Collections

The Rudolph papers include scripts, articles and clippings, publicity and press materials, books, photographs, artifacts/realia, audio and moving image materials, posters, awards, and branded crew garments and caps from many of Alan Rudolph's projects. Photographer Joyce Rudolph is represented by hundreds of professional and personal slides and photographs, including many candid on-set shots.

The collection consists of professional and personal correspondence, assorted clippings, film festival awards and memorabilia, and scripts and production documents related to Alan Rudolph's filmmaking career, spanning his early work in Riot (1969), through 2002's The Secret Lives of Dentists. Also included are a plethora of documents from various unproduced projects. In the Artifacts and Graphics series are a small selection of props from Rudolph's films, most notably The Moderns, along with an assortment of film cast and crew branded gear, including caps, shirts, and jackets, movie posters, and a representation of some of the numerous awards won by the Rudolphs.

A small sub-series of material devoted to friend and mentor, Robert Altman, consists of articles and reviews, assorted programs, and, most notably, photographs taken by Joyce Rudolph.

Joyce Rudolph is represented by hundreds of her professional and sought-after on-set photographs, company stills, and candid shots, all taken during the filming of projects by Alan Rudolph and a wide variety of other notable filmmakers.

A series of Audio and Moving Image material consists of several VHS tapes, several movie video disks as well as two soundtracks. The Artwork series contains an assortment of drawings and paintings, most likely created by Alan Rudolph, along with two large acrylic paintings used as props in The Moderns.

Alan B. Howes was professor of English at the University of Michigan from 1955 to 2001. He was involved in the formation of several unique programs, such as the NDEA Summer Institute for English Teachers, the New England Literature Program, and the Professional Semester. This collection includes correspondence, material from Howes' teaching career and involvement with these programs, and an assortment of Howes' writings.

The Alan B. Howes Papers document Howes' career in teaching, primarily his many years as professor of English at the University of Michigan, and his involvement in programs such as the NDEA Summer Institute for English Teachers, the Professional Semester, and the New England Literature Program (NELP). The records are arranged into nine series: Biographical, Correspondence, Course Materials The Michigan English Teacher, NDEA Summer Institute for English Teachers, New England Literature Program, Photos, Professional Semester, and Projects and Papers.

Alan Campbell , American actor and screenwriter, wrote, with his wife Dorothy Parker, screenplays for Hollywood studios during the 1930s. The collection contains the correspondence and writings of Alan Campbell and Dorothy Parker. Included is World War II correspondence, scripts, screenplays, fragments of several short stories, a play, as well as typescripts of pieces by some of Campbell and Parker's contemporaries.

The Alan Campbell and Dorothy Parker Collection consists of four series, Correspondence, Financial Papers, Writings and Miscellaneous. The Collection contains correspondence and writings of Alan Campbell and Dorothy Parker. Included is correspondence from Campbell to Parker, written during World War II; several letters from Zeppo Marx; and a few letters from Leland Hayward and Rosalie Stewart, with many references to other celebrities. Also included is a portion of the Campbell-Parker collaboration on the screenplay A Star is Born, written with Robert Carson. Campbell’s writings include the script for Told to the Children while Parker is represented by fragments of several short stories and her play The Coast of Illyria. The collection also includes typescripts of pieces written by contemporaries of Campbell and Parker, including Stephen Vincent Benét, Elliott Nugent, John O’Hara, Robert Penn Warren, and Sagittarius (aka Olga Katzin).

Alan Abrams is a Detroit-based press agent/public relations consultant in the music business; publicist for Motown Record Corporation, 1964-1966, later with Stax Records, 1967-1968. The collection consists of press releases, clippings, publicity material, scrapbooks containing press coverage of the recording artists that he represented, including the Supremes, photographs, and his writings about Motown, Otis Redding, and Florence Ballard.

The Al Abrams collection contains scrapbooks, correspondence, press releases, photographs, and memoirs detailing Abrams' work as a publicist and press agent for Detroit's Motown and for Stax Records in Memphis. The collection is valuable for its documentation of Motown in the period of the early to mid-1960s when this Detroit company was beginning its great string of record successes. Abrams was a great collector of press and other materials about the artists who worked for Motown and Stax-Volt.

The Abrams collection measures two linear feet and four oversize volumes whose contents have been foldered. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Motown Record Company, Stax Record Company, Al Abrams Associates, Miscellaneous, Visual Materials, and Scrapbooks.

Newspapers and clippings relating to historical Michigan events and motion pictures.

Alan G. Billings was a set designer and professor at the University of Michigan. The collection includes painted set renderings from productions staged at the University of Michigan during his tenure.

The Alan G. Billings collection consists of set renderings painted by Billings while he was a professor at the University of Michigan. These renderings include both depictions of the sets, and depictions of certain aspects of production staging and costume design. The renderings are organized roughly by size, and thereunder alphabetically by title. Most set renderings also include information on where the production was staged.

Professor of law at the University of Michigan. Papers include correspondence, speeches, and conference files largely concerning his interest in gift and estate tax law.

The papers of Alan Polasky divide themselves into six series: Biographical, Correspondence, Professional affiliations, Speeches, Subject files and Material relating to the University of Michigan.

This photograph album contains photographs of scenery in Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and the Yosemite Valley in the late 19th century. Several photographs feature tourists or members of the photographer's traveling party, and others were taken onboard the steamer Queen.

This photograph album (25cm x 19cm) contains 87 photographic prints depicting scenes in Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and the Yosemite Valley in the late 19th century. The photographs, all of which have captions, were taken during visits to four geographic areas: Muir Glacier (21 photographs); Tacoma, Washington, and Helena, Montana (8 items); Yosemite National Park (48 items); and the Yosemite Valley and Arizona (10 items). Most photographs show natural scenery such as mountains, rock formations, waterfalls, and geysers, and some are pictures of hotels. Many show tourists climbing or viewing natural formations and scenery, and some show members of the photographer's party posing for portraits.

The album has two identical prints of a group of amateur photographers holding box cameras onboard the Queen, which is shown in several other photographs. Views of buildings in Sitka, Alaska; Tacoma, Washington; Helena, Montana; and Yosemite National Park are also included. One photograph shows a woman modeling a Chilkat blanket and totem pole cane, and another shows a "Tamed Bear" standing on a raised platform. Also of note is a picture of a train, taken as the photographer's party disbanded near Chicago. The volume is a quarter-bound album with a title stamped on the cover in gold: "Photographs."

The Alaska collection consists of three letters written by an Alaskan fisherman to his brother describing life in Alaska during the late 19th century.

The Alaska collection consists of three letters written by an Alaskan fisherman to his brother describing life in Alaska during the late 19th century. The author, who signed himself "Will," wrote the three letters to his brother Sam, from Fort Wrangle, Alaska (now Wrangell). Will's letters relate to life in Alaska during the early days of its settlement, with a particular focus on employment and on local Indians. Will, who owned a boat and fished for salmon, described his work and provided a picture of his life in the sparsely settled country. He focused on several aspects of life in Alaska, including the natural terrain and his encounters with local Indians, whom he believed to be immoral: "[in] some cases when the squaws are broke they are mighty glad to put in a night with a fellow & get two bits or some beans & bacon in the morning" (February 16, 1889). Will also repeatedly discussed the salmon industry and employment, including his occupation assisting the local marshal.

The Alaska Gold Rush photograph album contains approximately 300 photographic prints. Most photographs show scenery, people, and settlements in Alaska around the turn of the 20th century, as well as a small group of scenes from San Francisco, California.

The Alaska Gold Rush photograph album (25cm x 30cm, 92 pages) contains approximately 300 photographic prints. Around 280 prints, including around 270 mounted onto the album's pages and around 10 loose items laid into the volume, show settlements, natural scenery, and people in Alaska from 1898-1902. Settlements such as St. Michael, Dutch Harbor, and Dawson are shown, as are native settlements, tents, and log cabins; a few interior shots are present. Some of the buildings and people pictured were associated with the North American Transportation & Trading Company. Subjects include: United States military personnel, indigenous Alaskans, men and women (sometimes in heavy winter dress), landscape views, glaciers, native animals and other natural scenery, and military and civilian boats.

Most of the photographs are black-and-white prints, though the album also includes a small number of cyanotypes. Items of note include a small panorama (p. 14), a photograph taken at the "dawn of the century" (p. 7), and pictures of a totem pole (p. 77), an early telegraph pole (p. 81), and a hands-free pie-eating contest (p. 85). A partial manuscript list of captions, roughly contemporary with the photographs, is laid into the volume. The final four pages of the album contain small photographic prints of scenes from San Francisco, California, with a focus on missions and other architecture. Penciled captions accompany many of the album's prints, though many are difficult to read. The album has post binding with screw posts.