Collections

Detroit, Michigan, architect; 1934 graduate of the University of Michigan. Biographical material and descriptions of his architectural work, including photographs; also photographs taken during World War II and report of U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey on Wake Island, Marshall Islands, and Rabaul, New Britain.

A large part of this collection is made up of black and white slides taken during World War II in the South Pacific and color slides taken in 1945 and 1946 during the Strategic Bombing Survey of Wake Island, the Marshall Islands, and Rabaul, New Britain. The collection does not include any information as to whether Gabler was the actual photographer. The slides are identified by a topical code system, which is deciphered as much as possible in this finding aid. Some of the slides are mounted in cardboard mounts and are stored in folders, the rest in glass and metal mounts and stored in a metal box. The finding aid indicates the locations for each topical code.

The book The Allied Campaigns Against Wake Island, the Marshall Islands and Rabaul, New Britain: A Photographic Record, included with the collection, parallels the topics of the slides taken during the Strategic Bombing Survey, but does not duplicate any of the pictures in the slide files.

The Corning-Southwick photograph album contains cartes-de-visite and tintypes of infants and young children. Several people pictured were members of the Corning and Southwick families.

The Corning-Southwick photograph album (13cm x 9cm) contains 15 cartes-de-visite and 3 tintype photographs, primarily of babies and young children. Many of the children pictured were members of the Martin, Corning, Gardner, and Southwick families. Two lithographs of a young girl putting on a boot and a young boy posing by a basket full of apples are also present. Included is a carte-de-visite showing the wedding of Charles Sherwood and Lavina Warren Stratton (Mr. and Mrs. Tom Thumb). The album has a decorative hard cover and a metal clasp.

The Cornwell family carte-de-visite album contains studio portraits of members of the Cornwell, Otis, and Harroun families, who were related by marriage. Members of the various families lived in Minnesota and New York in the late 19th century.

The Cornwell family carte-de-visite album (13cm x 10cm) contains 46 formal studio portraits of members of the Cornwell, Otis, and Harroun families, including 40 cartes-de-visite, 6 tintypes, plus 2 lithographs. Most portraits are of young adults and grown men and women, though pictures of younger children and an infant are also present. One picture shows a woman holding an open book, and another shows a group of women knitting. The lithographs depict a woman tucking a child into bed while thinking of a soldier and Mary with the infant Jesus. The volume's red leather cover has a tooled geometric design and a floral design is carved into the sides of its pages.

This collection contains receipts, bills, accounts, court documents, and other materials related to the expenses and operations of the Corporation of the City of New York between 1798 and 1873.

This collection contains receipts, bills, accounts, court documents, and other materials related to the expenses and operations of the Corporation of the City of New York between 1798 and 1873. The first 6 documents, written in 1798 and 1799, are minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, concerning a bill to provide the city with fresh water in order to improve public health. The council's deliberations, with the input of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, focused on whether the water supply should be a municipal or a privately funded project. The council resolved to permit a private company, under direction of the city recorder, to provide the city with water on February 28, 1799 (paving the way for the unsuccessful waterworks enterprises of the Manhattan Company).

The bulk of the collection, dated between 1806 and 1865, pertains to the efforts of New York City's governing body to build and sustain a local infrastructure. Approximately 1,250 bills, receipts, requests for payments, and miscellaneous administrative documents provide financial information about the construction and repair of roads, wharves, piers, slips, and docks; the supply of fresh water; the employment of men for the night watch; the dredging of the river; purchase of printed forms; and the regulation of city lighting. Some of the items reflect broader city events, such as the May 14, 1849, check for janitorial services which likely relates to the aftermath of the Astor Place Riot. Some receipts and accounts reflect the Common Council's 1811 plan to fix block and lot sizes, which resulted in Manhattan's gridded street pattern, and many documents, bills, and accounts provide insight into the city's interactions with individuals for goods and labor. The collection illustrates the increasing responsibilities and expenditures of the city government in the first half of the 19th century.

The collection also includes approximately 90 documents produced by the Marine Court of New York between 1872 and 1873. These summonses, affidavits of merit, and other court documents primarily regard individual complaints related to unpaid debts.

The collection consists mainly of correspondence from Lloyd W. Thompson to his wife, Lillian, 1944-1946.

This is a wonderful collection documenting the state-side World War II experience of the average homesick Michigander, pressed into duty for his country and wanting desperately to get home as soon as possible to his wife and new baby. It is also a unique collection documenting the prisoners of war, mainly German, who were processed in/out and worked in North Carolina, their treatment, work projects, and care.

The collection includes 173 letters that Lillian received from her husband, Lloyd Thompson. 165 were written between February and December 1945, and eight were written in 1946. Lloyd wrote them from North Carolina, where he was stationed either at the Prisoner of War Camp of Fort Butner or Hendersonville. Lloyd always wrote of missing her, wishing to be discharged, of his friends and officers in the army, of working on and driving various vehicles, of their baby, of life in the barracks, of prostitutes and drinking in town and at parties, of the arrest of prostitutes and GIs caught with them in Durham, and of the point system by which U.S. soldiers were dismissed from duty. Mostly, Lloyd wrote of the prisoners of war (POWs), who were all Germans until November 23, 1945 when French, Czech, Polish and Dutch prisoners were added to the camps. He noted the weekly American movies they watched, the crops they harvested, POW escapes, a tunnel and bomb they created, searching them, transporting them, what they ate, changes in their status and privileges after VE Day, how his truck drivers occasionally hit POWs, and how local farmers and pulp wood manufacturers fought Washington, D.C. to extend the time they could employ POWs. (The deadline originally was January 1, 1947, but this was extended through the end of March.) Lloyd was assigned to clean out side POW camps and eventually Camp Butner. His dismissal was delayed until the camp was nearly emptied, at which point he collected supplies for his wife and himself (new shoes, wool trousers, a jacket, soap, and towels) and shipped them home. He also noted others, particularly civilians, who were caught sneaking into POW areas and, later, civilians who stole camp supplies.

Also included in the collection are letters Lillian received from female relatives and friends, including two from her mother-in-law, Mrs. M. Thompson, in 1944 and 1945; one from a friend Corporal Abbigail Balgooyen [spelled with two b’s]; two from her sister, Ella Jannetta, in Durham, North Carolina, in 1945; two from Thompson relatives, Mary Ellen, and Bob, Helen and Kids; and a congratulatory baby card form two friends, all dated 1945. Most of the letters are pretty general in nature and brief, inquiring about Lillian and the baby, Lloyd being gone, and noting the health and activities of mutual friends and family members. Of special note is the letter from Lillian’s friend, Cpl. Abbigail Balgooyen, dated June 20, 9144. Abbigail was a member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (a WAAC) stationed “Somewhere in England”. Her letter vividly describes the extremely uncomfortable living conditions in her “camp,” which included straw mattresses (bolsters), “cell” like rooms, and having no pillows. She had had measles, which delayed her being sent to England. A U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Record of Lloyd W. Thompson (copy) is included.

The letters are all handwritten, mostly in ink, a few in pencil, on various types and sizes of paper. A few of the letters are acidic and yellowed. Two photographs are included, one of an old man and two young boys ( with letter of March 27, 1945) and one of Lloyd, who has his back towards the camera (with letter of June 8, 1945). Information about POW camps in the U.S. and Fort Butner is included (copies, 2006), as well as a rough inventory of the letters.

This item is a bound collection of espionage correspondence from Paris, 1780, that describes the locations and numbers of French and Spanish ships in Gibraltar, New York, Canada, and the West Indies.

This volume is a bound collection of espionage correspondence from Paris, 1780. The 37 reports (65 pages) describe the locations and numbers of French and Spanish ships in Gibraltar, New York, Canada, and the West Indies. Many entries discuss the number of troops stationed at various ports, the conditions of the crew ("They are badly manned and sickly, especially the Spanish who also find it difficult to recruit their navy" p.40), and the outcomes of engagements ("The French had suffered greatly, most of the ship's masts being damaged...100 men have been killed and at least 1,200 wounded" (p.47). The author often provides logistical information such as lists of ships and crew sizes, as well as the names of the ships' captains.

These volumes contain typed transcriptions of King George III's correspondence between December 1783 and 1810. Windsor Castle librarian Sir John Fortescue compiled this collection in the early 20th century as part of a larger project to publish the king's entire correspondence. The transcripts include manuscript revisions and additions.

These volumes contain typed transcriptions of King George III's correspondence between December 1783 and 1810; most items are incoming letters to the king. Windsor Castle librarian Sir John Fortescue compiled this collection in the early 20th century as part of a larger project to publish the king's entire correspondence; these typescripts are a companion to several volumes that Fortescue published in 1927-1928, which cover the period from 1760 to November 1783. The transcripts include manuscript revisions and additions. The letters (10,327 pages) pertain to a wide array of political issues and to the king's various interests, and many of Great Britain's most influential political leaders from the late 18th and early 19th centuries are represented throughout the collection. Topics include the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, the 1800 Act of Union with Ireland, and the ministries of William Pitt (1759-1806).

Papers include articles, poems, and stories by Stebbins,correspondence, notably a letter from Stebbins to Horace Greeley, 1847 re: the presidential election, general store ledgers, a post office letter book, school notebooks, and miscellaneous.

The collection includes a number of articles, poems, and stories by Stebbins. The correspondence between Stebbins and his children mostly describes family news and business travels. Of note is a letter from Horace Greeley, dated 1847, concerning the presidential election. His work is documented through surviving oversized store ledgers and a post office letter book. A number of school notebooks and miscellaneous items complete the collection.

Corydon Fuller's journals document the travels of a young bookseller (from the Northern Midwest) in Arkansas, bordering areas in Louisiana, and in Mississippi in the years preceding the Civil War.

Corydon Fuller's intriguing journals (marked "Vol. 6th" and "Vol. 7") follow the path of the young itinerant bookseller in a fascinating series of situations and places. A college graduate, Fuller wrote both well and copiously, recording the events and his impressions with impressive clarity and depth.

As a man prone to some reflection on the political and social issues of his day, Fuller's journals are a valuable resource for study of the hardening sectional lines in the Trans-Mississippi South. By 1857, Fuller believed that an impasse had been reached, reflected both in his reporting of adamant Southern views on slavery and states' rights, and in his own hot-tempered opinions on moral right versus wrong.

Dr. Corydon L. Ford was a professor of anatomy and physiology at the University of Michigan Department of Medicine and Surgery (now the Medical School), He taught from 1854 to 1894. The collection contains reports on his faculty activities, scattered correspondence, lecture notes, syllabi, plates, and other papers relating largely to his work in the Medical School; also visual materials.

The Corydon L. Ford papers offer strong documentation of medical education and practice in the last half of the 19th century. The collection is arranged in three series: Teaching Records, Topical Files, and Miscellaneous.