Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Philo E. and Fannie E. Pettibone Wright family of Detroit, Michigan. Personal papers of Fannie Wright with her husband Philo, her brother Sherman Pettibone, her daughters Virginia, Maude, and Evelyn, her son Philo S., and other members of the family, concerning family affairs and the genealogy of the Wright and Pettibone families.

The collection has been arranged by name of family member. Included is personal correspondence of Fannie Wright with her husband Philo E., her brother Sherman Pettibone, daughters Virginia, Maude, and Evelyn, son Philo S., and other members of the family, concerning family affairs and the genealogy of the Wright and Pettibone families. There are also fifty-seven volumes of Fannie E. Wright's diaries, 1863-1925, recording family news, social events, and home activities in Detroit, Michigan. Also of interest are account books of the Sherman Pettibone farm of Tallmadge, Ohio, and account books of Philo S. Wright, 1893-1913. Photographs in the collection consist of individual and group portraits of family members; photographs of family homes; and photographs of boating on the Detroit River.

A. L. Williams family of Owosso, Michigan. Personal and business correspondence of A. L. Williams, Owosso, Michigan pioneer, railroad entrepreneur, and spiritualist; and personal letters of other members of the family, including May Williams Dewey, wife of E. O. Dewey (Thomas E. Dewey family); and miscellaneous newspaper clippings, business ledgers, and personal and business diaries concerning business affairs and daily activities; "spirit messages" received from departed family and others; also photographs.

The Williams Family [Owosso] collection consists of 2 linear feet of material. It includes the personal and business papers of four generations of Williamses from 1838 to 1953. However, the bulk of the material relates to the family of Alfred Leonzo Williams between 1860 and 1890.

Papers of the Edward and Nellie Wilson Whitehead family of Coldwater, Branch County, Michigan. Family letters largely concerning daily activities, including occasional mention of land prices, social customs, fashions and health problems.

The collection of the Whitehead family of Coldwater, Michigan consists entirely of letters from family and friends. The correspondence centers around Edward and Nellie Wilson Whitehead, chiefly from Nellie Whitehead's sisters Lucy Wilson Gifford Smith, Leothie Wilson Culver, Orpha Wilson, and Laura Wilson, and her cousins Mary and Naomi Baker. The bulk of the letters were written in the 1870's when Edward and Nellie Whitehead were living in Webster and Churchville, New York. There are, however, a few earlier letters (the first being in 1862) as well as some later in the 1880's. With the last composed in 1900. The letters are all of a general type with an occasional passage discussing land prices and conditions, fashions of the days health problems, etc. The majority speak of family concerns-neighborhood and family gossip. The correspondence came from Angola, Indiana; Battle Creek, Batavia, Coldwater, Jackson, and Sturgis, Michigan; and Batavia, Churchville, and Webster, New York, with the largest share, naturally, coming from Michigan.

Western Michigan teacher, businessman and local historian. Correspondence, journal, speeches, notes and articles.

The collection is arranged into four series: Correspondence; Journals; Speeches, notes and articles; and Other materials. The collection documents his career as a teacher in Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and Galesburg, Michigan. Of interest are his experiences as a teacher in Mississippi before the Civil War. The correspondence and journals reveal his scholarly and political interests. The collection also includes minutes, 1861-1876, of the Galesburg Temperance Society.

Papers collected by Robert U. Redpath and Richard U. Light of the Upjohn family of upstate New York and western Michigan, founders of the Upjohn Company. Daybooks, daily journals, sermon notes, and journal of trip to America and on the Erie Canal in 1830 of William Upjohn.

This collection, accumulated by Robert U. Redpath and Richard U. Light, consists largely of papers of William Upjohn, born in England, who migration to New York in 1830. Much of the material dates from before the passage to America, and includes sermons, daybooks and journals, and material relating to his work as surveyor and timber appraiser. The materials after 1830 concern his passage to his eventual home in upper New York State and to his business endeavors. Of interest is a folder of the minutes of the Greenbush Debating Society in 1833. In addition, there is a series consisting of papers (mainly photocopied) of other family members, including correspondence, Civil War materials, and miscellanea. A final series is comprised of various medical volumes owned by Upjohn family members.

Transcripts for diaries of William Upjohn written from 1820 to 1826 were added to the collection in 2019.

Research papers, 1967-1979, of students in journalism at the University of Michigan; contain essays relating to the history of Michigan newspapers and journalists, and the development of radio and television broadcasting; include papers concerning newspapers in Adrian, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Grand Rapids, and the journalistic efforts of Father Charles Coughlin, Henry Ford, and Gerald L. K. Smith.

The Department of Journalism research papers collection measures 2 linear feet and consists solely of student research papers written between 1967 and 1979. The papers contain essays written regarding the history of various newspapers -- many in Michigan cities such as Adrian, Ann Arbor, Detroit and Grand Rapids; journalists and the journalistic efforts of individuals such as Father Charles Coughlin, Henry Ford, and Gerald L.K. Smith; and the development of radio and television broadcasting.

The surviving administrative records of the Department of Journalism were retained by its successor unit, the Department of Communication, and can be found in that department's records.

Albion, Michigan, family. Papers of Barton Stout Taylor, Methodist clergyman; diaries of his wife, Elizabeth Gurney Taylor, detailing her everyday activities; papers of Ralph Wendell Taylor, alumnus of University of Michigan and teacher in the Philippine Islands, 1901-1908; and other family materials.

The Taylor family papers consist of correspondence Barton Stout Taylor, Methodist clergyman; diaries of his wife, Elizabeth Gurney Taylor, detailing her everyday activities; papers of Ralph Wendell Taylor, alumnus of University of Michigan and teacher in the Philippine Islands, 1901-1908; and other family materials. The collection is arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Family miscellaneous, Barton S. Taylor; Elizabeth Gurney Taylor; and Other family members.

Letters from Lucy Smith to her parents in Vermont describing her life in Michigan (originals and photocopies) and notebook of poetry and personal writings (photocopy); genealogical materials; materials related to Harry Keal, and paper concerning the Orrin White house.

Goldie Sherwood (1882-1960) was a Holly, Michigan resident. Descriptions of activities and family letters.

Descriptions of activities of young adolescent girl; and miscellaneous letters of other family members.

Detroit German-American business; scrapbooks containing a variety of printed material, photographs, handwritten accounts of sentiments and occasions, and hand-drawn ink illustrations.

The Carl E. Schmidt collection consists of sixteen volumes of scrapbooks documenting the wide scope of Schmidt's interests. These scrapbooks were compiled and numbered by Schmidt himself, although some of the explanatory text was added by a friend, Dr. Tobias Sigel, who was himself a German immigrant and prominent citizen of Detroit. The scrapbooks are filled with a variety of printed material, photographs, handwritten accounts of sentiments and occasions, and hand-drawn ink illustrations. Much of the scrapbooks' text is in German, including many clippings from German language newspapers. The illustrations in Volume II are particularly attractive. They are hand-drawn red and black ink illustrations of fanciful, legendary themes relating to Walhalla.

The following inventory is a general guide to the contents of each volume. For those scrapbooks that were paginated by Schmidt, specific sections of special interest have been noted in the inventory. Volume 2 also has its own, original index. There is one corresponding folder for each of thirteen of the volumes. These folders contain loose items removed from volumes one through eleven, thirteen, and fourteen.

As the inventory shows, Schmidt was most thorough in documenting his recreational and farming interests, and his political activity in Detroit, at the state level, and in the German-American community. There is, however, very little information about his tannery business.

Owosso, Shiawassee County, Michigan, family. Correspondence and other materials relating to daily life and family activities; collection of sheet music; and photographs.

The Richardson family papers (letters, photographs, and business records) illustrate the lives of ordinary rural Americans from the 1860's to the 1940's.

Michigan family from Adrian and Flint, Michigan. Family papers, sound recordings, and photographs.

The collection is arranged by family name: Tomlinson, Pomeroy, and Raab. The earliest item is an account maintained by Alexander Tomlinson of Sherwood, Michigan. Within the Raab family papers are diaries, 1891-1892, of Florence Raab concerning her life in Adrian, Michigan. In addition, the collection includes papers and audio-tapes of Irving T. Raab reminiscing about his student life at the University of Michigan in the years before 1900. These tapes also concern his life in Flint and career as Presbyterian clergyman. The photographs in the collection are of family members.

St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan family. Papers of family members, primarily correspondence of Ann G. Loomis Preston with her father, Jonathan Loomis, and with her sons Wallace and Fowler, sailors in the Union navy during the Civil War; typescript of excerpt of Civil War diary of Wallace Preston; paper, 1978, of Harriet N. Preston based upon family Civil War experiences; photographs, clippings and miscellanea concerning family and St. Joseph, Michigan.

In 1972, a bundle of over forty Preston family letters, dating mainly from 1850 to 1870, were discovered in the attic of the family home in St. Joseph. Over the next few years, Harriet N. Preston, wife of Arthur G. Preston, Jr. (grandson of Wallace Preston), took an interest in these letters and the Preston family history. Mrs. Preston arranged the letters, compiled typed transcripts, and authored several papers based on the letters.

The Preston family papers document Great Lakes shipping in the nineteenth century, the Union Navy during the Civil War, and daily life in St. Joseph, Michigan during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The collection has been divided into five series: Correspondence; Legal Documents; Newspaper Clippings, Scrapbook and Miscellaneous Materials; Family Histories; and Photographs.

Physician; member of the first graduating class of the University of Michigan in 1845; papers include journals, correspondence, physician's records.

The Pray collection includes journals, 1844-1849, covering his years as a student at the University of Michigan and in the Medical Department of Western Reserve College, Cleveland, Ohio. In addition, there is correspondence exchanged with his wife, Adele, primarily during the year 1879 when they were separated due to his service in the Michigan House. Other materials of interest include various personal and business account books and record books from his medical practice.

Records of the retail business activities of the Phelps family of Manton, Michigan in Wexford County.

This record group covers the years 1890 to 1964 and consists of the diaries and a biographical sketch of Charles D. Phelps, a history of the business written by D. Maynard Phelps, and various business records. The business records series consists of income tax returns, papers pertaining to the sale of the business, and miscellaneous inventories, journals and a ledger.

Papers of Franklin L. Parker and the Parker family of New York (State) and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Family correspondence, business papers, diaries, 1850-1893, and other materials concerning land transactions.

The Franklin L. Parker collection relates mainly to land investments and other financial dealings, and family matters. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Letterpress books; Land records; and Personal and miscellaneous.

This series contains family correspondence, the diary of Elizabeth Parker Robinson (1891-1896), the dairy of DeWitt Parker (1891), as well as genealogical material, a graduating essay from a Bay City, Michigan high school, and photographs, including an ambrotype portrait of Elizabeth L. Parker.

David Wheeler Palmer was a Bridgewater, Michigan school teacher and farmer. His papers consist of diaries, 1846-1864, 1876-1882, and 1887-1892, concerning daily activities and farm life. There are also papers of other family members, including Emmett Newton Palmer, a Brooklyn, Michigan physician, Fred E. Palmer, a surgeon who served in the Spanish-American War, and Louisa Palmer, who was a teacher in Hawaii.

The David Wheeler Palmer collection consists mainly of his diaries and other papers. These diaries, dating from 1846 to 1892 with some gaps, comment in detail on his life, his family, the weather, financial transactions, and local politics. Other portions of the collection include materials of other family members: Palmer's wife Fidelia Randall Palmer; her brother Roswell Randall, Jr.; Emmett Palmer, the son of David and Fidelia; Fred Palmer, the son of Emmett; and Joseph Palmer, the father of David. Of interest are the photographs accumulated by Dr. Fred Palmer while he was serving in the Philippines. These include images of Hawaii on route to the Philippines and of the Santa Mesa facility in the Philippines. Another family member represented in the collection is Louisa Palmer who taught in Hawaii. She was an inveterate traveler who wrote extensive letters describing places visited for her students and family.

Williamston, Ingham County, Michigan, family. Financial records, clippings, and correspondence relating to Mullett Farm and John Mullett, surveyor; extract, 1864, from Meridian Township Register Book; letterpress book, journal, and correspondence, 1852-1893, of John H. Forster, surveyor, agent for Pewabic Mining Company, Hancock, Mich., and later owner of Springbrook Farm, Ingham County, Michigan; diary, 1840-1841, of Catherine Hall; and map, 1859, of Mullett Farm; and photographs.

The Mullett family collection contains many useful descriptions of the state, and is a good source of information for some of the state's economic and topographic conditions during the 19th century. The papers, 1825-1936, are broken down into four series.

Ann Arbor, Michigan family. Ledger, of Elijah W. Morgan, attorney and businessman, compiled in the 1840's containing his comments and evaluations of business and professional abilities of early businessmen of Washtenaw County, Michigan; correspondence, autobiography, and other miscellaneous business papers and deeds; also correspondence, drawings, and writings of his wife Lucy Stow Morgan, including letter describing life and customs in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1831; and other papers of Elijah's parents, including autobiographies of Elisha Morgan and Polly Babcock Morgan.

The Morgan family collection consists primarily of the personal and business papers of Elijah W. Morgan, one of Ann Arbor's pioneer citizens who had a distinguished career as an attorney and banker; letters and other materials of his wife Lucy Stow Morgan; and autobiographies and scattered papers of Elijah's parents, Elisha and Polly Babcock Morgan of Watertown, New York.

The bulk of the collection consists of the personal and business papers of Elijah W. Morgan. This includes correspondence (1821-1889), autobiographical material, essays on religion and temperance, and a large section of business and financial papers generated as a result of his law practice or his various business dealings.