to Coeur d’Alene Museum and the Kellogg Museum by the donor.

Processing Note: .75 cubic feet of photographic materials, miscellaneous, and duplicates were withdrawn during processing. Acidic news clippings and materials were photocopied and the copies retained within the collection. Interfiled into other collections in the Clarke were seventeen postcards, two Michigan vertical file items, and a CMU commencement program. In August 2023, a 1852 wedding bedspread from Centreville, Pennsylvania, two Michigan friendship pillows, and miscellaneous family jewelry were transferred to the Ionia County Historical Society, and an Almont, Michigan, miniature tourist creamer or pitcher was transferred to the Almont Michigan Historical Society. Other miscellaneous items without a definite family provenance were withdrawn during processing.