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Detroit, Michigan, attorney and judge, Democratic candidate for governor in 1934. Correspondence, legal case files, family materials, speeches, essays, diary notes, financial materials, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, and transcript of oral interview.

The Arthur J. Lacy collection consists of correspondence and other papers documenting his political activities within the Democratic party and career as a Detroit attorney. The collection has been divided into the following series: Biographical information; Personal letters; Professional correspondence and related papers; Lacy Family papers; Speeches; Early personal materials; Writings, essays, etc.; Financial files; Miscellaneous; Newspapers clippings; Photographs; and Legal files.

The Lacy Collection documents particularly well Lacy's major legal cases (Wilson vs. White, the Ford Stock Tax Case, Mary A. Rackham Estate) and his transition from conservative Democrat to conservative Republican. His letters home from Valparaiso, Indiana and Ann Arbor and his letters to his future wife Beth Garwick give a detailed picture of college life in the 1890's. Major subjects covered in the public papers are the Detroit Domestic Relations Court, problems of taxation and banking in the depression, Lacy's friendship with James Couzens, and the campaigns of 1932 and 1934. A series of notes Lacy wrote to himself from 1915-1928 and 1946-1956 reveal his political ideals, personal morality, and his relationship to his family.

Within the Professional Correspondence and related papers series, the researcher will find correspondence with many notable political and business figures. These include John W. Anderson, William R. Angell, Art Baker, Arthur A. Ballantine, C.C. Bradner, John V. Brennan, Thomas E. Brennan, Prentiss M. Brown, Wilber M. Brucker, George E. Bushnell, Daniel T. Campau, Harvey J. Campbell, John J. Carson, E.R. Chapin, John S. Coleman, William A. Comstock, Calvin Coolidge, Grace G. Coolidge, Frank Couzens, James J. Couzens, John D. Dingell, Patrick J. Doyle, William J. Durant, Henry T. Ewald, Mordecai J.B. Ezechiel, James A. Farley, Homer Ferguson, Woodbridge N. Ferris, Clara J.B. Ford, Edsel B. Ford, Joseph Foss, Fred W. Green, Alexander J. Groesbeck, Edgar A. Guest, James M. Hare, Herbert C. Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover, Kaufman T. Keller, Stanley S. Kresge, David Lawrence, Arthur F. Lederle, John C. Lehr, Fulton Lewis, Percy Loud, William G. McAdoo, William McKinley, George A. Marston, Eliza M. Mosher, Frank Murphy, George Murphy, William J. Norton, George D. O'Brien, Elmer B. O'Hara, Hazen S. Pingree, Mary A. H. Rackham, Horace H. Rackham, Clarence A. Reid, George W. Romney, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alexander G. Ruthven, W.M. Skillman, Albert E. Sleeper, Edward D. Stair, Arthur E. Summerfield, William H. Taft, Joseph P. Tumulty, Arthur H. Vandenberg, A. VanderZee, Murray D. Van Wagoner, Henry F. Vaughan, Carl Vinson, Matilda R.D. Wilson, Clarence E. Wilcox, and R.A.C. Wollenberg.

The Lacy Family papers are rich in detail about life in Michigan in the nineteenth and early twentieth century; the surviving letters document family crises and Lacy's role in them as the oldest and most successful child and later, as family leader. Lacy was the family genealogist and he collected and preserved the family correspondence of his uncles and aunt, some of which date back to the 1850's.

Republican U.S. Senator from Michigan, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines; files relating to his various career responsibilities, photographs, sound recordings.

The Homer Ferguson collection has been divided into eleven series based primarily upon the important phases of his public life: Personal; Circuit Judgeship; Senate Career; Interregnum: November 1954 - April 1955; Hoover Commission; Philippine Ambassadorship; United States Court of Military Appeals; Inter-Parliamentary Union; Photographs, Sound Recordings, and Myrtle Ferguson Papers.

Ann Arbor, Michigan banker and commissioner of the Michigan Banking Department during the depression. Correspondence and other papers concerning his activities as banking commissioner and officer of the Michigan Bankers Association; includes letters from Mrs. Christine Reichert to her children while touring Europe, mainly Germany, on the eve of World War II, 1939; also letters between Reichert and British manufacturer in which British-American foreign policy is discussed, 1939-1945; and photographs.

The Reichert papers span the period 1907-1965 but bulk largest for the years 1927-1936. The collection deals with Reichert's career as Commissioner of the State Banking Department of Michigan, his activities as a local bank president in Ann Arbor, an officer in the Michigan Bankers Association, and a stockholder in the Argus Corporation. There are a few scattered items of a personal nature, in short, such personal correspondence as was handled through his business office.

The papers are rich in materials on the financial crisis in Michigan during the Great Depression when he was Banking Commissioner. Reichert was also active until the early 1950's in the framing of both state and federal legislation dealing with banks, federal deposit insurance, etc., and he carried on a full correspondence with Congressman Earl Michener and Senator Arthur Vandenberg on these legislative matters. Considerable material exists on the Michigan Bankers Association, especially for the years 1941-1944, when he was an officer of the group. There is some material on Republican party matters, but it is not very full.

Ann Arbor's business and financial life is well covered for the whole period, including material on Argus, Inc. for the post-war period. The effect of both the depression and the war on small town economic life is particularly well documented. There is an interesting series of letters, 1939-1945, between Reichert and a British rope manufacturer named Hendy, in which British and American policy in foreign affairs and the conduct of the war is argued at length.

The collection has been divided into the following series: Professional Papers; State Banking Department and related; Biographical/Personal; and Photographs.

Wife of Chase S. Osborn, leader in the Atlantic Union Movement, and officer in the Atlantic Union Conference, the International Movement for Atlantic Union, and Federal Union, Inc. Correspondence, diaries and other materials concerning her professional interests, especially her work for world peace through international cooperation.

The Stella Osborn collection was received in multiple accessions. The bulk of the papers were received from her home in Georgia (1958) and her office in Washington D.C. (1972). These materials documenting her entire career were organized into seven series: Biographical; Correspondence; Personal and miscellaneous; Atlantic Union Committee and related; Business and Professional Women's Club; Sound recordings; and Index card files. An extremely active woman with many interests and causes, Stella Osborn continued to add to her papers with a later accession in 1983. Following her death, the executor of her estate and other friends added to the collection with materials which she had retained for whatever reason or which had been in storage. There is obviously some overlap in these later materials and the files received previously. The purpose of the Summary Contents List (see below) is to draw like materials together.

The 1992 accession was more fully described than the earlier papers. This accession includes biographical notes and clippings about Stella Osborn and Chase Osborn. There is, in addition, personal and organizational correspondence, financial and estate records (1970-1988), land deeds for the Osborn holdings in Georgia and Michigan, organizational material for the Federal Union and the Atlantic Union Committee, manuscripts of poetry, prose, and political essays (including some material by Chase Osborn), and Stella Osborn's diaries (1982-87). The collection includes childhood photographs of Stella Osborn and photographs of her parents and grandparents. Two copies of a videotape about the Osborn farm in Georgia, Possum Poke, are included here as well.

Much of this accession documents the last few years of Stella Osborn's life, after her move to a retirement home in Sault St. Marie Michigan, years during which she maintained an interest in people and world peace organizations, and in documenting her own and Chase Osborn's place in history. While the bulk of correspondence here is for 1982, 1983, and 1987, some earlier correspondence is included as well. Of interest to university historians is the topical correspondence file on Robert Frost's visit to Michigan. Stella Osborn's lifelong friendship with Yuki Otsuki is documented by their extensive correspondence, a series of letters beautifully written and presented that recall earlier days, including student life.

The collection contains some material of interest to researchers interested in Chase Osborn, including the series of land transfers and deeds which document Chase and Stella Osborn's extensive holdings in Georgia and Michigan, and their gifts of land to various charities and institutions. Also included is some Chase Osborn correspondence and copies of articles he wrote about his extensive travels in Africa. Chase Osborn's 1938 "Longfellow Birthday Book" contains the birth dates of his ancestors. Several letters from 1936 pertain to Chase Osborn's involvement in the movement to build the Mackinac Bridge.

Of special interest to researchers interested in Stella Osborn and her role in various world peace organizations are her unpublished autobiographical manuscripts and files. Also of interest are her diaries, where she continued to record her ideas about politics and her memories.

1. Accessions, 1958 and 1971-1972 [boxes 1-27]
   • Biographical material [box 1]
   • Correspondence, 1916-1982 [boxes 1-13]
   • Personal and miscellaneous
     • Schedules, notes on telephone conversations, various writings [box 14]
     • Personal press releases [box 15]
     • Speeches [box 15]
     • Clippings [box 15]
     • Poetry [box 15]
     • Income tax files [box 15]
     • Diaries [box 16]
     • Student notebooks, account books, etc. (U-M and others) [box 16]
   • Atlantic Union Committee and related [boxes 17-24]
   • Business and Professional Women's Club activities [box 24]
   • Sound tapes [box 25]
   • Card files [boxes 25-27]
2. 1983 Accession [boxes 28-34]
   • Biographical material [box 28]
   • Correspondence, 1918-1983 [boxes 28-31]
   • Organizations [box 31]
   • Topical file [boxes 31-32]
   • Writings (autobiography, poetry, prose) [box 32]
   • Diaries [box 33]
   • Visual materials [box 34]
3. 1992 Accession [boxes 35-38]
   • Biographical and Autobiographical Material (including Chase Osborn) [box 35]
   • Correspondence, 1960-1987 [box 35]
   • Financial and Business Affairs, 1920-1985 [boxes 35-36]
   • Peace Organizations, 1970-1983 [box 36]
   • Manuscripts and Research Notes [box 36]
   • Chase Osborn materials, 1913-1949 [box 37]
   • Diaries, account books, day books, 1930-1987 [box 37-38]
   • Card Indices [box 38]