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University of Michigan faculty group interested in the history of the university. Sound recordings and videotapes of interviews with former University of Michigan faculty, regents, administrators, and other interested individuals about the history of the university.

The materials in the Historica Critica collection are arranged first according to the medium on which the interview is preserved: Reel-to-Reel Audiotapes, Cassette Audiotapes, and Videotapes. Within each medium, the materials are in alphabetical order according to the subject of the interview. Some of the reel-to-reel audiotapes have more than one interview subject; these are arranged alphabetically according to the primary subject. It appears that the interviewers transferred the materials on reel-to-reel audiotapes directly to cassettes in several cases. This facilitates the arrangement of the cassettes into alphabetical order according to subject. The dates listed in the finding aid are the dates of the interview. Summaries of the interviews, prepared by Virginia Harris, are found in Box 1.

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.