Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Student papers, 1930-1987 prepared for classes in history at the University of Michigan (primarily Michigan history class taught by Lewis G. VanderVelde, but also including research papers for classes taught by Sidney Fine and others); topics concern Michigan social and political history; Michigan biography and bibliography; and local community history.

The student papers are organized alphabetically by author in two series, which are similar in date range and topics covered. Topics of papers concern Michigan social and political history; Michigan biography and bibliography; local community history and University of Michigan history. A topical index to the papers is available in the first box of the collection.

Amateur photographer of Ann Arbor, Michigan, bookkeeper with the Symons Food Co. in Ann Arbor. Photographs taken highlighting Ann Arbor and University of Michigan views, notably football games, arrivals and departures at the train station, train wrecks, and other vehicular mishaps, graduation ceremonies, parades, and business and university buildings. Some photographs are of gatherings of the Ku Klux Klan in Jackson, Michigan and outside the city, 1920s.

The Buss photograph collection consists of approximately 700 prints dating from approximately 1923 to the early 1950s. The views are primarily relating to the University of Michigan and to Ann Arbor although there are also images of Detroit, Ypsilanti, and Jackson. The bulk of the collection concerns University of Michigan events (commencements, football games and game day activities, and student life) and buildings (standing or in the process of construction). There are also numerous images of parades: patriotic, military, circus, etc.

Of note are the several images that Buss took of members of the Ku-Klux-Klan walking together on a street in Jackson, Michigan, probably in the period of 1924-1928, and of a Klan gathering in an open field, perhaps near to Jackson.