Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Reports and administrative records of WPA project to survey historical records in Michigan; includes correspondence, drafts of guides to county archives, proceedings of county boards of supervisors, field reports of workers, and copies of land patents for some counties; also material relating to the history of Blacks in Michigan.

The Historical Records Survey record group documents the activities and the product of the legions of depression era workers who inventoried the records held in county courthouses, municipal offices some private repositories. The records include correspondence, drafts of guides to county archives, proceedings of county boards of supervisors, field reports of workers, and copies of land patents for some counties; also material relating to the history of Blacks in Michigan.

Originally the H.R.S. records transferred to the Michigan Historical Collections measured about 121 linear feet. After processing, the collection consisted of 26 feet of records relating to the H.R.S. and 65 feet of transcripts of county and municipal records. Of the remaining 30 feet, 29.5 feet of duplicate, extraneous, or insignificant materials were discarded (described in more detail further on) and approximately half of a linear foot of printed material was transferred to the library's printed collection.

The H.R.S. material has been divided into the following series:

1. Survey of County Records
2. Survey of Municipal Records
3. Survey of Federal Records
4. Survey of State Records
5. WPA Project Files
6. Manuscripts Survey
7. Inventory of Negro Manuscripts
8. Transcripts of County Records
9. Transcripts of Municipal Records
10. Photographs
11. Historical Records Survey Correspondence
12. Survey Forms of 1987 Survey of Records in Counties and Municipalities.

The Michigan Citizen was a weekly African American newspaper published from 1978 to 2014, and distributed in Benton Harbor, the City of Highland Park, and the City of Detroit, Michigan. The Michigan Citizen Records consist of the weekly issues of the Michigan Citizen newspaper, the subject files used by the newspaper staff, reporter's notes, correspondence written to the editor of the Michigan Citizen, and hundreds of photographs.

The Michigan Citizen Records document various points of political, social, and economic history and events, relating to African Americans, that took place in southern Michigan from 1978-2015, with specific focuses on the cities of Benton Harbor, Detroit, and Highland Park.

Photographs (positive and negative), slides, and transparencies taken by the company's photographers to document company activities, products, services, employees at work and at leisure, company exhibits and commemorations, and the response of the company to natural disasters and civil disturbances.

In 1993, Michigan Bell as a corporate entity was subsumed within the Ameritech Corporation. As a by-product of this reorganization and the downsizing resulting from it, the company agreed to deposit with the Bentley Historical Library its extensive archive of photographic images. Totalling approximately one million images, the Michigan Bell Telephone Company photo archive consists of negatives, copy prints, and color transparencies taken in the period since World War II (the bulk beginning in 1949). The collection does not include photos taken since 1983; interspersed throughout, however, are numerous images from before 1949.

The collection has been maintained in the order received with two principal series: Positives and Negatives.

The content of the photographs in the two series varies considerably. Naturally the collection documents the products of the company (phones and other communication devices) and the services provided (e.g. employees at work or the company reacting to a specific customer need). These photos were taken both to inform the general public as accompaniment to press notices and advertising copy and as a communications vehicle within the company, informing employees through the company news publication, Tielines, of activities going on in other divisions of the company or among the various regional Bell offices.

More importantly perhaps, the collection has value for its documentation of events and activities that are common to all large companies. These include images relating to: 1. The activities of employees within the corporation at their work (office workers, repairmen, operators, various support personnel, managers, etc.); 2. The activities of employees outside their work routine as members of corporate social groups (i.e., the company baseball or ice hockey team), at home engaged in leisure time activities, or involved in company-sponsored charitable or public service functions; and 3. Commemorations of specific milestones or events (company parade floats, area office open houses, corporate displays at public events such as fairs, etc.).

In addition, the collection documents the extraordinary and unforeseen as the phone company reacts to events and emergencies not within its control (floods, tornadoes, fires, the 1967 Detroit riot, strikes, and the like) or as a participant in history-making events (the announcement in Ann Arbor of the success of the Salk polio vaccine or the preparation involved in the 1980 Republican National Convention that convened in Detroit).

Stenographer in Detroit, Mich. Diaries describing social life and friendships.

Diaries describing in detail her social life and friendships. (Diary for 1920 is in shorthand.)

Detroit architectural firm. Photographs of school buildings designed by the firm Malcomson, Higginbotham and Palmer.

The collection consists of photographs of school buildings designed by the firm Malcomson, Higginbotham and Palmer, including exterior and interior views as well as a few photos of classrooms being used by students. Schools represented include George W. Balch School, Levi L. Barbour Intermediate School, and Southwestern High School in Detroit as well as Durant and Civic Park Schools and Flint High School in Flint, Mich.

President's correspondence, executive committee minutes, and minutes of annual conventions; also files on individual churches in the Synod, including clippings, reports, church histories and programs; and photographs.

The records of the Michigan Synod of the Lutheran Church in America include president's correspondence; executive committee minutes; and minutes of annual conventions; files on individual churches in the Synod, including clippings, reports, church histories and programs; and photographs. The records have been arranged into the following series: Organizational and Administrative Records; Archivist's files; Organizational units and programs; Lutheran Church Women; Printed material; Church files; Topical files; and Visual Materials. Most of the records prior to 1962 originally came from the archives of United Lutheran Church in America.

Suffragist, leader of the Michigan Branch of the National Woman's Party, and candidate for the Michigan legislature in 1924. Correspondence, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, periodicals and other materials concerning her activities in the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association, the Legislative Council of Michigan Women, the National Woman's Party, and the Republican Party; and photographs.

The Grimes papers have been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Other Papers (non-correspondence); Subject files; Bills introduced in the Michigan legislature; Newspaper clippings; Printed material; Scrapbooks; and Miscellaneous.

Resident of Detroit, Mich., who served as a photographer with the 310th Engineers during the Allied intervention in Russia, 1918-1920, the "Polar Bear Expedition." Collection includes photographs of 310th Engineers training at Camp Custer, Mich., and in Russia, Detroit Fire Dept. personnel and equipment, Detroit waterfront, farming in Roscommon County, hunting and fishing in Roscommon County, logging in Baraga County.

The photograph album has been disbound. It contains photographs of the 310th Engineers training at Camp Custer, Mich., and in Russia, Detroit Fire Dept. personnel and equipment, the Detroit waterfront, farming in Roscommon County, hunting and fishing in Roscommon County, and logging in Baraga County.

The Library Clipping File was a vertical file maintained by the University of Michigan Library Reference Department roughly from the early 1920s to the early 1980s. It largely consists of newspaper clippings on numerous topics relating to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the State of Michigan, but includes some press releases, pamphlets, and printed ephemera as well.

This collection represents the clipping file as maintained by the Reference Department of the University of Michigan Library. The file was begun around 1920. Compilation of newspaper clippings largely ended by the mid 1970s, although some items date from the early 1980s. The collection consists of Four series of clipping files: University of Michigan, University of Micahign Faculty, Ann Arbor, and the State of Michigan. The clipping file is a useful starting point for information on particular events, individuals, issues, organizations, and subjects. In some instances the clippings supplement material held in the archives and provide detailed background on a variety of subjects as presented by local newspapers. Clippings in the University of Michigan series were tipped into folder often using mounting hinges, thus maintaining a rough chronology within folders. Clippings in the Ann Arbor and State of Michigan series are loose, although some articles have been clipped together with a scrap of paper noting specific chronological periods.

The Ann Arbor series and the State of Michigan series were transferred to the Bentley Library in 2004. These two series include a few items from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and retain scattered pamphlets and other non-newspaper printed material. The folder headings for the two series represent headings used by the Library, with limited cross references added by Bentley staff. However, as in the University of Michigan series, there is significant overlap in the file names for the Ann Arbor and State of Michigan series This is most notable in the State of Michigan series, which includes a large run of subjects under the heading of "Michigan -- ." Researchers looking for Michigan topics in this series should check both under the "Michigan" hierarchy and under the topic name in the overall alphabetical list.

Correspondence, poems, articles, addresses, account book, and Delta Kappa Epsilon autograph book; letter book, 1883-1884, dealing mainly with prisons and jails in Michigan which Barbour inspected; scrapbook of miscellaneous clippings and scattered correspondence. Portraits and informal photos of Barbour, daguerrotypes of Barbour as a child and of his father, John Barbour, and autograph book (1860s) with portraits of members of Delta Kappa Epsilon (University of Michigan); a composite photo of the a composite photo of Michigan Constitutional Convention, 1907/1908 (with Barbour).