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Center was established as the Historical Center for the Health Sciences. Records include interviews of emeritus University of Michigan Medical School faculty members conducted by the Center for the History of Medicine. Transcripts and audio recordings of interviews discussing their backgrounds, education, careers, and tenure at the University of Michigan.

An oral history project undertaken by the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine, the project focused on interviewing retired or emeritus faculty members in order to preserve their institutional knowledge of the Medical Center and the university.

Between the years 2002 and 2004, the center's assistant director for programs, Christine Bass, conducted four interviews. From 2004 to 2007, Enid Galler, proprietor of Voice Treasures, took over the interviewing process and conducted fourteen additional oral histories. All interviews include discussions of the faculty member's early life, education, and career accomplishments.

The interviews are available as digital materials online and were recorded on audio cassettes. In addition to these audio formats, there are one or more folders corresponding to each interview, which contain a typed transcript of the interview, a copy of the faculty member's curriculum vitae and in some cases, additional biographical information. The interviews conducted by Enid Galler include an index (with people, organizations, and subjects) and a detailed subject list. Mary Beth Reilly conducted later interviews.

Transcripts are arranged alphabetically by last name, with all audio cassettes in Box 2.

The Faculty and Staff files contain biographical and background information created and collected by the University of Michigan News and Information Services. News and Information Services is the media relations office of the university. The files represent more than 6,000 individual faculty and staff members. Some files contain photographs.

The Faculty and Staff Files (145 linear feet; 1944-2005) are arranged alphabetically by surname and contain academic and biographical information on nearly 6000 faculty and staff, including many who are inactive, retired or deceased. The files were maintained by the University of Michigan News and Information Service. Early on the files were working files holding ready reference biographical information and copies of press releases. Eventually the files came to include collected information such as copies of local and national newspaper articles where faculty or staff members were mentioned.

The amount of information per individual varies considerably, ranging from a single item to multiple folders. Files dating from around 1960-1995 tend to have more documentation than dates outside of this range, though there are some exceptions. Specific types of information include copies of news releases where the individual is mentioned, pages from Regents' meetings detailing appointments (resignations, faculty appointments, promotions, reassignments, sabbaticals, adoption of memoirs for retirements and deaths, etc.), newspaper clippings, magazine articles, preprints or reprints of publications, curricula vitae or other biographical summaries, and obituaries. In addition, some of the files contain photographs and negatives. (Photograph Series D of the News and Information Services records contains more than 4,000 faculty and staff portraits. A separate finding aid is available for that series.)

Files of University of Michigan presidents such as Alexander Ruthven and Harlan Hatcher are within the collection, as are files of various members of the Board of Regents. Distinguished alumni of the University of Michigan, including Nobel Prize winners Stanley Cohen and Raoul Wallenberg, also have files. The collection is of interest to researchers who desire a greater understanding of the professional interests and activities of faculty members in particular.