Collections

Smith, a former juvenile and adult offender, became an activist for prisoners' rights, especially those of gay inmates, while incarcerated in federal penitentiaries across the country in the late 1970s. As a victim himself he was particularly interested in the problem of prison rape. After his release in 1980, he continued to advocate prison reform through POSRIP (People Organized to Stop Rape of Imprisoned Persons). The papers include an autobiography/chronology of Smith's experiences in and out of juvenile detention centers and prisons; extensive correspondence with friends in the International Committee to Free Russell Smith (ICFRS) concerning prison conditions, his personal safety, his transfers from prison to prison, his efforts to provide legal assistance to other inmates, and his plans for post-release activities; records of legal suits and complaints filed by Smith; and formal reports about Smith filed by prison officials. Copies of the POSRIP Newsletter (1980-1981) can be found with the Labadie's serial holdings.

Comprise autobiography, personal correspondence, 1976-1980, and legal records, 1978-1980.

The collection includes typed and handwritten letters by Case to Mary Catherine Damon whom he referred to in most of the letters as Kay Damon. In the letters, Case discusses his reasons for being a conscientious objector and daily life at Public Service Camp 21. The bulk of correspondence is from 1942 until 1943 The Civilian Public Service was made to provide alternative service for conscientious objectors due to religious objections against war. Civilian Public Service Camp 21 was a Forest Service camp located in Cascade Locks, Oregon and run by the Brethren Service Committee a part of the Church of Brethren. Many of the conscientious objectors were from various other Christian religions besides the Church of the Brethren. CPS Camp 21 opened November 1941 and closed July 1946. The men fought forest fires, worked on forest fire prevention and did camp maintenance and construction. Total number of workers who worked in the camp were 579 men.

The February 1943 folder includes two pictures and a postcard of the library fire that occurred January 1943 in the camp. The library included a collection of 2000 volumes, but after the fire was rebuilt and restocked with a new collection of 3000 volumes.

The Hash Bash collection consists of materials collected by Richard "Rich" Birkett relating to the organization and celebration of Hash Bash, an annual event held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to advocate for the legalization of marijuana. The collection includes promotional and event flyers, photographs, newspaper clippings, and organizational information, as well as several court documents relating to permit bans and other legal issues related to Hash Bash events.

This collection contains materials related to the Hash Bash festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The bulk of the collection consists of newspaper clippings, photographs, event flyers and posters, and other advertisements. Also included are several court documents detailing legal disputes between Rich Birkett and Ann Arbor and University of Michigan authorities over the right to host Hash Bash on the University's campus.

Consist chiefly of correspondence, some addressed to his wife, Edith, and his son, Ivan; poems, notes, and other writings, including his autograph album from Cook County jail, 1917, drafts of poems written while imprisoned at Leavenworth Penitentiary, 1918-23, and a negative photostat of Digest of California criminal syndicalism cases, written by the California branch of the I.W.W.'s General Defense Committee, 1926. Also included are printed poems, flyers, and newspaper clippings, prison documents, and ana. The papers largely concern the period of I.W.W. activism (1917-26), particularly his prison experiences and a report by A. W. Curtis on the Centralia (Wash.) trial of I.W.W. lumbermen; the publication of his pamphlets and books; and the organization, activities, and publications of Technocracy, Inc., a group promoting the technocracy movement (1933-34).

The Ralph Chaplin Papers consist chiefly of correspondence, some addressed to his wife, Edith, and his son, Ivan; poems, notes, and other writings. It also includes his autograph album from Cook County (Ill.) Jail (1917), drafts of poems written while imprisoned at Leavenworth Penitentiary (1918-23), and a negative photostat of "Digest of California criminal syndicalism cases", written by the California branch of the IWW's General Defense Committee, 1926. Poems, flyers, newspaper clippings, and prison documents comprise the printed material found in the collection.

The papers largely concern the period of Chaplin's IWW activism (1917-26), particularly his prison experiences. Also of note are a report by A. W. Curtis on the Centralia (Wash.) trial of IWW lumbermen; papers concerning the publication of Chaplin's pamphlets and books; and the organization, activities, and publications of Technocracy, Inc., a group promoting the technocracy movement (1933-34).

A 1939 handbook for the Protective Order of Dining Car Waiters, which was the Portland, Oregon chapter of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an all-black union.

Materials include membership rosters, mediation agreements, schedules, rates of pay, and inventories.

Political group formed in Wayne, Michigan in 1920, with roots in the old Socialist Party of America. This "Michigan faction" was expelled from Communist Party shortly after its founding in 1919, in part for its "consistent adherence to majority action and repudiation of the Communist Party's minority action concept." The party moved its headquarters to Chicago in 1925 where it maintained an office until disbanding in 1968. Consists mainly of correspondence of National Secretary Al Wysocki.

The records of the Proletarian Party survive in an unusual condition, requiring an organizational scheme with some unusual features to accommodate them. Most of the records were torn up by hand when the party disbanded in 1968, usually into quarters or halves. Perhaps 75% of the records have since then been largely or wholly reconstituted by being pasted onto sheets or strips of paper or occasionally clipped or stapled together; the remainder exist only as fragments. These fragments have been variously treated depending on the series to which, if whole, they would belong. Fragments of general correspondence, if dated, are placed in separate folders of fragmentary correspondence at the end of each year's correspondence files; undated fragments are divided by medium and shape, handwritten fragments in one folder, typescript (mostly carbon copy) fragments into several, depending on whether they represent the top left, bottom left, or bottom right corners, the entire left side, or some miscellaneous portion of the original page. This should make it possible to reassemble individual letters when necessary, assuming that all the component parts still exist. Fragments of mundane official correspondence and other material is not distinguished from non-fragmentary examples of the same, fragments that have lost their date being treated as undated.

Note also that many of the records consist of carbon copies, often made on the verso of other documents of interest (flyers, bulletins, the Constitution of the Proletarian Party, etc.). With one or two exceptions, it is the later use as a carbon that is reflected in the item's organizational placement. Researchers seeking the documents accidentally preserved in this way may need to examine the whole collection personally.

The value of the collection resides chiefly in the correspondence. Taken in bulk, it provides an almost intimate acquaintance with the people and ideas that animated the Proletarian Party during its last ten to fifteen years of existence, as well as recollections of its past. The jargon and mechanisms of the party are well illustrated, as is, poignantly, the inability of either to cope with the refusal of history to cooperate with the party's program, or to accept the weariness its members. The decline of the party is well captured in passages like this (John Davis to Al Wysocki, May Day, 1963): "We are dying on the vine as it were, there isn't many more than a dozen of us left. You can't call this a political party. The bulk of our funds go to the paying of rent for the Headquarters and the Kerr store room. I ma not at all clear about what can be done." Or this, from one of the last two members of the Detroit Local (Phil Drouin to Al Wysoki, 6 May 1964): "I have been trying to get a meeting of the remaining members in local Detroit and the only one that shows up is myself and Bennie so we keep postponing it and contact the other members and they always have excuses so...it looks like local Detroit is finish." To which Wysoki can only reply vainly (9 May 1964): "The local Detroit members are asleep on their revolutionary duties."

For comments on the Sarah Lovell for Mayor (of Detroit) campaign, see general correspondence, April 1957. For Wysocki's exchanges with curious student Arthur Maglin, see general correspondence, May, 1960; with student Douglas Hainline, see May and July 1962. For comments on the correct interpretation of the assassination of J.F.Kennedy, see general correspondence of 29 November and 9 December 1963.

Comprised of articles by C. Cornelisson, H. Kelly, E. Malatesta, M. Nettlau, and F. Tcherkesoff solicited for a special Kropotkin memorial issue of Detroit Russian-language journal Probuzhdenie; other articles by Jean Grave and Nettlau; and letters from Kelly, Grave, Nettlau, and J. Ishill to editor J. Cherney and other editorial staff members.

The collection contains correspondence related to the Detroit Russian-language journal Probuzhdenie during J. Cherney's tenure as editor. It particularly contains material related to the production of a special issue on Russian anarcho-communist Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin, as well as one copy of that 1931 issue; Jean Grave's writings (in French) for the journal; and writings by Max Nettlau (in English) for the journal.

Ann Arbor, Michigan artist, invited to curate show on pornography and prostitution in conjunction with University of Michigan Law School on the subject. Speakers, including Catherine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin,, generally opposed pornography and prostitution while artists argued for freedom of expression legalization and legalization of prostitution. Removal of a videotape from the exhibit resulted in controversy and legal action. Includes materials from the exhibit, correspondence, conference files, photos and videotapes.

The records in the Carol Jacobsen Collection are compromised of materials documenting the "Porn'im'age'ry" exhibit, the controversy and negotiations surrounding the exhibit, and materials concerning the issues of prostitution, pornography, sex work, and censorship. The records are organized into six series: Correspondence Files, Press Clippings and Published Material Files, Original Conference Files, Photographs, Protest and Reinstallation Material, and Videotapes.

Phil Cushway was a student activist at the University of Michigan in the early 1970s. His involvement in the various student protests (Vietnam War, Attica lockdown) of that time, as well as his work with the Michigan Daily, led to this collection of materials which document some of his activities during that time. Cushway was active in the Indochina Peace Campaign, and much of the collection is made up of materials from that organization.

The bulk of materials document Cushway's activities at the University of Michigan during the early 1970s. The Series have been divided thus: Indochina Peace Campaign, Peoples Bicentennial Commission, Attica Brigade, Impeach Nixon Campaign, Radical Student Union, and Student Activities Committee.

The Performer's Awards of Detroit Records (1974-2008) consists of materials relating to the Performer's Awards of Detroit (P.A.D.), an organization that promoted gay entertainment in Detroit, Michigan. The materials represent a portion of gay culture and entertainment in Detroit, Michigan and the Southeast Michigan region. The collection contains administrative records, event flyers and programs, correspondence, performer information, posters, pageant applications, handbooks and regulations, and other documents relating to the organization and its members and events.

The Performer's Awards of Detroit Records (1974-2008) consists of materials relating to the Performer's Awards of Detroit (P.A.D.), an organization that promoted gay entertainment in Detroit, Michigan. The materials detail the organizational history through administrative records such as meeting minutes and correspondence; the annual awards show and its preparation, promotion and performers; other shows and pageants in the metropolitan Detroit, Michigan area; official USA Pageantry documentation such as handbooks and applications; and posters, awards, and audiovisual materials. The items represent a large portion of gay culture and entertainment in Detroit, Michigan and the greater Southeast Michigan region from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s.

The Performer's Awards of Detroit Records were collected by David Marshall, aka Vicki Martin. Many of the items in the collection bear personal inscriptions to Marshall/Martin, and contain handwritten notes by Marshall.

The collection consists of seven series:

Administrative Records Consists of P.A.D. board meeting minutes, correspondence, rules and regulations, by-laws, award and election nomination lists, member registration lists, newsletters, mission statements, candidate statements, event flyers and other organizational notes. Folders were kept as they were received and usually contain one year's worth of P.A.D. records.

P.A.D. Annual Awards Show Records Consists of records relating to the annual awards show organized by P.A.D. Shows from the First Annual Show in 1976 to the 33rd Annual Show in 2007 are represented. There is a folder to represent each year of the show, containing the event program, ballots, flyers, and many that contain handwritten notes, photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, speeches, performer information, obituaries of entertainers who have participated in the shows, and other information pertaining to the awards shows.

Other Pageant Records Contains various event flyers from Detroit gay bars: primarily Gigi's, but others as well. Also contains event programs, pageant applications, performer headshots, correspondence, newspaper clippings, advertisements, and performer lineup lists. Some files are pageant specific, i.e. Mr. Gay Michigan, Miss Gigi's, Royal Queen of Queens.

USA Pageantry Records Consists of pageant preliminary records, promoter's packages, and handbooks, rules and regulations for specific pageants held by USA Pageantry, including Miss Gay Heartland, Miss Gay USA, Mr. Gay Heartland, Mr. Gay Michigan, Mr. Gay USA, Miss Gay Michigan At-Large, Miss Great Lakes USA and Gay Jr. Miss Michigan. Also included is correspondence, event photographs, performer headshots, notes, and event flyers.

Posters Posters include promotions for various shows and other events held in Detroit, Michigan. A notable inclusion is a poster promoting the 1982 "2nd Annual Moonlight Cruise on the Bob-Lo Boat," which includes a Boblo Boat felt pennant. The Boblo Boats transported passengers to Boblo Island, a former amusement park on Bois Blanc Island in the Detroit River.

Awards Awards consist of trophies, a tiara, and an inscribed softball, as well as a plaque from P.A.D. to award Vicki Martin (David Marshall) for being "a pioneer in gay entertainment."

Audiovisual Materials One VHS tape and four ¼" tape sound recordings.