Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

Isaac E. Ronch was a Yiddish writer, teacher, and journalist active in Jewish immigrant circles in Chicago and New York from the 1920s through the 1980s. Ronch was also a good friend of artist Marc Chagall. This collection includes correspondence, writings, and books documenting Ronch and Chagall's friendship, as well as publications, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, and clippings relating to Ronch's own life and works.

The Marc Chagall Materials Series is made up of records documenting Chagall and Ronch's friendship. The donor, Ronch's son, included a handful of books about the history of Jewish arts and identity in Russia to contextualize Chagall's work with Itzik Feffer, which led to his first meeting with Ronch.

The Landsmanshaften Book Series includes a signed copy of the book Di Yiddishe Landsmanshaften foon New York (The Jewish Landsmanshaften of New York), as well as papers relating to the creation of the Landsmanshaften book.

The Writings Series consists of Ronch's creative and journalistic writings. Books include books of prose and poetry, primarily written in Yiddish. Ronch's two serialized novels are preserved as compilations of newspaper clippings placed in composition books.

The Collected Publications Series is made up of three publications (or photocopies of publications) found in Ronch's papers: a 1902 issue of the periodical Di Yiddishe Familie, which includes an article by Sholem Asch, the 1982 Bulletin of the Reuben Brainin Children's Clinic in Tel Aviv, and photocopied pages of a Holocaust Memorial/Yizkor Book for Konin that includes likely relatives of Ronch under the surname Ronchkovski.

The Correspondence Series consists of a single postcard from Sol Liptzin, a scholar of Yiddish and German literature.

The Photographs Series includes photos of Ronch with his students at the Chicago shul where he taught, photos of Ronch giving lectures at Camp Kinderland and Camp Lakeland, and photos of Ronch with as-yet unidentified colleagues sometime in the 1930s.

The Clippings and Ephemera Series comprises newspaper clippings and ephemera relating to Ronch's activities or colleagues, as well as a obituaries for Ronch.

This collection documents the activities of Jacques Girard, who was an activist, organizer, and researcher of LGTBQ issues in France from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The collection consists of records relating to organizations that Girard was a part of, personal research papers, and manuscripts and print ephemera. Many of the materials are in original folders labeled by Girard. The collection contains three series: General Records, CUARH Records, and Research Records.

This collection documents the activities of Jacques Girard, who was an activist, organizer, and researcher of LGTBQ issues in France from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The collection consists of three manuscript boxes of records relating to organizations that Girard was a part of, personal research papers. These documents include correspondence, meeting minutes and articles of incorporation, press releases, flyers, manuscripts, financial statements, and newspaper clippings from 1975 to 1999. Many of the materials are in original folders labeled by Girard. The collection contains three series: General Records, CUARH Records, and Research Records.

The Jean Fagan Yellin/Harriet Jacobs Research Collection (1855-2017, majority between 1968-2010) spans approximately 10 linear feet with 7 series covering the work done by Jean Fagan Yellin on Harriet Jacobs and related materials on slavery, abolitionism, and feminism. The collection includes correspondence, drafts, reports, notes and annotations, clippings, photographs, and various research files collected, created, and utilized for Yellin's research, writings and publications, and speaking engagements to public and scholarly audiences. Notable materials include extensive evidence of Yellin's engagement with public and scholarly audiences on topics related to Harriet Jacobs, research files and other materials related to Harriet Jacobs and individuals originating from the 1800s and descendants, and files including correspondence proving the authenticity of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" as an autobiographical work by Harriet Jacobs.

The Jean Fagan Yellin/Harriet Jacobs Research Collection is approximately 10 linear feet and contains materials between 1855-2017 and primarily between 1968-2010. The collection focuses on the work of Jean Fagan Yellin with most attention to Yellin's research and engagement regarding Harriet Jacobs through correspondence, research files, drafts, reports, clippings, photographs, clippings, and other collected materials.

Other notable topics include her works on antislavery, abolitionism, and feminism during the nineteenth century through additional writings, drafts, and research that would connect with Yellin's work on Harriet Jacobs. Notable strengths of the collection include files related to extensive outreach efforts to public and scholarly audiences about Harriet Jacobs, research files with notes and other documentation including those created during Harriet Jacobs' lifetime, correspondence with the North Carolina archivist George Stevenson in researching "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", and a 1993 interview with Dr. William Knox Jr., a family member of Harriet Jacobs.

Audiovisual materials in the collection have not been digitized.

Jean Fagan Yellin also used extensive abbreviations to describe various professional associations, organizations, projects, and titles within individual files and folder names such as the following:

AAUW: American Association of University Women AHA: American Historical Association ALA: American Literature Association ASA: American Studies Association CAAR: Collegium for African American Research CLA: College Language Association EIAAT: European Imprints of African American Texts HJFP: "Harriet Jacobs Family Papers" ILSG: "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" MELUS: Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States MLA: Modern Language Association NCFA: National Collection of Fine Arts, now Smithsonian American Art Museum NEH: National Endowment for the Humanities NEMLA: Northeast Modern Language Association NHI: National Humanities Institute NYC: New York City Humanities Program OHA: Organization of American Historians SHA: Southern Historical Association

Artwork, ephemera, journals, and underground publications (samizdat) related to protest movements in Ukraine.

Artwork, ephemera, journals, and underground publications (samizdat) related to protest movements in Ukraine, particularly the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests and the 2010-2013 Feministychna Ofenzyva marches on International Women's Day.

The publications file includes a variety of samizdat publications, including a 2013 script called the "October Project," a book of poems by Vasyl Lozynsky coupled with a samizdat poetry chapbook cut from a National Geographic cover, cover art for the zine Freaker Unltd., and 13 issues of Lystok, an underground poetry publication produced in Kyiv. The journals file includes two issues of Spilne and "Circling the Square: Maidan and Cultural Insurgency in Ukraine," a literary journal special issue about Maidan.

The art exhibitions series includes exhibition guides and catalogues from nearly 30 years of art exhibitions in Ukraine. The exhibitions feature a range of Ukrainian artists and cover subjects like feminism, censorship, and the history of Ukraine's artistic movements.

The conference proceedings are from a 2017 conference held in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine to address the movement to preserve Soviet-era modernist architecture in the face of decommunization laws.

The ephemera folders include stickers, artwork, and pamphlets created by Ukrainian artists. The majority of these are from the 2011 Feminist Offensive on International Women's Day.

The artwork series includes a protest poster meant to accompany the exhibit guide in Box 2, Folder 1, signed and printed posters collected by the Izolyatsia Cultural Center, and a calendar featuring contrasting photos of Kyiv past and present.

Finally, the inventory series contains the detailed item-level inventory Zychowicz sent with the materials, as well as an inventory created by the processing archivist to show where the numbered items in Zychowicz's inventory have been placed in the collection.

Correspondence, manuscripts, A/V materials, journals, artwork, and realia from the life and works of Postbeat poet Jim Cohn.

The correspondence series is made up of letters Cohn sent and received throughout his career. Cohn sorted the correspondence according to the person he was corresponding with, making special room for his two primary correspondents, fellow poets David Cope and Randy Roark.

The ASL Poetry and Poetics, Beat and Postbeat Studies, and Disability series contain records of Cohn's research, writings, and work related to each subject. Similarly, the Research Notebooks contain materials related to Cohn's archival research about poets Paul Blackburn and Ezra Pound.

The Audio Files and Books in Print files series are papers relating to Cohn's recordings and publications, respectively. Related A/V materials were placed in the A/V series, while published books were separated for cataloging.

The Education, Juvenilia, and Photographs series contain papers, photography, and artifacts from Cohn's personal life from childhood through the 2000s.

The Editor/Co-editor and Publisher series consist of magazines that Cohn helped edit or publish, as well as files related to the same.

The Manuscripts series contains Cohn's manuscripts, organized by genre.

Fine Arts includes two of Cohn's art projects, making paper and printing poetry on Tibetan prayer flags.

The Promotional Materials series includes papers relating to Cohn's public career and self-promotion, as well as performance reviews from a former job. The Interviews series contains both interviews of Cohn and interviews with other poets conducted by Cohn.

The Teaching Guides series are papers related to poetry workshops Cohn has taught.

The Museum of American Poetics series consists of printouts of various sections and updates to the website over the years.

Finally, the A/V materials series largely consists of CD and tape recordings of Cohn's spoken word music poetry. Also included are CD backups of the MAP website, recordings of Allen Ginsberg, and Ann Waldman's 2003 film, "Makeup on Empty Space." Please reach out to the Special Collections Research Center for information about accessing these materials.

The Jonathan Demme Papers consist of materials related to Demme's extensive filmography from 1970-2008, including "The Silence of the Lambs". Materials are arranged chronologically by project, and cover most aspects of pre- and post-production, as well as publicity and related awards. As of November 2023, only the "Silence of the Lambs" series has been processed and made available. Additional series will be completed at a later date.

The Jonathan Demme Papers consists of approximately 150 linear feet of materials from 1970-2000. Materials include correspondence, legal and business documents, and photographs, as well as extensive documentation of film production, including pre- and post-production phases. In some cases, awards and publicity materials are also included.

The "Silence of the Lambs" series consists of approximately 13 linear feet. The material follows the project through the phases of production, and includes many drafts of the final script and novel adaptation, as well as extensive pre-production and location scouting information.

As of November 2023, only the "Silence of the Lambs" series has been processed and made available to researchers.

This collection consists of original artwork by Ken Dahl/Gabby Schulz, an American cartoonist.

The majority of the collection consists of ink and watercolor pages from Dahl's/Schulz's graphic novels, particularly Sick and Welcome to the Dollhouse. The journal, labeled "Sick etc." by the artist, contains drafting for Sick as well as some personal journaling. Other artwork includes various screenprint transparencies and a poster for a 2017 Black Lives Matter flag-raising event.

LAGROC (Lesbians and Gay Rights on Campus/Lesbian and Gay Rights Organizing Committee), otherwise known as LAGROC or LaGROC, was a student-led organization that advocated for increased rights for lesbians and gay men at the University of Michigan through outreach, protests, and other activism efforts during the 1980s. The collection contains materials collected by Carol Wayman and Alicia Lucksted, who were also organization members, about early lesbian and gay groups on campus and those created by LAGROC. Materials include clippings, meeting minutes, correspodnece, various ephemera such as posters, flyers, and brochures, reports, and transcripts for radio plays.

The LAGROC Collection includes materials from circa 1983-1989 in one manuscript box of approximately 0.25 linear feet.

Materials include clippings, meeting minutes, correspondence, various ephemera such as posters, flyers, and brochures, reports, and transcripts for two radio plays. They detail early lesbian and gay groups on campus and LAGROC's activities to add "sexual orientation" to the University of Michigan bylaws, advocacy and outreach efforts such as Lesbian and Gay Awareness Week, support groups, meeting minutes, and protests.

The Leo and Mary Sarkisian Collection consists of recordings of the Music Time in Africa radio program (1966-2021), the contents of the Leo Sarkisian VOA Music Library, and related contextual documents and artifacts, including the personal papers of its creator Leo Sarkisian and his wife Mary Sarkisian. The bulk of the collection is source material for the production and broadcast of Music Time in Africa, including copies of the radio broadcasts and scripts, recordings of African music compiled for use in the show, and original field recordings made by Leo Sarkisian between approximately 1959 and 1975. Other recordings include commercially produced content in LP, 45 rpm and cassette tape formats. The collection documents the public diplomacy exercised by the United States through Voice of America programming in Africa and the wide variety of musical styles of newly independent African nations.

The Leo and Mary Sarkisian collection (220 linear feet) consists of recordings of the Voice of America's Music Time in Africa radio program (1965–2021), the contents of the Leo Sarkisian VOA Music Library, and related contextual documents, personal papers, artifacts, and musical instruments. The University of Michigan Library established the Leo and Mary Sarkisian Collection in 2018 by consolidating previous gifts and donations from the Sarkisians, long-term loans of archival materials from the Voice of America, and digital reproductions created by the University of Michigan. In 2004, Leo Sarkisian formally donated musical instruments from his personal collection to the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments. He followed up in 2012 and 2015 with donations of personal papers and artifacts collected during travels in Africa, documented by a signed deed of gift. In 2008, the University of Michigan negotiated a Memo of Understanding with the Voice of America to digitize and make available for teaching and research 360 rare and unique audio recordings made by Leo Sarkisian in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, the Voice of America transferred the entire contents of the Leo Sarkisian Music Library to the University of Michigan for purposes of research and teaching. An extended Memo of Understanding between UM and VOA governs the archival processing of the loaned materials as well as permissions to digitize materials and make them available for teaching and research.

The bulk of the collection is source material for the production and broadcast of Music Time in Africa, including copies of the radio broadcasts and scripts, recordings of African music compiled for use in the show. Because Sarkisian had no mandate from VOA to create and retain an archival copy of every broadcast show, the completeness of the surviving MTIA radio shows varies. The most complete representation includes the audio recording of the full broadcast and the full script. Some instances of the show include only the musical inserts (without the host's voice) and the script. A number of complete show audio recordings lack associated scripts. Some individual scripts are not matched with surviving radio show recordings.

Among the VOA Music Library materials are recordings from Sarkisian's prior work with Tempo records, where he trained as a recording engineer. This small group of materials dates back as early as 1949, when Sarkisian began traveling in Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) making field recordings for the Hollywood-based label. In 1958, Irving "Colonel" Fogel, the president of Tempo sent Sarkisian to Ghana, where he made over 100 recordings and donated the tapes to Radio Ghana. He and Mary established a Tempo office in Conakry, Guinea. There in 1962, Leo met Edward R. Murrow, who was then head of the United States Information Agency. Murrow invited Sarkisian to join the Voice of America (VOA) as Music Director of VOA's Africa Program Center in Monrovia, Liberia.

Leo and Mary traveled extensively to make field recordings and launch a new radio show focused on traditional African music. Leo recounted that the Music Time in Africa radio show first broadcast in May1965; the earliest recorded broadcast of MTIA in the collection is from May 22, 1966. The geographical coverage of the collection includes 46 African countries, the US, and other locations where Sarkisian worked. The African countries represented in the collection are: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic, Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The collection contains evidence of Sarkisian's work through VOA's Program Center in Monrovia, Liberia, to train recording technicians and program directors at radio stations in several African countries. Notable among these were Radio Tanzania, Radio Comores, Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne (Chad), Radio Dahomey, Radio Rurale (Burkina Faso), Radio Burundi, and Radio Douala (Cameroon). The VOA Music Library Tape Recordings series includes tapes sent to the VOA from these stations.

The collection documents the production of Music Time in Africa as a pre-recorded analog program. Leo Sarkisian worked primarily with quarter-inch open reel magnetic audio tape. He assembled the musical selections for each Music Time in Africa program, and composed and typed the scripts for the host to read, almost verbatim. A recording engineer interspersed the musical selections on cue and simultaneously created a full recording of the 30-minute show. The show typically followed a format that book-ended field recordings of traditional music with several commercially recorded popular songs. Traditional musical content was drawn from Leo's field recordings and other sources.

The show's theme music was composed and performed by Geraldo Pino and the Heartbeats of Sierra Leone from an original recording that Leo made of the band. The shows are remarkable for the breadth of genres represented in the programming selections and the geographical coverage of the collection. Sarkisian collaborated with composers and scholars including J.H. Kwabena Nkeita, Duro Ladipo, Bai T. Moore, and representatives of the radio stations where he trained engineers and program directors. The Voice of America broadcast Sarkisian's pre-recorded shows on Sundays at 18:30 GMT across the African continent, via shortwave radio relays. Originally the VOA was broadcast only outside the United States. Legislation signed in 2013 made the broadcasts accessible to US audiences. Today the MTIA show is one hour long and encompasses a variety of social media content including blogs and videos of interviews with guest artists.

Four hosts gave voice to Music Time in Africa during the four decades that Leo Sarkisian produced the show. Bryn Poole, the spouse of a VOA station officer in Monrovia, Liberia, hosted the program between 1965 and 1967. Miatta Fahnbulleh, a Liberian musician, served as interim host in 1968 while the VOA broadcast facilities in Monrovia relocated permanently to Washington, DC. In 1968 VOA staff broadcaster Susan Moran assumed hosting responsibilities in Washington, DC and served continuously in this role until April 1978. Leo Sarkisian recruited experienced radio announcer Rita Rochelle in 1978 to be the host and public face of Music Time in Africa, a role she filled until April 2004. Occasionally, Leo Sarkisian, dubbed the Music Man in Africa, joined the formal host in the studio to narrate the context of particular musical selections or to regale the audience with stories of his recording trips to the African continent.

In addition to announcing the songs, the scripts provide contextual information. The hosts often explain the song lyrics and describe the places, peoples, and styles (e.g. dance, lullaby, or ceremonial), or musical instruments. The scripts also include announcements of birthdays, requests, and other responses to fan mail, especially during the height of the broadcast years coinciding with Rita Rochelle's tenure as host. The MTIA shows include occasional interviews with guest performers. Under the general direction of Leo Sarkisian, ethnomusicologist Matthew Lavoie assumed responsibility in April 2004 for producing and hosting Music Time in Africa. Recast as an hour-long program broadcast from Washington, DC to the African continent via shortwave and FM signals, Lavoie's MTIA also utilized digital recording technologies to assemble the audio portions of the program from the extensive analog resources in the Leo Sarkisian Music Library at VOA.

To supplement his hosting responsibilities, Lavoie wrote a blog, "African Music Treasures," for the VOA website. The 52 currently existing blog posts compare and contrast music from across the African continent, provide biographical background on musicians, describe musical genres and instruments, and highlight aspects of Leo Sarkisian's original field recordings. The blog posts also engage other contemporaneous bloggers from Europe and the US (e.g., Likembe, Awesome Tapes from Africa, Benn Loxo du Taccu, Worldservice) in a growing discussion on the topic of African musical recordings. The blogs represent Lavoie's areas of special interest. Matthew Lavoie's blog posts remain available through the VOA website and are preserved as fixed PDF files as part of this series. The Internet Archive preserves a small selection of Matthew Lavoie MTIA shows that were uploaded by an anonymous third-party user not affiliated with VOA.

In 2012, Heather Maxwell, an ethnomusicologist with a Ph.D. from Indiana University specializing in African music, took over producing and hosting the Music Time in Africa radio show. She continues to the present day. She has maintained the MTIA-VOA blog and expanded the format of the show to include video interviews (available on YouTube). Maxwell's shows (audio or audio/video only) since 2014 to the present and her blog posts are accessible through the VOA website.

Archival processing established thirteen archival series groupings on what was a richly organic working music library of audio recordings, program documentation, and personal artifacts. The organization of the collection reflects the processes that went into producing the Music Time in Africa radio show, the administrative functions and history of Leo Sarkisian's career, and the structure of the reference library that he built and maintained at the Voice of America's headquarters in Washington, DC.

The majority of the collection consists of audio recordings in analog and digital formats. Audio recordings include complete and incomplete copies of extant Music Time in Africa broadcasts, along with the audio source materials that Leo Sarkisian used to construct the radio broadcasts. The extant MTIA radio shows are compound objects of audio recordings and typed scripts, often existing in multiple copies and multiple versions. Source media range from a preponderance of open-reel quarter-inch magnetic tapes (acetate or polyester base) to LP and 45 rpm records, cassette tapes, digital minidiscs, and CD's. Complementing the extensive audio materials are small collections of supporting documents, personal papers, artifacts, and musical instruments.

The National Endowment for the Humanities supported the digitization of the most complete versions of Leo Sarkisian's MTIA broadcasts. MTIA broadcasts produced and hosted by Matthew Lavoie and Heather Maxwell are in born digital formats as separate parts of the collection. The University of Michigan digitized a selection of unique field recordings created by Leo Sarkisian during his travels in Africa, along with distinctive portions of the source materials that Sarkisian utilized in the MTIA shows. The Internet Archives contains a small portion of Matthew Lavoie's MTIA radio shows. Heather Maxwell's radio shows (also born-digital) broadcast since 2016 are available through the VOA News website. Blog posts on Music Time in Africa and its African musical heritage created by Matthew Lavoie and Heather Maxwell are available on the VOA website.

Photographs, correspondence, ephemera, and trophies relating to the Thompson family of Detroit. While most of the material relates to the elder Thompsons (Mamie L. and W.A.) and their work with the NAACP, there is also a scrapbook highlighting the accomplishments of their son, Arthur L. Thompson, the first black medical officer in the Navy. Highlights include both formal portraits and informal family snapshots, correspondence related to the NAACP (including a signed letter from Walter White), and trophies the elder Thompsons received in recognition of their service. Most material dates from the 1920s-40s, with smaller amounts of material up to the 1960s.

The collection is approximately 2.25 linear feet. The bulk of the collection is photographs, both in albums and loose, totaling more than 400 photos. Some are posed, formal shots and others are informal snapshots or Polaroids taken between the 1920s and the late 1960s. A small number of photos (presumably of the Thomspsons' ancestors) predate the 1920s. The photos mostly depict the home lives and recreation of the Thompsons and friends. Awards recognize the Thompsons' contributions to the NAACP and fundraising efforts. Correspondence and newspaper clippings are limited to one sparse folder apiece, and again mainly concern the activities of the Detroit branch of the NAACP. Also included is the guest book for an "Interracial Fellowship party" hosted by the Thompsons in December of 1950 and a scrapbook documenting their son's military career.