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The Penrod/Hiawatha Company collection is mainly comprised of postcards, although some supplemental photographic items directed toward tourists is also included. The postcards, numbering more than 5,000, primarily are of the Michigan landscape and its towns and cities, covering every region of the state. Typical postcard themes dominate, particularly natural scenery, outdoor recreation, and shopping districts. The postcards date from the 1950s through the opening decades of the twenty-first century, although very few display copyright dates. The collection is divided into the following series.

1. Non-Postcard Items (calendars, brochures, booklets): Box 1
2. Non-Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards: Box 2
3. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 1970s-1990s: Boxes 2-5
4. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, mid- to late 1990s: Boxes 5-6
5. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, late 1990s-2000): Boxes 6-7
6. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 2001-2004: Box 8
7. Penrod/Hiawatha Postcards, 2005-2014: Box 9
8. Oversize and miscellaneous: Box 10

As batches of postcards are received every years, it was decided to arrange the items in blocks of time according to the date of their accession. Thus for the researcher interested in a specific city, it will be necessary to examine the listing for each of the series.

Professor of sociology at University of Michigan. Correspondence and papers relating to his professional activities; also studies of Michigan rural communities made by his students in 1933-1934.

The Holmes collection has been arranged into five series: Correspondence, Miscellaneous, Notes and Collected Material, Student term papers, and Rural Study correspondence, 1932-1937. Except for a few explanatory comments, the contents of these series are most fully described in the container listing which follows. The Correspondence series consists of Holmes' professional correspondence with colleagues and friends. The Rural Study correspondence pertains exclusively to Holmes' inventory of the economic and social resources of the rural areas of Michigan during the 1930s. The files which are arranged alphabetically by county consist of summarizations by Holmes of the information received from his sources and copies of his responses. The file does not include, unfortunately, the originals of the letters sent to Professor Holmes.