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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.

The collection includes a ledger, meeting minutes, reference materials, reports on sorority officers, members, events, and grade points, biographical material and photographs of Dr. Sharp, and information on Delta Sigma Phi fraternity.

The Organizational Records, 1929-1963, include a Ledger, 1942-1961, and Meeting Minutes, 1941-1961 (.5 cubic ft. in 1 box); Miscellaneous reference materials, 1933-1963 (approximately .5 cubic ft. in 1 box); Sorority Files, which are reports on each sorority listing officers, members, and their annual events, as well as some supporting documentation, (1 cubic ft. in 2 boxes); and Sorority Grade Point Materials, which show the grade points of each sorority sister and the average of each sorority, 1961-1964 (approximately .5 cubic ft. in 1 box). Also included is one folder each on the fraternity Delta Sigma Phi, 1948-1956, and Dr. D. Louise Sharp.

The collection includes all the correspondence, notes, testimony, resolutions, subpoenas, newspaper articles, press releases, hearing schedules, and other subject files collected by the Senate Committee during its investigation of CMU.

The collection includes all the correspondence, notes, testimony, resolutions, subpoenas, newspaper articles, press releases, hearing schedules, and other subject files collected by the Senate Committee during its investigation of CMU. Most of the correspondence, subject files, and testimony dates to 1965, although some of the affected professors and deans’ folders include materials dating back as far as 1949. Undated materials are circa 1965.

This is the official collection of Central Michigan University’s Orchesis Dance Troupe, and also documents the CMU career of its found, Yvette Birs Crandall, and her impact on Orchesis and its students, performances, practices, workshops, and social events, mainly 1967-2010, with a few materials postdating that through 2023.

This is the official collection of Central Michigan University’s Orchesis Dance Troupe, and also documents the CMU career of its found, Yvette Birs Crandall, and her impact on Orchesis and its students, performances, practices, workshops, and social events, mainly 1967-2010, with a few materials postdating that through 2023. The collection also includes a small amount of material documenting earlier CMU dance instructors, including Grace Ryan, country dancing classes, and performances, formal dances, possibly Sadie Hawkins dances, as well as social dances at CMU, 1928-1967, in photographs and a scrapbook, which Crandall likely inherited from prior CMU instructors. Yvette’s Wisconsin and CMU University papers and research materials, related to movement and dance, and photographs of and clippings about her (see Box 1) and her published reviews on music, dance, and theatre in the Midland Daily News, 1991-1992 (see Box 5) complete the collection. A list of performances was compiled by Archivist Marian Matyn from documentation in the collection and is found in Orchesis, Programs, 1969-1979 (in Box 2).

Nearly complete, the collection provides excellent documentation of Orchesis and how crucial Crandall was to its success and vitality. All aspects or Orchesis are documented in this collection including advertising, auditions, welcoming or “initiations” of new members, graduating senior events, performances, choreographer’s workshops, social events, travels, competitions, training, backstage preparations, classes, costume and makeup design, choreography, , and participation in CMU events such as country dancing and doing dance movements after a float in Homecoming parades and dancing in Madrigals. Orchesis also performed at various local institutions, such as Mid-Michigan Community College. In 1969 Orchesis performed Peter and the Wolf, for which they received hand printed thank you notes and hand drawn art from elementary school children at Longview Elementary School in Midland, Michigan. Because the children’s materials was very acidic, they were photocopied. In the early 2000s Orchesis performed with Dance Umbrella dancers. Dance Umbrella is an international modern dance festival.

The collection also provides important evidence of how one woman successfully built and expanded a nationally recognized modern dance company from scratch composed mainly of female students. When compared to the CMU Athletics collection, it is clear that she did not have the resources nor the support accorded the more traditional recognized athletic programs which merited CMU published programs and posters, so Crandall and her daughter, Rebecca Crandall Folt, designed and made Orchesis posters and programs themselves by hand. The lack of official CMU photographs in the collection is also interesting and unusual among CMU collections. Crandall paid private photographers for the professional, non-CMU photographs.

The collection is organized by size, format. and then alphabetically and chronologically within each series. Photographs are further organized by those with and without negative numbers. The paper-based and photographic series (Boxes 1-5 which are all .5 cubic foot boxes) are: Biographical Materials, Orchesis materials, Photographs that are not specific to Orchesis, and Crandall’s published reviews. There are two oversized scrapbooks document dance at CMU, 1928-1967, and CMU Orchesis, 1968-1971. The three oversized folders include CMU Orchesis posters (Folder 1-2) and oversized Orchesis professional photographs, both black and white and color, undated. Additionally, photographs are further organized within folders by those with a negative number or date/time stamp and then those without. Overall the collection is in very good condition except for the acidic contents of the scrapbooks and a few posters with tape stains or have hole punctures. Most of collection, as donated, was original material, but some were photocopies. Formats in the collection include paper, original art, photographic materials, including two DVDs, and scrapbooks

Recordings:

In March 2024, Orchesis recordings were donated (see Boxes 6-12, which are all cubic foot boxes). The recordings are organized chronologically and document Orchesis concert performances, workshop performances, Madrigal dinner concerts, “Puttin’ On The Ritz” events, Swing Club, and dancing in Homecoming parades, and liturgical dances. The recording formats include Ampex, Karex, Memorex, and Sony five- and seven- inch helical video tapes, VHS videotapes, CDs, DVDs. And Sony Mini Discs. Warren Crandall recorded most of the recordings, but there are some recordings created and presumably copyrighted by Kabobel’s Kamera and Heitman Video Services, that Yvette paid for, and one that is a gift copy from a Channel 9 and 10 News segment. None of the recordings were created or copyrighted by CMU.

Besides the Recordings, other major Orchesis series include Photographs, Programs, and Posters, which merit further description to assist researchers.

Photographs:

Photographs, 1940s-2010, 2023, in the collection are from multiple photographers, both professional who hold copyright, and amateurs. CMU copyright of photographs taken by CMU Photographer Robert Barclay are few and found interfiled with other photographs dated 1981, 1993-1998 and 2000-2006. Bryan P. Wallace, a professional photographer, took all the photographs which are stamped with his name and copyright information, 1986-1987, including all the galley proofs and related negatives. Other photographer’s names are occasionally found on photographs, while others are unidentified. Most of the professional photographs are black and white until the 2000s. Amateur photographs taken by those in the company and probably also by Yvette document individuals, groups, travel, social events, performances. There is one photograph of the liturgical dance troupe in 1973 in Muskegon with a priest. There are also photographs of a country dance troupe in costume dancing during a CMU Homecoming parade, 1989. Part or all of the company traveled to various trips to cities including Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee, Mid-Michigan College, and Western Michigan University, to perform and participate in regional or national dance events. The company also had summer picnics, a welcoming event, referred to as the initiation, for new members, and a graduation recognition event after the show of the academic year with a cake where each graduating senior receive an award, hug, and the applause of peers. Within folders photographs are sorted by those with a negative number or date/time stamp and those without. Those with additional identification, especially amateur photographs, with a specific event and/or a year date, are in separate folders. Some people, dates, and events are identified in photographs by labels or writing on the back of photographs. If the labels were loose or detached, the Archivist wrote the information in pencil on a piece of acid-free paper and included that in the photograph sleeve, and withdrew the original label or note.

Programs:

CMU Orchesis programs, 1969-2010, are nearly a complete and include mostly Orchesis events: Choreographers Workshop Performance, all concerts, “Puttin’ on the Ritz” events, CMU Madrigal dinners, and Choreographers Workshop Performances, dance competitions, events outside of CMU that she choreographed or advised, and a Church program, featuring CMU liturgical dancers, December 3, 1978. The programs vary in size, format, and materials, and some were photocopies when donated. Those listed as ‘Program’ are only the list of dances and performers. During the 1970s many of the early programs and posters were hand drawn or written in penmanship. Both programs and posters featured photographs from the past. Sometimes there are matching illustrations for programs and posters.

Most of the programs were dated, some with dates written on them by Crandall, when donated. Depending on the information in the program, Archivist Marian Matyn looked up names and information online in digitized CMLife, and reviewed perpetual calendars to try to determine the year for undated programs, and matched materials to posters or other information in the collection. To assist with the process the Archivist generated a list of performance dates from the programs which she added to the collection. Many Orchesis performances were not listed in CMLife. Overall the programs are in excellent to very good condition.

Posters:

Posters, 1970-2010 in the collection are mainly Orchesis posters for Auditions, Choreographer’s Workshop, Dance Concerts, and “Puttin on the Ritz” events and are almost a complete run. There is also one Orchesis Fall 2008, Dancers Photographic collage poster, 2008, which Yvette crafted. The posters vary widely in size from 8.5x11 inches to 30x20 inches, in shape, colors, and format including paper, cardboard, and plastic. During the 1970s many of the early programs and posters were hand drawn or written in penmanship. Some posters listed are actually the original drawings and composite information with parts taped and glued to paper or cardboard from which posters or printed copies were made. Crandall appears to have created many of these posters by hand. Both programs and posters featured photographs from the past. Sometimes there are matching illustrations for programs and posters. Posters are housed in two Oversized folders. Oversized Folder 1 contains all concert performance posters in chronological order and the collage photographs poster. Oversized Folder 2 includes Oversized art, and all remaining poster series grouped alphabetically by series, then chronologically within each series.

Many posters lacked a year date as published. Depending on the information on the poster, Archivist Marian Matyn compared the information to the programs, and then followed the process she used to determine program year dates. (See that process above.) She wrote years on the posters in pencil. If there is more than one year during Yvette’s CMU career that the poster could date from, the year is in square brackets with a question mark.

A few posters have tape attached, while others have tape or hole damage from being pinned, and one, CMU Faculty Dance Recital, (taped, tape stains and term schedule in pen and marker on revere), September 21-22, 1972, has the term schedule written in pen and marker on the back. Overall the posters are in excellent condition. Most of the photographs donated were originals with some being photocopies.

Also included are posters of events in which CMU dancers participated. These posters include dance festivals, for the now American College Dance Association, 1979-1980, and the Great Lakes Regional Dance Festival, 1991 and 1999, and CMU Madrigal Dinner Concert posters, 1986, 1988-1994. The Madrigals occurred annually at CMU, 1977-1992.

Included with the posters is one oversized original art piece. There is also a folder in Box 2 of a few original hand drawn Orchesis art. The oversized image does not appear in posters nor programs. It is similar to a hand drawn image on the front page of the 1968-1971 scrapbook.

Researchers Note:

Researchers may also be interested in other collections documenting Grace Ryan and Rev. John Goodrow in the Clarke. The CMU Posters collection contains one early Orchesis poster and some Madrigal posters found in Crandall’s Orchesis collection.

Processing Notes:

Approximately 5 cubic feet of paper and audio-visual materials were withdrawn during processing. This includes duplicates, undated and/or unidentified, or very dark or damaged photographs, acidic materials, empty envelopes. If there were larger and smaller versions of the same poster, the smaller version was retained in the collection and the larger version was withdrawn. Acidic materials, except for the pages and contents of the scrapbooks, were photocopied, and the copies were added to the collection while the originals were withdrawn. .75 cubic feet of nationally recorded and distributed LP dance records were withdrawn. Family photographs were returned to the donor. Three cubic feet of recordings were withdrawn during processing, including duplicates, rehearsals, personal recordings of television dance programs and music CDs, non-CMU produced dance instructor videotapes, and unidentifiable, inaccessible, and very dark recordings.