Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Organization formed in 1983 to collect the history of African Americans in Willow Run, Michigan, produce a written history, and foster racial understanding. Records include administrative files, collected material, and audio-visual materials.

The records will interest researchers considering the history of Willow Run, the particular contributions and experiences of its African American citizens, and the evolution of a Michigan community with roots in wartime defense work. It is also an example of a grass-roots effort to address the lack of documentation of black residents' contributions to the expansion of a formerly rural area.

Agency established to develop recreational and community organizations in the Willow Run, Michigan, area as a means of improving home-front morale during World War II. Subject files relating to Project activities; and photographs.

This record group documents the development of the Willow Run Area Recreation Project with emphasis on several programs supported by the staff. Approximately half of the folders contain material that relate directly to the Project goals, staff, and finances. In addition, there are two files, the Detroit-Area Recreation Committee and the Civilian Defense Agency, that contain material relevant to the efforts of the Willow Run Project. Of particular note within the General Information file and Survey file are several summary reports. Each contains excellent overviews of the Project goals and accomplishments. There are also a number of statistical sheets concerning the population of the Ypsilanti community.

Within the remaining folders are documents from specific programs coordinated by the Willow Run Project staff. Several folders contain newsletters and support material for consumer cooperatives. Other folders outline recreational activities and social services such as daycare centers for children of working parents. There is also a small file of publicity photos.

Willis C. Patterson, the first African American professor at the University of Michigan's School of Music, was an active faculty member from 1968 to 1999. He was a professor of voice and associate dean for academic affairs. Patterson directed the Men's Glee Club from 1969 and 1975 and spent summers as a faculty member at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan. While maintaining an active concert career and fulfilling teaching duties, Patterson organized a Black American Music Symposium and compiled several works on African American composers. Patterson played an active role in securing funding and mentorship for students of color and disadvantaged students both at Michigan and in the Ann Arbor community. The collection includes some biographical material, but focuses mainly on his professional career, musical career, and collection of works by African American composers. It includes correspondence, research, photographs, clippings, publications, and topical files.

The Willis C. Patterson papers include some biographical material, but focuses mainly on his professional career, musical career, and collection of works by African American composers. The collection includes correspondence, publications and research material, photographic material, posters, student records, clippings, and topical files.

William Wilson Cook (1858-1930) was a University of Michigan alumnus and New York attorney, author, and philanthropist whose financial contributions to the University of Michigan funded the construction of the Martha Cook Building and Law Quadrangle. Consists of a portrait engraving of Cook and photographs of Cook's sculpture on display in the Martha Cook Building.

The collection consists of a portrait engraving of Cook and photographs of Cook's sculpture on display in the Martha Cook Building.

Professor of law at the University of Michigan; papers contain correspondence, teaching materials, papers relating to student discipline, proceedings of the University Judicial Council, 1950-1953; also research files and collected material relating to his study of Michigan's territorial court system; and copies of court records for Brown County, 1830s; also Wayne County Probate Court records, 1811-1825.

The William Wirt Blume papers include a memoir of his 192-1921 trip to China, a chronological correspondence file, teaching materials and other files related to his career at the University of Michigan, several reports on legal issues and research notes and files for his history of Michigan Territorial Supreme Court. The papers are arrange in five series: Travel, Correspondence, University of Michigan, Reports, and Notes and Research Material on Territorial Courts.

The series Notes and Research Material on Territorial Courts (boxes 6-18) contains Blume's notes and collected research materials relating to his study of U.S. territorial law and territorial court systems. Much of the emphasis of Blume's study concerned the Michigan Territorial Supreme Court and the various county and circuit courts under it. The researcher is directed to the Michigan Supreme Court record group for the original documents that Blume and his staff studied. This record group was transferred to the State Archives of Michigan in 2011. The researcher should also note that Blume's Transactions of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan, with its extensive notes and historical commentaries is a superb introduction to Blume's career interests.

Professor of international law at the University of Michigan. Correspondence and other files relating to his professional and academic activities, including work with the American Bar Association Section of International and Comparative Law, the American Society of International Law, the International Law Association, and the Committee on International and Comparative Law of the State Bar of Michigan.

The papers of William Warner Bishop, Jr., covering the period from 1928 to 1987, consist of six linear feet of correspondence, course materials, addresses and professional papers. The collection has been arranged into six series: Biographical/Personal; Addresses, Papers, etc.; Associations; Professional Correspondence; and Course Materials. The collection relates mainly to Bishop's study and teaching of international law. Among the more personal files are materials relating to Bishop's lifelong activity with the local area Boy Scouts.

Internationally recognized librarian; director of the University of Michigan Library. Correspondence and subject files relating to professional activities.

The Bishop papers consist of personal and professional files documenting William Warner Bishop's activities apart from his work as librarian at the University of Michigan. The librarian's files were separately received and continue to be maintained as part of the records of the University of Michigan Library.

Reference Librarian at the Library of Congress, 1904-1915 and Librarian of the University of Michigan, 1905-1915. Journal articles and other writings on library topics.

The William Warner Bishop pamphlets and reprints consists of journal articles and other writings on library topics.

Ann Arbor, Michigan attorney, American consul in British Guiana in 1905, and U.S. Congressman, 1911-1913. Political and business correspondence, notes and addresses, and other materials relating to his business interests and political career; also papers concerning his trips to Alaska, British Guiana, and Panama.

The Wedemeyer collection includes political and business correspondence, notes and addresses, and other materials relating to his business interests and political career. There are also papers concerning his trips to Alaska, British Guiana, and Panama. Some of his correspondents included Russell A. Alger, James B. Angell, Gerrit J. Diekema, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Harrison, Frank Knox, Charles E. Townsend, James Schermerhorn, Henry C. Smith, and Fred M. Warner.

This collection is comprised of correspondence and other papers relating to William Wallace Phillips' work and his calling as a hermit, as well as copies of his poetry.

Lawyer with the Bendix Corporation and the Ford Motor Company, and member of numerous legal and public service organizations. Speeches, articles and public statements; material relating to his activities with the American Bar Association, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and other legal groups; some files concern his interest in such topics as business ethics, campus government and student dissent in the 1960s, electoral college reform, and legal education; there is also material detailing his involvement in public service organizations concerned largely with civil rights and education; also contracts, agreements, and other documentation relating to reorganization of Wesco Corporation (later National Theatres Corporation), 1933-1936; and reorganization of Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures, July-August 1935.

The William T. Gossett collection chronicle his professional career as a lawyer and businessman as well as those many public service activities in which he was active. The collection was received in two accessions, 1981 and 1997. The 1981 accession, the largest of the two, consisted of the following series: Vita; Speeches, Articles, and Statements; Professional Activities; Topical Files; Public Service Files; Hospitals and Organizations; Colleges Universities, and Schools; and Personal Correspondence. The smaller 1997 accession included these series: Biographical and Personal Materials; Speeches, Articles, and Statements; Photographs; and Twentieth Century-Fox. There was some slight overlap in the content of the two accessions, particularly in Gossett's speeches and articles. No attempt was made, however, to intersperse this similar material.

Labor relations specialist for the Lamar Pipe Company and the Michigan Concrete Pipe Association. Materials relating to his dealings with the Teamster's union; also papers concerning his work with an Ann Arbor, Michigan, citizens group formed to oppose proposed building on Stadium Blvd.

The William T. Brownson Papers comprise two series: Labor and Union (1949-75) and the New Southeast Property Owners Committee (1957-59). The second series offers a valuable look at how a local citizens' group fought organized government and corporate developers.

The collection is arranged into three small series: Correspondence, Studley Family, and Other Papers. Included in the collection is a scattering of correspondence, diaries, 1860 and 1873, of trip in Florida and Europe, a scrapbook, and newspaper clippings concerning the activities of the Studley family, 1855-1910.

Professor of civil engineering and specialist in soil mechanics at the University of Michigan. Correspondence, daily logs of activities, class materials, conference and lecture files, and professional reports and soil investigation studies; and photographs.

The Housel papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, lectures, conference materials, class materials, and various reports and studies of soil investigations. Of interest is a series of daily logs kept by Housel in the period 1962-1968 and which concern some of his consulting projects.

Ann Arbor, Mich. resident. Consists of interior and exterior photographs of various Ann Arbor, Michigan, businesses.

The collection consists of interior and exterior photographs of various Ann Arbor, Michigan, businesses.

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.

Botany professor and Director of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens at the University of Michigan; records include administrative and research files related to his positions with the university.

The W. S. Benninghoff collection consists of three series: Botany Department, Matthaei Botanical Gardens, and University of Michigan Biological Station. The strength of the collection is its documentation of the administrative aspects of the Botany Department and Matthaei Botanical Gardens in the 1970s and 1980s.

William R. Ringer was a student at the University of Michigan Law School from 1920 to 1922. Collection consists of three volumes of detailed diary entries interspersed with ephemera collected while a student.

The William R. Ringer papers document his time as a law student at the University of Michigan from September 1920 to June 1922. The papers are organized into two series Diaries and Background.

Michigan-born member of U.S. Army Co. I, 339th Infantry; served with the U.S. Polar Bear Expedition in Archangel, Russia. Collection includes Mielke's service records, a digital photograph of his grave marker, and digitized images of his service diary

The William R. Mielke papers consist of a single series, Military Service, which include his enlistment record, honorable discharge papers, scanned images of his service diary, and a photograph of his gravesite in Lewiston, Mich. The diary details his unit's movements from training at Camp Custer to England and on to Russia. Entries describe patrols, combat experiences, and living conditions among soldiers during the expedition.

Charlevoix, Michigan resident, novelist and historian of Great Lakes shipwrecks, the Mackinac Bridge, folklore, and other subjects; correspondence, manuscripts of books, and research materials.

The William Ratigan collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts of his books, research and reference files on topics of interest to him, and photographs. There are letters in the collection from William B. Eerdmans, Marianne Moore, Milo Quaife, David B. Steinman, and folklorist Ivan Walton.

The photographs in the collection are of shipping and boating at Charlevoix, Michigan, of Charlevoix boat builder, Roy Ranger, of construction of the Mackinac Bridge, of the Sault Sainte Marie Canal, and of other topics related to Ratigan's writing interests.