Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Judge of Common Pleas. Correspondence and other materials relating to politics and to Polish-American interests.

The collection relates primarily to his interest in the Democratic Party in Michigan and to his involvement in Polish-American activities and organizations.

Ann Arbor, Michigan, businessman and attorney, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party State Central Committee, U. S. Congressman-at-large, 1963-1964, gubernatorial candidate in 1964, member of the U. S. Federal Election Commission, 1975-1978. Chronological, congressional and topical files relating to political and personal activities; include political files detailing state election campaigns 1948-1964, particularly the campaigns of G. Mennen Williams and John B. Swainson; also photographs and transcript of oral interview, 1979.

Neil Staebler first began donating his files to the Michigan Historical Collections of the University of Michigan in 1961 following his eleven year tenure as chairman of the Democratic Party State Central Committee. Periodically thereafter and continuing into the 1970s, Staebler continued to add to his collection with Congressional papers (1963-1964), campaign files when he ran for governor in 1964, topical records created from his years of service with the Democratic National Committee (see attached vita), and records from his term as commissioner on the Federal Election Commission (1975-1978).

This collection comprised of twelve series documents Staebler's career and the course of Democratic politics since World War II. Since Staebler was principally an organizer of campaigns, a behind-the-scenes manager who preferred to handle the details of an election rather than to step into the candidate's spotlight himself, the collection concerns all phases of a successful campaign not just the posturings of the party's candidates. There is, for example, much information relating to the day-to-day operations of the party, i.e. fund-raising activities, the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner, the formulation of the party's platform and related resolutions at the Spring and Fall conventions, and the activities of party-related special interest organizations.

LeRoy Cappaert was a teacher and Democratic city councilman from Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1964-1970, delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and member of the Coalition for Peace in Central America, and organization established to provide assistance to Ann Arbor's sister city, Juigalpa, Nicaragua. Lael Cappaert was a librarian, also active in political and community causes. Papers and notebooks concerning LeRoy's election campaigns for the city council, his council activities, his work as delegate at the Democratic National Conventions of 1964 and 1968, and the 1968 Presidential campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy, his work with the Coalition for Peace in Central America; memoirs of his wife Lael Cappaert, pictorial history of their daughter Andrea Lael Cappaert; audio-visual material; and scrapbooks.

LeRoy and Lael Cappaert's papers are divided into the following series: Democratic Party politics; Ann Arbor City Council; Personal/Biographical; Family; Coalition for Peace in Central America; Visual Materials; Sound Recordings; and Scrapbooks. Most of the files relate to LeRoy Cappaert's career.

Legal advisor to the Michigan A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the Democratic State Central Committee; vice chairman of the Michigan Constitutional Convention, 1961-1962; and member of the Michigan Employment Security Commission, 1949-1965. Correspondence, minutes, reports and newspaper clippings concerning the administrations of Michigan governors G. Mennen Williams and John B. Swainson, the problems of employment and unemployment, and the recount of the 1962 gubernatorial election in Minnesota won by Karl Rolvaag.

The Tom Downs collection includes correspondence, minutes, reports and newspaper clippings concerning the administrations of Michigan governors G. Mennen Williams and John B. Swainson, the problems of employment and unemployment, and the recount of the 1962 gubernatorial election in Minnesota won by Karl Rolvaag. The collection is organized in the following series: Political and other activities, 1949-1965; Michigan Employment Security Commission; Michigan Constitutional Convention and related; Miscellaneous; Sound Recordings; Visual Materials; Oral history project, 1995; and Writings, research, and later activities.

Republican state senator, 1948-1950, from Kent County, Michigan, state auditor general, 1950-1954, unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination in 1952, and member of the Republican National Committee. Correspondence, newspaper clippings, speeches and printed material relating to his political career, particularly his activities on the Michigan Commission on Aging, the Michigan Constitutional Convention of 1961-1962, and the Michigan Senate campaign of 1952.

The John B. Martin papers consists of correspondence, memoranda, clippings, and subject files relating to his political and organizational activities. The series in the collection are: Correspondence; Newspaper clippings; Political and Campaign Materials; Auditor General, 1950-1954; Aging organizations; Michigan Constitutional Convention, 1961-1962; Michigan Crime and Delinquency Council; Scrapbooks; Sound Recordings; Visual Materials; and Miscellaneous.

Republican state representative from Tipton, Michigan, 1945-1967; member of the House Ways and Means Committee; chairman of the Committee on General Taxation; the State Tax Study Commission, 1957-1959; and the Joint House and Senate Committee on Constitutional Implementation. Correspondence, reports, subject files, sound recordings, and other papers largely relating to problems of state taxation in the administrations of G. Mennen Williams and John B. Swainson.

The collections has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Speeches and press releases; Taxation Legislation and related background information; Other Legislative Matters; Committee on Statutory Implementation of the Constitution; Visual Materials; and Sound Recordings.

Office files including district executive committee minutes, financial reports, newsletters, and correspondence relating in part to the factional dispute between district chairman, Richard Durant, and George Romney and the state Republican Party; chronological files largely concerning party conventions and political campaigns; and collected materials relating to political conservatism, notably to the John Birch Society and to anti-woman's rights organizations.

The records of the 14th district reflect the embattled atmosphere that surrounded Durant and his supporters. Divided into three series, office files, chronological files, and miscellaneous files, each reflects the district's conservatism and its struggle against the state Republican party.

Vice chairman of the Democratic Party State Central Committee, primarily during the gubernatorial administration of G. Mennen Williams. Office files concerning party conventions, election issues, and the work of the state central committee, particularly the role of women in the party and the Women for Humphrey organization during the election of 1968; and scrapbooks and photographs.

The Hart papers consist almost entirely of files created in her capacity as Democratic vice chairman and as member of the Democratic party 17th congressional district. The files have been maintained in their original order by topic. National Democratic Conventions; State Democratic Conventions; Election Campaigns; State Central Committee General; State Central Committee Women's Activities; Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner; Topical Files; Conferences; Program Service; Correspondence; Memoranda; and Scrapbooks and Photographs.

Campaign manager for G. Mennen Williams and official of the Communications Workers of America. Correspondence, schedules and publications concerning politics, election campaigns, 1954-1976, labor, communications satellites, the Democratic Party, and the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.

The papers of Helen Berthelot have been arranged into seven series by date and topic. The files arranged primarily by date are largely unprocessed and relate to her activities in the Michigan Democratic Party and as a lobbyist for the Communications Workers of America. The strengths of the collection is the material relating to the various campaigns of G. Mennen Williams for governor, 1948 to 1958, the Presidential campaigns of 1960 and 1964, and Williams's campaign for the United States Senate in 1966. The collection also includes correspondence, photographs, and material related to the publication and reception of Win Some, Lose Some: G. Mennen Williams and the New Democrats.

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.