Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Prosecuting attorney of Saginaw County, Michigan, attorney general of Michigan, 1929-1931, governor, 1931-1932, general counsel to the Department of Defense during the Army-McCarthy Hearing, 1954-1955, and Secretary of the Army, 1955-1961. Correspondence, speeches, tapes, appointment books, scrapbooks, photograph albums, newspaper clippings, and other materials concerning his political career.

The Wilber M. Brucker Collection consists of correspondence, subject files, scrapbooks, tape recordings, visual materials, political ephemera, and other materials from a lifelong career in public service. The collection provides significant, though not always extensive, material on his activities as state attorney general, governor, and secretary of the army. In addition, the papers include documentation from Brucker's private career: his law practice, his involvement in the preparation of a plan for the reapportionment of the Michigan Legislature, his devotion to Republican Party causes, his activities with the Knights Templar of Michigan, and as a member of the World War I Rainbow Division. With some exceptions, the early phases of Brucker's life are not as well represented as one might hope. There is really no body of Brucker gubernatorial materials extant. What remains are scattered items, largely concerning the election campaigns of 1930 and 1932.

The collection has been arranged into twelve series: Biographical; Correspondence; Family Papers; Subject Files; Knights Templar; Rainbow Division; Appointment Books; Speeches; Secretary of the Army; Newspaper Clippings; Personal: Albums, Scrapbooks, etc.; and Visual Materials.

Consultant in municipal government, professor of political science at the University of California and the University of Michigan. Correspondence and other papers concerning his work with the National Municipal League, as municipal consultant, and as director of studies of the Republican Program Committee.

The Thomas Harrison Reed Collection is the papers of a man who was an active and important figure in the field of municipal government during much of the first half of this century. The Reed papers consist of eight feet of manuscript material, including correspondence, memos, newspaper clippings, and printed material. Over half of the collection deals primarily with Reed's work as a municipal consultant. The collection also contains a substantial amount of material which pertains to Reed's activities in connection with the American Political Science Association as well as material which relates to his academic career and correspondence with Michigan citizens and legislators and Michigan's Congressional representatives. In addition, the collection includes material on Belgium, Reed's work as city manager of San Jose, and his work with the Republican Program Committee.

The Thomas Harrison Reed Collection provides useful material for research on the history of the activities of the National Municipal League and on trends and issues in municipal government during the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. The collection is also useful to anyone interested in the issues which were involved in the revision of city charters in many American cities during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The collection contains, in particular, substantial material on reform in Atlanta during the 1930s.

Although this collection contains material on Reed's association with The University of Michigan and some material which deals with government in Michigan, it would be of little use for research on any aspect of Michigan history. During his twelve-year residence in Michigan, Reed did little work which related specifically to municipal government in this state. He did publish Oakland County: a survey of county and township administration and finance in 1932, but the collection contains nothing of substance relating to this work. With this exception, and aside from some correspondence and a few speeches to such groups as the League of Women Voters, there is no material in this collection which would be of more than passing interest to one engaged in historical research relating to Michigan.

Vice-president and secretary of the University of Michigan; correspondence; research materials for his biographies of university presidents; files relating to activities on the Ann Arbor City Council; course notes from classes at the University of Michigan; and photographs.

The Shirley Wheeler Smith papers include a combination of personal and professional materials. Much of Smith's career with the U-M is documented in the official records of the University, most notably in the records of the Secretary's Office and the papers of the presidents under whom he served (Angell, Hutchins, Burton, Little, and Ruthven). Even so, these papers contain much material relating to the business affairs of the U-M. The extensive correspondence files (with partial index) demonstrate wide influence in all phases of University operations as he corresponded with presidents, faculty, members of the board of regents, and other university personnel. Also documented in the collection is Smith's activities with the city of Ann Arbor and with other community organizations.

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Research for writings; Topical files; Ann Arbor City Council; Papers (by date); Personal and miscellaneous; and Photographs.

Lansing, Michigan businessman, founder of the Hudson Motor car Company, Secretary of Commerce in the Hoover Administration, leader of the "good roads movement" and the Lincoln Highway Association. Collection includes correspondence, speeches, business papers, clippings and scrapbooks and photographs.

The Roy D. Chapin papers include correspondence, speeches, articles, interviews, business papers, receipts, scrapbooks, photographs, and miscellaneous notes and files of Chapin's wife, and his biographer, John C. Long, concerning family matters, highway transportation, the automobile industry, general economic conditions, foreign trade, World War I, national defense, state and national politics, the Republican Party, and the University of Michigan. The collection also contains extensive papers concerning the Hudson Motor Car Company, including information on management policies, production, and labor organizing.

Editor of the Flint Journal. Correspondence and topical files concerning his newspaper career in Flint, the role of the Flint Journal in the development of the city, the General Motors sit-down strike of 1937, and the position of automobile industry to Flint; and photographs.

The Gorman papers reflect the relationship between a local newspaper and the community it served. The collection comprises two linear feet of correspondence and topical files from the period 1928 to 1958. Representing but a selection of Gorman's original files, this remnant appears to include correspondence which Gorman considered to be most important. The correspondence includes substantive material as well as letters of autograph value only.

College educator and president; president of University of Michigan, 1920-1925. Administrative correspondence, speeches, articles and scrapbooks detailing his years at University of Michigan; also his speech nominating Calvin Coolidge for the Presidency in 1924; and photographs.

The collection, although defined as personal papers of Marion Burton, is in fact the correspondence files of the office of president of the University of Michigan (1920-1925). Complementing these files are scattered personal items from the period prior to Burton's coming to Michigan. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence Files (President's Office); Miscellaneous President's Office Files; Personal Materials; Speeches and Articles; Scrapbooks/Newspaper clippings; University of Minnesota Topical Files; and Photographs.

State Representative from Lapeer, Michigan; U.S. Congressman, 1913-1931, and special attorney to the Secretary of the Interior, 1931-1932; correspondence, speeches, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, campaign materials, and other items relating to his advocacy of the national park system, the concept of historic preservation, fair employment practices legislation, increased support for Howard University and all other aspects of his career.

The Louis C. Cramton papers came to the Bentley Historical Library in three separate accessions (1948-1950; 1971; 1987). The collection has been arranged into six series: Correspondence, Miscellaneous Papers, Topical Files, Newspaper clippings/Scrapbooks, Photographs, and Louis Kay Cramton Papers.

Muskegon, Michigan equipment manufacturer. Correspondence, scrapbooks, printed materials and miscellanea concerning student activities at University of Michigan, the Shaw-Walker Company of Muskegon, Michigan, unemployment during the Depression, State Republican Party affairs, political conservatism, the Muskegon Red Cross, Liberty Bond drives and the United States Shipping Board during World War II, and his activity as an author and patron of conservative writers.

The Louis C. Walker papers have been divided into the following series: Correspondence, Miscellaneous, and Scrapbooks. The container listing describes more fully the subject content of the Correspondence series. Appended to the finding aid is a selective index to some of the more significant correspondents within the collection. Miscellaneous is an amalgam of collected materials and non-correspondence manuscripts mainly arranged by topics of interest to Walker or relating to organizations or projects in which he was involved. Of note here are materials relating to a strike at his company and various other material pertaining to his ideas on job sharing. The collection is largely an accumulation of personal materials and contains very little on the company which bears his name.

Newspaper articles and columns by Detroit News Washington correspondent, include extensive comment on national politics and foreign relations, particularly as they relate to Michigan

Scrapbooks, 1916-1965, of Jay G. Hayden, Washington correspondent for the Detroit News, contain extensive comment on national politics and foreign relations, particularly as they relate to Michigan. Personal subjects include: Sherman Adams, Smith W. Brookhart, Prentiss M. Brown, William Jennings Bryan, James F. Byrnes, Benjamin N. Cardozo, James Couzens, George Creel, Charles DeGualle, Edwin Denby, Lewis Douglas, John Foster Dulles, Dwight D. Eisenhower, James A. Farley, Henry Ford, Felix Frankfurter, John Glenn, James Hoffa, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, Robert M. LaFollette, Douglas McArthur, Joe McCarthy, Andrew Mellon, James Meredith, Billy Mitchell, Frank Murphy, Truman H. Newberry, Richard M. Nixon, Sam Rayburn, Owen J. Roberts, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frank L. Smith, Joseph Stalin, Harlan F. Stone, Harry S. Truman, Arthur H. Vandenberg, William S. Vare, Henry A. Wallace and Leonard Wood.

University of Michigan professor of political science, special advisor to the U.S. Military Government in Germany after World War II, participant in numerous government commissions; papers include correspondence, working files, speeches, course materials, and visual and sound materials.

The James K. Pollock papers represent an accumulation of files from a lifetime of academic teaching and research and an extraordinary number of public service responsibilities to both his state and his nation. The files within the collection fall into two categories: types of document (such as correspondence, speeches and writings, visual materials, etc.) and files resulting from a specific activity or position (such as his work as delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention or his service with the Office of the Military Government in Germany after World War II).

The collection is large and of a complicated arrangement because of Pollock's many activities. When received in 1969, the files were maintained as received; very little processing was done to the collection so that an inventory to the papers could be quickly prepared. The order of material is that devised by James K. Pollock and his secretarial staff in the U-M Department of Political Science. Recognizing the anomalies within the order of the collection, the library made the decision to list the contents to the collection while at the same time preparing a detailed card file index (by box and folder number, i.e. 16-8) to significant correspondents and subjects. While there was much to be said for this method of preparing a finding aid expeditiously, it also covered up some problems in arrangement. Thus series and subseries of materials are not always grouped together as they were created by Pollock. Files on the Hoover Commission and the Michigan Constitutional Convention, for example, come before Pollock's work in Germany after the war. In 1999, effort was made to resolve some of the inconsistencies and obvious misfilings of the first inventory but because of the numbering system used in 1969 and the card index prepared for the files, there are still some problems. Researchers should be alert to these difficulties and take time to examine different parts of the collection for material on a similar topic.