Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

U. S. Senator from Michigan, 1959-1976, a conscientious supporter of civil rights, consumer protection and environmentalism, Hart served as floor manager of the 1965 civil rights act and 1968 Open Housing Act, introduced legislation to create Sleeping Bear Dunes and Pictured Rock National Lakeshores and sponsored important consumer legislation. Papers include Legislative Files, Staff Files, Press Files, Subject Files, Constituent Correspondence, Office Files, Political Files, Miscellaneous, Sound Recordings, and Visual Materials.

The Philip A. Hart collection consists of those files maintained by Hart and his staff in Washington D.C. while serving as senator from Michigan in the period 1958-1976. A senate office in the 1960s and 1970s could employ as many as thirty staff and clerical workers. In 1975, Hart wrote: "My own office presently consists of 34 full-time people in Washington plus 4 in my Detroit office and one part-time employee each in Grand Rapids and Marquette." Received from Washington, the Hart collection documents the workings of his Capitol office. Excepting for a few files from the 1950s when Hart served in Michigan state government, the Hart papers relate exclusively to Senate activities and detail the variety and bulk of problems crossing the desk of a United States senator and his staff.

In a press release describing his office, Hart stated that the work of a senator falls into three categories: legislative, participating in the discussion and formulation of public policy, and serving as "ambassador" between his constituents and the Federal Government. Beyond the study of legislation, public policy debates, and the relationship between a senator and the people of his state, the Hart collection is a reflection of the times in which Hart served, the sixties and seventies, years of the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford, a time when public figures discussed issues of conscience and of war, matters of human rights and of public morality, areas where Hart's basic integrity and humaneness placed him in the forefront of public debate.

The collection falls into eleven principal series: Personal/Biographical, Legislative Files, Staff Files, Press Files, Subject Files, Constituent Correspondence, Office Files, Political Files, Miscellaneous, Sound Recordings, and Visual Materials. Except for Personal/Biographical and the series of audio-visual materials, the Hart collection is an office file and represents the activities of one senator and a dozen or so of his key staff members. To use the collection, the researcher after examining the "Series Description" (on the following pages) should note that for any topical study, information will usually be found in any number of series within the collection. The series represent functional divisions within the Hart office, legislation, press, or whatever. To study an issue such as consumer protection, therefore, the researcher should be prepared to examine the Hart finding aid under the series that might document that topic from different functional perspectives (Legislative Files, Staff Files, Subject Files, among others). The researcher interested in a narrower, more specific topic should recognize that the following inventory, for the most part, is not a folder-level description and thus specialized kinds of information will be filed first under a more general heading.

One more note: The Hart papers originally consisted of more than 700 linear feet of files. Hart himself and his staff had discarded certain types of files before donating them to the library, notably case files and constituent mail answered by form. In addition, the library discarded files of low research content - thank yous, invitations, and carbons of Hart correspondence duplicated in the other principal series of the collection. Furthermore, files containing similar types of correspondence from constituents have been sampled (the folders have "S" or "Samp" on them). Government publications, easily available in a government documents library, and unless heavily annotated, have been discarded. Researchers on any topic within the Hart collection should familiarize themselves with the standard sources on government documents (the indices to the Congressional Record for example). Topics on which Hart played a key legislative role or about which he was keenly interested have not been sampled. These topics include civil rights, the passage of various consumer legislation, the Sleeping Bear Dunes debate, his committee work, and the debate over the war in Vietnam to list a few.

The Penrod/Hiawatha Company collection is mainly comprised of postcards, although some supplemental photographic items directed toward tourists is also included. The postcards, numbering more than 5,000, primarily are of the Michigan landscape and its towns and cities, covering every region of the state. Typical postcard themes dominate, particularly natural scenery, outdoor recreation, and shopping districts. The postcards date from the 1950s through the opening decades of the twenty-first century, although very few display copyright dates. The collection is divided into the following series.

1. Non-Postcard Items (calendars, brochures, booklets): Box 1
2. Non-Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards: Box 2
3. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 1970s-1990s: Boxes 2-5
4. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, mid- to late 1990s: Boxes 5-6
5. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, late 1990s-2000): Boxes 6-7
6. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 2001-2004: Box 8
7. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 2005-2014: Box 9
8. Oversize and miscellaneous: Box 10

As batches of postcards are received every years, it was decided to arrange the items in blocks of time according to the date of their accession. Thus for the researcher interested in a specific city, it will be necessary to examine the listing for each of the series.

A semi-independent agency of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, 1948 to 1967, with a mission of establishing a lay ministry and connect religion to the daily activities of life. Records include correspondence, administrative files, publications and photographs.

The Parishfield record group, divided into ten series, documents one attempt within the Episcopal Church "to develop and promote the lay ministry through Christian experience." (Background series). The record group, in sum, concerns Parishfield as a training center for those who wanted to increase their effectiveness as Christians in understanding the issues of the day and the role that they as Christians should have in resolving societal problems. The series within the record group and the materials themselves - correspondence, meeting minutes, published matter, photographs, and other materials - document each of the four phases of the community's life. The grouping of materials into series largely reflects the Parishfield staff's concern to preserve the record of what they had accomplished.

Detroit, Michigan lawyer and banker, and alumnus of University of Michigan. Correspondence, essays, and newspaper clippings concerning the Detroit banking crisis of 1933; and biographical and genealogical information on the Church, Benedict and Mahon families; also photographs.

The Orla B. Taylor collection consists of correspondence, essays and other writings, and biographical and personal material. Many of the writings relate to banking in Detroit in the 1930s.

O'Brien family of northern Michigan and Detroit, Michigan; family papers of Patrick H. O'Brien and other family members.

The O'Brien family collection includes papers and scrapbooks of John H. O'Brien, a newsman with the Hearst newspaper chain largely concerning the campaign, 1952-1957, for better interstate highway system. In addition, there are scrapbooks and other materials of Michael O'Brien relating to his insurance business and to the political campaigns of his brother, Patrick H. O'Brien. The papers of Eleanor Lawton O'Brien concern her interests in family planning. The reminiscences of Jean Worth relate to his boyhood in Menominee, Michigan, ca. 1915.

Detroit, Mich. based travel group which toured destinations throughout the world. Records include tour files arranged by destination. These files consist of description of the proposed tour, itineraries of events, and list of tour members. The collection also has organization newsletter Nomad Notes and The Nomad; and photographs from the social activities of the group.

The papers and photographs of the Nomads were initially processed by the organization in the summer of 1989. The collection was gathered from the office records of the Club as well as from the private collections of various members, especially those of Joseph and Anne Marie Benich. Additional items were processed in the spring of 1990 and 1991.

Papers of Morton Isadore and Katherine Smit Netzorg; their son Morton Jacob Netzorg and his wife Petra Fuld Netzorg; Petra Netzorg's mother Charlotte Fuld, and Petra's younger sister Bracha Fuld. The collection chronicles the history of the Philippine Islands in the 20th century, specifically during the Second World War; life of German Jewry on the eve of World War II; Zionist Insurgency in the British Mandate Palestine; developments in the scholarly field of South East Asian Studies and international publishing and book trade industries related to the region. The collection is a rich source of bibliographic material related to the Pacific Islands, primarily the Philippines, as well as the entire South East Asian region.

Family and business correspondence, including internment camp communications of Morton I. and Katherine; journals and diaries; published works and manuscripts of Morton J.; material related to Bracha Fuld's death; photographs; the Cellar Book Shop card catalog; also World War II-period artifacts, and Bracha's military ribbon.

Photographs and slides depicting Fuld and Netzorg families and their friends, Netzorgs' house in Detroit, Detroit street scenes, and the Cellar Book Shop. Of special interest are the World War II period photographs in the Morton I. and Katherine S. Netzorg part of the series depicting the conditions in liberated Philippines in 1945, military action and military life, and Jewish life in the U.S. military. Also of interest are the Fuld family photographs depicting Jewish life in Germany from the late 1800s to late 1930s. Slides with images taken during 1970s trips to the Philippines featuring Banaue, Cebu, Jolo, and Zamboanga, locations in the Southeast Asia, and Europe.

Recorded reminiscences of Morton J. Netzorg and Petra Fuld Netzorg.

Records of various officers of the Michigan Conference of the National Organization for Women collected by one-time state presidents Margot Duley-Morrow and Alicia Perez-Banuet. Presidential files of Duley-Morrow, Nan Frost-Welmers, Shirley Monson, Lynn Hierholzer, Gloria Woods, and Alicia Perez-Banuet; files of state chapter developer Rhonda Drinan, and Macomb County chapter president Doris Little; contain correspondence, newsletters, clippings, mass mailings, agendas and minutes, photographs, and other materials concerning the formal and personal aspects of this feminist organization. Topics covered include the Equal Rights Amendment, the Project for Equal Education Rights, Women's Assembly III, and other issues pertaining to women's rights.

The Michigan NOW record group includes administrative records, files of individual presidents, newsletters from local chapters, records of the Michigan NOW PAC (Political Action Committee), and topical files of subjects of interests to the Michigan Conference such as the ERA, educational equity, and abortion rights.

The organization of the collection is rather artificial, both because the documents were in extremely poor order upon their accession and because there is only the broadest unity to the collection's components. The records have been grouped under the name of the individual most responsible either for their creation or for their accumulation and preservation. There were two individuals primarily responsible for these records coming to the Bentley Library. They were Margot Duley-Morrow (two-term president, 1981-1983) who donated records in 1984 and Alicia Perez-Banuet (president, 1997-1998) who donated materials in three major accessions.

State chapter of national temperance organization founded in 1874; records include correspondence of early W.C.T.U. workers, Alice E. H. Peters and Ella Eaton Kellogg; also minutes, scrapbooks, and other records of individual Michigan W.C.T.U. districts and chapters.

The Michigan Woman's Temperance Union records divide into seven series: Correspondence; Miscellaneous and Publicity; Printed Materials; District Records; County Union Records; Local Union Records; and Photographs. The records document the period of the Michigan WCTU's greatest influence, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the organization's gradual declining influence following the repeal of the prohibition amendment.

Organization of Michigan photographers; collected copyprints of historical images.

The collection consists of copyprints (with some negatives) of historical images collected by members of the Michigan Photographers Society. The photographs are arranged alphabetically by name of city where the collector lived. This is followed by descriptions of the images. The strength of the collection is for its visual documentation of various Michigan cities, including street scenes, businesses, private residences, views of ships, railroads, lumbering activities, and local customs.