Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

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.

Church registers, baptismal records, and death and marriage records dating from 1704 to 1842.

The record group includes church registers, baptismal records, and death and marriage records dating from 1704 to 1842.

The University of Michigan Herbarium, started in 1837, is home to over 1.7 million species and is one of the world's leading botanical collections. The U-M Herbarium records collection includes correspondence, photographs, and research materials documenting early Herbarium history, U-M's ethno botanical research practices, and the international professional discourse surrounding botanical research.

The collection represents the Herbarium's actions as a collector of the historical correspondence and photographs of botanical researchers. The records contained within this collection primarily document the research methods and professional conversations of American botanists. Through the correspondence and papers of Michigan and U-M botanists, this collection also documents the development of the Herbarium, its activities, and its status as a collector of botanical specimens and historical records. Researchers should note that there are photographs and plant specimens scattered throughout the correspondence series, and whereas the plant specimens are noted in the box listing, the photographs are not. The collection's four series include Harley Harris Bartlett Papers, Herbarium Historical Correspondence, Herbarium Historical Photographs, and Archived Website.

Wife of University of Michigan President, James B. Angell and member of Collegiate Sorosis. Angell served as the president of the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of Congressional Church. The Daughters of the American Revolution Ann Arbor chapter has been named after Sarah Caswell Angell. Collection includes Sarah Caswell Angell's diaries and letters concerning Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan life, her church activities, social life, the Daughters of the American Revolution activities, family affairs, and travels to Turkey and China.

The Sarah Caswell Angell papers primarily consist of her her diaries and correspondence, as well as records of her father, Alexis Caswell, and other family members. While much or the correspondence is personal in nature (specifically to her friends and family), the collection includes a folder with materials focused on her work with the Chicago World’s Fair as well as the Ann Arbor chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The diaries included within the collection document some of Angell’s daily activities as well as describe her trips to China and Turkey with her husband.

A pioneer Detroit, Michigan family, established the Ferry Seed Company and other business enterprises, active in civic and cultural affairs. Papers document the family and its business, cultural, political and philanthropic activities.

The Ferry family papers document the rise to prominence of this family who first gained their fortune as seed merchants. The papers also reveal the workings of other Detroit businesses, the development of the Detroit Institute of Arts, turn-of-the-century Michigan politics, and the suburban development of Grosse Pointe. The papers span the years 1758 to 1989 with the bulk of the materials covering 1855 to 1959. The collection consists of: account books, ledgers, journals, and business reports; blue prints, deeds, titles, abstracts, and mortgages; correspondence (business and personal); appointment books, diaries, scrapbooks, and clippings; receipts and tax returns, photographs, and printed miscellanea. It is important to note that the Michigan Historical Collections does not house all extant Ferry materials. The donor, Dexter M. Ferry, III, retains possession of several early account books, ledgers, and journals related to D.M. Ferry & Co.; he also kept some family correspondence and virtually all photographs.

The Ferry family papers arrived at the Michigan Historical Collections in an order based on when the donor reviewed the materials. In the course of reprocessing, this order was altered, and an arrangement assigning primacy to the generation of Ferry who created the document was followed. This reprocessing has resulted in three series: Historical and Background, materials predating Dexter M. Ferry; Dexter M. Ferry; and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. The few problems presented by overlap between generations are duly noted in the contents list. Within these generational series the materials are arrayed in business, personal, philanthropic, and political subseries. Given the natures of the family and the family business, the researcher should note that murkiness exists between subseries divisions. In general these dividing principles work well. They preserve Dexter M. Ferry, III's original order at the folder level while facilitating access by independent researchers.

The strengths of the Ferry collection are myriad. The family correspondence provide unique insight into a family which grew wealthy but remained close-knit. Especially interesting are the long runs of correspondence between Dexter M. Ferry and his mother, Lucy Ferry Crippen, and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. and his mother, Addie Miller Ferry. The former run reveals much about the fluid society of late nineteenth-century Detroit, and the latter reflects the pressures of more rigidly defined social strictures. The correspondence between Ferry, Jr. and his sisters, Blanche Ferry Hooker and Queene Ferry Coonley, are illuminating on the handling of the family business in the changing economic climates of the twentieth century.

Some facets of the development of the Detroit business community are well documented as the family invested heavily in local real estate and business. The strengths of the present collection revolve around the Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. materials relating to business and finance in Detroit from 1920 to 1950, particularly the banking community's reaction to the crisis of the Depression. The links between automobile touring, the good roads movement, and the development of ancillary industries to support the burgeoning automotive industry are fairly well documented by Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.'s papers. Young Ferry's close association with the development of the Detroit Institute of Arts is extremely well documented and these papers provide a case study of twentieth century patronage.

A somewhat refracted view of Michigan politics at the turn of the twentieth century is provided through the scrapbooks and clippings on Dexter Ferry's failed campaign in 1900 for governor of the state. The papers are stronger in their documentation of Dexter Ferry, Jr.'s political involvement with the local governance of Grosse Pointe. Here the details of community control are thoroughly covered by correspondence, reports, and minutes.

Burrows-Avery-Smith families of New York, Connecticut, and Michigan. Correspondence and business papers of Lorenzo Burrows, New York Congressman, 1849-1853; George L. Burrows, Saginaw, Michigan, banker and speculator; material concerning the Whig Party and New York state politics, 1848-1860. Correspondents include: Millard Fillmore, Washington Hunt, and John Young.

The Burrows / Avery / Smith collection was brought together and preserved by Emeline Burrows (daughter of Lorenzo Burrows) and Julia Smith (granddaughter of the elder Roswell Burrows).

The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence and other papers of family members (arranged chronologically); Family records; Topical files; Visual Materials; and Financial materials.

Farmer at Volinia Township, Cass County, Michigan. Journals, financial records, papers of other family members.

The collection is divided into three series: Journals, Farm records, and Other Family Members.

William H. Boyd family of Monroe, Michigan. Correspondence, diaries, addresses, photograph, and miscellaneous papers concerning family and business affairs, temperance, slavery and the First Presbyterian Church of Monroe, Michigan. Correspondents include: Isaac P. Christiancy and Alpheus Felch.

The Boyd family collection includes correspondence, diaries of family members, addresses, photographs, and miscellaneous papers concerning family and business affairs, temperance, slavery and the First Presbyterian Church of Monroe, Michigan. Correspondents include: Isaac P. Christiancy and Alpheus Felch.

Lansing and Ann Arbor, Michigan families; correspondence, photographs, clippings, and other family documents.

Although titled the Pattengill family papers, this accumulation is also the records of the Foster, Sharpsteen, and Woodward families. The historian of the family was undoubtedly Theodore G. Foster and his wife Margaret Foster (née Pattengill). Through these donors, the library received different family collections that have been separately cataloged, although they obviously contain inter-related materials. These other collections, also housed at the Bentley Historical Library are Theodore Foster papers (1835-1862); Henry R. Pattengill papers (1861-1939); and the Margaret Pattengill Foster papers (1903-1961).

This grouping of family materials is actually more about the Foster line of the family than Pattengill or Sharpsteen. The papers have been arranged by name of family: Foster, Pattengill, and Sharpsteen, with an additional series of various family members and miscellaneous. Within each family, the materials have been maintained as arranged by the donor into separate files for individual family members. Of particular interest are the papers of Seymour Foster who was postmaster of Lansing and active in preserving the memory of his brother Charles T. Foster who was killed during the Civil War. The Grand Army of the Republic named one of its veterans post in Charles T. Foster's name. Also included is a volume of transcribed correspondence of Theodore Pattengill Foster, describing his time as a soldier during World War II.

The collection is also of value for the genealogical research materials accumulated on the Foster, Pattengill, Springsteen, and Woodward families.