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Collection

Michigan Historic Preservation Network Records, 1980-2004

9 linear feet (in 17 boxes)

Statewide organization established in part to create an awareness of Michigan's cultural heritage and architectural history and to encourage the preservation and stewardship of important state historic resources. Records document the administration and programs of the Network, including conferences, publications, training sessions, and awards given for local preservation achievements.

These records were assembled and processed in 2004 in preparation for a conference marking the organization's 25th anniversary. The records are organized in five series corresponding to the creators of the records.

Collection

Milton Kemnitz Papers, 1932-1995 (majority within 1960-1990)

3 linear feet

Ann Arbor-based artist specializing in images of local businesses and sites. The collection has been arranged in three series. The Artwork series includes drawings of buildings and other projects, publications containing reproductions of his work, and files relating to galleries, exhibits, auctions, and art fairs. The Supplemental Materials series concerns the art organizations and associations of which Kemnitz was a member, correspondence, and files pertaining to other activities, notably the Bird Hills Park controversy. The third series, Southern White Migration to Detroit in the 1930s, consists of research materials and reports resulting from Kemnitz' research as a member of a University of Michigan sociology seminar on metropolitan community organization. A portion includes Elmer Akers' research on the Black Legion.

The papers of Milt Kemnitz have been divided into three series. The first series, ARTWORK, focuses on the artwork itself, and its reproduction and dissemination. This includes the following subseries: Drawings of Buildings, Other Projects, Publications and Galleries, Exhibits, Auctions & Art Fairs. The second series, called SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS, has three subseries, Art Organizations & Associations, Correspondence and Miscellaneous Personal Material. Much of this material concerns his career as an artist but relates less directly to the actual artwork than the material in the first series. The third series, SOUTHERN WHITE MIGRATION TO DETROIT IN THE 1930s, consists of research materials and reports resulting from Kemnitz' research as a member of a University of Michigan sociology seminar on metropolitan community organization.

Collection

Robert C. Metcalf papers, 1942-2017 (majority within 1950-2008)

16 linear feet — 6909 drawings — 6.3 GB (online) — 73 boards

Online
Noted Michigan-based modern architect and former Professor and later Dean of the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Metcalf's work includes over 150 buildings in Michigan and Ohio. The material in this collection spans the years 1942 to 2017, and includes architectural drawings, presentation boards, client files, photographs and slides, correspondence, newspaper clippings, journals, articles, and teaching material.

The Robert C. Metcalf papers include architectural drawings, presentation boards, presentation books, client files, photographs, slides, and negatives of Metcalf's work on residential, commercial, and community projects. The collection provides comprehensive documentation on virtually all of the projects undertaken by Metcalf. Projects are documented from design to construction and often subsequent additions and renovations. The materials in the collection are organized into three series: Project Files, General Files, and Visual Materials.

The General Files series includes personal material such as an audio interview with Robert Metcalf (2010), a date book (1974), and Metcalf's undergraduate student work from the University of Michigan (1942-1950).

Collection

Susan Wineberg papers, 1900s-2018 (majority within 1977-2003)

85.4 linear feet (in 88 boxes) — 2 oversize folders

Susan Wineberg is a historian of Ann Arbor, Mich., and historic preservationist. She became involved in historic preservation in 1974 and has served as a commissioner on the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission (1982, 1984-1988) and as a member on its committees since 1977. Wineberg also has authored books and articles on historic buildings in Ann Arbor and been active in other local organizations. The collection includes correspondence, articles, brochures, clippings, printed ephemera and realia, photographs, and subject files relating mostly to Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Michigan historic properties and businesses.

The Susan Wineberg Papers document local efforts to research and protect historic properties in the Ann Arbor area. The collection is a rich source of information for the history of many buildings and areas in Ann Arbor. Wineberg has assembled clippings, stories, records, and photocopies of pictures about local preservation, conflicts over preservation laws, and historic buildings. The collection documents not only Wineberg's involvement in historic preservation, but also the activities of governmental and community organizations that have sought to preserve Ann Arbor's heritage and encourage adoption of their sense of responsible development. Moreover, the records reveal the evolution of historic preservation since the 1970s. They document the debates within the community between those who favor governmental measures that aim to protect the city's historic properties and those who view such protective ordinances and regulations as an intrusion on individual property rights. Additionally, several of the series document the history of Ann Arbor, Detroit, Washtenaw County, and Michigan through collected photocopies, photographs, and assorted ephemera.

The collection is organized into 18 series: Personal Files, Ann Arbor Historic District Commission, Ann Arbor Historic Preservation and Development Materials, Audio Materials, Visual Materials, Research / Reference files, Printed Ephemera and Realia, Printed Ephemera and Realia, 1969-2004, Collected Historical Materials, and Washtenaw County Historical Society. The rest of the collection is arranged into series based on when they were received by the Bentley, and as such there may be some overlap in subject matter.

Collection

Walter Sanders papers, 1929-1971 (majority within 1937-1970)

1.3 linear feet (in 2 boxes) — 1 oversize folder

Architect, professor of architecture at the University of Michigan. Biographical information; subject files relating to his professional activities, his involvement with the International Congress for Modern Architecture, his interest in architectural education, and his own design work; photographs and architectural drawings. The collection includes correspondence exchanged with Buckminster Fuller and Walter Gropius. There is also a letter from Lewis Mumford.

The Walter Sanders collection consists of architectural drawings and photographs, correspondence, and subject files dating from the mid-1930s to his death in 1972. The collection begins with a folder of biographical material followed by a series of folders arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material. Judging by the fullness of his career, it is apparent that these materials represent but a fragment of the documents created and accumulated by Walter Sanders during his professional lifetime. The materials extant in this collection provide a sampling of Sanders' designs, his architectural philosophy, his professional associations, and his teaching career.

The richest portions of the collection include those files of correspondence with other architects and his association with CIAM (the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne) or the International Congress for Modern Architecture. Some of Sanders' correspondents include Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, and Lewis Mumford. There are few materials in this collection relating to Sanders' own designs. Except for photographs and drawings of his Ann Arbor residence, the most interesting drawings are for the Pencil Point Home Competition (undated) and for the Chile Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Course and class material is also limited though something of Sanders' views on architecture will be found in the "Talks" folder.

Collection

Wells Ira Bennett Papers, 1916-1965

3.4 linear feet — 1 oversize folder

Architect, professor and dean of the College of Architecture and Design of the University of Michigan. Professional papers, notebooks, sketches and architectural plans, and files on specific building projects, including work on the Flint campus of the University of Michigan, automobile parking structures, and miscellaneous Ann Arbor and University of Michigan buildings; also records of various state and national architectural accreditation and registration boards, especially the Michigan State Board of Registration for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors; and photographs.

The collection has been divided into the following series: Biographical materials; Correspondence; Writings; Organizations; Projects; Miscellaneous; Diaries and other bound materials; and Photographs.

Collection

William E. Brown papers, 1923-1972

11 linear feet — 3 oversize volumes

Republican mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1945-1957. The collection consists of topical files on Ann Arbor municipal issues, business records from his real estate and automobile sales ventures, scrapbooks, and photographs

The Brown papers have been arranged into the following series: Topical files; Other mayoralty papers (relating primarily to off-street parking); Scrapbooks; Business records; and Photographs. The Topical files are the largest portion of the collection and include correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, and miscellanea concerning such issues as housing, the new city charter, off-street parking, the new Veterans Administration Hospital, planning for a new city hall, Brown's election campaigns, and the support given by Brown to Albert E. Cobo in his campaign for governor of Michigan in 1956. The scrapbooks, 1945-1962, contain newspaper clippings and other materials relating to his mayoralty.

Collection

William Muschenheim papers, 1923-2004 (majority within 1951-1985)

13.5 linear feet (in 15 boxes) — 7 folders

Online
Modernist architect based in New York City, 1929-1950, and professor of architecture at the University of Michigan, 1950-1972, where he also carried on an active private practice until shortly before his death in 1990. A graduate of MIT, Muschenheim studied further with Peter Behrens at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and was strongly influenced both by a visit to the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany and by a period working in urban planning with Peter Korn in Berlin. Two major Muschenheim collections exist, one within the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University and another within the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. The Muschenheim collection at the Avery represents primarily his professional career from 1929 to 1957, and the Muschenheim collection at the Bentley concerns his later professional practice and teaching career at the University of Michigan, as of 1950. This finding aid describes both the Avery and Bentley collections.

Staffs of the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library and the Bentley Historical Library have prepared separate finding aids for their respective William Muschenheim collections. These have been merged to provide one integrated finding aid. This integrated finding aid lists all Muschenheim materials held by both repositories. All of the drawings, papers, photographs and other materials for each project are brought together in a single job-number/chronological sequence. The physical location of each item/folder is indicated by "A" for Avery and "B" for Bentley. The combined finding aid organizes the Muschenheim papers into four series:

  1. Biographical and Professional Material [Bentley]
  2. University of Michigan Teaching Career [Bentley]
  3. Publications and research [Bentley]
  4. Project Files [Avery and Bentley]

The project files of William Muschenheim are described according to Muschenheim's original filing system in which he interfiled the drawings, correspondence, specifications, and other papers for each job/client. Muschenheim typically assigned each client a single job number no matter how many projects he may have done for the client. There are a total of 130 numbered jobs in the Avery Collection (#1-130, with gaps between jobs 11-17, 25-26, 28-29) and 63 numbered jobs in the Bentley collection (#132-193, there are no materials for 22 of the jobs). There are also nine unnumbered projects (4 Avery and 5 Bentley) and several folders of miscellaneous material.

Each numbered job consists of one or more projects and each project is subdivided by format of material into Drawings, Papers, Photographs, and Presentation Boards as appropriate. There is some variance in the manner in which the two archives have arranged and described project material. The Avery has described its drawings at the item level while the Bentley provides only folder level descriptions for most projects. For this finding aid item level descriptions are provided for selected Bentley projects. Photographs are found in the "Papers" in some Avery project files but are listed separately in the Bentley finding aid.

At both the Avery and Bentley the oversize architectural drawings have been removed from their original folders and stored separately.

The William Muschenheim Architectural Drawings and Papers at the Avery Library span 1929-1957, with bulk dates 1931-1950. Muschenheim's papers document 130 separate jobs, and the visual material consists of 3081 sheets of drawings. The projects mainly represent Muschenheim's work in New York City, but also include work in Albany (NY), Amenia (NY),Bridgehampton (NY), Chappaqua (NY), Hampton Bays (NY), Malverne (NY), Massapequa (NY), Nassau Point (Long Island), Washington (CT), Washington DC, Westhampton Beach (NY), and Woodstock (NY), among other locations.

William Muschenheim had numerous clients which included the following family members: Carl Muschenheim, Elsa Muschenheim, and Frederick A. Muschenheim. In addition to the many clients for whom Muschenheim did alteration work, he also worked with a wide variety of companies. Some of the companies include Bigelow Carpet Company, C.G. Flygare Inc., Excel Metal Cabinet Co., Inc., F. Schumacher & Co., Famaes Development, Hans Knoll, Howard & Schaffer, Inc., Kurt Versen Lamps, Inc., Ledlin Light Designers, Portland Cement Association, and Thonet Brothers, among many others.

The papers and drawings in the William E. Muschenheim collection at the Bentley Library span the years 1923 to 2004, however the bulk of the collection covers the years 1951 to 1985. The papers are primarily comprised of material documenting Muschenheim's research and teaching career from 1950 to 1973 at the University of Michigan, and the private practice he continued in Ann Arbor after leaving New York City. There are limited papers and drawings related to his life and professional work prior to 1950, although the Photographs Series includes beautiful black and white images of many of his important New York projects, and the Publications and Research Series is valuable for articles published in the thirties and the forties showcasing his work. Papers and drawings spanning the years 1929-1957 (bulk dates 1931-1950) are held at the Avery Library, Columbia University.

Muschenheim's early and lasting commitment to the modern movement and to an international view of architecture and architectural education is reflected in the collection, which consists of biographical and professional materials, research and course materials, publications related to his work, project files and drawings, and photographs and slides. The Muschenheim collection will interest researchers drawn to study the work of a pioneering modernist, well known for originality in working with color as an integral part of contemporary design, and those interested in the generation of architects involved in the fifties and sixties with legitimizing the modern period in an academic environment. Additionally, Muschenheim's efforts to illuminate the art of architecture as an important element and expression of culture to a broader segment of society renders the collection important to a wide range of disciplines and interests.

The papers are largely organized according to Muschenheim's original filing scheme, in which he interfiled material related to projects (including drawings) with professional papers, correspondence, and other documents, numbering them sequentially. The Bentley Library collection consists of material numbered 132 to 192. Many large original drawings were removed from folders, flattened, and are stored in drawers. Five series make up the collection: Biographical and Professional Materials; University of Michigan Teaching Career, College of Architecture and Design; Publications and Research; Project Files; and Digitization Project. Users should note that material related to a single project is often scattered throughout the collection. A Supplemental Guide to work produced after 1950 in the additional descriptive data portion of this finding aid. Also appended is Muschenheim's list of projects (numbered 1-189).

Collection

Wystan Stevens papers, 1961-1973

2 linear feet (in 4 boxes) — 1 oversize folder

Ann Arbor, Michigan, local historian; collector of leaflets and photographs on local history topics.

The collection consists of leaflets, newsletters, and other miscellanea relating to activist organizations and events in Ann Arbor and at the University of Michigan during the period of the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. Other materials were added to the collection by staff members of the Michigan Historical Collections, 1969-1973. The collection, arranged alphabetically, provides an overview of the activities, personalities, and political debates of the time. Included is a small series of historical Ann Arbor photographs, either originals or photo prints of originals, collected from different sources.

Collection

Z. T. Gerganoff architectural firm records, 1928-1977

27 oversize folders (in 6 drawers) — 1 linear foot

Architectural drawings of the firm of Z.T. Gerganoff, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, (and predecessor firms of R.S. Gerganoff and S.T. Gerganoff). Drawings and specifications for various area churches, service stations and auto dealerships, the Washtenaw County Building, the Ypsi-Ann Building, and miscellaneous businesses and private residences.

The Z. T. Gerganoff records represent a small portion of the firms output. In 1983, the firm's offices at 206 N. Washington in Ypsilanti were sold, and its records offered to the Michigan Historical Collections. Many of the records had been scattered or destroyed over the years, due to the firm's need for space and its practice of returning records to clients after the completion of a job.

Of the records remaining in the office in July 1983, the Michigan Historical Collections accessioned architectural drawings and specifications relating to churches, service stations and auto dealerships, the Washtenaw County Building, Washtenaw Country Club clubhouse, and a few other buildings, along with miscellaneous renderings of residences, apartment buildings, and businesses. Left at the office to be destroyed were drawings of other county courthouses and schools. Drawings of many Ypsilanti buildings had been donated to the Ypsilanti Historical Museum, and drawings of Eastern Michigan University buildings had been turned over to the University.

This record group consists of architectural drawings for 56 of Gerganoff's projects and a smaller series of specifications for two projects. The architectural drawings series is composed of three subseries: churches; service stations and auto dealerships; and other buildings. Within each subseries, buildings are arranged by location and then chronologically (by job number), with undated and miscellaneous material at the end.