Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Washtenaw County, Michigan branch of the American Civil Liberties Union; correspondence, minutes of meetings, and subject files.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washtenaw County records include minutes, correspondence, newsletters, reports, mailings, and clippings, among other miscellaneous materials. In addition to the Washtenaw branch records, there are also materials from the Michigan state affiliate, the ACLU of Michigan, as well as limited materials from some other local branches and a small amount of material from the national level of the ACLU. The records of this collection are divided into four series: Washtenaw County Branch; ACLU of Michigan; Other Local Branches; and National.

Delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention of 1961-1962; diary, correspondence, and topical files from his work as delegate; Human Resources Council of the Upper Peninsula Committee for Area Programs chairman’s files.

The collection consists of three series: Constitutional Convention Delegate File; Upper Peninsula Committee for Area Progress (UPCAP) Human Resources Council papers; and University of Michigan Extension Service. The bulk of the collection relates to the constitutional convention and includes a diary of his convention experiences, correspondence with constituents and interest groups, and subject files on the issues discussed at the convention. Some of his correspondents included Alvin M. Bentley, Prentiss M. Brown, and Neil Staebler.

The League of Women Voters of Allen Park was established as a provisional league in 1955, formally recognized in 1956, and operated until 1986 when it merged with the Downriver League of Women Voters. Annual meeting and board meeting minutes and reports, 1955-1986; member newsletters, 1955-1986; topical files comprising committee minutes, reports, position statements, correspondence, pamphlets, and other publications. Subjects covered by files include municipal, county, state, and national elections, and social, political, and environmental issues.

The records of the Allen Park League of Women Voters consist of annual meeting and board meeting minutes and reports, 1955-1986; member newsletters, 1955-1986; topical files comprising committee minutes, reports, position statements, correspondence, pamphlets, and other publications. Subjects covered by files include municipal, county, state, and national elections, and social, political, and environmental issues. The records have been arranged into two series: Administrative Files and Topical Files. Although a wide range of issues of concern to the League's members in the 1960s and 1970s are represented in these files, the documentation of local politics and elections, social services, and environmental issues is particularly strong. As such, these files provide a detailed account of the issues raised by the growth of Allen Park from a small village into a suburban city between 1955 and 1986.

State Republican politician, aide and political advisor to George Romney, legal advisor to the governor and later undersecretary of Housing and Urban Development. Material concerning his campaign for the state attorney general's office in 1956, the elections of 1960, 1962, 1964, and 1968, and the state constitutional convention, 1961-1963; and files detailing his career in Washington at HUD.

The papers of Richard Van Dusen reflect his public career and his close involvement with George Romney. The papers divide themselves into two series. Political and Legislative Files relates to his own political career and to his association with state Republican party politics and his relationship with Governor George Romney. The other series concerns his work with Romney within the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Publicist and speechwriter for George Romney, 1948-1962. Papers documenting the activities of Citizens for Michigan and its lobbying efforts in favor of a Michigan constitutional convention; include press releases, speeches, meeting minutes, financial statements and other materials relating to CFM's activities and organization; also includes speeches and statements given by George Romney from his time as President of American Motors Corporation to his run for governor of Michigan in 1962.

The Andrew F. Wilson papers document the activities of Citizens for Michigan and its grass-roots lobbying activities in support of a constitutional convention. The papers also include materials on George Romney from Wilson's files. The papers span the years of 1954-1962, however the bulk of the material is from 1959-1962. The papers are divided into four series: Citizens for Michigan; Constitutional Convention; George Romney materials; Sound Recordings; and Photographs.

Attorney, Michigan State Senator, and Judge; correspondence and other papers primarily from the period when he served in the Michigan State Senate, 1959-1964.

The collection is arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Michigan State Senate, 1959-1964; University of Michigan Law School; Photographs; Campaign Materials; Michigan Supreme Court; and Press files.

Local and state League of Women Voters official, Dearborn, Michigan, civic activist. Papers relating to her organizational involvements, especially Church Women United, 1962-1969; the Citizens Committee for Equal Opportunity, 1963-1969; the Governor's Special Conservation Study Committee, 1963-1964; the state office and Dearborn chapter of the League of Women Voters, 1950-1970; the Michigan Constitutional Convention, 1961-1963; the Michigan Council of Churches, 1963-1969; the Northwestern Child Guidance Clinic, 1962-1966; also files relating to her opposition to parochiaid, or public funding of private schools; and photograph.

The papers, 1950-1970, of Katherine Moore Cushman reflect her involvement in several organizations. They have been arranged alphabetically by organization.

Photographs (positive and negative), slides, and transparencies taken by the company's photographers to document company activities, products, services, employees at work and at leisure, company exhibits and commemorations, and the response of the company to natural disasters and civil disturbances.

In 1993, Michigan Bell as a corporate entity was subsumed within the Ameritech Corporation. As a by-product of this reorganization and the downsizing resulting from it, the company agreed to deposit with the Bentley Historical Library its extensive archive of photographic images. Totalling approximately one million images, the Michigan Bell Telephone Company photo archive consists of negatives, copy prints, and color transparencies taken in the period since World War II (the bulk beginning in 1949). The collection does not include photos taken since 1983; interspersed throughout, however, are numerous images from before 1949.

The collection has been maintained in the order received with two principal series: Positives and Negatives.

The content of the photographs in the two series varies considerably. Naturally the collection documents the products of the company (phones and other communication devices) and the services provided (e.g. employees at work or the company reacting to a specific customer need). These photos were taken both to inform the general public as accompaniment to press notices and advertising copy and as a communications vehicle within the company, informing employees through the company news publication, Tielines, of activities going on in other divisions of the company or among the various regional Bell offices.

More importantly perhaps, the collection has value for its documentation of events and activities that are common to all large companies. These include images relating to: 1. The activities of employees within the corporation at their work (office workers, repairmen, operators, various support personnel, managers, etc.); 2. The activities of employees outside their work routine as members of corporate social groups (i.e., the company baseball or ice hockey team), at home engaged in leisure time activities, or involved in company-sponsored charitable or public service functions; and 3. Commemorations of specific milestones or events (company parade floats, area office open houses, corporate displays at public events such as fairs, etc.).

In addition, the collection documents the extraordinary and unforeseen as the phone company reacts to events and emergencies not within its control (floods, tornadoes, fires, the 1967 Detroit riot, strikes, and the like) or as a participant in history-making events (the announcement in Ann Arbor of the success of the Salk polio vaccine or the preparation involved in the 1980 Republican National Convention that convened in Detroit).

Republican state senator, 1948-1950, from Kent County, Michigan, state auditor general, 1950-1954, unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination in 1952, and member of the Republican National Committee. Correspondence, newspaper clippings, speeches and printed material relating to his political career, particularly his activities on the Michigan Commission on Aging, the Michigan Constitutional Convention of 1961-1962, and the Michigan Senate campaign of 1952.

The John B. Martin papers consists of correspondence, memoranda, clippings, and subject files relating to his political and organizational activities. The series in the collection are: Correspondence; Newspaper clippings; Political and Campaign Materials; Auditor General, 1950-1954; Aging organizations; Michigan Constitutional Convention, 1961-1962; Michigan Crime and Delinquency Council; Scrapbooks; Sound Recordings; Visual Materials; and Miscellaneous.

Legal advisor to the Michigan A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the Democratic State Central Committee; vice chairman of the Michigan Constitutional Convention, 1961-1962; and member of the Michigan Employment Security Commission, 1949-1965. Correspondence, minutes, reports and newspaper clippings concerning the administrations of Michigan governors G. Mennen Williams and John B. Swainson, the problems of employment and unemployment, and the recount of the 1962 gubernatorial election in Minnesota won by Karl Rolvaag.

The Tom Downs collection includes correspondence, minutes, reports and newspaper clippings concerning the administrations of Michigan governors G. Mennen Williams and John B. Swainson, the problems of employment and unemployment, and the recount of the 1962 gubernatorial election in Minnesota won by Karl Rolvaag. The collection is organized in the following series: Political and other activities, 1949-1965; Michigan Employment Security Commission; Michigan Constitutional Convention and related; Miscellaneous; Sound Recordings; Visual Materials; Oral history project, 1995; and Writings, research, and later activities.