Collections

Papers of Pun Plamondon, activist, writer, and journalist who in 1968 co-founded the White Panther Party with John Sinclair. Papers include material related to Plamondon's political activism in the late 1960s-early 1970s, material related to the White Panthers Party, the Rainbow People's Party, and Plamondon's relationship with John Sinclair, as wells as material related to law suits against Plamondon and his trials, most notably United States v. U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, et al. and the State of Michigan v. Craig Blazier and Lawrence R. (Pun) Plamondon. Also material related to his autobiographical writings.

The Pun Plamondon papers mostly include material related to his political activism in the late 1960s-early 1970s, legal trials, and imprisonment.

The Quaker Collection consists of miscellaneous letters, diaries, and documents relating to the religious and social history of the Society of Friends in America during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Quaker collection consists of miscellaneous letters, diaries, and documents related to the religious and social history of the Society of Friends in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. These items offer insights into Quaker's daily activities and concerns, such as family life, education, and attending meetings, as well as their participation in various social reform movements, such as abolition, treatment of Native Americans, prison improvements, temperance, and pacifism. The collection also documents internal divergences of American Quakerism in the 19th century, particularly the social and doctrinal disputes that culminated in the Hicksite and Wilburite schisms.

• 1707: A manuscript copy of the death warrant of William Leddra, the last of four Quakers (including Mary Dyer) executed in Massachusetts Bay colony for their religious beliefs
• July 26, 1755: A letter from Alexander Colden to Sir William Johnson voicing frustration with Quakers who refuse to support the war effort in Pennsylvania, and an announcement of General Braddock's defeat
• August 4-12 and 17, 1761: Two accounts, one by an anonymous woman, of Quaker presence at Treaty negotiations held at Easton, Pennsylvania, between the government of Pennsylvania and the Six Nations tribes. Discussed are the negotiations, Quaker-Indian interactions, and the role of Quaker women in the Society
• [After 1770]: An account by an anonymous author of a conference with Native Americans, mostly of the Minnisink Tribe
• October 13, 1829: A letter from Phoebe Post Willis of Jericho, New York, to Isaac Post on the death of John Hicks and strife between Orthodox and Hicksite Quakers
• March 10, 1843: A letter from Ethan Foster of Westerly, Rhode Island, to Thomas B. Gould on Wilburite-Gurneyite strife in his local meeting, and the disownment of Wilbur
• [After 1863 July]: A letter describing a meeting between Abraham Lincoln and five Quaker prisoners of war, who had been forced into the Confederate army, captured by the Union, and held at Fort Delaware
• Various dates: Reports, minutes, and epistles from yearly friends meetings in America and Great Britain

A Dearborn, Michigan writer and television producer. Collection includes digital materials of the interviews and film footage used in the production of his documentary, "New beginnings: the story of the Islamic Center of America."

The Raad Alawan collection consists of digital materials of the interview and film footage used in the production of his documentary, "New beginnings: the story of the Islamic Center of America."

Rachel Ann White of Weymouth, Massachusetts, kept this diary between 1834 and 1837 while she was between the ages of 17 and 20. The diary begins with White's trip to New York City in the summer of 1834. Entries after White's return home in mid-August 1834 shorten and become more abbreviated, giving accounts of her family, social, and educational life.

Her trip to New York was spent sight-seeing and visiting with friends and family. She visited such places as Niblo's Garden Theater, a Jewish synagogue, Trinity Church, the city of Hoboken in New Jersey, Scudder's American Museum, and Castle Garden (where she saw a balloon ascension by Eugene Robinson on July 4, 1834). She described the American Museum at length in her entry of July 29, 1834, seeing such things as "all manner of birds," "beasts and fish," and a number of wax figures in a room that also contained "a great number of Indian relics consisting of canoes, paddles, ornaments…[and] the skeleton of a child found in a cave in one of our western states."

White also attended the funeral procession of the Marquis de Lafayette on June 26, 1834, and visited a relative at the Bloomingdale Asylum at the end of her trip. After visiting at the Asylum, White returned home, describing in part the damage left after the New York anti-abolitionist riots of 1834.

When back in Weymouth, she spent her time going to meetings, socializing with friends and family, taking trips to the beach, going to church, playing cards, attending lectures on temperance, quilting, and more. White mentioned her studies, which apparently included ciphers, history, and especially astronomy, the latter of which White attended several lectures on and viewed the moon through a telescope while in New York.

In 1835, White became a schoolteacher. Details regarding her social life are frequent within the volume, including a close friendship: she spoke highly of a woman named Betsey, experiencing "more joy on meeting [her] than I can express" (September 23, 1835). She wrote about Betsey's health scares that led to her death in October of 1836, for which White was present: "the cold grave has taken to its bosom, one who with a single exception, is my dearest friend. Now futurity seems a blank. I have nothing to anticipate but gloom. Oh why was she taken! Would it have been me!" (October 27, 1836).

White did not make another entry until December 26, 1836; Betsey's death affected her deeply and she has remained at home with the exception of going to meetings. The last entry on the same day mentions a debating meeting she attended: "the question was whether the signs of the times were favorable to the perpetuity of a republican form of government. Mr. Lincoln, argued, nobly in the affirmative."

Overall, entries relate to social visits, attending temperance lectures, domestic affairs, education, and entering into the profession of teaching.

The Railroad building in Québec photograph album contains 154 photographs that document a survey team operating in various remote locations in the Canadian province of Québec from May 1906 to September 1909 during the construction of the National Transcontinental Railway.

The Railroad building in Québec photograph album contains 154 photographs that document a survey team operating in various remote locations in the Canadian province of Québec from May 1906 to September 1909 during the construction of the National Transcontinental Railway.

The album (18 x 29.5 cm) has brown leather covers with "Photographs" stamped in gold on the front. Most images are dated and are arranged in roughly chronological order from May 1906 to September 1909, but there is no identification of people or places. The presence of surveying equipment in several images and the coverage of many different places on the railway’s route indicate a traveling survey team as the likely source of the photographs. The group seems to have been present at all stages of the project, from clearing the land to laying the track bed to building overpasses.

Contents consist of images of worker encampments and log cabin villages, landscapes, scenes from Québec City’s tricentennial in July 1908, railway workers and women in camp, trestle construction, unidentified towns in various stages of development, and two portraits of Native Americans. Also of interest are numerous images featuring surveying tools and equipment as well as cameras.

This atlas compiled by R. A. L. Robinson features small maps of the nations of the world, with descriptions of different societies (education, government, etc.) and comparisons to the United States.

This atlas compiled by R. A. L. Robinson features small maps of the nations of the world, with descriptions of different societies (education, government, etc.) and comparisons to the United States.

The majority of the regions represented in the volume are within Africa, Asia, and Europe. The descriptions of regions and countries include disparaging and condescending language.

Ypsilanti, Michigan African American attorney who was active in community affairs, particularly in areas of civil rights and education. President of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Ypsilanti-Willow Run Branch, 1981-1982 and 1987 to 1998. Correspondence, papers associated with his involvement in NAACP activities, documents relating to judgeship candidacy in 1992, printed material culled from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebrations, and papers documenting service to Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church.

The Raymond G. Mullins papers are mainly comprised of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People material; papers related to his Washtenaw judgeship candidacy in 1992; printed material from Martin Luther King Day celebrations; material related to his various organizational affiliations; and documents representing his years of service to Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The 6.5 linear feet collection covers the years 1953 to 2015. Record types include an audiocassette, awards, correspondence, clippings, event information, publications, organizational records, and photographs.

This collection consists of eight letters written by Rebecca M. Bradford between 1853 and 1857 while living and working in Boston, Massachusetts; Washington, D.C., and New York and Brooklyn, New York. They document her laboring as a domestic servant, residing in boarding houses while pregnant and caring for a young infant, and travelling with a baby.

This collection consists of eight letters written by Rebecca M. Bradford between 1853 and 1857 while living and working in Boston, Massachusetts; Washington, D.C., and New York and Brooklyn, New York. They document her laboring as a domestic servant, residing in boarding houses while pregnant and caring for a young infant, and travelling with a baby. She references miscarriage and the death of one of her young siblings, symptoms of pregnancy, and boarding house owners and workers helping to assist with infant care, including at least one enslaved woman in Washington, D.C. (see April 3, 1857).

Church history and photographs taken throughout the first 25 years of the church's existence.

Photographs consist of church members, activities, and buildings.

The Rehoboth Beach, Mountain Island, Norfolk photograph album contains 56 cyanotypes, 70 snapshots, and 1 lithograph depicting people and various locations along the eastern coast of the United States.

The Rehoboth Beach, Mountain Island, Norfolk photograph album contains 56 cyanotypes, 70 snapshots, and 1 lithograph depicting people and various locations along the eastern coast of the United States.

The album (14.5 x 18 cm) has brown cloth covers with “Photographs” embossed on the front. Images of note include numerous outdoor shots and studio portraits of women and children, a cyanotype of three women sitting on a set of carriage wheels captioned "I like Ruth best of all," a cyanotype of two women sitting on a dock with the inscription "Yacht. Rare. ‘Island Heights’ July 27th 1901," an African American man with a horse, and a trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in the summer of 1900. Other photographs of interest include pictures of the Lewes family who were the owners of Rehoboth Beach, the Norfolk Conservatory in the City Park, an 1899 trip by four women to Mountain Island, North Carolina, La Fayette Square in Baltimore, and a picture of a young man and woman with a caption suggesting they had recently been engaged.