Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Bishops files, records of executive and administrative bodies and of diocesan organizations, staff files, parishes and mission's materials, and visual materials and sound recordings.

The records of the diocese of Michigan have been arranged into the following series: Bishops' files, Executive and administrative bodies, Diocesan organizations, Diocesan programs, Diocesan staff, Parishes and missions, Clergy, Audio and visual material, and Miscellaneous.

The record group is most valuable for its documentation of the history of the diocese and the individual churches within its administration, with a lesser amount of material pertaining to religious functions performed and to the operation of diocesan administrative groups and departments. For a number of reasons, there is scant material pertaining to the administration of the diocesan office or to the special programs that have been initiated by it over the years. Some of this material may be found in the papers of individual bishops whose papers have also come to the library and are separately cataloged. These include Samuel McCoskry, Samuel Smith Harris, Charles D. Williams, Herman Page, and Richard Emrich.

Correspondence, legal papers, bills and receipts dealing with personal and business affairs as well as military service (including court martial records). Correspondence contains a letter dated March 19, 1865 from Frederick Schneider, written after his parole from Confederate prison; letters, January 15 and March 12, 1865, from Joseph Moody containing detailed descriptions of Traverse City, Michigan; a letter dated March 27, 1865 to Major C. A. Lounsberry describing the attack on Fort Stedman; and letter, April 1865, mentioning the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Also includes photographic portraits of John C. Boughton.

This series contains family correspondence, the diary of Elizabeth Parker Robinson (1891-1896), the dairy of DeWitt Parker (1891), as well as genealogical material, a graduating essay from a Bay City, Michigan high school, and photographs, including an ambrotype portrait of Elizabeth L. Parker.