Collections

Presbyterian minister actively involved in bridging the Christian and Islamic faiths based in Dearborn, Michigan. The collection consists mainly of records documenting his interfaith initiatives, writings, and correspondence.

The collection consists of two series: Professional Papers and Visual Materials. These series document William Gepford's efforts to bridge the Muslim and Christian faiths, both within his own ministry as well as international efforts. These efforts include seminars, interfaith worship services, and international initiatives. The collection also documents his everyday activities with the Presbyterian Church and interaction with the Detroit community.

The William G. Henderson papers consist of letters from a young soldier in the Civil War to his family in Connecticut. Henderson described camp and hospital life, and discussed his views on the war and incompetent Union leadership.

The William G. Henderson papers consist of letters from a young soldier in the Civil War to his family in Connecticut. Henderson described camp and hospital life, and discussed his views on the war and the incompetent Union leadership. On January 20, 1863, Henderson wrote:

"But it is rather vexing to men that left their business and came here in order to end the war to be kept month after month scouring brass, washing white gloves, carrying knapsacks, and the like. We are doing fancy soldiering, that is all while the Rebs don't stop to see whether a man's gloves are perfectly white or not if he can only fight."

In his letter of Jan. 22, 1863, Henderson stated that he was not fighting for racial equality, but did believe that the cause of the war was right. He constantly voiced his disapproval of Union general's management of the war. By February 22, Henderson had landed in the Fort Worth military hospital with ear aches and ear discharge. He remained in the hospital for the remainder of the next three months, and in his last letters stated that he was getting better. The collection's final item is an unattributed poem commemorating Henderson's death (May 4, 1863).

The papers of William Gibbons consist of Gibbons' incoming correspondence and receipts for the purchase of goods. The letters and receipts contain information regarding the operation of a Georgia plantation, financial and legal matters, as well as family concerns.

The William Gibbons papers are comprised of 264 items, dated from June 16, 1804, to March 3, 1857, but most were written between February 21, 1828, and September 14, 1845. The collection contains 172 letters, two documents, and 90 receipts. Of the correspondence, 84 letters are from William Dunham to William Gibbons, 12 are from William Trotter Porter to William Gibbons, and 20 are from Hannah Wheelwright to her uncle, William Gibbons, nine which regard legal matters with the Ogden family. Forty-seven letters are from other correspondents, primarily to William Gibbons and Thomas Gibbons.

William Dunham's letters consist exclusively of matters pertaining to the operation of a plantation in Georgia. His letters include detailed information about crop yields, management, slave labor, and the treatment of slaves. Notable topics represented in the Dunham letters include financial details about the purchase of goods and the sale of crops Rice, potatoes, cotton, and corn; specifics regarding Gibbons' slaves, such as finances pertaining to their sustenance e.g. October 1832, November 1832; the death of slaves from illness e.g. June 22, 1829 and September 15, 1834; and the marriage prospects for slaves September 14, 1832. Dunham also writes about the purchase and sale of cattle and sheep. Of note are a description of the branding of a murderer apparently a man known to both Dunham and Gibbons, May 3 and 24, 1830, a reference to the Nat Turner rebellion letter dated September 22, 1831, a mention of a local woman assaulting a "negro" July 18, 1832, and several letters regarding an outbreak of cholera at Gibbons' and nearby plantations September 1 to September 22, 1834.

William Porter was the editor of the newspaper The Spirit of the Times, and the letters written by him primarily concern financial matters that is, asking William Gibbons for monetary support. In addition to his financial affairs, Porter writes about speculating on horseracing. The nine E.B.D. Ogden letters regard the purchase of land at Elizabeth Town Point, New York. Two notable items in the Ogden letters are letters from E. van Ansdall regarding the judgment in Aaron Ogden vs. Thomas Gibbons September 22, 1835, and regarding the Elizabeth Town Point land purchase, including limitations on the use of the river for steamboat operation November 13, 1833.

The letters written to Thomas Gibbons pertain to plantation affairs and the shipment of goods mostly casks of rice. One letter of particular interest was written by Adam Newall for the Crawford Davison Co. from Liverpool regarding the trade of cotton between the United States and Great Britain November 28, 1812.

The 90 receipts are from various businesses including the Union Line, the New Jersey Hotel, and various grocers and merchants. Two of the prominent sellers were J.D. Wyckoff and A.H. Osborn. The receipts were for the purchase of groceries, hay, and household goods, and services such as furniture repair, work done on Gibbons' house, and other labor. Most of the wares/services are paid for by William Gibbons, Jedediah Dayman, John Baldwin, Daniel McCalley, Henry Signer, and Cornelius Vanderbilt Oct. 20, 1827. Each of the various buyers named on the receipts made their purchases on behalf of William Gibbons. Four of the receipts regard purchases made for the Steam Boat Thistle and the Steam Boat Bellona Laundry, August 31, 1821; Oysters, August 1823 and March 2, 1825; and Lobsters, August 2, 1828.

Five miscellaneous letters include three letters from Gibbons' son, William H., a letter from William Gale and a letter from C.J. Luster. The two documents regard financial matters and the hiring of a female servant, named Margaret Glen. The receipts are all for the purchase of various goods.

Republican governor of Michigan, 1969-1982. Papers include governor's office correspondence, administrative and subject files, staff files, materials relating to his campaigns for governor and Republican Party affairs, and a limited amount of photographs and sound recordings.

The William G. Milliken Papers is the most important source available for the study of Michigan's state government from 1969-1982. The collection currently measures 1478 linear feet and includes correspondence, memoranda, reports, agenda and minutes, briefing books, press releases and public statements, legal briefs and decisions, legislative bills and bill analyses, clippings, and printed works that pertain to Milliken's years as governor. Half of the papers arrived at the Bentley Historical Library in December 1982, from State Record Center retirement. Another portion came directly from the Capitol Complex at the end of Milliken's term. Several hundred feet arrived in 1983 from the governor's Traverse City office. Smaller accessions related to politics and political appointments were received in the late 1980s.

Materials in the collection concern the official conduct of state government including the governor's role in legislative activity; the interface of state-federal jurisdictions; and the administration of the executive office, departments, commissions, and regional offices. The papers provide a rich resource for the study of executive response to concerns such as economic development, hazardous wastes, civil rights and affirmative action, labor, energy, minority populations, education, urban development, sex discrimination, and regional issues. As the governor remained active in the Republican party and sought election three times, the collection also includes materials on political matters. Files created by Milliken while Lieutenant Governor appear as well.

Graduate student at University of Michigan from 1966 to 1972 involved in student government and campus organizations. Papers consist primarily of administrative documents from and materials regarding the governance of the various organizations in which Price was active, including the University Cooperative, Graduate Assembly, Student Government Council, Student Relations Committee, and University Bookstore and University Cellar.

The papers document the development and activities of various University of Michigan student governance groups and campus organizations from 1967 to 1971. The files are divided into six series: Central Student Data Files, Co-op, Graduate Assembly, Student Relations Committee, University Bookstore, Inc., and Student Government Council. The series represent the original order of the materials.

The typescript of William Putney's history of Battery I, 2nd Illinois Artillery Regiment, bound and stamped in gold with the title, was presented to the captain of the battery, Charles M. Barnett, as a Christmas gift in 1897. Putney was only the final editor and compiler of the history, which was based on the recollections, letters, and diaries of a number of men in the regiment, with snippets culled from sources as diverse as Sherman's memoirs, reminiscences from soldiers in other regiments, and popular histories.

The typescript of William Putney's history of Battery I, 2nd Illinois Artillery Regiment, bound and stamped in gold with the title, was presented to the captain of the battery, Charles M. Barnett, as a Christmas gift in 1897. Putney was only the final editor and compiler of the history, which was based on the recollections, letters, and diaries of a number of men in the regiment, with snippets culled from sources as diverse as Sherman's memoirs, reminiscences from soldiers in other regiments, and popular histories. The full, and rather complex history of authorship of the volume is discussed in his preface.

In many ways, Putney's narrative is characteristic of the genre of post-war reminiscences, in its selectivity and its tendency to gloss over or reimagine certain events. It is not, however, as thoroughly sanitized as many memoirs, and presents some of the unpleasantries of military service and the war with a surprising freshness. Inclined toward a literary style, Putney balances small, humorous anecdotes, mostly personal in nature, with larger-scale perspectives on the campaigns and conflicts in which the Battery was embroiled. The intrusion of narratives drawn from high ranking officers (such as Gen. Sherman) provides some insight into the average soldier's post-war opinions on what was significant about their experience, but it is the recollections of the minutiae of service, the practical jokes played by soldiers, their everyday coping, that makes Putney's memoir so valuable.

The History of Battery I includes a roster of the battery, with brief notes on the post-war activities of each member. The manuscript maps are probably copies of some printed works rather than recreations from memory. They depict 1) Route of Battery I from 1862 to 1865; 2) military and naval operations about Island No. 10; 3) the last day of the battle of Chickamauga and the route of Battery I; 4) Chattanooga Campaign; 5) the Atlanta Campaign.

This ledger contains two sections of recordkeeping by the mercantile firms Griffiths & Bruce and William Griffiths & Company. The first, totaling 38 pages, contains the accounts of Vice Admiral of the White James Richard Dacres, commander-in-chief of the Jamaica Station, with merchants Griffiths & Bruce and William Griffiths & Co. The transactions include payments and expenses for goods, labor, ships, and slaves from January 1805 to June 1810. The second section (11 pages) contains two lists of prize and neutral vessels captured and brought to the Jamaica Station in 1807 and 1808.

This ledger contains two sections of recordkeeping for the mercantile firms Griffiths & Bruce and William Griffiths & Company. The first, totaling 38 pages, contains the accounts of Vice Admiral of the White James Richard Dacres, commander-in-chief of the Jamaica Station, with merchants Griffiths & Bruce. The transactions include payments and expenses for goods, labor, ships, and slaves from January 1805 to June 1810.

The second section (11 pages) contains two separate lists of prize and neutral vessels captured and brought to the Jamaica Station in 1807 and 1808. A "List of Vessels Pending under Appeal & Vessels whose Sales cannot be closed (10 June 1807) in Griffith's and Bruce's Books" includes ships' names, statuses, values, and "Remarks & corrections to the 20 June 1808." The second list, titled "Neutral Vessels detained by the Squadron on the Jamaica Station under the Command of Vice Admiral James Richard Dacres for which William Griffiths & Co. were Agents commencing the 1st Day of January 1807, under appeal or given up," includes the following information about each prize, when applicable:

• "No. on Admiralty List"
• "Captured Vessels: Rig, Name, Master"
• "Capturing Vessels: Name, Commander"
• "Date Sentence: Month, Year"
• "Proceeds Paid into Court: £, s, d"
• "Expenses disallowed by Court 'till final sentence: £, s, d"
• "Remarks & correction to the 22nd June 1808"

University of Michigan teacher and administrator, economist, labor mediator, and member of boards of various universities, Jewish educational, social, and welfare agencies, and public official. Series in collection include: Biographical/Personal, Correspondence, Jewish Organizations, University of Michigan, Other Organizational Activities, Appearances, Writings, Newspaper Clippings and Press Releases, and University of Wisconsin Student Notebooks and Papers, 1924-1926. Subjects covered in collection pertain to his activities as economist and authority on matters of labor economics, social security, and unemployment insurance. Also documented is his involvement with various Jewish social and philanthropic organizations, including ORT, B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Hebrew University, and to his work as Advisor on Jewish Affairs to General Lucius Clay. Correspondents in the collection include public figures from government, labor, universities, Jewish organizations, and philanthropic agencies.

The papers of William Haber, covering the period since his education at the University of Wisconsin in the 1920s until his death in 1988, have come to the library in several accessions beginning in 1978. Because of the fullness of Haber's career and the fact that he worked out of different offices, this half century of documentation was surprisingly well organized although somewhat broken up because files had been retired at different times. In 1992, the collection was reprocessed and the opportunity was taken to bring together sequences of files that had been separated. There are still some inconsistencies in the filing but these have been explained and described in the Series Description that follows.

The collection has been arranged into ten series. Although Haber and his secretarial staff never classified his files in these terms, the series headings were given to draw like materials together and to provide a rational framework for thinking about and using the various Haber files. The series are: Biographical/Personal; Correspondence; Jewish Organizations; University of Michigan; Other Organizational Activities; Appearances; Writings; Scrapbooks, clippings, etc.; Miscellaneous; and University of Wisconsin Files.

The William H. Anderson Family Papers are made up of 177 letters, one manuscript map, 28 printed items, two photographs, and other materials of this Londonderry, New Hampshire, and Lowell, Massachusetts family. William Anderson wrote around 150 letters to his family and friends while at primary school in Londonderry, New Hampshire; Pembroke Academy in Pembroke, New Hampshire; Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire; and Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut. Anderson's correspondence includes 12 descriptive letters home from the Sligo cotton plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, where he worked as a teacher from 1859 to 1860, with content on plantation life, the enslaved workers, cotton processing, and educational matters. The remainder of the collection is William Anderson's post-Civil War letters, written while a lawyer in Lowell, and letters of Anderson's aunts Annis Nesmith Davidson and Anna B. Davidson Anderson Holmes from Londonderry and Wyoming County, New York.

The William H. Anderson Family Papers are made up of 177 letters, one manuscript map, 27 printed items, two photographs, and other materials of this Londonderry, New Hampshire, and Lowell, Massachusetts family.

The Correspondence Series. William Anderson wrote around 150 letters to his family and friends while at primary school in Londonderry, New Hampshire (5 letters, 1849-1850); Pembroke Academy at Pembroke, New Hampshire (15 letters, 1852-1853); Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts (3 letters, 1853); Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, New Hampshire (19 letters, 1854-1855); and Yale College at New Haven, Connecticut (60 letters). The letters from Londonderry, Pembroke, Andover, and Meriden are filled with details about his curricula, course work, school uniforms, teachers, boarding houses, school uniforms, secret societies, local politics and political events (Whig and Democratic; he ran into Franklin Pierce on October 25, 1852), updates on friends and family, visits to nearby towns, and more. Anderson helped offset the cost of his education by taking on various farm jobs. Detailed letters to his parents, brother, and friend Mary A. Hine from Yale College similarly include content on curricula, course work, professors, societies, examinations, graduation, finances, and other aspects of being a student in higher education.

Upon graduation from Yale, he began work at the Sligo Plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, where he taught a school comprised of students from Sligo and the nearby Retirement Plantation, from 1859 to 1860. During this time, he wrote 12 letters home to his parents and to his future wife Mary A. Hine. He arrived at Bennett's Retirement Plantation in early September 1859, and shortly thereafter settled in at David P. Williams' Sligo Plantation. He described his relative isolation, loneliness, teaching and wages, corporal punishment, thoughts on slavery and the enslaved men and women on the plantation, games he played with his scholars, travel between the Sligo and Retirement plantations, and leisure activities such as hunting and horseback riding. In late December 1859, he provided a lengthy description of a (largely) steamboat trip to New Orleans with his students for Christmas.

Anderson noted that no poor white people lived between Sligo and Natchez; he was uncomfortable with the aristocratic lifestyle of white people living in the south, and expressed this view on multiple occasions in his correspondence (see especially September 30, [1859]). Although his father appears on list of members of the American Anti-Slavery Society, William H. Anderson did not write with disgust at slavery, but rather used racist epithets, accepted the "servants" who assisted him in various ways, and wrote unmoved about abuse doled out to children (see especially June 9, 1860). In one instance, he wrote about enslaved women who gathered near to the house in the evenings before supper to sing and dance (October 25, 1859). One of the highly detailed letters in the collection is William H. Anderson's description of the use of the cotton gin on the Sligo Plantation, which includes remarks on its history, its functioning, the various jobs performed by enslaved laborers, and the rooms in which the jobs took place. He included calls made by enslaved workers between floors of the "gin house" and the roles of elderly men and women in the grueling labor ([October 1859]). In 1860, Anderson planned to take a summer break in Tennessee and then teach another year, but on the death of his oldest scholar Susie (14 years old) by diphtheria, Williams decided against having a school the next year (July 4, 1860).

The remaining letters by William H. Anderson, dated 1861-1887, contain scattered information on family matters, such as visits and health. He wrote little of his law practice or his life in Lowell, Massachusetts. Anderson's correspondence includes a variety of printed letterheads and one inset map: a rough floorplan of the Brother's Society Hall (January 14, 1856); the printed letterhead "INGENIUM LABORE PERFECTUM" "YALE" of Sigma Delta (ca. August/September 1856 and July 10, 1858); a partially printed letter sheet beginning "IN order to secure the regular attendance...", respecting Anderson's discipline (July 20, 1857); and the printed letterhead "STEVENS & ANDERSON, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law" Lowell, Massachusetts (August 16 and September 27, 1872).

The collection includes around 25 letters by William Anderson's aunts Annis Nesmith Davidson (1801-1877) and Anna B. Davidson Anderson Holmes (1798-1875). Anna wrote alternately to her sister Jane Davidson Anderson and her sister-in-law Annis Davidson, from Londonderry, New Hampshire; Pike, New York; and Genesee Falls, New York, between 1828 and 1874. Her letters pertain largely to domestic life, boarders, troubles keeping hired girls (including Irish girls) to help with housework, news of family births, marriages, and deaths, local ministers, and her children's schooling. The few letters by Annis Davidson from Pike and Genesee Falls, New York, regard family updates and visiting.

The collection's Map, Receipt, and Photographs include a partially printed receipt for William Anderson's tuition and fees for the term ending April 14, 1857. The pencil map identifies particular buildings in New Haven, Connecticut, around where College, Temple, Church, Orange, and State streets intersect with Chapel and Crown streets. The photographs are cartes-de-visite of William Henry Anderson and "Annis Davidson Anderson Holmes" [most likely Anna B. Davidson Anderson Holmes].

The Printed Items are made up of materials largely pertaining to William Anderson's time at Yale College. These include:

• BROTHERS IN UNITY. Prize Debate in the Class of 1859, January 12, 1856. William H. Anderson listed as a participant.
• JUNIOR EXHIBITION. Class of 1859, April 6, 1858, invitation to Mary Hine, with William H. Anderson listed as a speaker.
• JUNIOR EXHIBITION. YALE COLLEGE, April 6, 1858 (E. Hayes, printer), program.
• INITIATION, June 11, 1858, program, with manuscript annotations identifying an oration delivered by W. H. Anderson.
• James Robinson & Co. (Boston, Mass.) printed letter requesting information about academies, [1858].
• FIFTY-NINE. 'Oυ δοκέιν αλλ' είναι. Presentation Songs, June 15, 1859 (Morehouse & Taylor, printers).
• YALE COLLEGE. PRESENTATION OF THE CLASS OF 1859, June 15, 1859 (Morehouse & Taylor, steam printers).
• "Esto Perpetua." '62. Pow-wow OF THE CLASS OF '62, June 15, 1859 (Morehouse & Taylor, printers).
• '59. OWLS FROM THE NORTH!, July 17, 1859, flier/advertisement.
• DE FOREST ORATIONS, June 17, 1859, flier.
• CATALOGUE OF THE OFFICERS AND STUDENTS IN YALE COLLEGE . . . 1859-60. New Haven: E. Hayes, 1859.
• JUNIOR EXHIBITION, April 3, 1860, order of exercises. New Haven: E. Hayes, 1860.
• '61's INITIATION OF '62, pink heavy-stock card with a printed image of two anthropomorphic donkeys boxing.
• CLASS CIRCULAR, March 20, 1862, seeking feedback from 1859 graduates in anticipation of their triennial meeting.
• Class '63 Day, June 19, 1863, heavy-stock card invitation.
• SONGS FOR THE THIRD ANNUAL SUPPER OF THE Yale Alumni Association, January 27, 1868.
• "INGENIUM LABORE PERFECTUM" Sigma Delta symbol of a wreath surrounding a crown.
• Annis Davidson visiting card.

The remaining printed items include four copies of an engraved portrait of William H. Anderson by W. T. Bather of N.Y. and published by The Lewis Publishing Co., and five newspaper clippings.

William Handy received 4 letters from family members in the early 1850s. His aunt, his father, and a sibling discussed the health and news of family and acquaintances.

William Handy received 4 letters (9 pages) from his aunt Louise (January 30, 1851) and his father, Lewis Handy (September 27, 1851; October 30, 1851; and April 14, year unknown). A sibling contributed to Lewis Handy's letter of October 30, 1851. Handy's aunt reported on her lodgings in "Rochester," where she was sitting in an ailing man's room while writing the letter, and requested news of the Handy family. She cautioned William about falling in love and wrote that she "should rather fall into a hogshead of molasses" (January 30, 1851). Lewis Handy wrote an extended account about the illness and death of his son Jason, William's brother, in his letter of September 27, 1851, and later discussed the possibility of finding work on a whaling voyage to pay some of his debts (October 30, 1851). He also wrote about his daughter Almira's fragile health and expected death (April 14, year unknown).