Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Saginaw, Michigan, sugar processor and Republican Congressman (1935-1953). Correspondence, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, speeches, and photographs.

The Crawford collection consists of correspondence relating to his political career, especially the election campaigns of 1936, 1940 and 1952. Some of his correspondents include Wilber M. Brucker, Mar. 6, 1937, Leonard Hall, May 19, 1950, and George A. Malcolm, Nov. 7, 1936. Of note are letters of Stanley Morse of the Farmer's Independence Council, Aug.-Dec. 1935-1936, describing agricultural conditions and a letter of H.W. Anderson, April 27, 1937, relating to the Flint Sit-Down strike.

There are also scrapbooks relating to his career activities and to his trips to the Philippines in 1935 and 1946. One of his scrapbooks concerns the activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1938, and includes a letter from J. Edgar Hoover; another scrapbook contains newspaper clippings and campaign miscellanea from his re-election campaign in 1936.

The Photographs series consists of a photograph album, 1946, detailing his participation as member of the U.S. delegation to the Philippine Commonwealth and Independence ceremonies. This volume also includes photos of various countries visited on the way to and from the Philippines. Other photographs are of a Congressional visit to United States Pacific Ocean island possessions and trusts and to Japan in 1949; and portraits of other Michigan members of Congress.

Civil engineer, served as Michigan state highway commissioner, chairman of the Mackinac Straits Bridge Authority and president of Portland Cement Company. Papers primarily document work with highway commission and Mackinac Straits Bridge Authority.

The papers, 1928-1968, of G. Donald Kennedy document his career in civil engineering, his participation in professional organizations, his activities as a state official, and as a supporter of the Michigan Democratic Party. The collection Includes correspondence, speeches, minutes, reports, articles, clippings, and photographs. The files relate to his work as municipal engineer in Pontiac, Michigan, with the Mackinac Straits Bridge Authority, the American Association of State Highway Officials, the Automotive Safety Foundation, and the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority. The collection also includes papers relating to highway and airport construction, to economic mobilization during World War II, the Willow Run Bomber Plant, state Democratic Party matters, particularly the campaign visits of President Roosevelt to Michigan in 1936.

Judge of the Recorder's Court in Detroit and Frank Murphy's brother; contain correspondence, legal briefs, newspaper clippings, and other materials concerning Detroit politics, 1935-1961, the grand jury investigation of Detroit street railways, 1936, arbitration of labor disputes, 1936-1941, investigation of the Charles Street housing project, 1939-1940, as well as materials illuminating the careers and personal affairs of both George and Frank Murphy, especially in relation to Detroit and the Philippine Islands.

The George Murphy papers, which encompass the years 1911 to 1961, are most comprehensive for the decade following 1932. During this period - the most politically active in Murphy's career - the correspondence is especially useful in illustrating George Murphy's role in his brother's emergence as a politician, especially his role as dispenser of patronage in the depression years. The papers, of course, illuminate the social function performed by the Recorder's Court and contain voluminous correspondence with state and federal judges, attorneys, prisoners, prison officials, probation officers, etc. Judge Murphy also maintained close contact with affairs in his home town, Harbor Beach. Included in the collection are significant materials on affairs in the Philippines during his brother's governorship there, particularly correspondence during the years 1933 to 1936 with his sister, Marguerite, Eleanor Bumgardner, and with leading Filipinos concerning conditions there.

Founder of the America First Party, head of the Christian Nationalist Crusade, and outspoken anti-Semite. Correspondence, speeches, oral history transcript, memoranda and other materials detailing his criticism of America's participation in World War II, his Michigan senatorial race in 1942, his campaign for the presidency in 1944, his opposition to the spread of communism after the war, and his support of conservative Christian causes and right wing individuals and organizations; and photographs. Portraits of Smith and his wife, Elna Smith; photographs of meetings and conventions of the America First Party, of picketing and other political activity in support of Smith and his platform, and of Smith's associates and supporters; also photographs and portraits of celebrities, buildings, and activities, which Smith collected, probably for use in his publication The Cross and the Flag.

The papers of Gerald L.K. Smith include correspondence, speeches, oral history transcript, memoranda and other materials detailing his criticism of America's participation in World War II, his Michigan senatorial race in 1942, his campaign for the presidency in 1944, his opposition to the spread of communism after the war, and his support of conservative Christian causes and right wing individuals and organizations; and photographs.

The major portion of the Gerald L.K. Smith papers came to the library in the spring of 1982. Before then, the library had accumulated a smaller group of Smith materials, mainly publications of the Christian Nationalist Crusade, mailings out of the Smith office from the 1960's and 1970's, the tapes and transcripts of an interview conducted with Smith in 1968 by a library staff member, and a few microfilm reels of a very small section of Smith's papers.

With the 1982 accession, the Smith collection now totals 102 linear feet of correspondence, memoranda, clippings, published materials, and photographs and motion pictures. The collection covers the years, 1922-1976, but bulks largest for the period since 1939. Regrettably, only scattered materials for the period before 1939 have survived so there is slight documentation of Smith's activities in Louisiana with Huey Long. What has survived from these years are a few letters from parents, some published sermons and radio speeches, and an assortment of notes, clippings, and meeting materials. It is perhaps surprising that not more of the collection had been discarded or mislaid. As the papers came from storage in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the earlier files had been shifted about several times as Smith and his organization moved their base of operation: from Louisiana to Detroit, to St. Louis, to Los Angeles, and then to Eureka Springs. Smith seems to have been a careful record-keeper, however, and very little of the post-1939 files needed processing.

Republican U.S. Senator from Michigan, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines; files relating to his various career responsibilities, photographs, sound recordings.

The Homer Ferguson collection has been divided into eleven series based primarily upon the important phases of his public life: Personal; Circuit Judgeship; Senate Career; Interregnum: November 1954 - April 1955; Hoover Commission; Philippine Ambassadorship; United States Court of Military Appeals; Inter-Parliamentary Union; Photographs, Sound Recordings, and Myrtle Ferguson Papers.

Grand Rapids, Michigan businessman and Republican politician. Correspondence, business records, speeches, and other papers relating to state politics, charitable and civic interests, banking issues, the Grand Rapids Varnish Corporation, the Michigan Trust Company of Grand Rapids, and the Ypsilanti-Reed Furniture Company of Ionia, Michigan; also materials on Albion College, the Methodist Church, the Ionia Free Fair, and Republican Party politics, especially the campaign of Arthur H, Vandenberg for the presidency in 1940.

The collection documents the business, civic, and political interests of Howard C. Lawrence. The series in the collection are: Correspondence; Speeches and speech material; Financial; Business Interests; Charitable and Civic Interests; Clippings; Miscellaneous; Photographs; and Notebooks.

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.

Manistique, Michigan, attorney, Republican regent of University of Michigan, and counsel to Michigan State Medical Society. Correspondence and other materials relating to his legal and university career, his interest in the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan, and Republican politics, 1942-1956; and photographs.

The J. Joseph Herbert collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence, Regents Files, Michigan State Medical Society, Other Activities; and Miscellaneous and personal.

Republican Congressman from Ontonagon in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Correspondence, campaign materials, copies of bills introduced in Congress, and files concerning congressional reapportionment and the problems of the Upper Peninsula.

The John B. Bennett collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Election and political materials; Congressional papers; Biographical; Photographs; and Sound recordings.

Farmer and businessman in Eagle Township, Clinton County, Michigan; thirteen-term (1923-1933, 1935-1949) Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives; Chairman, Ways and Means Committee (1939-1949). Correspondence, newspaper clippings, diaries, photographs, and miscellanea concerning his life and legislative career.

This collection presents material concerning the life, business affairs, and legislative career of John P. Espie (1881-1949). The first folder contains copies of three biographical sketches and some handwritten genealogical information concerning Espie's 19th century forebears. Subsequent folders contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, miscellaneous items, and photographs.