Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Grand Hotel records comprise documents, photographs, audio and videographic material collected about the hotel by its management. The strength of the collection is in its documentation of the guest experience at the hotel, and the evolution of amenities offered by the hotel during the mid-to-late 20th century. A small number of items also provide a glimpse of the hotel's earliest days as a summer resort.

The Grand Hotel records are arranged in six series: Printed Material, Miscellaneous, Press Clippings and Publications, Photographic Material, Audio Material, and Videographic Material.

Landscape architect, professor of landscape architecture at the University of Michigan. Files relating to various Michigan projects, notably in Ann Arbor, Hartland, Hillsdale, and Highland Park; subject files on professional activities; and photographs.

The papers of Harlow O. Whittemore have been divided into the following series: Projects; Topical Files; Family Papers; and Photographs.

Conscientious objector during World Wars I and II and founder of the farming cooperative Saline Valley Farms. Correspondence, diaries, notebooks, and other materials relating to all phases of his career, including his work as Y.M.C.A. worker in England, 1916-1917, and as teacher at Central China University, Wuchang, China, 1922-1926; also family correspondence of Philip H. and Almena S. Gray, 1874-1926; also photographs and motion pictures.

The Harold Gray papers have been divided into seven series: Correspondence; World War I era activities; Personal and Miscellaneous; Printed, clippings, and miscellanea; Family and genealogical; Saline Valley Farms; and Visual Materials (photographs and motion pictures). The great strength of the collection are correspondence, administrative files, diaries, and visual materials documenting the operation of the Saline Valley Farms. There is significant, though smaller quantities of papers detailing Gray's opposition to serving in the military during World War I and his career as a teacher in China in the 1920s.

Michigan congressman and senator, head of the U.S. Office of Price Administration; papers include correspondence, legislative files, speeches, political files, business and legal records, diaries and scrapbooks, visual materials, and sound recordings.

The Prentiss M. Brown Collection is rich and full and offers researchers materials on a variety of local and national topics reflecting the diversity of the man's private and public life. The earliest item in the collection is a letter book dated 1902-04 of James J. Brown, like his son a prominent St. Ignace attorney. The collection then picks up Prentiss M. Brown's entrance to the legal profession in 1917, traces his rise to public office, his work in Congress and with the O.P.A., and then concludes with his later business interests and his crusade upon behalf of the Mackinac Bridge.

The Brown Collection comprises approximately twenty-eight feet of correspondence, letterbooks, scrapbooks, diaries, speeches, topical and legislative files, photographs and phonograph records, and legal case files and business records. Covering the period 1917 to 1973, the papers concentrate most heavily in the years 1932-1942 when Brown was in the U.S. Congress. The greatest gap in the collection is in the period of the 1920s when Brown was making his first bids for political office. Also missing are any extensive files for the time of Brown's O.P.A. directorship. What the collection has on the O.P.A. are largely speeches, scrapbooks, and congratulatory letters.

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.

Ann Arbor, Michigan family, proprietors of Rinsey & Seabolt grocery store. Papers of David Rinsey, Ann Arbor, Michigan, grocer; also papers of his son George, a bank teller, and of George's wife, Ina Alexander Rinsey; including correspondence, legal documents, and photographs.

The collection includes correspondence and legal documents of David Rinsey, his son George, and of George's wife, Ina Alexander Rinsey. There are also photographs and photograph albums of the Rinsey family's home and place of business in Ann Arbor. The photographs consists of both formal and informal portraits; interior and exterior photos of their homes on North Division St., Ann Arbor, Michigan; interior and exterior photos of Rinsey & Seabolt grocery on E. Washington St.; and photographs of family events and activities.

Resident of Mackinac Island, Michigan; photoprints and negatives of Mackinac Island scenes.

The S. Alicia Poole collection is largely made up of photographic prints and negatives relating to Mackinac Island, its residents, buildings, and history. In addition, there is material relating to the Poole family and research notes and other accumulated information about Mackinac Island history.

Records, 1802-1884, of the American Fur Company at Mackinac Island; records of the collector of customs; records concerning history of Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Chippewa County, and Mackinac County, including marriage records for Chippewa County, 1824-1870, minutes of Chippewa County Automobile Association, 1917-1930, and miscellaneous personal diaries.

The strength of the Sault Ste. Marie collection is the records of the American Fur Company at Port Mackinac. These records date as early as 1802 and include shipping documents from the Sault Ste. Marie area and nearby ports from 1802 to 1884. Among these documents are shipping manifests, clearance documents, bills of sale, enrolment bonds, Treasury Department circulars to custom collectors at the Port of Sault Ste. Marie and nearby ports, and personal and business correspondence.

Other portions of the collection are files maintained by Myron W. Scranton. Scranton was a son-law and business partner of Peter B. Barbeau.

Family of Fred P. Todd and his son, J. Beecher Todd, officers with National Loan and Investment Company in Detroit, Michigan, and its successor institutions, Surety Savings and Loan Association, and Surety Federal Savings and Loan Association. The collection consists of personal papers, files relating to their activities with savings and loan institutions, and photographs.

The Todd Family Papers consist of three series: Personal, Savings and Loan Institutions, and Photographs.

Detroit, Michigan businessman and civic leader. Business correspondence relating to Weber's activities as a dealer in timber lands, his role as a member of the Art Commission in the development of Detroit, Michigan's Cultural Center, his involvement in the construction of the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and his activities during World War I; and correspondence and class notes of his sons, Harry B. and Erwin W. Weber, while attending University of Michigan; also photographs, including family portraits, aerial views of Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, photographs of the construction of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge, and glass negatives of family vacations in Upper Michigan, Ontario, and Quebec; and maps of land and timber holdings

The William C. Weber papers cover 28 linear feet (30 boxes), outsize folders, and 15 outsize volumes. Besides information on timber and mineral lands in Michigan, the important aspects of the Weber papers include information on the development of the Cultural Center of Detroit and Weber's very controversial role in it, items on the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and the development of the Border Cities, and the papers of his two sons, especially the letters they wrote as students at the University of Michigan and their class notes and examinations.

There is one foot of materials related to the Cultural Center (Box 19 and outsize folders) and another of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge (Box 20 and outsize folders).

Architectural site plans and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center are also found in the outsize unbound material.

The collection includes maps relating to Weber's his land holdings in northern Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, including maps of land survey, of timber estimates, and tax and title status for Michigan lands, maps of Windsor subdivisions, maps of coal mining region around Caryville, Tennessee and property maps of the Detroit Cultural Center.