Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Professor of architecture at the University of Michigan; includes correspondence, professional organizational activities files, documentation, photographs, and architectural drawings accumulated during his work with the Michigan Historic Buildings Survey

The Emil Lorch papers are valuable for their documentation of the career of this important architectural educator and for that material about Michigan architecture and historic structures that Lorch accumulated in the course of his professional study and organizational involvement. The collection includes extensive correspondence with many of the country's leading architects, most notably members of the "Chicago School," and architectural educators, and manuscript and photographic documentation resulting from Lorch's involvement with the Michigan Historic Buildings Survey and various restoration projects, including Mackinac Island.

Pontiac, Michigan Presbyterian church founded in 1824; session minutes, minutes of board of trustees, historical materials, church bulletins, and other church materials, including manuscript sermons and scrapbooks of minister William S. Jerome.

The record group is comprised of four series: Governance; Church Groups; History and Background; Church building; Financial; and Bulletins. Within Governance are found session minutes and minutes of the board of trustees. The Church Groups series includes minutes of the Men's Club, the Sunday School Workers organization, and the Society of United Workers, among other groups. The History and Background series includes a historical sketch of the church, as well as manuscript sermons and scrapbooks of minister William S. Jerome.

Papers of Michigan family including Joseph Comstock Jones, school superintendent and textbook publisher; Alice Van Hoosen Jones, teacher in East Saginaw, Michigan, and daughter of Van Hoosen farm owners Sarah Taylor and Joshua Van Hoosen; papers of Elisha Jones, half-brother of Joseph and professor of Latin at University of Michigan. Collection primarily comprised of correspondence, 1860-1950, and photographs, circa 1860s-1910.

The Jones family papers are comprised of correspondence, photographs, genealogy material, and other family papers. The bulk of correspondence is that of Alice Van Hoosen Jones, 1876-1950. She corresponded with her sister, Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, her parents, Sarah and Joshua Van Hoosen, among other friends and family members. The papers also include correspondence of J.C. Jones, 1860-1902; papers of Elisha Jones, 1871-1888, including correspondence related to his European travels and legal papers; and photographs of J.C. Jones, his sister, Sarah, and Alice Van Hoosen Jones.

Naturalist and historian at the Nankin Mills Nature Center near Westland, Michigan. Nankin Mills was also used by Henry Ford in the manufacture of automobile parts. Nankin Mills files including notebook with research notes and jottings about the Nankin Mills area, newspaper clippings, and deeds; collected historical material including child's diary, 1902-1903, and Pontiac, Michigan family papers containing essay about women's suffrage, 1881; photographs of the Nankin Mills and related areas in western Wayne County, Michigan; copy prints of Pike's Peak, Colorado, 1887.

The Mary Ellsworth papers consist of two types of materials: 1) papers which relate specifically to Nankin Mills and to her work as naturalist, and 2) historical materials collected or received by Mary Ellsworth.

Organization of Michigan photographers; collected copyprints of historical images.

The collection consists of copyprints (with some negatives) of historical images collected by members of the Michigan Photographers Society. The photographs are arranged alphabetically by name of city where the collector lived. This is followed by descriptions of the images. The strength of the collection is for its visual documentation of various Michigan cities, including street scenes, businesses, private residences, views of ships, railroads, lumbering activities, and local customs.

State chapter of national temperance organization founded in 1874; records include correspondence of early W.C.T.U. workers, Alice E. H. Peters and Ella Eaton Kellogg; also minutes, scrapbooks, and other records of individual Michigan W.C.T.U. districts and chapters.

The Michigan Woman's Temperance Union records divide into seven series: Correspondence; Miscellaneous and Publicity; Printed Materials; District Records; County Union Records; Local Union Records; and Photographs. The records document the period of the Michigan WCTU's greatest influence, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the organization's gradual declining influence following the repeal of the prohibition amendment.

Big Rapids, Michigan family. Correspondence and other papers concerning Big Rapids (Mich.) Post Office, Big Rapids Board of Trade, and family matters; also photographs.

The collection consists of correspondence and other papers relating to family matters and to the activities of William P. Nisbett with the Big Rapids (Mich.) Post Office, Big Rapids Board of Trade, and the National Wagon Company.

Upper-class Michigan family in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with various business interests including lumbering, mining, and land transactions in Montana, Michigan, California, West Virginia, and British Columbia. The family was also active in the development of the Orchard lake area, especially during in the 1920s through the 1940s. The collection contains both business and personal materials including correspondence, subject files, legal records, maps, blueprints, and photographs.

The Palmer Family papers document the activities of an upper-class family in nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Michigan. The strength of the collection is its documentation of the growth of early business in Michigan. The Charles Henry Palmer (Senior) series contains the bulk of this information, with papers documenting his activities as an investor in mining and railroads in Michigan's Upper Peninsula from the 1850s through the 1880s. The balance of the collection contains both business and personal materials documenting the lives of various Palmer family members. Materials include correspondence, legal materials, business records, photographs, diaries and journals, and newspaper clippings.

Detroit, Michigan industrialist and director of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory of University of Michigan (located on Lake Angelus near Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan.). Correspondence concerning astronomy, particularly celestial photography, and the development of the McMath Observatory, financial records, plans for telescope equipment, and printed materials.

The Robert R. McMath papers consist primarily of correspondence concerning astronomy, particularly celestial photography, and the development of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory of the University of Michigan, financial records, plans for telescope equipment, and printed materials. Correspondents include some leading astronomers of the day but the bulk is with his collaborators in construction and operation of the Observatory and with the Heber D. Curtis, chair of the University of Michigan Astronomy Department and university president Alexander Ruthven. Writings include articles by McMath about the equipment and operation of the observatory and reports on specific astronomical observations made there. The papers have been arranged into the following series: Biographical; Correspondence; Miscellaneous; Organizational Affiliations; Writings; McMath-Hulbert Observatory, Lake Angelus; and Research and topical files.

Gideon O. Whittemore family of Pontiac and Tawas City, Michigan. Business and personal correspondence of Whittemore, his wife, their son James O. Whittemore, and other members of the Whittemore, Mack, and Abram Mathews families; also business and legal documents, sermons, photographs, and miscellaneous papers, covering family matters, Tawas City, Michigan (which the family founded), lumbering, journey of the Mormons across the United States and settlement in Salt Lake City, Utah, University of Michigan and its branches, and family genealogy.

The papers date from 1817 to 1978, and include correspondence, business papers, deeds, genealogical materials, photographs and other papers of Gideon O. Whittemore, his wife, their son James Olin Whittemore and other member of the Whittemore, Mack, Harlow, and Abram Mathews families. Letters of Temperance Mack and Almira Covey document in part the journey of the Mormons across the United States and settlement in Salt Lake City. Other papers relate to activities in Tawas City (which the family founded), lumbering interests, and other business matters. A portion of the papers of James Olin Whittemore pertain to his activities as a student at the University of Michigan, class of 1846.

The Whittemore family collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Other Family papers; Genealogical records; Temperance Mack letters and related; Individual Whittemore family members; Photographs; and Business and professional ledgers and daybooks.