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Journalist, historical researcher from Kalamazoo, Michigan; Correspondence, research articles and notes, and photographs.

The Weissert collection includes correspondence, 1893-1947, including letters from Joseph Bailly, Clarence M. Burton, Gurdon S. Hubbard, Chase S. Osborn, Albert E. Sleeper, and George Van Pelt. There are also speeches, and writings mostly on Michigan history topics, including Indian history and the history of Kalamazoo and Barry County. The series of research notes illustrates the variety of Weissert's interests: historical personalities, forts, Michigan cities, and early state history. The photographs and snapshots pertain to Weissert's interest in Michigan history, especially homes, churches, mills, hotels, businesses, and other sites primarily in western Michigan, but also including Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac Island. There are also photographs of Michigan pioneers, particularly from the Hastings, Michigan area.

Ed Beach was an amateur photographer whose photographs document his hometown of Howell, Michigan and historical sites in other Michigan communities. His collection consists of photographic negatives (with some prints) and albums with prints of historic plaques and markers, statues of famous statesmen and their gravesites, early school buildings, historic houses, gristmills, sawmills, and county courthouses.

The Ed Beach collection consists of photographic negatives (with some prints) and albums with prints of historic plaques and markers, statues of famous statesmen and their gravesites, early school buildings, historic houses, gristmills, sawmills, and county courthouses. Other subjects include tourist sites in Michigan (such as Greenfield Village or Mackinac Island) and state parks, especially those in the Upper Peninsula. His hometown of Howell, Michigan is also heavily documented.

The Beach collection is arranged into three series. In the Kodak series the negatives measure 2 3/4 by 4 1/2 inches in size and cover the years 1931 to 1948. The Leica series consists of 35-millimeter strips and were taken between the years 1936 and 1938. The third series consists of seven albums of carefully identified photographs.

An item-level listing of the contents of the Kodak and Leica series is available at the library. To aid researchers a geographic and subject index has been created and is attached to this finding aid. These indices provide the best introduction to the collection.

Beach created the photograph albums around broad topics, and each has a title. The albums include: "Michigan Historic Places," "Around Lake Erie in Ontario. Trip to Chicago Century of Progress," "Michigan Courthouses," "Michigan Ships, Monuments, Historic Places, Buildings, Creek Scenes," "Indian and Trail Markers," "Around Michigan: Historic Places, Buildings, Mills, Dams, Bridges, Masonic Buildings," and "Michigan Governors' Homes, Michigan Trees, Old Buildings of Michigan." The photos in the albums include Beach's negative number.

Professor of architecture at the University of Michigan; includes correspondence, professional organizational activities files, documentation, photographs, and architectural drawings accumulated during his work with the Michigan Historic Buildings Survey

The Emil Lorch papers are valuable for their documentation of the career of this important architectural educator and for that material about Michigan architecture and historic structures that Lorch accumulated in the course of his professional study and organizational involvement. The collection includes extensive correspondence with many of the country's leading architects, most notably members of the "Chicago School," and architectural educators, and manuscript and photographic documentation resulting from Lorch's involvement with the Michigan Historic Buildings Survey and various restoration projects, including Mackinac Island.

Governing body of the Episcopal church in western Michigan, established in 1874; records include bishops' files, diocesan organization and committee files, photographs, scrapbooks, diocesan historian files.

The records of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan are a rich resource of material, not only for the programs and activities of the Episcopal Church in western Michigan, but also for their documentation of the role of the church in the life of the various communities served by the diocese.

Records from the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan first came to the Bentley Historical Library in 1972. Since then, the diocese has made several significant additions to their records. In 1999 the record group was reprocessed with the aim of drawing together like materials. The record group now consists of twenty-two separate series. These are: Bishop's Files, Chancellor, Treasurer, Diocesan Historiographer, Standing Committee Files, Miscellaneous Files, Diocesan Record Books, Publicity Files, Defunct Parish and Mission Churches Files, Diocesan Committee Files, Diocesan Organization Files, Diocesan Financial Records, Visual Materials, Sound Recordings, Scrapbooks, Western Michigan University (WMU) Ministry Files, Women's Organizations, Miscellaneous office and staff files Bulletins of Church Services, Church of Christ the King, Miscellaneous parish materials, and Miscellaneous diocesan materials.

Papers collected in the Netherlands under the auspices of the Immigration Sources Project of the Michigan Historical Collections. Copies of letters and other materials of Dutch immigrants to Michigan written to friends and relatives in the Netherlands.

The collection of photocopied letters has been arranged alphabetically by the name of the city in Michigan which was home to the immigrant family, and thereafter by family name of. Most of these cities were in western Michigan.

President's correspondence, executive committee minutes, and minutes of annual conventions; also files on individual churches in the Synod, including clippings, reports, church histories and programs; and photographs.

The records of the Michigan Synod of the Lutheran Church in America include president's correspondence; executive committee minutes; and minutes of annual conventions; files on individual churches in the Synod, including clippings, reports, church histories and programs; and photographs. The records have been arranged into the following series: Organizational and Administrative Records; Archivist's files; Organizational units and programs; Lutheran Church Women; Printed material; Church files; Topical files; and Visual Materials. Most of the records prior to 1962 originally came from the archives of United Lutheran Church in America.

The Masters-Taylor-Wilbur papers are the personal and business letters of an extended family in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. Of special interest are a group of letters between former slave Matthew Matthews and Mary F. Spence (the owner of his six children), and between Francis Markoe, Jr., and Jeremiah Wilbur, who helped Matthews purchase his children's freedom.

The Masters-Taylor-Wilbur papers (618 items) consist of 570 letters, 9 legal documents, and 39 financial records (1796-1850). The vast majority of the letters are family correspondence written by Thomas Masters and two of his daughters, Martha [Mrs. Henry W. Taylor] and Sarah [Mrs. Jeremiah Wilbur], between 1824 and 1850. The collection also includes letters written by his wife Isabella, his daughter Anna, his sons Samuel and Francis, and his sons-in-law, Jeremiah Wilbur and Henry W. Taylor. Many of the letters are between family members living in New York City, where Thomas Masters ran his mercantile business and Canandaigua, New York; Marshall, Michigan; Philadelphia; and Mt. Morris, New York. Several are joint letters with notes from two or more family members. The letters are rich in details of family life: illnesses, disease, and cures are much discussed, as are family weddings, and travel. Though dominated by family news, the family occasionally discussed politics, religion, temperance, and other religious-inspired social reform issues.

• July 19, 1832: G.H. Green to Martha C. Masters claiming a link between the consumption of alcohol and the occurrence of cholera
• October 15, 1833: Jeremiah Wilbur describing an anti-slavery speech
• December 19, 1835: Henry Masters to Martha Taylor recounting in detail a fire that swept through parts of New York City and destroyed Taylor's firm of Masters & Markoe at 51 South St.
• March 20-April 3, 1838: A long communal letter to Martha Taylor and Samuel Masters from family in New York City, in the form of a newspaper entitled "The Burning and Shining Light and Free Discussionest"
• August 1840: passing reference to hearing Daniel Webster speak
• Three letters from Lydia H. Sigourney to Martha Caldwell Taylor (July 26, 1841; February 18, 1846; February 13, 1849)
• February 15, 1842: Martha Taylor to Sarah Wilbur describing the temperance movement in Marshall, Michigan
• June 2, 1842: Sarah Wilbur to Martha Taylor discussing a wedding feast and spousal abuse
• December 11, 1842: Thomas Masters to Martha Taylor, providing a detailed account of the first New York Philharmonic Concert, which opened with a well-received piece by Beethoven
• March 3, 1844: Thomas Masters to Martha Taylor giving a second hand account of the explosion on board the U.S.S. Princeton, which killed the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy

The earliest letters in the collection pertain to the Wilbur family from 1811 to 1818 (32 letters). These consist of letters from Backus Wilbur in Princeton and Newark, New Jersey, to his brother Marcus Wilbur in New York City, describing Backus’ schooling, religious training, and life at school. Included in one letter is an account of a food fight that escalated to a near riot (February 6, 1812).

Of special interest are 12 letters and two enclosures documenting the attempt of Francis Markoe, Jr., and Jeremiah Wilbur to help former slave Matthew Matthews of Washington, D.C., purchase his six children (January-September 1835). Markoe and Wilbur outlined strategies regarding the best use of the available money to maximize the purchase of the highest number of children in the shortest possible time. Also included are two letters to Matthews, one from Mrs. Mary F. Spence, informing him that she may be forced to sell his children at public auction, and the other from Luke Johnson of Dumfries, Virginia, a black slave who loaned him money toward the purchase of one of the children. Enclosed with the letters are copies of bills of sale for two of the children.

In addition to the family papers are 135 business letters, 35 receipts, four invoices, and nine legal documents that relate to the mercantile affairs of Thomas Masters, Francis Markoe, and their firms of Markoe & Masters, and Masters & Markoe in New York City and Philadelphia (1796-1847). These business papers give some insight into the New York and European financial markets and the economic climate of the time.

Approximately 75 items. Deeds and other documents relating to land transactions, tax and water receipts; and speech given in 1880 on the history of Allegan, Michigan; also a drawing of Allegan, Michigan.

Postcard views of Michigan cities and the University of Michigan.

The Michigan Historical Collections postcard collection contains picture postcards of Michigan scenes. The collection was brought together by MHC staff. The postcards depict a large number of Michigan communities, with the largest number of cards relating to Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan, and Detroit.

The postcards are arranged by the name of the town shown in the picture. In cases where names have changed, or for rural places that might be identified with several surrounding towns, the postcards are filed according to the name used on the card. For instance, postcards of the Irish Hills region can be found under that name as well as under the nearby towns of Brooklyn and Onsted.

Outsize postcards are located in Box 12, and a few postcards too large for that box are located with the medium sized photographs in UCCm.