Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

Founded by Hermann A. Brunn in Buffalo, New York, Brunn & Company were designers and builders of automotive bodies from the 1920s through the early 1940s, and are best known for the bodies constructed for the Lincoln Division of the Ford Motor Company. Brunn also built automobiles for private individuals, many of whom were well-known members of American business and society circles, including J.C. Penney and J.P. Morgan. Hermann C. Brunn, son of Hermann A., produced numerous designs for the company, and then continued his career at the Ford Motor Company following the closing of Brunn & Company in 1941. The collection documents the work of Brunn & Company, Hermann A. Brunn, and Hermann C. Brunn, through engineering drawings, photographs, paint and upholstery samples, customer order records, correspondence, and research materials.

The Brunn collection has been divided into four series: Correspondence, Design and Engineering, Images, and Sales and Marketing.

The Correspondence series is arranged alphabetically by correspondent and then chronologically within each file. The letters are primarily from customers to Hermann A. Brunn expressing appreciation for the work done on their vehicles. Letters that are circa 1970 includes material written by and sent to Hermann C. Brunn during his employment at Ford Motor Company, and in regards to modern restorations of Brunn vehicles. In cases where a specific vehicle can be identified, the correspondence has been filed with the photographic images of that particular vehicle. Some of the letters were part of a scrapbook and many letters are glued to the same page, as a result at the end of correspondence there are several letters listed together which indicates they are glued together and in the same folder.

The Design and Engineering series is divided into three subseries: Brunn & Company Drawings, Other Drawings, and Hermann C. Brunn. The material in the series consists primarily of drawings produced by Brunn & Company illustrating the various body designs produced by the firm, which are, for the most part, reproductions, or blueprints. The drawings show the left (driver) side elevation of the vehicle and, in some cases, include a plan view of the interior layout. Dimensions, if shown, detail the passenger interior space. The name, or initials, of the designer, customer name, and notes detailing specific vehicle configuration and trim can be found on many of the drawings. The drawings have been arranged alphabetically by make of chassis, then chronologically by date drawn and design number. Data for body style, model, chassis wheelbase in inches, engine configuration, order number, and customer name has also been included in the file title, where known. The Other Drawings subseries consist of a smaller number of drawings that originate from other manufacturers, including General Motors and the Ford Motor Company. The Hermann C. Brunn subseries consists of materials created by Hermann C. Brunn in the period after the closing of Brunn & Company, and includes a manuscript for an article describing the history of the brougham body style.

The Images series is divided into five subseries: Negatives; Vehicles, Brunn & Company; Vehicles Other, Non-vehicle, Brunn & Company; and Non-vehicle, Other. Image formats include black and white, and color, photographic prints and negatives. The bulk of the subjects are Brunn & Company vehicles, with images illustrating the exterior of completed automobiles. In many cases the prints and negatives are marked with the vehicle order number and many images are loose pages from a scrapbook. Images of body construction, interior, and body detail are captured for some vehicles. Non-vehicle subjects include the [1929] Paris, France, Auto Salon. Non-Brunn & Company subjects include several of images of the Aqua Cheetah, an amphibious vehicle built for the United States Army by the Amphibian Car Corporation. Another group of photographs are labeled “Best of Brunn” I and II which are an assortment of photos from various car models.

The Sales and Marketing series consists of brochures, print advertisements, owner lists, price lists, and a number of large-format upholstery and paint samples. The series also includes a Customer Order Book for 1935-1937. This journal records all vehicles built by Brunn & Company during that time period, with entries for order number, order date, body style, model number, customer name, body number, trim and paint specification, intermediate construction dates, and vehicle completion dates.

The Bunyan Bryant Papers hold documents related to anti-discrimination activities in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area, as well as national efforts through the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), from 1961-1965. Efforts in Ann Arbor center on housing at Pittsfield Village, Arbordale Manor, and include documentation on city-wide fair housing efforts and policies.

The Bunyan Bryant Papers hold documents related to anti-discrimination activities in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area, as well as national efforts through the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), from 1961-1965. Efforts in Ann Arbor center on housing at Pittsfield Village, Arbordale Manor, and include documentation on city-wide fair housing efforts and policies. Also present are materials related to racial discrimination at commercial entities such as Seyfried Bridal, Students Friend Discount Barber, and Thompson's restaurant. The documentation holds information about activities that includes correspondence, legal efforts, sit-ins, marches, and picketing.

The Fair Housing series contains documents related to city-wide anti-discrimination planning and policy. AAAFHA Pittsfield Village (Ann Arbor Area Fair Housing Association) is a series that holds materials related to fighting racial discrimination in housing. The AAAFHA-CORE (Ann Arbor Area Fair Housing Association - Congress of Racial Equality) includes information about the Ann Arbor, Michigan chapter of CORE and their activities fighting racial discrimination in housing, education, and commerce. Of note are materials related to a sit-in at City Hall, and documents related to Seyfried Bridal. The Arbordale Manor Housing Discrimination folder holds documentation about discriminatory housing practices when Bunyan Bryant was denied housing based on his race. It includes formal complaints, legal documentation, and correspondence, as well as documents calling for demonstrations. The CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) series contains materials related to the national CORE organization, its relationship with local chapters, policies, and the 1964 and 1965 national conventions. The Jones School Closure (Ann Arbor, Michigan) series includes newspaper clippings of articles related to education and segregation. The Miscellaneous series holds materials not related specifically to the other series that are relevant to racial equality efforts.

Formerly the Tom Mooney Labor School, the records consist of correspondence, minutes of faculty meetings, faculty committee reports, financial records and fundraising materials, promotional flyers and press releases, student publications, course outlines and course announcement flyers, school term schedules from 1950 to 1955, and a transcript of the proceedings of a forum, "Industry and Labor in the Postwar World," held on July 26, 1944. Included are letters to Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern concerning support of a music department at CLS. The school was investigated in 1946 by the Tenney Committee, the California legislature's Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, on the charge that an institute jointly held by CLS and the University of California was Communist-sponsored. However, the only indication of this fact in the records is brief mention in the faculty meeting minutes.

The records of the California Labor School(CLS) are comprised of materials documenting the educational programs, activities, and events of the school. The records are organized into four series: Academic Files, Office Files, School Promotion, and School Publications. Records of particular interest are pamphlets found in the School Publications series, which include essays, speeches, stories, plays, and even a book of early songs by Malvina Reynolds. Researchers will also find notable historical facts on the CLS in the Press Releases and Ephemera folder of the School Promotion series.

Correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera from award-winning novelist, journalist, and anarchist Cara Hoffman.

The correspondence series contains digital correspondence between Hoffman and colleagues, as well as letters sent to Hoffman. The creator separated digital correspondence from Goddard College, Jon Frankel, and Rachel Pollack from other letters. These correspondents' folders are arranged alphabetically. Their back-and-forth with Hoffman largely consists of discussions about craft or admissions to Goddard College. Additional correspondence is ordered chronologically. Many letters date from the 80s and 90s and concern the personal lives of Hoffman's correspondents.

The Works series consists of notes, manuscripts, proofs, and publications of Hoffman's novels, short stories, and articles. Materials are grouped by work. The bulk of materials relate to Hoffman's most recent novel, Running, which is based loosely on her early travels in Greece in the 1980s and 1990s.

The collection also includes 5 of Hoffman's personal journals, dating from 2000 to roughly 2018. These journals include notes and writings related to Hoffman's writing process and her work on her MFA. Following the journals are Hoffman's Goddard diploma and handful of ephemera from Hoffman's travels.

Carl Nold was a German-born anarchist who was involved in the Homestead Strike (1892) and served prison time for being involved in the plot to assasinate Henry Clay Frick. This collection is comprised of his correspondence, some photos, news clippings, articles about or by Nold, and court documents.

Papers of this German immigrant anarchist include correspondence, an essay entitled "Six Pathfinders," and court documents for indictments of Henry Bauer and Carl Nold by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the 1892 cases resulting from the attempted assassination of Henry C. Frick by Alexander Berkman. Among the correspondents are Hippolyte Havel, A. Isaac, Harry M. Kelly, Kate Rotchek, as well as Lucy Parsons, whose letters concern anarchists, the International Labor Defense, and criticism of Emma Goldman's autobiography. Also included are poems and an essay by Robert Reitzel, a photo, and a scrapbook about Reitzel's death. The papers are in English and German.

This collection is the result of notes and materials assembled by Ann Fagan Ginger in preparation for the biography Carol Weiss King, human rights lawyer, 1895-1952. Research for the book began shortly after King's death in 1952 and continued into the 1980s. The biography was published by the University Press of Colorado in 1993. Ginger donated the Carol Weiss King collection in 1999.

The collection is in six series:

Obituaries, containing newspaper reports of the death of King in 1952, her brother William in 1946, and her son Jonathan in 1997.

Correspondence, containing photocopies of letters from King concerning the deportation case of Harry Bridges, President of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. The series also contains the correspondence of Ann Fagan Ginger in her efforts to interview those who had connections with Carol Weiss King during her lifetime.

FBI Dossier, a photocopy of most of the 1600 pages generated in the investigation of Carol Weiss King and her associates. The researcher will find many pages with redacted (censored) portions. These passages will have a handwritten notation listing the exception to release of this information under the Freedom of Information Act. In the King file, most are noted "b1" which is the exception due to national security. "7d" is another common exception in the file, meaning the information was supplied by a confidential source. There are also pages noted "previously upheld", meaning that the redacted sections had been challenged and that the Department of Justice appeals process affirmed that the redaction was valid. This series contains 12 folders with consecutively numbered pages, and seven folders with unnumbered pages. Folder 17 contains correspondence related to the FOIA request and the Court of Appeals case filed by Cynthia King.

Source Notes, containing lists of sources used by Ann Fagan Ginger in writing the biography, photocopies of pages from standard reference sources summarizing the lives of many persons featured in the book, and handwritten note cards with references to historical sources.

Printed Materials, booklets, pamphlets and photocopies of early publications of the International Labor Defense, with which Carol Weiss King was associated early in her career, as well as copies of articles used for background and color in the biography.

Book Drafts, early and late typewritten drafts of chapters of the King biography.

The records of the Charles Ellet, Jr. papers include correspondence, court documents, technical drawings and plans, general orders, reports, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, notebooks, diaries, photographs, and ephemera.

The papers of Charles Ellet, Jr. (1810-1862) span the years 1827-1954. The papers documents Charles Ellet, Jr.’s important contributions as a civil engineer to 19th century public works projects: building wire suspension bridges, canals, and railroads; conducting the first government funded survey of the lower Mississippi River Delta; constructing and commanding the U.S. Ram Fleet; and his contributions to economic transportation theory. The papers are arranged into seven series: Correspondence; Subject Files; Technical Drawings and Plans; Newspapers; Photographs; Notebooks; and Artifacts.

The bulk of the Charles Ellet, Jr. papers contain correspondence, dating 1838-1863. The papers also contain technical drawings and plans, newspaper clippings, legal documents, survey notebooks, scrapbooks, photographs, survey reports, publication drafts, general orders, ephemera, and building specifications for canals, locks, and railroads. The Correspondence series creates an intimate portrait of his family life and professional career; including notable correspondence with Lot Clark, Charles Davis, Edwin Stanton, Benjamin Wright, Charles B. Stuart, Joseph Cabell, and John Roebling. The Subject Files series records his professional contributions, containing organizational documents and records related to his work developing public works projects, lobbying for river improvements, the legal dispute surrounding the Niagara Falls Suspension bridge, and his command of the U.S Ram Fleet during the Civil War. The Technical Drawings and Plans series consists of survey drawings and maps for the construction of railroads and canals, with significant material from his survey of the Lower Mississippi River Delta. Missing from the Technical Drawings and Plans series are plans for the U.S. Ram Fleet. The Newspapers series contains many clippings relating to the Ellet family genealogical history, and the U.S. Ram Fleet’s service during the Civil War. The Notebooks series consists primarily of survey books from his survey of Philadelphia County, 1840-1841. The Charles Ellet, Jr. papers also contain family papers illuminating the life and military career of Charles Rivers Ellet and Alfred W. Ellet.

Through the steadfast preservation, collection, and promotion of Charles Ellet, Jr.’s life and work, Mary Virginia Ellet sold the Charles Ellet, Jr. papers to the University of Michigan’s Transportation History Collection in 1936.

Papers of activist, author, and licensed psychotherapist who is well-known in the field of ecopsychology and as a critic of the predominance of technology in society. Included are correspondence, manuscript material, photographs, serial publications and books.

This collection contains the papers of activist, author, and licensed psychotherapist Chellis Glendinning, a well-known ecopyschologist, anarchist, and bioregionalist. Much of her work concerns the negative impact of modern technology. Included are correspondence, manuscript material, photographs, serial publications and books.

The Correspondence series consists of letters from family, friends, and colleagues from the 1970s through 2008. Also included is a section of letters that focus on Glendinning's books. Newspaper and magazine clippings, flyers and broadsides related to the author's activities may be found in the Ephemera series.

Manuscript Material consists of notes and drafts of lectures, notes and research on a variety of projects, and material related to Glendinning's opera, De Un Lado al Otro, written in 2006 with Cipriano Vigil. Personal photographs and correspondence, make up the Family and Subject Files, which also holds early creative works as well as Glendinning's high school year book.

The Diaries series is made up of twenty of personal journals and diaries covering the years 1955-1978, while the Photographs series contains images of New Mexico, and Glendinning's childhood, family, travel, conferences, and friends.

The audiocassette tapes, compact discs, videotapes, and one DVD in the Audiovisual series document the author's lectures and paper presentations, complemented by several lectures by colleagues. The final two series, Serial Publications and Books, are comprised of issues of journals containing articles by Glendinning and copies of her books Off the Map: an Expedition Deep into Empire and the Global Economy (2002) and Waking Up in the Nuclear Age (1987).

The 2022 accretion consists of newly acquired materials dating largely from 2010-2020.

The Children's Movie Posters Collection consists of 51 oversize posters and photographic prints in 5 folders from children's animated and non-animated movies circa 1953-1957. Movie posters feature a wide range of children's movies based on fairy tales, children's literature, and original content such as "Cinderella", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Heidi", "Pippi Longstocking" and Santa Claus, Puss N' Boots and more produced from a variety of movie studios. The posters often include details on storylines and theater experiences. Some posters are sequels to other films within the collection.

Contains 51 oversize posters featuring children's animated and non-animated movies from Paramount, Columbia Pictures, Childhood Productions Inc., K. Gordon Murray Productions Inc., and others. Posters show adapations of fairy tales and other common children's stories such as those pertaining to Cinderella, Santa Claus, Little Red Riding Hood, Heidi, Pippi Longstocking, and more. Also contains eight photographic prints from the movie "Puss N' Boots (1963)" Range of posters date approximately from 1953-1987 with several left undated. Posters often feature different art styles, mention highlights of the movie, and may advertise showtimes or giveaways.

Finding aid for the Cigar Makers' International Union Collection which includes corrrespondence, internal records, and publicity materials relating to the Cadillac Michigan Local 393 chapter of the Cigar Makers' Internation Union dating from 1896 to 1910.

The Cigar Makers' International Union Collection (1896-1910) contains 0.5 linear feet of the organizations internal documents, correspondence, a ledger of membership dues, union application forms in German, and a variety of printed items relating to public promotion of the union. Among the correspondence are numerous appeals requesting support for ongoing strikes to various affiliates, including but not limited to: the Lithographers' Union, the Stove Mounters' and Steel Ranger Workers' Union, the United Garment Workers of America, the Pie Bakers' Union and more. A notable letter includes a union statement signed by P.J. McArdle, activist and president of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers.

The membership and dues ledger from the Local 393 Cigar Makers' International Union (Cadillac, MI) has entries beginning in 1896 through early 1901. Additionally, among the publicity materials are two posters on linen fabric promoting union made cigars to the general public.