Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

The Hobohemia Collection contains materials from 1905-1997. The materials are original correspondence and manuscripts, photographs, serials, pamphlets, ephemera, clippings, and realia. The collection centers around soap box culture, radical thought, and open forums for free speech in Chicago that were popular from mid-1910’s to the early sixties. Jack Sheridan and to a much greater degree, Slim Brundage and The College of Complexes, are the main focus of this collection.

The Hobohemia Collection is composed of personal and business correspondence, manuscripts, business records, serials, ephemera, photographs, and clippings. It revolves around Jack Sheridan, an active Dil Pickler, and Slim Brundage, founder of the College of Complexes, as well the business workings of the College. The Jack Sheridan series (.5 linear feet), includes correspondence with professional peers and friends, family letters and correspondence, several of his manuscripts, personal records, and related news clippings. Correspondence includes Jack Conroy, liberal labor writer and activist, and John Quinn Brisbon who was an activist and in later years ran for VP and President representing the Socialist Party USA. Notes and plans for a "handwriting" TV series in which Jack would analyze viewers’ handwriting and response from the showing of one segment are included also. Family correspondence includes exchanges with Jimmy Sheridan, Jack’s twin brother and hobo, letters from James Sheridan, Jack’s father, to his family, dated 1917 and 1943, and documents from a federal INS investigation.

Manuscripts include a dedication to the reopening of the Dil Pickle Club in 1944 and a tribute to author and fellow Dil Pickler Max Bodenheim who was murdered. Poems to Jack Sheridan by Max Bodenheim and J. Q. Brisbon and poems by Jack Sheridan for Ben Reitman and in tribute to Hobo College are also part of this series. Personal records include school and service records, a letter of reference, parental certificates, and a copy of a US Treasury document denying Jack Sheridan as a merchant seaman.

The Slim Brundage series (11.66 linear feet), is comprised of personal and business correspondence, and material relating to family, Slim’s manuscripts, and material about the College of Complexes. Correspondence is listed by name and also chronologically. Personal correspondence includes that with writer Carl Sandburg (1937), an important Pickler, Thornton Wilder (1937), and hobo poet Axel Dragstedt.

Business correspondence relates to Slim’s workmen’s compensation regarding a fall he took as a painter and problems obtaining social security benefits. There are also letters to editors regarding submission of manuscripts and some subsequent responses.

Manuscripts comprise 3.5 cubic feet of this series. They include poetry, plays, articles, speeches, radio shows, and books. Most are undated and unsigned but the style consistent. Many of his short essays, or Ravings, are included here. The layout for his only book publication, Ravings of a Manic Depressive, is included. This book was a disappointment for Slim because of its hurried and sloppy assembly. Some manuscripts exist under differing titles; Slim also writes under the pseudonyms Malarkey McCarthy, Manuel Labor, and Casa Pintura.

Family material holds correspondence from Slim to his brother and children, his colorful autobiography which claims his place of birth as an insane asylum and a scrapbook compiled by his daughter, Anna Brundage, which coincides with the establishment of College of Complexes. The scrapbook also contains photographs of the family.

Materials on Margaret Brundage, who married Slim in 1927, include papers on her divorce from Slim in 1933 (official 1939) and custody of their only child, Kerlyn. There is a letter from Margaret to her lawyer explaining how Slim fit into Kerlyn’s life. Personal records and memberships include Slim’s union membership cards and certifications.

Materials under Kay Brundage, to whom Slim was married in 1940, includes correspondence with Slim regarding his painting accident in New York and recuperation, letters from her mother which shed light on Kay and Slim’s financial situation, flooding in Missouri, and the Truman administration. Other material relates mainly to her involvement, and to a lesser degree, Slim’s involvement, in the administration and activities of the Chicago Repertory Theatre and Child Guidance Center.

The College of Complexes subseries includes Business Records. These are marketing promotions such as the Miss Beatnik Contest, extensive business records which include donations to various pro labor and community organizations, mailing lists, IWW support, potential openings of College of Complexes locations in New York and San Francisco, and a large assortment of check stubs, ledgers, daily records, gate receipts, and steno pads recording College of Complexes daily monetary transactions.

Business Records also include correspondence and documents from the US Internal Revenue Service, the Illinois Internal Revenue Service, various vendors to whom Slim owes money, and lawyers regarding the dissolution of Slim’s business partnership with Margaret due to their divorce. There is a letter from Ann Landers and a letter to Hugh Hefner.

The Curriculum files contain typed monthly schedules of speakers enlisted for the College of Complexes. It was traditional to include essays by Slim known as Ravings into each Curriculum. Ephemera contains humorous items such as the Schizo Certificate, Slim’s business card from Mexico, a "pickup" card, play money, and certificates issued to speakers. There are newspaper articles that cover the Beats and the Miss Beatnik contest.

The Other Forums/Events/Organizations series (.75 linear feet), briefly addresses other open forums of the period. Slim and Kay Brundage were longtime Wobblies in the Council for Union Democracy. There are several essays that were written by Slim while committed to this organization as well as general member correspondence and business materials. Materials on the Dil Pickle Club include ephemera such as Volume 1, Number 1 of the Dil Pickler, a pamphlet of writings with the Dil Pickler Lending Library, as well as a small pamphlet with lecture schedule. Druid Society materials include a certificate establishing Jack Sheridan as a witness to the appointed trustees of the Druid Society.

The Writings by Others series (.5 linear feet), contains typed and some handwritten manuscripts by people active in Slim’s circle and the College of Complexes. The Anthology of Love is a collection of poetry written by others that Slim hoped to have published. Almost every poem has an attached typed commentary by Slim. There are handwritten poems by Max Bodenheim on truth and beauty and a guestbook for the Guild of Young Writers, 1932. There are writings by Kay Wood, who married Slim in 1940, John Krzton, "World’s Foremost Authority on Garbage" who reviews Slim’s Ravings, and Malarkey McCarthy, pseudonym for Slim Brundage.

The Serials series (.5 linear feet), contains literary publications from as early as 1905, The Crank, to 1960, The Tab. Amazing Stories and the Washington Square News contain articles by Jack Sheridan. The Tab contains photos and an article about the Miss Beatnik contest held at the College of Complexes in New York.

The Pamphlets series (.25 linear foot), contains materials that may have been used for reference by Jack Sheridan or Slim Brundage. Roger Payne’s The Hobo Philosopher, priced at 10 cents, explains how he can "maintain himself, working as a hobo, in about one day a week, instead of the usual six." The Isle of Mona is a Druidic fantasy written by Francis Lambert McCrudden, who corresponds with Jack Sheridan.

The Photographs series (.125 linear foot), contains many photographs that relate to the collection. Interior photographs of the College of Complexes, circa 1950’s, as well as photographs of Meta Toeber and Franklin and Penelope Rosemont at the 1997 COC Reunion. There are photos of Margaret and Slim Brundage, Slim’s son, Kerlyn, Slim in the hospital, and Slim’s well recognized portrait as housepainter. Photographs of The Place (San Francisco), its manager, Jack Langan, and photographs of Jack Sheridan’s family are among others. Several are unidentified.

The Newsclippings series (.125 linear foot), is arranged primarily by decade and relates to social protest, the free press, labor, unions, Cuba, and the Socialist Party.

The Ephemera series (.5 linear foot), is arranged by decade, subject, and title. There are flyers and bulletins on labor, Cuba, Vietnam, civil rights, post war housing, IWW, the March on Hunger to City Hall, and an Irwin Corey for President button. This material may have been used as reference by Slim for his writings and education. There is also a folder that contains many actual copies of The Curriculum, 1953-1990.

Holly Fine was a dancer and performer with the traveling vaudeville production, the Marcus Show, in the 1930s. The collection documents Fine’s relationship with entertainer Danny Kaye, as well as the Marcus Show itself. Includes correspondence, vaudeville programs and promotional material, photographs, scrapbooks, printed material and drawings. The correspondence includes approximately 0.5 linear feet of letters written from Kaye to Fine.

The Holly Fine and Danny Kaye Papers document the relationship between Fine and Kaye, as well as the 1930s traveling vaudeville production, The Marcus Show. The papers have been divided into six series: Correspondence, Vaudeville, Printed Material, Photographs, Scrapbooks, and Drawings and Artwork.

Correspondence, informational flyers, conference records, and ephemera relating to the activities of the Household Workers' Rights Project, a grassroots group organized in 1979 in San Francisco to promote the rights of domestic workers.

The bulk of the collection is correspondence. Maupin and other organizers of HWR corresponded with domestic workers, lawyers, politicians, and related activist organizations to provide domestic workers with legal assistance, training, job referrals, and other vital resources. Of note are the organizers' two-year correspondence with the office of California assemblyman Art Agnos, as well as their correspondence with Carolyn Reed and other lead organizers of the NCHE. Agnos promised to help the organization further improve Wage Order No. 15, while the NCHE provided financial and other assistance to the HWR project as it got off the ground. Maupin co-led a workshop at an NCHE conference in Memphis, Tennessee in 1980.

Also included are various forms and surveys, often in English and Spanish, distributed to domestic workers to help them find jobs and provide feedback about their experiences.

This collection contains material related to Detroit-based German-American physician, writer, and proponent of cremation Hugo Erichsen. It includes correspondence from European and American writers. Some of the correspondence is in response to Erichsen's survey on writers' methods, which he prepared for his 1894 book "Methods of Authors"- Harriet Beecher Stowe's response is included here, among other writers.

This collection contains correspondence and photographs primarily related to Erichsen's 1894 book, "Methods of Authors", and includes a variety of European and American authors' responses to his survey on writing habits. The collection includes a brief survey response from Harriet Beecher Stowe and a letter from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The Human Rights Party Papers consist of correspondence, writings, administrative materials, teaching materials, notes, reports, and photos regarding the life and works of Benita and Gabe Kaimowitz and Edward and Victoria Vandenberg, all of whom were active members of the Human Rights Party in Ann Arbor in the 1970s.

The correspondence series largely consists of correspondence to and occasionally from Ed and Victoria concerning their personal and professional lives. Items groupings correspond to the creators' original order.

The campaign materials series comprises legal documents, ad copy, expenses, ephemera, and photos related to Benita Kaimowitz's 1973 bid for Ann Arbor mayor and Ed Vandenberg's 1986 candidacy for probate judge.

The teaching materials series includes lesson plans, assignments, student work, student evaluations, reading lists, and correspondence relating to Victoria and Ed Vandenberg's and Benita Kaimowitz's work as teachers. Both Benita and Ed taught courses at Community High School, a public alternative school founded in 1972 in response to the popularity of the Youth Liberation movement in Ann Arbor.

The Ed Vandenberg legal work series contains materials related to Ed's career as an attorney and ombudsman.

In the Office of Ethics and Religion series are administrative materials, correspondence, notes, ephemera, and proposals created by or submitted to the eponymous office. Ed Vandenberg served for a time as president of the Office of Ethics and Religion, and participated in many of the office's forums, conferences, and iniatives. Many of the materials in this series pertain to the University Values Program and the debates it facilitated concerning research into recombinant DNA technology.

The conferences series primarily consists of documents related to the 1977 "Narcissism in Modern Society" conference held at the University of Michigan and hosted in part by the Office of Religion and Ethics. It also includes statements and notes about attendees from the 1965 International Conference on Alternative Perspectives on Vietnam, which was co-sponsored by the predecessor to the Office of Ethics and Religion. Lastly, the series contains of a handful of documents related to various teach-ins in the 60s and 70s.

The topical files series is composed of groupings of files, largely collected by Ed Vandenberg, related to political and philosophical topics that did not fit neatly elsewhere in the collection. Files contain a variety of items, including essays, articles, newsletters, and ephemera.

The last item in the collection is a spiral-bound notebook used as a communication log for the Kaimowitzes' communal home.

This collection includes recordings of interviews conducted by Cecil D. Eby for his book Hungary at War: Civilians and Soldiers in World War IIas well as photographic transparencies 3.5 in floppy disks with book files, and copy of the book.

The collection comprises 44 audiocassette tapes with recordings of interviews conducted by Cecil D. Eby for his book Hungary at War: Civilians and Soldiers in World War II, published by the Pennsylvania State University Press in 1998. Most interviews are in Hungarian, some are in English. The interviews are accompanied by an alphabetical list of names of interviewees and dates, which can be matched with the index at the end of Eby's book. A copy of the book is also included in the collection, along with 5 floppy disks with data relating to the project, and transparencies featuring photos dating from the war appearing in Eby's monograph.

Cassette tapes in Box 1 have been reformatted, and CD access copies are available.

The Ira Deutchman Papers represent the creator's ongoing career in the film industry, including his personal interests, teaching, and work as a production company executive for Cinecom and Fine Line Features as well as work with directors John Sayles, Alan Rudolph, and Robert Altman. The collection includes extensive catalogs and programs from film conferences and festivals around the world.

The Ira Deutchman Papers were donated to the University of Michigan Special Collections Library Screen Arts Mavericks and Makers Collection in 2015. The collection encompasses Ira Deutchman's 40 year career in independent film making as a producer, production company executive, and educator.

The Ira Deutchman Papers are arranged into sixteen series: Personal, Production Companies, Film and Project Files, Film Organizations, Film Miscellaneous, Film Scripts, Film Conferences and Seminars, Film Festivals, Books, Film Catalogs, Theatre, Artifacts/Memorabilia Oversized, Audio and Moving Image, Digital Media, and Posters

This collections contains materials related to US modernist author William Faulkner, including manuscripts, photographs, correspondence, and event documents.

The Irwin T. and Shirley Holtzman William Faulkner Collection (Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan) series pertains to the establishment and exhibition of the Holtzman Faulkner Collection at the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan. It includes business and personal correspondence, display case diagrams and notes, brochures and informative notes for various exhibitions of the collection, and lists of donated Faulkner materials. The Irwin T. Holtzman Faulkner Papers series covers Holtzman's business correspondence and documents relating to his collection of Faulkner materials. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically, with additional folders of research notes. The majority of the Faulkner Conferences, Seminars, and Events series is comprised of event-related ephemera, such as maps, schedules, registrant lists, itineraries, tour books, and flyers. The series also includes some conference-related correspondence, speech drafts, clippings, planning notes, invitations, and abstracts of presented papers. The Faulkner Works series covers Faulkner's literary and artistic publications, and is divided into three subseries: Correspondence, Manuscripts, and Scripts and Treatments. The Correspondence subseries collects outgoing letters sent by Faulkner to agents and other writers, and are all single-page photocopies, unless otherwise noted. The Manuscript subseries is comprised of printed or photocopied reproductions of drafts of short stories, novels, and Faulkner's last will and testament. The Scripts and Treatments subseries contains typescript drafts of film and television treatments of Faulkner works, scripts written or revised by Faulkner, and scripts based on or relating to Faulkner works. Many of these scripts and treatments have manuscript annotations, and some are accompanied by promotional still photographs. The Rowan Oak, Lafayette County, and Oxford, Mississippi series is primarily comprised of ephemera and photographs depicting Faulkner's home and the surrounding area. The photographs in this series are predominantly professional, with identification on the reverse, though there are some annotated amateur snapshots and prints, as well. The Photographs and Portraits series includes photographs of conferences and exhibits, professional portraits and snapshots of Faulkner and various family members, snapshots of Irwin T. Holtzman and the Holtzman Faulkner Collection, and movie. All images in this series are in black and white, unless otherwise noted. Many of the photographs have annotations by Irwin Holtzman and/or the photographer, on the reverse, describing the images. Irwin Holtzman is pictured in many of the photographs in the Conferences and Exhibits subseries. The Works about Faulkner series contains original and mechanically-reproduced copies of manuscript works about Faulkner and his writings, and are arranged alphabetically by author. The Ephemera series is comprised of various materials that have either images or mention of Faulkner, including exhibit and library brochures, greeting cards, bookmarks, a sticker, and a book jacket for The Sound and the Fury. Also included are materials related to the issuance of the United States Postal Service's William Faulkner commemorative stamp. The Book Publishers and Dealers series contains catalogs, promotional materials, sample book covers and dust jackets, arranged in alphabetic order by publisher or dealer name. The Articles and Clippings series consists of newspaper and magazine articles about the life and works of Faulkner selected and retained by Irwin Holtzman, and is divided into broad topical headings. The Audiotape series includes two sound recordings of television broadcasts about Faulkner. The Realia series contains various artefacts depicting Faulkner, including textiles, plaques, artwork, and housewares. Some items in the Photographs, Works about Faulkner, and Rowan Oak, Lafayette county, and Oxford, Mississippi series have accompanying correspondence and descriptive notes from dealers or donors.

Isaac E. Ronch was a Yiddish writer, teacher, and journalist active in Jewish immigrant circles in Chicago and New York from the 1920s through the 1980s. Ronch was also a good friend of artist Marc Chagall. This collection includes correspondence, writings, and books documenting Ronch and Chagall's friendship, as well as publications, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, and clippings relating to Ronch's own life and works.

The Marc Chagall Materials Series is made up of records documenting Chagall and Ronch's friendship. The donor, Ronch's son, included a handful of books about the history of Jewish arts and identity in Russia to contextualize Chagall's work with Itzik Feffer, which led to his first meeting with Ronch.

The Landsmanshaften Book Series includes a signed copy of the book Di Yiddishe Landsmanshaften foon New York (The Jewish Landsmanshaften of New York), as well as papers relating to the creation of the Landsmanshaften book.

The Writings Series consists of Ronch's creative and journalistic writings. Books include books of prose and poetry, primarily written in Yiddish. Ronch's two serialized novels are preserved as compilations of newspaper clippings placed in composition books.

The Collected Publications Series is made up of three publications (or photocopies of publications) found in Ronch's papers: a 1902 issue of the periodical Di Yiddishe Familie, which includes an article by Sholem Asch, the 1982 Bulletin of the Reuben Brainin Children's Clinic in Tel Aviv, and photocopied pages of a Holocaust Memorial/Yizkor Book for Konin that includes likely relatives of Ronch under the surname Ronchkovski.

The Correspondence Series consists of a single postcard from Sol Liptzin, a scholar of Yiddish and German literature.

The Photographs Series includes photos of Ronch with his students at the Chicago shul where he taught, photos of Ronch giving lectures at Camp Kinderland and Camp Lakeland, and photos of Ronch with as-yet unidentified colleagues sometime in the 1930s.

The Clippings and Ephemera Series comprises newspaper clippings and ephemera relating to Ronch's activities or colleagues, as well as a obituaries for Ronch.

This collection documents the activities of Jacques Girard, who was an activist, organizer, and researcher of LGTBQ issues in France from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The collection consists of records relating to organizations that Girard was a part of, personal research papers, and manuscripts and print ephemera. Many of the materials are in original folders labeled by Girard. The collection contains three series: General Records, CUARH Records, and Research Records.

This collection documents the activities of Jacques Girard, who was an activist, organizer, and researcher of LGTBQ issues in France from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The collection consists of three manuscript boxes of records relating to organizations that Girard was a part of, personal research papers. These documents include correspondence, meeting minutes and articles of incorporation, press releases, flyers, manuscripts, financial statements, and newspaper clippings from 1975 to 1999. Many of the materials are in original folders labeled by Girard. The collection contains three series: General Records, CUARH Records, and Research Records.