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David Wheeler Palmer was a Bridgewater, Michigan school teacher and farmer. His papers consist of diaries, 1846-1864, 1876-1882, and 1887-1892, concerning daily activities and farm life. There are also papers of other family members, including Emmett Newton Palmer, a Brooklyn, Michigan physician, Fred E. Palmer, a surgeon who served in the Spanish-American War, and Louisa Palmer, who was a teacher in Hawaii.

The David Wheeler Palmer collection consists mainly of his diaries and other papers. These diaries, dating from 1846 to 1892 with some gaps, comment in detail on his life, his family, the weather, financial transactions, and local politics. Other portions of the collection include materials of other family members: Palmer's wife Fidelia Randall Palmer; her brother Roswell Randall, Jr.; Emmett Palmer, the son of David and Fidelia; Fred Palmer, the son of Emmett; and Joseph Palmer, the father of David. Of interest are the photographs accumulated by Dr. Fred Palmer while he was serving in the Philippines. These include images of Hawaii on route to the Philippines and of the Santa Mesa facility in the Philippines. Another family member represented in the collection is Louisa Palmer who taught in Hawaii. She was an inveterate traveler who wrote extensive letters describing places visited for her students and family.

Organist and professor of music at the University of Michigan, and other members of the Christian family; correspondence, clippings, concert programs, and other papers re his teaching, concert career, European student days, etc.

The Palmer Christian collection is comprised of four series: Correspondence and other papers; Programs and reviews of recitals; Madrigals; and Photographs. The correspondence is noteworthy for long-term correspondents such as symphony conductor Eric De Lamarter who regularly communicated with Christian for over twenty year period beginning in 1925 and from Eugene Ormandy. During World War II, Christian received many letters from former students then serving in the military.

Ann Arbor, Michigan family. Architectural drawings and renderings for their Ann Arbor, Michigan home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his associates.

The Palmer Family collection consists of three oversized folders located in the basement blueprint cabinet. The folders contain topological maps of the property, a complete set (10) of blueprints for the house, an oversized floor plan, blueprints of perforate block, hand-colored drawings of the garden plans and a colored house plan signed by Wright. The collection also contains the first rendering of the Tea House with two pages of revisions, furniture design details for the Tea House and an outside lantern.

Since coming to the library in 1992, photocopies and photographic copies have been made of some of the more fragile items in the collection. The researcher is encouraged to consult these before inquiring about access to the originals. The number in parentheses at the end of each description is an identifying number assigned by the donor for individual drawings or a group of related drawings.

For an extensive selection of photographs of the Palmer house, the researcher should consult The Wright Style by Carla Lind (1992).