Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Woodruffs were a lumbering family from Ludington, Michigan. The collection includes clippings, correspondence and photographs. The Woodruff family materials contain photo books and prints of the University of Michigan area during the 1890s, and correspondence home to the family from U-M students. The Marin family materials include information on Axel Marin's career as a University of Michigan professor, and photographs of Michigan football, ca. 1940.

The Woodruff-Marin papers contain information about Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan, and greater Michigan. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs taken by Eugene C. Woodruff between 1890 and 1896. The collection is arranged into two series, the Woodruff Family Papers and the Marin Family Papers.

Portraits of University of Michigan students, ca. 1860-ca.1950, gathered from a number of sources.

The University of Michigan student portrait collection has been brought together from a variety of sources, including the Alumni Office, the Law School, the College of Pharmacy, the Medical School and the Graduate Library. There are approximately 2000 images (formal portraits for the most part), and they have been arranged alphabetically. The dates of the photographs extend back to the 1850s, but the great bulk of the collection consists of cabinet photographs taken from the period of 1870 to 1900. The photographs consist mainly of graduation portraits, although there are also portraits or snapshots taken some time after the period when the individual attended the university. Photographs of this sort are indicated on the container listing by the notation (alumnus).

The researcher should note that this collection represents only one source of portraits of U-M students. The library has other collections with images of individual students. The researcher should first check the Visual Materials card catalog to ascertain whether or not there might be a more comprehensive collection of materials relating to an individual, such as a public figure. These larger collections are cataloged separately, and often contain portraits of individuals from their U-M days. Second, the library has a collection of class albums (cataloged as University of Michigan Class Albums) containing portraits of individuals from various classes in the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s. Not all class years are represented and not every individual in a given class is included in this collection, however. Third, the library has collections of student photographs found within the files of individual schools and departments, notably the Law School and the Medical School. Fourth, the researcher will find individual student portraits as well as class portraits within the library's photographic vertical file (filed under UBImu/F99), in both the regular (UBImus/F99) and oversize folders (UBImum/F99 and UBImul/F99). Fifth, the researcher should consult the library's file of the Michiganensian for more current photographs of students and for photographs of students as part of student organizations such as athletic teams, special interest clubs, and professional and social fraternities/sororities.

The Class Albums collection consists of photograph albums compiled by University of Michigan students. The albums include individual and group portraits of class members, faculty portraits, and views of university buildings, the campus, and Ann Arbor scenes.

The albums are arranged under series which are listed here chronologically by volume. Arrangement of photographs within volumes often begins with portraits faculty and administrators followed student portraits. Some volumes also include photos of campus buildings and other individuals. The portraits in each section are sometimes arranged alphabetically, but frequently there is no apparent order. Photos in most volumes have been given sequential identifying numbers. In the contents list below, the portraits are generally listed in alphabetical order with the identifying number in square brackets.

Hamburg, Livingston County, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, family. Correspondence, newspaper clippings and photographs of the Lohmiller, Twichell, and Hollister families.

The papers of the Twichell family document three generations of the extended Twichell families. It includes extensive correspondence files, reminiscences of life on turn-of-the-century Michigan farm and of student life the University of Michigan, files relating to the family businesses including boardinghouses in Ann Arbor, and photographs of family members, towns in Michigan, and University of Michigan students. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence, Alphabetical Files, Photographs, and Sound Recordings.

Professor of Law and American History at the University of Michigan, Michigan Supreme Court Justice, and chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Papers include correspondence, diaries, lectures, notes and photographs.

The Thomas McIntyre Cooley papers document the life and career of an attorney, jurist, teacher, scholar, and public official. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence received. A comprehensive calendar of these letters has been compiled by Virginia Ehrlicher in her doctoral thesis Thomas McIntyre Cooley : a calendar of his papers, 1846-1898. This three volume calendar is an important tool in accessing names of correspondents and topics covered. The remainder of the collection includes diaries, speeches, scrapbooks, course notes from some of his classes taught at the University of Michigan, and a scattering of photographs.

Established in 1891 as the University of Michigan Training School for Nurses, the School of Nursing offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees and continuing education in nursing specializations including medical-surgical nursing, psychiatric mental health nursing, and nursing administration. The record group includes administrative and topical files of the dean, committee and faculty records, photographs, and research area files.

The physical records of the School of Nursing measure 112 feet, 2 oversize folders, and 1.24 GB (online), with an additional 9 feet of material in records center storage. Physical records date from 1891 to 2010, although the great majority of the material was created after 1940 by the current School of Nursing; the School of Nursing website has been archived since the early 2000s.

Only fragmentary records of the school's two predecessor units are found in the collection. Reflecting the source of the material, the collection has been arranged into broad subgroups, the titles of which usually reflect the dean from whose office the records originated.

The School of Dentistry is a teaching and research unit of the University of Michigan. Records include administrative files, faculty meeting minutes, curriculum and education, subject files relating to dentistry and to the professional interests of the school's faculty; and photographs and films.

The School of Dentistry record group spans the years from 1873 to 2010, but does not comprehensively document the entire span. The records are fragmentary, providing only a partial picture of the School of Dentistry. Documentation reflects the tenures of various deans with scattered documents from the late 1800s and more detail in the period 1920-1990. The records give some insight into the development of dentistry as a profession, and the training and education of dental students. The records, comprised of 40.5 linear feet, 1 oversize volume, 1 oversize folder, and 1.3GB, have been divided into 10 series: Educational Information, Administration, Black Dentistry Conference, Organizations, Surveys, Photographs and Audiovisual Materials, Department Chairpersons' Meetings, Faculty Meetings, American Dental Association Accreditation, Dental Research Institute, and Website.

The Safford Sunderland papers trace several generations of a Southeastern Michigan family, showcasing everyday life and Michigan (as well as U.S.) history over the course of the first half of the Twentieth Century.

The Safford Sunderland Family collection consists of the papers of Gertrude Sunderland Safford, her husband Homer E. Safford, his sister Ada M. Safford, and of two of the Sunderland Saffords' daughters, Helen Safford Toohy and Mildred H. Safford. The papers also contain information on and materials from Gertrude Sunderland Safford's parents, Jabez T. Sunderland and Eliza Jane Read Sunderland; her siblings, Edson Read Sunderland and Florence Sunderland; and the Sunderland Saffords' other two children, Truman Sunderland Safford and Virginia Safford Arnold. Additionally, there is some material from and on Helen Safford Toohy's husband (Clifford M. Toohy) and daughters (Janet Toohy Ferguson and Phyllis Toohy). Finally, the collection contains Ada Murray Safford's extensive genealogical materials on the Murray and Safford families.

The papers are organized into six series arranged by family member: Photographs, Gertrude Sunderland Safford, Homer Erwin Safford, Ada Murray Safford, Mildred Hortense Safford, and Helen Safford Toohy.

Letters from University of Michigan student Milton Jackson (1845-1909) to Alban Gilpin Thomas (1843-1928), written between 1863 to 1867. The letters describe Jackson's daily life as a University of Michigan student during the Civil War, as well as contemporary politics.

The Milton Jackson letters is a collection of 12 letters from Milton Jackson to Alban Gilpin Thomas written between 1863 and 1867. The letters are arranged chronologically. They describe both Jackson's daily life as a University of Michigan student and the contemporary politics of the time. Notably, one letter describes Jackson's visit to hear Frederick Douglass speak in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Also included is one letter written on birch bark from his visit to Marquette and a cloth letter bag.

The collection also contains a letter from Jackson's wife, Caroline "Carrie" Swayne to Thomas along with two announcements of her and Jackson's wedding.

Jackson's letters were transcribed by the donor, James A. Boone. These transcriptions are included and complete for all but one of the letters and other supplemental material. Note that the arrangement and some of the dates in the transcript are erroneous.

This collection contains racist and harmful language used to describe the Black community of Ypsilanti and the Indigenous nations of northern Michigan. See further explanation in the Processing Information.

The University of Michigan's first professional school; the Medical School record group includes historical and administrative records related to the school and its faculty and administrators, 1850-2010.

The records of the Medical School span over 160 years, beginning in 1850 and continuing through 2010. They include 389.7 linear feet of material, 10 oversize volumes, 9 oversize folders of miscellaneous documents, and 3.3 GB of digital material stored online. The records include dean's correspondence and subject files, executive committee minutes, faculty minutes, annual reports of departments, school accreditation and review files, a variety of special reports and studies, and extensive files on the Replacement Hospital Project (Taubman Center). The record group also contains photo prints depicting faculty, students and facilities, including a remarkable series of photographs taken by J. Jefferson Gibson circa 1893.

The Medical School records have been organized into five subgroups: Dean's Records, Subordinate Administrative Officers, Faculty Records, Audio-Visual Materials, and Miscellaneous records. Within each subgroup there are a number of series and these series may be further subdivided to reflect the date span of the records received in each accession.

The Medical School records have been received in several accessions and the physical arrangement of the records (the number order of the boxes) reflects the various installments in which they were received. The accessions sometimes reflected the tenure of a particular dean or other administrator, but frequently appear to have been somewhat arbitrary transfers of files. Records from individual subgroups, series and subseries often continue across multiple accessions--sometimes with consecutive date ranges, but often with overlapping date spans.

In this finding aid the records are described in their intellectual order -- subgroups and series are brought together irrespective of the particular accession in which they were received. As a result, in the detailed contents listing the box number order will not always be consecutive.