Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Historian, manuscript curator, and the director of the Detroit Historical Museum; collected historical materials and various activities files.

The Henry D. Brown papers are divided into three series, the Collected and research materials series, the Personal and miscellaneous series, and the August 2017 Accession.

Flint, Michigan industrialist; governor of Michigan, 1865-1868. Correspondence concerning land speculations, lumbering, and political activities; correspondence of his son primarily relating to estate and land holdings; speeches, notes and other papers detailing his gubernatorial administration; deeds and other papers concerning land purchases in Ohio, Iowa, and Michigan; newspaper clippings, biographical material and obituaries; journals, diaries, notebooks, letter book, political scrapbook, 1866-1869, executive journal of state of Michigan, 1865-1867, farm records and accounts; and photographs.

The Crapo papers have been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Personal and Biographical; Political; Business records; and Miscellaneous (mainly financial). The collection relates primarily to the career of Henry H. Crapo with the files dating after 1869 pertaining to the business activities and political activities of his son W. W. Crapo.

In 1992, the bulk of the Crapo papers was microfilmed. This finding aid begins with a listing of the contents of the microfilm followed by a container listing of those portions of the collection which were not microfilmed. For reasons of preservation, the researcher should use the microfilm copy. Access to the original materials will be limited to the unmicrofilmed portions of the Crapo papers.

Professor of constitutional law at the University of Michigan. Papers include correspondence, reports, articles, speeches, photographs, and notebooks, relating to Bates' professional career, with material concerning activities of Ann Arbor National Defense Committee; life and career of Lawrence Maxwell, lawyer and U.S. Solicitor General in the Cleveland administration, funding and building the Michigan Union (1911-1918); Republican politics in the 1930's and 1940's; Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to reorganize the Supreme Court in 1937; and campus life at the University of Michigan during the first and second World Wars.

The Henry M. Bates papers include correspondence, reports, articles, speeches, photographs, and notebooks, relating to Bates' professional career, with material concerning activities of Ann Arbor National Defense Committee; life and career of Lawrence Maxwell, lawyer and U.S. Solicitor General in the Cleveland administration, funding and building the Michigan Union (1911-1918); Republican politics in the 1930's and 1940's; Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to reorganize the Supreme Court in 1937; and campus life at the University of Michigan during the first and second World Wars.

The papers are organized into Correspondence undated and 1886-1949, Michigan Union Building, 1911-1918; Committee of Nine on Mineral Law, 1927-1929; Miscellaneous Papers; and Photographs.

Member of the Michigan State Legislature. Personal papers include correspondence, speeches and writings, a scrapbook, and photographs.

The collection has been arranged into a single series of Personal papers. Included are correspondence; two volumes of speeches and other writings concerning prohibition, woman suffrage, and other political and patriotic subjects; scrapbook, family materials, and miscellanea. Within the correspondence, there are collected letters of Michigan Senator Charles E. Townsend, 1913-1914, and a letter from Benjamin R. Tillman concerning smoking in the U.S. Senate. Other correspondents include J. G. Cannon, Secretary of State William J. Bryan, Booker T. Washington, James B. Angell, Frank Knox, Harry B. Hutchins, Charles E. Townsend, and Earl C. Michener.

Republican state representative, 1907-1912, speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, 1911, state senator, 1919-1922, and official of the Farmers' National Council, the National Gleaner Federation, the Michigan State Grange and other farm and insurance organizations; includes correspondence, clippings, photographs and scrapbooks, concerning his political and business activities.

The collection spans the dates 1904-1926 and contains five linear feet of correspondence, clippings, photographs and scrapbooks concerning Baker's political and business activities.

Timber manager of the Kneeland Bigelow Company of Bay City, Michigan. Autobiography; correspondence, 1899-1924 (scattered); Kneeland-Bigelow Company records, 1912 and 1923-1929; subject files relating to his interest in conservation, reforestation, forest fire prevention, local Republican party affairs, road improvement, and the development of the northern Lower Peninsula as a tourist and recreational region.

Documenting his business and public service activities, the Herman Lunden papers cover the period from the late 1890s to 1929. The collection includes Biographical/Personal material; Correspondence; Kneeland-Bigelow records; and an Alphabetical File.

Grand Rapids, Michigan businessman and Republican politician. Correspondence, business records, speeches, and other papers relating to state politics, charitable and civic interests, banking issues, the Grand Rapids Varnish Corporation, the Michigan Trust Company of Grand Rapids, and the Ypsilanti-Reed Furniture Company of Ionia, Michigan; also materials on Albion College, the Methodist Church, the Ionia Free Fair, and Republican Party politics, especially the campaign of Arthur H, Vandenberg for the presidency in 1940.

The collection documents the business, civic, and political interests of Howard C. Lawrence. The series in the collection are: Correspondence; Speeches and speech material; Financial; Business Interests; Charitable and Civic Interests; Clippings; Miscellaneous; Photographs; and Notebooks.

University of Michigan professor of political science, special advisor to the U.S. Military Government in Germany after World War II, participant in numerous government commissions; papers include correspondence, working files, speeches, course materials, and visual and sound materials.

The James K. Pollock papers represent an accumulation of files from a lifetime of academic teaching and research and an extraordinary number of public service responsibilities to both his state and his nation. The files within the collection fall into two categories: types of document (such as correspondence, speeches and writings, visual materials, etc.) and files resulting from a specific activity or position (such as his work as delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention or his service with the Office of the Military Government in Germany after World War II).

The collection is large and of a complicated arrangement because of Pollock's many activities. When received in 1969, the files were maintained as received; very little processing was done to the collection so that an inventory to the papers could be quickly prepared. The order of material is that devised by James K. Pollock and his secretarial staff in the U-M Department of Political Science. Recognizing the anomalies within the order of the collection, the library made the decision to list the contents to the collection while at the same time preparing a detailed card file index (by box and folder number, i.e. 16-8) to significant correspondents and subjects. While there was much to be said for this method of preparing a finding aid expeditiously, it also covered up some problems in arrangement. Thus series and subseries of materials are not always grouped together as they were created by Pollock. Files on the Hoover Commission and the Michigan Constitutional Convention, for example, come before Pollock's work in Germany after the war. In 1999, effort was made to resolve some of the inconsistencies and obvious misfilings of the first inventory but because of the numbering system used in 1969 and the card index prepared for the files, there are still some problems. Researchers should be alert to these difficulties and take time to examine different parts of the collection for material on a similar topic.

James McMillan (1838-1902) was a Republican Senator for Michigan. Consists of copies of clippings concerning politics, his career, and personal affairs. Also included is a photographic portrait.

The collection consists of copies of clippings concerning politics, his career, and personal affairs. Also included is a photographic portrait.

Republican politician and regent of University of Michigan. Correspondence, 1901-1940, personal and professional materials, legal briefs and letters relating to William Cook estate and other University of Michigan affairs during his regency, 1918-1937; also correspondence while member of University's Board in Control of Athletics concerning University's departure from and return to Big Nine Conference and college athletics in general.

The Murfin papers relate mainly to JOM's activities as regent and as member of the University of Michigan's Board in Control of Athletics. The collection contains information concerning Michigan's departure from and return to the Big Nine Conference and the amateur-professional dilemma in college athletics. The regental material documents such problems as administrative oversight, particularly selection of the president and settlement of the William Cook estate. As member of the Law Club's governing body, Murfin helped to shape the university's case when Cook's bequest was contested by his wife. Although Murfin was influential in Michigan Republican party affairs, he filed his political papers separately and thus they are not included here.

The collection has been divided into two series: Correspondence, 1901-1940 and Topical Files which contain personal information and legal briefs concerning in part the Cook bequest