Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

U. S. Senator from Michigan, 1959-1976, a conscientious supporter of civil rights, consumer protection and environmentalism, Hart served as floor manager of the 1965 civil rights act and 1968 Open Housing Act, introduced legislation to create Sleeping Bear Dunes and Pictured Rock National Lakeshores and sponsored important consumer legislation. Papers include Legislative Files, Staff Files, Press Files, Subject Files, Constituent Correspondence, Office Files, Political Files, Miscellaneous, Sound Recordings, and Visual Materials.

The Philip A. Hart collection consists of those files maintained by Hart and his staff in Washington D.C. while serving as senator from Michigan in the period 1958-1976. A senate office in the 1960s and 1970s could employ as many as thirty staff and clerical workers. In 1975, Hart wrote: "My own office presently consists of 34 full-time people in Washington plus 4 in my Detroit office and one part-time employee each in Grand Rapids and Marquette." Received from Washington, the Hart collection documents the workings of his Capitol office. Excepting for a few files from the 1950s when Hart served in Michigan state government, the Hart papers relate exclusively to Senate activities and detail the variety and bulk of problems crossing the desk of a United States senator and his staff.

In a press release describing his office, Hart stated that the work of a senator falls into three categories: legislative, participating in the discussion and formulation of public policy, and serving as "ambassador" between his constituents and the Federal Government. Beyond the study of legislation, public policy debates, and the relationship between a senator and the people of his state, the Hart collection is a reflection of the times in which Hart served, the sixties and seventies, years of the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford, a time when public figures discussed issues of conscience and of war, matters of human rights and of public morality, areas where Hart's basic integrity and humaneness placed him in the forefront of public debate.

The collection falls into eleven principal series: Personal/Biographical, Legislative Files, Staff Files, Press Files, Subject Files, Constituent Correspondence, Office Files, Political Files, Miscellaneous, Sound Recordings, and Visual Materials. Except for Personal/Biographical and the series of audio-visual materials, the Hart collection is an office file and represents the activities of one senator and a dozen or so of his key staff members. To use the collection, the researcher after examining the "Series Description" (on the following pages) should note that for any topical study, information will usually be found in any number of series within the collection. The series represent functional divisions within the Hart office, legislation, press, or whatever. To study an issue such as consumer protection, therefore, the researcher should be prepared to examine the Hart finding aid under the series that might document that topic from different functional perspectives (Legislative Files, Staff Files, Subject Files, among others). The researcher interested in a narrower, more specific topic should recognize that the following inventory, for the most part, is not a folder-level description and thus specialized kinds of information will be filed first under a more general heading.

One more note: The Hart papers originally consisted of more than 700 linear feet of files. Hart himself and his staff had discarded certain types of files before donating them to the library, notably case files and constituent mail answered by form. In addition, the library discarded files of low research content - thank yous, invitations, and carbons of Hart correspondence duplicated in the other principal series of the collection. Furthermore, files containing similar types of correspondence from constituents have been sampled (the folders have "S" or "Samp" on them). Government publications, easily available in a government documents library, and unless heavily annotated, have been discarded. Researchers on any topic within the Hart collection should familiarize themselves with the standard sources on government documents (the indices to the Congressional Record for example). Topics on which Hart played a key legislative role or about which he was keenly interested have not been sampled. These topics include civil rights, the passage of various consumer legislation, the Sleeping Bear Dunes debate, his committee work, and the debate over the war in Vietnam to list a few.

Chairman of the Detroit, Michigan chapter of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Correspondence, memos, schedules and other papers concerning the activities of Detroit, Michigan CORE.

Correspondence, memos, schedules and other papers concerning the activities of Detroit, Michigan CORE.

Social scientist, director of the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan. Papers include project files, survey research data and reports, and printed material, largely from his work with the Division of Program Surveys, Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the office of War Information during World War II; Office Of Strategic Bombing Survey, I.S.R. project files; and transcript of oral interview, 1970.

The Rensis Likert Papers document his work as one of the pioneers of survey research, first with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, then with the Office of War Information, Office of Strategic Bombing Surveys and finally at the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center and Institute for Social Research. The papers include biographical information on Likert; transcripts of oral history interviews with Likert; reports, background information, correspondence relating to various survey projects.

The Likert papers were received and initially processed in four accessions in 1975, 1982,1990 and 1995. Material in later accessions sometimes continued or complemented records series in prior accessions. The papers are boxed in an order that reflects the dates the accessions individual accessions were received. In this finding aid the disparate parts of series received in multiple accessions have been together to reflect the intellectual arrangement of the collection. As a result, the box-folder sequence in he contents listing are not always consecutive.

The materials in the 1975 accession (boxes 1-20) of the Rensis Likert Papers cover the period of 1939 to 1953 and largely concern Likert's work at the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Office of War Information during World War II and his subsequent work in the early development of the Survey Research Center.

In 1982 the family of Rensis Likert donated an additional three feet (boxes 21-23) of materials. Notable items in this accession concern Likert's work as assistant secretary and treasurer of the Psychological Corporation (1934-1935); consultant to the Newell-Emmett Company (1935); survey researcher with the Morale Division of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey unit (ca. 1944-1946); and activities with other professional organizations (ca. 1938-1949)

The third accession of the Likert papers (box 24-29) came from the library of the Institute of Social Research of the University of Michigan. The files pertain to all phases of Likert's professional career, and thus the researcher should use these papers in conjunction with the materials in the previous accessions. The final accession (box 29) was received form several sources.

Detroit-born, amateur photographer and Navy veteran who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1941. Nims’ photographs document student life in Ann Arbor during the late 1930s, with particular focus on the popular student hangout The Pretzel Bell; and life in the Navy and the South Pacific during 1944-1945 and 1951-1952. The collection consists primarily of photographs and negative with some mixed material such as diaries, newspaper clippings, correspondence and ephemera.

The collection consists primarily of photographs and negative taken by Richard Nims with some mixed material such as diaries, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and ephemera. The collection contains the following series: Photographs/Negatives, Other Papers, and Motion Pictures.

African American civil rights activist and Black militant leader in Monroe County North Carolina who came to advocate armed self-defense in response to violence, left the United States in 1961 and lived in Cuba and China until 1969 when he settled in Baldwin Michigan. Papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, audio-visual material, manuscripts, petitions, and government documents documenting the civil rights movement, black nationalism, radical politics in the United States and Williams's experiences in Cuba and China.

The Robert Williams papers, dating from 1951, include correspondence, notes, newspaper clippings, audio-visual material, manuscripts, petitions, and government documents. The collection documents a wide variety of subjects: the American civil rights movement, Black Nationalism, cold war politics, Castro's Cuba, Mao's China, and the radical left in the United States.

As Robert Williams continued to add to his collection following his initial donation in 1976, it was necessary to arrange and describe the materials based on groupings of dates of accessioning. Thus the bulk of the collection is divided into two subgroups: 1976-1979 Accessions and 1983-1997 Accessions with much overlapping of material. In addition, the collection contains a small series of papers collected by his son John C. Williams and a separate series of Audio-Visual Materials.

Detroit, Michigan, social activist and reformer. Correspondence and subject files relating to her interest in cooperatives, especially organizations concerned with low-income, open housing projects; also photographs and audio-tapes.

The Rose Parker Kleinman papers are almost entirely those from her years in Detroit and are limited in quantity (2 linear feet). They can be used by the researcher interested in compiling a short biographical study of the last twenty years of her life, or in the activities of one of the many white liberals in Detroit in the 1960s who promoted racial equality. They provide an introduction to the cooperative movement as a whole and in the state of Michigan in the 1960s and 1970s, and to the activities of one of the leaders in the field. Finally, the papers on low-income, open housing organizations in Detroit in the 1960s and 1970s can provide a limited supplement to those found in other libraries, such as the Mayor's Papers in the Burton Library in Detroit. There is very little in the collection, however, on Kleinman's efforts to have established the Michigan State Housing Authority. The researcher should approach the collection with the understanding that no one area or organization can be studied in depth, but that the character, ideas, and personality of Rose Kleinman are evident throughout the collection.

The Kleinman papers are arranged in five series: Personal; Correspondence; Cooperatives; Housing; and Miscellaneous.

Photograph prints and publications from 1958 to 2016 showcase the work of Detroit photogragher, Russ Marshall (1940). Russ Marshall, who was employed as a labor photographer, documented industrial workers and the daily lives of those around him.

This collection contains black and white prints of photographs taken by Russ Marshall between 1966 to 2005. The majority were captured in the 1980s and include images of Michigan and Rust Belt factories and workers. Notable photographed companies include General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford. 4 photos document the 1980 Houdaille strike in Ontario, Canada.

Also included are four self-published books of Marshall's photographs: Violet Anna Swartzentruver: A Remembered Life (2011), Thumb Run (2016), Detroit Doc (2016), and This Working Life: Photographs of Labor and Industry Works by Labor Writer and Poets (2011).

Oversize materials include photographs from 1958 to 2010 of Detroit's Michigan Central Railroad Station, judges of the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan, and Violet Anna Swartzentruver. Additoional materials include a collection of press passes.

Retail company based in Detroit, Michigan. Executive committee minutes, 1946-1960; record books of meetings and proceedings of directors, shareholders, and incorporators; minutes of various corporate committees; subject files detailing financial operations of this chain of variety stores; and files relating to the officers and directors of the company.

The S.S. Kresge Company corporate records are arranged topically, and primarily relate to the company's activities in the years 1945-1965. To trace the company's history from 1912-1945, the researcher should use the applicable annual and quarterly reports, the minutes from Meetings and Proceedings of Directors, Shareholders, and Incorporators, and materials from the historical files. The latter contain interesting periodicals and company pamphlets that pertain to the company's history both before and after 1945.

For the postwar years, the researcher should turn again to the annual and quarterly reports, meetings and proceedings minutes, and historical files, but should supplement them with use of minutes from the Executive and Operating Committees, and Sebastian Kresge's correspondence with the company president for the years 1953-1966. The minutes from the Executive Committee almost always contain brief summaries of committee decisions. Property purchases, modernization and construction programs, divided action, personnel (retirements and salaries), and tax matters comprise the majority of areas in which the committee made decisions. Minutes are not available for every meeting of the committee, but there are often notations at the top of existing minutes which indicate that for certain meetings no written record was kept.

The minutes from Operating Committee meetings reflect the postwar concerns with competition from discount stores and the need to increase Kresge sales and merchandise turnover. They are particularly detailed for the years 1945-1950, but thereafter are somewhat frustrating in that the writer often discusses what topics were covered at the meetings but fails to summarize the contents of the discussions. There are included with the minutes occasional reports made by the President and other officers to the committee on various topics. These are particularly interesting; see, for example, the 1946 and 1961 reports on sales problems and new programs. The quantity of minutes from 1959-1963 is considerably smaller than that from earlier years because President Cunningham relied on contacts with individual regional managers and department heads rather than group meetings.

The files of correspondence between Sebastian Kresge, founder of the company and chairman of the board from 1925-1966, and company presidents Frank Williams and Harry Cunningham are very useful for tracking the continued involvement of Kresge in the corporation's affairs, and for documenting major corporate concerns and operations. Among the latter are organizational changes, competition from discount and other variety-type stores, deteriorating downtown store neighborhoods, attempts to purchase competitors Kress and Zayre, trial programs to establish a Kresge credit program for its customers, and the emergence of the K mart idea. There is a limited amount of such correspondence (2"), but it is quite rich in content.

Histories, minutes of meetings, treasurer's reports and minutes; records of youth and women's organizations; and yearbooks and church newspaper.

The records of St. Peter's Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, some of which are in Danish, have been organized into the following series: History / Organizational; Minute books of meetings; Financial records and miscellanea; Church organizations; Publications; and Photographs.

Genealogy and other vital information found in family Bible; travel diaries of Josiah Clark of trips to Canada and New York city; portraits of Tayler, Clark and Farmer family members. Materials documenting the career of Theron C. Tayler, specifically, his rotary kilns research and patented innovations.