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Artist, art critic, director of the University of Michigan Art Museum. Scrapbooks with clippings of Ann Arbor News art reviews, scrapbook, 1905-1907, concerning University of Michigan student life, topical files relating to his interest in art and cultural organizations, original scripts of lectures and radio talks.

The Slusser papers document only portions of this artist/critic's life. The majority of the collection consists of scrapbooks containing his art review columns for the Ann Arbor News. These were written in the period of his retirement, 1963 to 1978. There is also one scrapbook from his years as a student at the University of Michigan, 1905-1907. The remainder of the collection consists of such personal materials as a diary he kept of a trip to Europe in 1909 when he went to study in Munich, a selection of some of his lectures and radio talks, and miscellaneous topical files relating to art and artists. Of interest is a series of letters written to his brother Herbert and letters received from artist William H. Littlefield.

The first classes in art at the University of Michigan were offered in 1906 by the Department of Architecture. In 1926, a program in decorative arts was housed in the College of Engineering and Architecture. Art evolved as a discipline, moving through the colleges of engineering and architecture to become the School of Art, an autonomous institution, in 1974. It became the School of Art & Design in 1996. The records focus on the evaluation and review of the program in the 1970s and early 1980s during the budget crisis faced by the university. The records also contain minutes of the Executive Committee and the Faculty Committee, from the mid-1970s to 1999.

The School of Art & Design records are composed of six series: Topical Files, 1970-1987; Committees; Correspondence; Topical Files, 1980-2000; Visual Materials; and Website. There is a separate collection of printed material. The majority of the records document the years from 1975 to 1999, a crucial period in the school's history as it was formally established as a school in its own right and later experienced serious budget reductions.