Collections

The papers include family correspondence, journals, notebooks, a photograph, and miscellaneous, mostly concerning Dr. Blackwood's medical career and gold mining experiences in California during the Gold Rush of 1849.

The Papers include personal correspondence, mainly between Dr. and Mrs. Jane Blackwood, describing journeys to California and Nevada, the uprising of Negroes (June 16, 1827), and a cholera epidemic (from Jane Blackwood, 1849). There is a diary of Mrs. Blackwood, and her notes on mathematical calculation, kept while living in Ovid (New York), 1827. Dr. Thomas Blackwood is also documented by a medical notes book, 1827-1832, including the diagnosis and treatment of his patients, receipts, payments, and births, August 1832-September 1833; his certificate of entrance to the Washtenaw Medical Society, June 1832; and his travel journal, 1850, while aboard the Loo Choo. Lastly, there is a copy of his first letter published in the Washtenaw Whig, September 12, 1849.

Papers include biographical materials, business correspondence with clients, personal correspondence, mostly with his children, and legal documents.

The collection includes some biographical materials, business correspondence with clients, personal correspondence, mostly with son George and Judy (a sister?), and legal documents.

The collection contains biographical materials, genealogical materials, photographs, postcards, and township history materials.

The collection is organized into three series, Elden L. Brigham, Brigham family, and township materials. Contents of each series are then organized alphabetically and by size.

The collection includes Powers' personal papers, correspondence with genealogists, legal records, clippings, drafts of her stories, lists of Civil War Soldiers, including Isabella County, Michigan, native American soldiers, mid-Michigan historical materials and photographs.

Personal Papers include correspondence and legal and financial records as well as records from organizations to which she belonged.

Research Materials include Powers’ correspondence with genealogists, legal records, and newspaper clippings. This series also contains a draft of The Indians of Isabella County by Ella V. Powers as well as notes, stories, maps, and illustrations. The bulk of the research material is raw data. The data includes genealogies, a listing of Civil War soldiers (including Indians) from Isabella County, a listing of early post offices and postmasters, treaties, records of original landowners, and a small collection of Fraser Family papers.

The third series consists of Photographs of Isabella County residents and pioneers as well as some unidentified photographs.

The Ephemera series contains items such as jewelry, eyeglasses, and a billfold; in most cases the items are undated and the owner is unknown.

There are four Scrapbooks which include recipes, cards, pictures, and letters.

The Genealogy Note Cards supplement and often repeat the information on the genealogy sheets in the Research Materials series.

Perry's paper include her personal and professional papers, scrapbooks, articles, and correspondence.

The collection is divided by format into papers and then scrapbooks. The papers are organized chronologically. This is a collection of Ellen Perry’s personal and professional papers, scrapbooks, articles, and correspondence. Five scrapbooks include her articles from August 21, 1969 to May 1981. Another scrapbook contains newspaper obituaries and wedding announcements circa 1893-1903, apparently from the St. Louis weekly newspaper, The Independent. Also included are photographs, negatives, church programs, correspondence, stories, and miscellaneous. Some of the stories concern her son, Mearle. The bulk of the collection, however, is the typewritten “Manuscripts” for her submissions to newspapers, which are arranged chronologically. Stories on various subjects are arranged topically.

Processing Note: Scrapbook #9 (Formerly #6) was a part of the original collection. However, when the collection was reprocessed in 2001, it could not be located.

Collection consists mostly of Crocker's scrapbooks, photographs, newspaper clippings (including some copies), broadsides, programs, advertisements, musical scores, and tradecards about Crocker's Educated Horses, Ponies, and Mules. Also included are many souvenir photographs of European sights and two tinted glass slides of Queen Victoria.

The Collection consists mainly of photographs, newspaper clippings, programs, advertisements, musical scores, trade cards, and broadsides about Crocker's Educated Horses. There are also many souvenir photographs of European sights. There are also two British patents No. 13, 958 in 1887 and No. 23, 307 1899 both related to horse bits. A copy of his published book is not in the Clarke.

Besides a number of articles advertising and critiquing his performance in a number of Crocker’s scrapbooks in the Clarke, there are also a number of article he wrote about the training of horses. He wrote a book, The Education of the horse, illustrated about six years after he came to Europe which was advertised to be published in Scotland and England. Also in the collection of his papers is handwritten musical scores for Crocker’s horses and mules for various instruments including: cornet, trombone, e-flat alto saxophone, bass, and violin. The music notes the barrel act, the handkerchief act, acts by various horses, and entry by mules. Obviously, Crocker was a busy man and successful showman of his era.

Undated [1942-1952], mostly unidentified black and white photographs of various Mount Pleasant, Michigan, buildings, people, businesses, and events, including oil-related topics.

This collection of 127 photographs taken by Mr. Collins spans a variety of subjects, although oil seems to be a central topic, with oil companies, machinery, people, disasters, and fair displays, as well as a number of oil-related trucks and businesses of various types in the collection.

The photographs are black and white, undated, although they all must date from 1942 to 1952, and they are mostly unidentified. There is an interesting photograph in the People (Folder 1) of three WWII GIs on camels in Egypt. The GIs are posing in front of what may be the Great Sphinx and Pyramid at Giza. Also there is one photograph each of Sloan and Warriner halls at Central Michigan University in the Building folder. There is a photograph of Fancher Elementary School students in the People (Folder 2), and in the People (Folder 1), there is one photograph each of a large first communion group, a large Christmas party of children, a cowboy band, and a (high school?) football team. The donor believed all the photographs were of Mount Pleasant subjects. Some of the businesses identified in the Businesses and Trucks and People folders include: Roy D. Hafer Oil Company, Roscoe E. Becket Hauling Contractors, Art Savage [gas truck], and Mt. Pleasant Cementing and Mudding.

The collection includes organizational records of the company.

The collection consists of printed or typed union materials agreements and benefit information for the Company’s employees.

The collection contains correspondence, minutes, notes and reports of the MIchigan Civil War Centennial Observance Commission; bulletins and miscellaneous, programs, directories, of Delta Kappa Gamma Society; newspaper clippings, photographs, and unpublished materials

The collection consists of Floyd’s publications; writings (unpublished); correspondence; minutes, notes and reports of the Michigan Civil War Centennial Observance Commission; bulletins and miscellaneous he created for the American Legion; a Pi Gamma Mu directory, 1930; and miscellaneous.

Mary’s materials include programs, directories and miscellaneous of Delta Kappa Gamma Society, and its Kappa Chapter (Detroit).

Both Floyd and Mary are documented in newspaper clippings, photographs and some of the writings.

Collection of Huntington's personal papers, including Serbian correspondence with her husband's relatives in Yugoslavia, and discussion of race relations in Detroit, other related family papers, including materials relating to Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker and his sister, Mary; her professional papers as an engineer and businesswoman. An interesting letter of July 29, 1967 describes the Detroit Race Riots results and what Frances believes were the contributing factors. Also, there is a thank you note from Grace H. Hemingway.

About 2.5 cubic ft. (4 and one-third of the boxes) of the collection specifically documents Frances D. Huntington’s personal and professional life. The rest of the collection documents her immediate family and ancestors.

Frances’ Personal Papers (approximately .5 cubic foot) consist mainly of her Personal Correspondence with family and friends. The series is divided by 1) those people she only received correspondence from, 2) those people and issues she had correspondence about, and 3) those to which she sent correspondence. Each subseries is in alphabetical order by surname of the correspondent. Of special interest here are her correspondence to her immediate family while she was in California at a finishing school, 1918-1919; her correspondence with her Smith College friend, Helen “Greenie” Bacon, 1927-1981, and undated, which mentions the Bacons’ experiences in Communist China and Lee Bacon attending the Nuremburg trials, as well as more general news of their travels, jobs, mutual friends, Smith College, and family; and warm, extensive correspondence with Frances’ nieces Barbara and Cynthia Huntington and their maternal Grandmother, Mrs. Buckley, 1958-1981, in San Francisco (California), which covers a wide variety of topics relating to the girls and includes examples of the girls’ homework. Frances’ correspondence with Mary’s doctor, Dr. J. Clark Maloney, provides sad documentation of Mary’s downward spiral into progressively worsening mental illness and its impact on various family members.

Additional correspondence was labeled by Frances as “Serbian Correspondence”, so the separate subseries were maintained here. This includes letters between Frances, Mio and his brothers, their families, and other Serbian relatives. The letters and cards are written or typed in English and Serbian, many of the latter having English translations written on the accompanying envelops or on scrap paper, and a few photographs, 1965-1988, and undated (.75 cubic ft.). The letters note family news, vacations, illness, death, travels, the differences between life and customs (burial of a relative) in the U.S. and Serbia, and money and gifts they sent to each other. Of particular interest is Frances’ letter to Zorica, dated July 29, 1967, in which she discusses the 1967 Detroit race riot and resulting damages, as well as what she believed were the contributing factors, namely poverty, lack of education, lack of affordable housing, lack of jobs for the uneducated, and the “indifference of Negro parents.”

Other Personal Papers which provide biographical information include: Biographical Materials, including Frances’ obituary, 1991; her brief Diaries, 1962-1963, the Huntington Family History, 1983; a List of Wedding Guests for Frances and Mio’s wedding, 1962; Family Photographs, 1880-1903, and undated; Legal Papers, 1953-1976; and other materials.

Frances’ Professional Papers (approximately 1 cubic ft.) mainly document her activities in the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC), Inc.-Greater Detroit Section. ASQC materials include Executive Committee and other meeting minutes, agendas, correspondence, membership lists, photographs, and other materials.

The F. D. Huntington Company is documented by business correspondence, 1961-1976, publications, financial records, manuals, photographs of equipment, etc.

Program books, 1960-1973 (Scattered), of the Society of Women Engineers, both the national and Detroit section, document Frances’ membership in the organization.

The rest of the collection consists of the Family Papers, which totals approximately 2 cubic feet (4 and 2/3 boxes), and consists of the papers and materials of Frances’ parents, siblings, grandparents, great-grandparents, and other relatives, including Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. A few general materials are filed first. Then, materials of individuals filed in alphabetical order by the surname, and then the first name, of each relative.

Materials relating to Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker are found in the Correspondence and Legal Papers of his sister, Mary S. (Hooker) Brainard, who was the administrator of his estate, 1863-1891; in the Correspondence and Accounts of Joseph Hooker, 1863, 1877-1878, and undated; related Newspaper Clippings (copies) re: the painting, 1903, 1986, and undated; and some of the Correspondence, 1882, of John H. Treadwell and those of his wife, Mary S. (Brainard) Treadwell, 1891, and undated, all of which relate to the painting Joseph Hooker owned entitled “The Battle of Lookout Mountain”. Hooker paid the artist, James Walker, $20,000 himself, although Congress had commissioned the painting on April 30, 1875. The sheer size of the painting, which measures 13x30 feet, was such that finding a public building in which to hang it permanently was a long process. Mary S. (Brainard) Treadwell assumed the responsibility of the painting when her brother died until her death in 1894. Then, her son-in-law and daughter, John H. and Mary S. Treadwell, took responsibility for the painting until he died in 1967. After two restorations and a long period in storage, the painting was finally installed at the Lookout Mountain Visitor Center at the Point Park Unit of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park on August 19, 1986.

Papers of Frances’ immediate family (approximately 1.5 cubic feet) include those of her siblings and parents.

Danforth Huntington ‘s papers include Biographical Materials, World War II Naval Citations, Correspondence, Orders, Personal Correspondence, Photographs, and Newspaper Clippings (copies), 1934-1959.

George D. Huntington Papers include a few Business and Personal Correspondence, 1915, 1938 (Scattered), and undated.

The papers of Helen I. (Treadwell) Huntington consists mostly of extensive Personal Correspondence with her immediate family and friends, 1918, 1930-1956, and undated. Of interest (for fun) is the 1918 correspondence from her son John, then twelve-years-old, at Camp Nissokone in Oscoda (Michigan), in which he begs hysterically and repeatedly for her to send more candy. Also there is correspondence with Walter H. Hebert about a book on Joseph Hooker that Hebert was writing.

John T. Huntington ‘s papers consist mostly of Correspondence from his sister, Frances, and Helen “Kinkie” King, when the ladies attended Smith College, and Newspaper Clippings (copies) of his wedding to Anita Pierce on February 24, 1938.

Mary L. (Huntington) Kerr papers consist mostly of Personal Correspondence from friends, including numerous Sardoc invitations and notes with other members in her 1920s correspondence, and with her future husband, 1932-1934.

The papers of Frances’ Great-grandparents, Martha D. (Mygatt) Treadwell of New Milford (Connecticut) and Henry R. Treadwell consists mostly of the extensive Personal Correspondence between them, which spans their courtship, his traveling job and long periods of time spent in New York (New York), and their married life, 1840-1850, and undated. The letters are very affectionate, detailed, and demonstrate that both were well educated and had neat penmanship.

Their son, John H. Treadwell’s papers consist mostly of his Correspondence to his Father, Step-mother, sisters, Mary and Kitty, and later his wife, Mary [S. Brainard], and his “dear baby” Helen (Frances’ Mother), detailing his travels and adventures. Several Travel Journals, 1861 and 1865, as well as several additional volumes of his Essays and Poetry, 1868-1869, some of which he noted were published locally in newspapers, are also included.

Processing Notes: Check stubs, cancelled checks, receipts, bills, tax information, miscellaneous notes, generic personal and business correspondence, purchase orders, and general reading materials (approximately 12 cubic ft.) were withdrawn from the collection. The newsletters and publications of organizations and institutions based in Detroit or Grosse Pointe were transferred to the Burton Historical Library. A folder of Michigan Nature Association publications was transferred to the Bentley Historical Library, where a large collection of the MNA is housed. Lastly, a printing block and biographical information on Virginia Traphaghan (Smith College 1927 graduate) and other Smith college publications were transferred to Smith College.