Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Binkowski was a district judge from Warren, Michigan who collected extensively about Democratic politics and the Polish American community in Michigan. The collection includes materials collected by Binkowski on Democratic politics, the Polish community in Michigan, the cities of Detroit, Warren, and Hamtramck, Michigan, and collected letters, postage covers, and stamps.

The collection includes materials collected by Binkowski on Democratic politics, the Polish community in Michigan, the cities of Detroit, Warren, and Hamtramck, Michigan history in general, and collected letters, postage covers, and stamps. Digital materials include video files and an archived website. Photographs include images of strike violence, 1934-1938, at various Michigan firms; photos of Polish American public figures and organizations, also photos of political meetings and elected officials. Audio cassettes mostly contain recorded interviews with Polish American political figures.

Papers of Benjamin Douglass and his sons, Samuel T. Douglass, Detroit attorney and jurist, and Silas H. Douglas, professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan, and member of Douglass Houghton's Northern Michigan survey. Correspondence, scrapbooks, letter books, and miscellanea concerning family affairs, business and university activities; also contains records of the Douglass and Walker and Campbell Law Firm; and papers of individual members of Silas Douglas’ family, including his wife Helen Welles Douglas, their children Samuel T. Douglas, Marie Louise Douglas, and Catherine Hulbert Douglas, and other Douglas and Welles family members; and photographs.

The Douglass Family collection spans the period 1812-1911 and comprises eight linear feet of manuscripts, one linear ft. of photographs, three outsize volumes, and 1 folder of oversize materials. The collection include the papers of Benjamin Douglass and his two sons, Samuel T. (1814-98) a lawyer and Detroit judge, and Silas H. (1816-90), a professor at The University of Michigan. Although Silas came to use the family name of Douglas rather than Douglass, the paper indicate that there was little consistency.

The collection consists of personal and professional correspondence, letterpress books, business and legal papers, scrapbooks, photographs, and family materials. The collection, except for series of photographs and maps, is arranged by family member name.

State geologist of Michigan. Field notes, 1837-1841, of his geological survey of the state, including some original drawings [original and typescript copies, and microfilm of pages 197-291]; letter book, 1841-1845; miscellaneous correspondence and field notes, including letter, May 31, 1841, to Abram Sager; notes and other papers collected by Mrs. John Ehlers for her book on Houghton, including copies of papers of Bela Hubbard; and photographs.

The Douglass Houghton manuscript collection at the Michigan Historical Collections includes one volume of field notes, 1837-1841; typed transcripts of the field notes; a one volume letterpress book, 1841-1845; miscellaneous correspondence, newspaper clippings and other papers (photostats and typescripts of materials in other repositories); and notes collected by Mrs. John Ehlers for a book on Houghton.

An appendix to this finding aid contains an inventory to the manuscript maps found in the collection, and other Houghton maps.

The reports of Houghton's work for the Michigan Geological Survey have been published in Geological Reports of Douglass Houghton: First State Geologist of Michigan, 1837-1845, Lansing, Mich.: Michigan Historical Commission 1928. [MHC call number EA/153/MG345/G345, available online through HathiTrust]

The Dunbar family papers consist of certificates and proclamations presented to members of the Gilbert Dunbar family, concerning the family's Revolutionary War claim and Civil War service.

Residents of Plymouth, Michigan. Three Eddy brothers, Willard, William Hannahs, and Clark, served in the Michigan 2nd and 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiments in the Civil War. This collection contains family portraits (mostly tintypes, with a few daguerreotypes and ambrotypes as well), wartime correspondence among the Eddy siblings and parents (including several digital scans and transcriptions), family genealogical materials, and a family Bible.

This collection contains family portraits, genealogical material, correspondence among the Eddy siblings and parents, and a family Bible. The correspondence consists of approximately 120 letters, most of which were written during the American Civil War (1860-1865) between the three enlisted brothers, Willard, William and Clark, and their parents, Otis and Lucy. Three of the letters contain accounts of the Battle of Williamsburg (letter dated May 12, 1862), the First Battle of Fredricksburg (letter dated May 26, 1863), and the Second Battle of Fredricksburg (letter dated May 26, 1863). There are also digital scans of six of the letters and digital transcriptions of ten of them.

The family Bible is also included, and the loose leaf genealogical and family record materials that were once interleaved within it have been foldered separately for preservation reasons. There are also two official Union Army documents conferring promotions on Clark Eddy, one for the rank of corporal and the other for the rank of sergeant.

The collection also includes a box of family portraits taken using various early photographic methods. There are four 1/6th plate size portraits framed in “Union Cases,” two of which are tintypes and two of which are daguerreotypes. There are also two 1/9th plate size ambrotypes. The box also contains a leather-bound photograph album of fifteen later portraits of family members, as well as a small Maple Grove Candies box which holds five unframed and uncased tintypes.

Edward (Ed) Nicholas Cole was a President of General Motors Corporation and highly influential automotive engineer. His wife Dollie Ann was a well-known philanthropist and socialite in Michigan and Texas. Collection include correspondence, reports, technical records, speech transcripts, genealogical papers, photographs, audiovisual materials and scrapbooks.

The Edward Nicholas and Dollie Ann Cole papers contain materials from influential automotive exectuive Edward Nicholas Cole and his wife Dollie Ann Cole. The collection has been organized into two series:

The Edward Nicholas Cole series contains correspondence, business records, reports, photographs, audiovisual materials, transcripts, and blueprints. The series has been divided into four subseries: the Correspondence subseries contains personal and professional letters, the Project Files subseries includes documents related to Cole's career with General Motors, Chevrolet, Checker Motors Corporation and other projects. The Speeches and Appearences subseries chronicles Cole's public speaking engagements in the early 1970s and the Personal Materials subseries contains photographs, audiovisual materials and other materials related to Cole's family and recreational interests.

The Dollie Ann Cole series contains correspondence, papers, photographs and scrapbooks. The series has been organized into two subseries: the Correspondence series which contains letters dated between 1968-1976 and the Topical files series which includes materials related to Cole's charitable and community work, her media appearances and other pursuits.

United States Representative and Secretary of the Navy; collection includes correspondence, 1880-1927, concerning personal matters, business affairs, and political activities; letters to Mrs. Denby regarding Denby’s death; articles, speeches, notes and memoranda on various topics including the Teapot Dome Scandal, Panama Canal, relations with China, and the United States Navy; photostats of letters exchanged between Nathaniel Denby and George Bancroft, 1845-1846; and photographs.

The Edwin Denby papers, dating from 1845-1846 and 1880-1929, are organized into five series: Correspondence, Articles and Speeches, Topical Files, Personal/Biographical, and Photographs. Denby's papers document his political career as United States Representative and Secretary of the Navy, and include relevant information on such topics as the United States Navy, the Panama Canal and the Teapot Dome Scandal.

Edwin Franko Goldman (1878-1956) was an American composer and conductor for military bands. Collection, assembled by Goldman, of autographs, letters, photographs, and musical scores of many musical celebrities from his lifetime and before.

The Edwin Franko Goldman Autograph Collection consists of two series: Background Materials and Autographed Photographs and Manuscripts. The collection contains autographs, letters, photographs, and musical scores of such notable musical celebrities as Antonin Dvorák, George Gershwin, Franz Liszt, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Philip Sousa, Johann Strauss, and Igor Stravinsky.

Niles, Mich. businessman and officer in the Sixth and Nineteenth Michigan Infantry regiments during the Civil War. Includes correspondence, diaries, and photographs related to Griffin's personal life and military service in addition to genealogical information and miscellaneous materials.

The Eli A. Griffin papers are organized into a single Personal Papers series, which includes family genealogical information, correspondence, personal diaries, photographs, military records, and other materials. The collection documents Griffin's various travels (including trips to the California gold fields in 1849 and 1853 and other trips to Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, and Utah), service in the Union army during the Civil War, and information about his family.

Papers of Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, Abolitionist poet, and the Chandler family of Adrian, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, including Elizabeth's parents Thomas and Margaret Evans Chandler; Margaret's sisters Ruth Evans and Jane Howell; Elizabeth's brothers Thomas and William, and William's wife Sarah Taylor Chandler. Correspondence of Elizabeth and Thomas Chandler and Ruth Evans with family members in the East, Benjamin Lundy, and others, describing early settlement, agricultural conditions, and local and national anti-slavery movements; also family correspondence of Thomas and Margaret Chandler in Pennsylvania.

The Elizabeth Margaret Chandler collection includes both the papers of this abolitionist poet as well as papers of other members of the Chandler family of Pennsylvania and Lenawee County, Michigan. Represented in the collection are letters to/from Elizabeth's parents Thomas and Margaret Evans Chandler; Margaret's sisters Ruth Evans and Jane Howell; Elizabeth's brothers Thomas and William, and William's wife Sarah Taylor Chandler. Following 1830, much of the correspondence of Elizabeth and Thomas Chandler and Ruth Evans is with family members in the East, Benjamin Lundy, and others, describing their settlement in Lenawee County, agricultural conditions, and local and national anti-slavery movements. Other correspondents in the collection include William Bliss, Darius Comstock, Isaac Crary, Abi Evans, Jane Howell, Darius C. Jackson, Benjamin Lundy, William M. Sullivan and Matthew F. Whittier.

In all, there are twenty-two letters, 1830-1834, written to members of her family, from Elizabeth Margaret Chandler. The earliest letter, June 14, 1830, written from Philadelphia, discusses the advantages of emigrating to Michigan. The later letters are written from Hazelbank, a farm in Lenawee County, between Adrian and Tecumseh, where Elizabeth Chandler settled with her brother, Thomas Chandler, and her aunt, Ruth Evans. The letters describe the clearing of the land, the building of a log cabin and its furnishings, the planting of the first crops, and give an account of the district around the farm, its settlers (chiefly Quakers), its trade and agriculture, land and commodity prices. They contain scattered references to abolitionist activities, such as the boycott of slave-produced commodities, to the Black Hawk War in Illinois and Wisconsin, 1832, and to other current events. Fifteen letters, 1830-1835, on the same subjects, were written by Thomas Chandler and Ruth Evans; two letters, 1834, 1835, enclose copies of obituary notices on Elizabeth Chandler's death.

Also part of the collection are sixty letters, 1830-1842, written to Elizabeth and Thomas Chandler, and Ruth Evans, from Ruth Evans' sister, Jane Howell, Philadelphia, Pa. Several of these letters refer to slavery and to anti-slavery leaders, such as William Lloyd Garrison, Benjamin Lundy, Evan Lewis, and Charles C. Burleigh, coeditor with his brother, William Henry, of the abolitionist newspaper The Unionist; a few refer to the financial and mercantile disruption caused by President Andrew Jackson's monetary policy, resulting in the panic of 1837; two letters, 1835, mention the boundary dispute between the State of Ohio and Michigan Territory (the Toledo War); others refer to a controversy between the Hicksite Friends and the Orthodox Friends in New York, the danger of a cholera epidemic, Indian difficulties, the increase of settlers in Michigan Territory, and other contemporary topics; one letter, 1832, encloses a certification of Thomas Chandler's membership in the Society of Friends, and one letter, 1834, encloses a poem on the death of George Dillwyn (1738-1821), Society of Friends preacher.

Twenty-eight of the letters received by Elizabeth and Thomas Chandler and Ruth Evans in Michigan (1830-1852) were from other relatives and friends. Seven of these, 1831-38, were from Benjamin Lundy concerning a trip to Mexico, anti-slavery activities, and the first edition of Elizabeth Chandler's poems, which Lundy published in 1836; two letters, 1851, 1852, were from I. Prescott, publisher and bookseller of Salem, Ohio, discussing a republication of Elizabeth Chandler's poems; one, 1837, from Darius C. Jackson, delegate from Lenawee County to the Second Constitutional Convention of Assent, Ann Arbor, 1836, mentions the revision of Michigan laws, the Internal Improvement Bill, and the General Banking Laws Bill; one, 1837, from Isaac E. Crary, Michigan's first member of Congress acknowledges receipt of Thomas Chandler's petition against the Annexation of Texas, which Crary had presented to the House of Representatives; one, 1838, from William Bliss of Blissfield, lists the names of officers and members of the Anti-Slavery Society of Blissfield; one, 1839, from William L. Sullivan, Jackson, discusses Methodist anti-slavery meetings; one, 1838, describes the anti-abolitionist riots in Philadelphia, Pa., and the burning of Pennsylvania Hall, built in 1837 by anti-slavery societies for public meetings; three, 1837, are from Mathew Franklin Whittier (brother of John Greenleaf Whittier), Amesbury, Mass.

A calendar arranged by name of correspondent is available in the reading room card files.