Collections

The Bentley Historical Library houses the Michigan Historical collections, which documents the history of Michigan; and the University Archives and Records Program, which maintains the historical record of the University of Michigan. Founded in 1935 as the Michigan Historical Collections, directors of the library include Lewis G. Vander Velde, F. Clever Bald, Robert M. Warner, Francis X. Blouin, Jr., and Terrence J. McDonald. The records include administrative files, correspondence, meeting materials, files on exhibits, archived websites, images, audio-visual media, and documentation of special projects such as the Vatican Archives project.

The records of the Bentley Historical Library were received in six main accessions 1991, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2014. Together the records comprise 79 linear feet, plus two oversize boxes, and oversize folder, three flat file drawers, and more than 16 GB of data spanning the years 1935-2014. The researcher should consult the summary box list on page vii for a quick overview of the materials in the collection.

The vertical file contains clippings, pamphlets, reprints, and other miscellaneous materials relating to persons, places, organizations, and topical subjects relating to Michigan and the University of Michigan.

Correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera from award-winning novelist, journalist, and anarchist Cara Hoffman.

The correspondence series contains digital correspondence between Hoffman and colleagues, as well as letters sent to Hoffman. The creator separated digital correspondence from Goddard College, Jon Frankel, and Rachel Pollack from other letters. These correspondents' folders are arranged alphabetically. Their back-and-forth with Hoffman largely consists of discussions about craft or admissions to Goddard College. Additional correspondence is ordered chronologically. Many letters date from the 80s and 90s and concern the personal lives of Hoffman's correspondents.

The Works series consists of notes, manuscripts, proofs, and publications of Hoffman's novels, short stories, and articles. Materials are grouped by work. The bulk of materials relate to Hoffman's most recent novel, Running, which is based loosely on her early travels in Greece in the 1980s and 1990s.

The collection also includes 5 of Hoffman's personal journals, dating from 2000 to roughly 2018. These journals include notes and writings related to Hoffman's writing process and her work on her MFA. Following the journals are Hoffman's Goddard diploma and handful of ephemera from Hoffman's travels.

This collection is the organizational records of Central Michigan University (CMU) Athletics, collected by CMU Athletics, consisting mainly of documentation of CMU athletic teams, athletes, and athletic staff, publications, some photographic materials, and other materials.

This collection is the organizational records of Central Michigan University (CMU) Athletics, collected by CMU Athletics, consisting mainly of documentation of CMU athletic teams, athletes, and athletic staff, publications, some photographic materials, and other materials. Processing is ongoing. Materials are mainly in overall good condition. The collection is incomplete and some materials are faded, especially ditto copies, and are hard to read. Some materials, mostly scrapbooks or materials that were in binders, suffered water damage due to flooding in the Athletics basement. Water damage items are so noted in the Box and Folder Listing.

The two largest series in this collection are Team Sports and then Student and Staff folders. These series document, to varying degree of completeness, all sports that existed at CMU up to 2019, mostly as official sports teams and some on what we would now consider the intramural level.

Materials in the Team Sports series, 1896-2019, 50.5 cubic feet (in Boxes 1-51) usually includes statistics, publications, and historical materials as well as other materials. The Team Sports series is organized alphabetically by sport and materials are organized chronologically and alphabetically by folder label within each team. Statistics includes box scores or results and may include team and individual results or box scores. Publications in the series are mainly from CMU, regional and national events and athletic organizations such as programs, fliers, facts and other brochures, variously titled news releases, and media guides. Multiple sports were featured in some seasonal brochures. Usually there is a copy of each program and media guide in each Team's folders for that season. Please see the description of the Publication Series below for more information about CMU publications. Another predominate form of publications in the series is newspaper clippings, from the Mount Pleasant area, Michigan, and out-of-state newspapers. Audiovisual material in the series includes: photographs, negatives, and galley proofs, and scrapbooks. The majority of the photographic materials and moving images in multiple formats remains in the Athletics building as of 2022. Other materials often found in the series such as historical materials folders listing annual statistics and team members, memos; letters of intent; student athletes, and lists of potential team members. Early sports and early women's sports have far less documentation than later sports. For example, both Men’s and Women's Cross-Country materials are few and often easily contained for an academic year in one folder. In contrast, the amount of documentation of the main sports of football and men's basketball is vast. There are also missing years of materials in various Team folders. For example, both Men’s and Women's Cross-Country materials are few and often easily contained for an academic year in one folder. High school sports camps and events held on campus are also documented in the collection. In Box 20 there is a rare letter about the need to cut spending on athletics publications. The contents of the folders for team sports are organized according to the wishes of CMU. Athletics from front to back in folders: photographs, publications, statistics, clippings. Abbreviations in the finding aid are those used by Athletics. The first time the abbreviation appears in the Box and Folder Listing in Team Sports it is spelled out. Later boxes may include some Team Sports material. For example Box 66 includes Gymnastic Meets folders with additional Gymnastic materials.

CMU. Athletics Student and Staff series is the largest series (originally approximately 50 cubic feet in 50 boxes). This is an incomplete series. Folders for some athletes and staff were missing before the collection was transferred to the Clarke. There are two subseries: folders of CMU student athletes who played on CMU sports teams Box 80-forward) and folders of CMU staff (Box 51-part of Box 54). Some staff folders are mixed in with the student folders. Athletics sometimes had a folder in both the staff and student series for a person who began as a CMU student athlete and later served in a staff position. CMU staff series includes: coaches, assistant coaches, graduate student assistants, CMU sports announcers, physicians, trainers, Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) commissioners, SID (Sports Information Department, which generated newsletters), and even recognized CMU fans, such as Bob Kuck, the 1985 Baseball Fan of the Year (approximately 4 cubic feet in 4 boxes). The contents of each folder varies in amount, with prominent athletes and coaches having more material. In contrast most folders contain a single photograph or one to a few pieces of information, either text or photographic in nature. Types of materials typically found in these folders include photographs, usually mug shot-style, clippings, CMU news releases of various titles, statistics, and resumes, applications, and CMU’s Sports Information Background Form, all of which detail their biographical and sports history. The series is organized with coach boxes first, then students, alphabetically by surname. Labels include the name of the person, last name first, and the position/s they held or sport/s they played, and the dates spanning the contents of the material in the folder. In cases where there was no position specified, the processing students and the archivist researched through CMU publications to determine the person’s position. In a few cases where the label was entirely missing and the contents of the folder consisted of a single unidentified mug shot style photograph, we checked to see if the photograph included a negative number with a year. Most of the photographs in the collection were taken by CMU. University Communications staff or contract photographs who used a number sequence for negatives. For example, 77-23-4 means it is the fourth photograph on the 23rd reel of film taken in 1977. If we had a date, we researched through the sports teams programs for that year to identify the person. Sometimes there might be additional notes on a photograph that indicate which sport an unidentified athlete played or we could tell from an athlete’s physique which sports the athlete was most likely to play. We checked the specific sports programs for that year or years on either side of that date until we found a photograph which identified the athlete. The contents of the folders for coaches/staff/student athletes are organized according to the wishes of CMU. Athletics from front to back in folders: photographs, publications, statistics, clippings. Abbreviations in the finding aid are those used by Athletics. Sports teams names were spelled out and not abbreviated on these folder labels since the folders are not organized by teams. The only abbreviation widely used in this series is GA for Graduate Assistant.

The Publications series is another smaller series. It includes issues of multiple CMU publications including programs, media guides, Courtside, Football Sidelines, and variously titled news releases, which were not interfiled by CMU. Athletics into the Teams series. Notes about CMU Sports publications in general: The earlier, minor male and women’s sports publications were thinner and fewer with no or few images compared to their later twentieth century publications and to the main sports of football and men’s basketball. A page or two of dittoed information for the cross-country men’s team annual information contrasts with the same year’s glossy media guide and individual game programs for football. But even early football and men’s basketball publications were not as large and complete as later versions. In the late 1970s, for example, few of the football team members’ photographs appear in the programs or media guides. Photographs and statistical information about CMU athletes and coaches, statistics, season final box scores, scheduled games, historical information about star athlete and notable coaches, team and individual records and statistics, and similar information for opponent teams, including photographs, is usually included in the thicker programs and media guides.

Lastly is the Miscellaneous Series, 1896-2019, and undated, which is processed, 22 cubic feet (in 25 boxes and 1 Oversized scrapbook volume). Currently these box numbers begin with S(Scrapbook), T(Top, found on top of cabinets and tables), or M(Miscellaneous folders), until we complete processing. Miscellaneous includes materials that were originally in binders and scrapbooks documenting sports and some publications, some of which were damaged by flooding. Other parts of the Miscellaneous were waiting in piles to be interfiled mostly into the Teams Sports or Publications series when it was transferred to the Clarke, and includes publications, materials documenting CMU Athletics advertising, social media, marking plans and policies, budgets, scholastic and other achievement awards, CMU Athletic Hall of Fame lists, certifications for various team sports, banquets, training, reports, special projects and events such as the construction or opening of Theunissen Stadium, the Rose Center, and Indoor Athletic Complex (IAC), statistics, and more galley proofs. Six boxes of photographic materials remain to be processed.

Researchers may also be interested in several other collections with CMU athletic historical information in them, for example CMU photographs, CMU Information Services, CMU Public Relations and Marketing, and CMU UComm (Communications) at the Clarke. A small series of the collection, focused on CMU Hall of Fame Nominees and Winners, one film and one plaque was transferred to the Clarke before this main collection, and is separately cataloged. Also, CMU. Women's Softball and CMU Cross Country, Track and Field donated their own collections separately to the Clarke. A sample of athletics artifacts, including helmets, jerseys, trophies, and plaques, were transferred from CMU Athletics to the CMU Museum of Cultural and Natural History. Most photographs and recordings remain in the CMU. Athletics complex as per the wishes of CMU. Athletics.

Processing Notes:

We have followed requests for processing and withdrawing as per CMU. Athletics. The contents of the folders for team sports and coaches/staff/student athletes are organized according to the wishes of CMU. Athletics from front to back in folders: photographs, publications, statistics, clippings.

Abbreviations in the finding aid are those used by Athletics. The first time the abbreviation appears in the Box and Folder Listing it is spelled out.

The collection, as transferred to the Clarke, is incomplete. As of July 2024, 22 cubic feet of student folders and photographic materials remains to be processed in the Clarke. 26 cubic feet of materials have been withdrawn from the collection during processing. Withdrawn materials include: duplicates and peripheral material, as well as acidic or thermal copies of materials which were photocopied and the copies retained in the collection. Due to resources, the massive number of clippings in the collection, clippings were not photocopied or scanned as this would have doubled the processing time. News articles for digitized newspapers, such as CMLife and its predecessors CSLife and CNormalLife, or those that only peripherally mentioned CMU, were withdrawn, the rest of the clippings were retained. The only time CMLife articles were retained in the collection was when it was necessary, due to an absence of other information, to explain who someone was, as in the case of MAC Commissioners when only a photograph with a name on it was in the original folder. Non-Michigan materials were retained only if they document CMU athletic history, athletes, or coaches beyond a mere mention such as "CMU plays [or played] here Tues night." Volumes, mostly scrapbooks that were entirely acidic were retained in their current state. Social security numbers on rosters and lists were blacked out with a marker and then photocopied, and the copies were retained in the collection. Also, galley proofs and large caches of photographs were not individually sleeved due to Clarke resources.

This collection is the official organizational records of the CMU. Honors Program and the related Honors Council

This collection is the official organizational records of the CMU. Honors Program and the related Honors Council. The collection consists of seven series including: Student Biographies, 2006-2015 (Box 1 - 3), Honors Council Minutes, 1961-1995 (Boxes 3 - 4), Honors Council, Academic Senate, Minutes, 1996-2018 (Boxes 4 - 5), Subject Files, 1961-2021 (Boxes 5 - 8), Audiovisual Media, 1968-2012 (Boxes 9-10), Objects, 2013 (Box 11), and Posters, 1992-2009 (Oversize Folder 1). The Student Biographies series includes biographical sheets completed by competitors for Centralis scholarships and Freshmen Honors students. There is no standard format or medium. Besides the biographies, the sheets may include collages, art, poems, songs, and photographs. Some of the biographies originally included materials with battery-operated materials. Minutes usually include agendas, minutes, and attachments, such as communications, reports, proposals, scholarship information, and other materials. The Subject Files series begins with several histories of Honors describing its beginnings and major changes. Program history is also documented in the course description guides, course outlines, Beaver Island class trips, program reviews, policy and procedure manuals, fundraising, scholarships, and endowment scholarships. Information about Honors related organizations including the Honors Outreach Network, the Honors Philanthropic Society, and the Honors Alumni Board is included, as well as three self-published books. Audiovisual Media includes an advertisement video, an Inside Central segment with Ed Long, and many photographic materials, which are largely both undated and unidentified. However, there are folders of photographs organized by occasion or group, including Beaver Island, Centralis, The Claude S. Larzelere Trivia Contest, Directors, Talent Show, the Stratford Festival, and Volunteer Work, among others. The Objects series includes two plastic CMU Honors Program 2013 Winter Charity Ball wine glasses. The Posters series mostly pertain to Centralis Scholars, but also include a timeline on the program’s history, and a photograph of Maestria en Administration Internacional, Cohort 5, 1998. This last poster is the only item in Spanish in the collection. Overall, the collection is in very good physical condition. The collection is in alphabetical and chronological order by series. Boxes 1 through 9 are cubic foot boxes. Box 10 is a letter sized .25 cubic foot box. Box 11 is a small odd sized box.

Researchers may be interested in knowing information on specific scholarships can be found by searching for both the scholarship’s specific title and the general term “scholarships.” Handbooks may also be found in program reviews or Honors Council minutes for a given year. More information on specific classes might be in the Honors Council minutes. Additional information on Honors may be found in multiple CMU organizational records collections and the papers of Dr. Charles Westie which are in his wife, Ardith Westie’s, papers, in the Clarke Historical Library. Dr. Westie was one of the first people who pushed to create the honors program.

Processing Note: During processing 21.5 cubic feet of miscellaneous financial and other materials, evaluations, search committee materials, duplicates, reading and generic materials, lists of prospective students, social security numbers, and unidentified biographical sheets were withdrawn. Acidic materials were photocopied, and the copies were maintained within the collection. A sampling was retained of the following materials: Centralis Scholarships, Graduation materials and The Claude trivia contest materials. The Claude is otherwise recorded in CMLife. CMU mascot information was interfiled into the Clarke’s CMU Vertical files. Photographs, negatives, and biographical sheets were not rehoused due to the vast quantity in the collection and the Clarke’s current resources. In the biographies, wires and batteries were removed.

Certificates of Copyright and US Patents held by Central Michigan University.

Copyright and US Patents held by Central Michigan University (CMU) or people who worked for CMU and/or obtained patents with CMU support. One 2011 patent is Russian and in Russian. About .75 cubic feet of the collection is patents. The remainder of the collection, except for one legal-size folder, is Certificates of Copyright, with some applications, of CMU people, 1972-1979, 1981-1999 (Scattered) and 2000. Both the Certificates and Patents are printed forms with handwritten or typed information added. From 1985 forward the Patents include gold seals and ribbons. A few pieces of related correspondence are included with both the Patents and Certificates of Copyright. A legal-size folder with Application, Amendment, Fee Receipt from Bobby A. Howell and Erik W. Walles for Patent and Trademark (all copies), 1979, completes the collection. The collection is organized by size, alphabetically by format, and then chronologically. The collection is ongoing.

This collection consists almost entirely of a variety of Central Michigan University (CMU) published brochures, fliers, and a few posters, mostly generated for Admissions, used to recruit students to CMU, either generally or to specific colleges.

This collection consists almost entirely of a variety of Central Michigan University (CMU) published brochures, fliers, and a few posters, mostly generated for Admissions, used to recruit students to CMU, either generally or to specific colleges. The importance of this collection is in documenting how recruitment materials changed during COVID-19. Some of the Snapshot fliers are in Spanish, but the rest of the collection is in English. Two folders at the front of the box contain newsletters from the College of Education and Human Services (EHS) and the College of Humanities and Social ahnd Behavioral Sciences (HSBS). While these newsletters may have been used by recruiters, they were not originally intended for that purpose. The collection is organized alphabetically by topic and chronologically and is in excellent physical condition. Researchers may also be interested in other U Comm collections housed in the Clarke Historical Library.

Processing Note: 1.5 cubic feet of materials were withdrawn during processing, mostly duplicates, postcards, drafts, and miscellaneous materials. One folder of materials was added to Pres. Davies’ papers. Three folders of materials were added to President Ross’ papers. Two folders were added to the CMU Vertical Files. Three issues, one each of three cataloged series titles, were cataloged separately.

The organizational records include: an organizational history, account books, Christmas bird count reports, constitution and bylaws, meeting minutes with attachments (earlier years are in volumes), membership lists, miscellaneous, newsletters, newspaper and magazine clippings (copies), pamphlets, photographs, programs and property materials.

The organizational records include: an organizational history, account books, Christmas bird count reports, constitution and bylaws, meeting minutes with attachments (earlier years are in volumes), membership lists, miscellaneous, newsletters, newspaper, and magazine clippings (copies), pamphlets, photographs, programs, and property materials. The collection is organized by alphabetically and chronologically. The collection is ongoing.

A copy of William Theunissen’s Chippewa Valley Audubon Club, 1951-1992 history of the Club is separately cataloged in the Clarke.

Processing Note: Duplicate materials and acidic materials, which were copied, were returned to the donor as per the donor agreement.

The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) records consist of materials distributed by BAMN to members at the University of Michigan via email for school years 2017/18 and 2018/19. Topics discussed include Richard Spencer speaking on campus; immigration policies of the Trump administration, especially the separation of families at the US border with Mexico and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA); the appointment and confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court; and other anti-Trump advocacy.

The collection is arranged chronologically by when the materials were sent to membership. A handful of emails included attachments - these materials were collected into digital folders by the processing archivist to reflect the relationship between the original email and its attachments.

This collection documents the organizing efforts of the By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) membership at the University of Michigan between 2017 and 2019, advocating in support of Affirmative Action; asylum seekers and detained immigrants at the border of the United States and Mexico; and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act. They also organized against Richard Spencer's request to rent space and speak at the University of Michigan; the confirmation of (now U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice) Brett Kavanaugh; and the political actions of Donald Trump while he was President of the United States.

The collection includes church brochures, historical materials, the building project, membership events, sermons, the children’s ministry, Vacation Bible School materials, special programs, general outreach, a partial copy of the church’s website, giving the church’s history, information about its ministers, and related links, annual and other reports, and CDs.

Collection of various brochures of the church describing the new building project, membership events, sermons, the children's ministry, summer camp, a woman's workshop program, and general outreach, a partial copy of the church's website, giving the church's history, information about its minister, May 2003 newsletter, general outreach information, and related links, Annual Reports, and CDs, however Vacation Bible School materials, including photographs, trading cards, CDS, and program materials, compose the majority of the collection. The collection is ongoing.