Collections

The Institute of General History at the University of Turku, Finland (Turun Yliopisto. Yleisen Historian Laitos) microfilmed thousands of letters from Varsinais-Suomi (Southwest Finland) region in 1964. The letters were written by Finnish emigrants to their families and friends in Finland.

The Varsinais-Suomi Region immigrant letters consist thousands of letters written by Finnish emigrants from Varsinais-Suomi (Southwest Finland) region to their families and friends in Finland between 1880 and 1964. There are also post cards, diaries and passports in the collection. Many letters originate from the United States and Canada, but there are also others from South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Soviet Union. The Institute of General History collected the letters between February 1 and October 31, 1966. The collected letters were organized and microfilmed in the fall of 1966.

The collection was arranged by town (also known as parishes or municipalities). Within each town the letters of each recipient were kept together. The owners of the letters are in chronological order according to the emigrating year of their correspondents.

Every subseries of letters includes a questionnaire that was completed by the letter recipient. In the upper right corner of the questionnaire there is a code that includes the abbreviation of the town and the location of the sender.

The questionnaire for collecting these America letters contained the following questions:

1. The owner of the letters (name and address)
2. The writer of the letters (name and last address)
3. The relationship between the owner and the writer
4. When left for America
5. Who were they visiting in America
6. Why left
7. Home town in Finland
8. The occupation of the parents
9. How large was the family of the parents of the emigrant
10. Was the emigrant married when he left Finland
11. Did the wife and children emigrate, too
12. Did the emigrant get married in America
13. What year
14. The nationality of the spouse
15. The occupation of the emigrant when emigrated
16. Had the emigrant ever been working outside the home town before emigrating
17. How did the emigrant go to America (route and vehicle)
18. The first workplace in America
19. What kind of work
20. Where did the emigrant live the longest time in America
21. What kind of work
22. Other members of the group who emigrated at the same time: name, hometown, return to Finland
23. The later life of the emigrant: did/did not return to Finland
24. If applicable, why did the emigrant return
25. Return route and vehicle
26. Occupation after return
27. The number of the letters (photos, diaries etc.) in the enclosed questionnaire envelope
28. The owner donates the letters/loans them only for microfilming
29. The collector of the letters (name and address)
30. To be filled by the Institute of General History

Documents in this collection are identified with the following abbreviations indicating the name of the town or parish from which the immigrant came.

1. ALAS = Alastaro
2. AURA = Aura
3. B-DÖ = Brändö Al.
4. D-FJÄRD = Dragsfjärd
5. HAL = Halikko
6. HIIT = Hiittinen
7. HOUTS = Houtskari
8. JOK = Jokioinen
9. K-KERTA = Kakskerta
10. K-TI = Kalanti
11. K-LA = Karjala Tl.
12. K-NA = Karuna
13. KEM = Kemiö
14. K-KO = Kisko
15. K-JOKI = Kodisjoki
16. KORP = Korpoo
17. K-KI = Koski-Tl.
18. K-VI = Kustavi
19. K-TO = Kuuisto
20. KUUS = Kuusjoki
21. L-LA = Laitila
22. LEMU = Lemu
23. L-TO = Lieto
24. LOIM = Loimaa
25. L-TI = Lokalahti
26. MAAR = Maaria
27. M-LA = Marttila
28. M-KU = Masku
29. MERI = Merimasku
30. MIET = Mietoinen
31. MUUR = Muurla
32. M-KI = Mynämäki
33. NAAN = Naantali
34. ORIP = Oripää
35. PAAT = Paattinen
36. PAIM = Paimio
37. PAR = Parkano
38. PER = Perniö
39. P-LI = Pertteli
40. PYHÄ = Phyämää
41. RÖY = Pöytyä
42. RYM = Rymättylä
43. S-VO = Sauvo
44. S-RO = Somero
45. SUOM = Suomasjärvi
46. T-LO = Taivassalo
47. T-JOKI = Tarvasjoki
48. T-KU = Turku
49. USK = Uskela
50. VEH = Vehmaa
51. VEL = Belkua
52. VÄST = Västanfjärd
53. Y-NE = Yläne

Minutes of the Village Council of Vassar, Michigan; also indexes to records of the Riverside Cemetery Association.

The record group is arranged into two series: Council Minutes and Other Materials. The Council Minutes are bound volumes of proceedings of the village council. Other materials includes a record of interments and deeds of the Riverside Cemetery Association.

Professor of early American history at the University of Michigan. Correspondence, files, lecture materials, papers relating to his books and articles, and professional activities, including correspondence with prominent historians.

Papers, 1911-1974, of Verner W. Crane, professor of history at the University of Michigan; contain correspondence files, lecture materials, papers relating to his books and articles, and professional activities. Correspondents include: John R. Alden, Charles M. Andrews, Herbert E. Bolton, Julian P. Boyd, Carl Bridenbaugh, Ronald S. Crane, Lawrence H. Gipson, Oscar Handlin, Robert A. Humphreys, Bernhard Knollenberg, Edmund S. Morgan, Frederick B. Tolles, Frederick J. Turner, Carl Van Doren, Claude H. Van Tyne, Clarence L. Ver Steeg, and Lawrence C. Wroth.

The Office of the Vice President for Communications, immediately under the President's Office, acts as the official voice of the University of Michigan. The Office is divided up into six units: Director of Communications Administration and Policy and Chief Freedom of Information Officer, Executive Writer and Communications Counsel, Media Relations and Public Affairs, News Services, Marketing Communications, and Michigan Public Media. All together, these units provide information to the public about the events, programs, policies, and decisions created by University administration, faculty, staff, students and alumni. The Vice President for Communications (University of Michigan) records consist of files created and collected by Julie Peterson, Associate Vice President for Media Relations and Public Affairs under the Vice President for Communications, and by Deborah Greene, Executive Communications Coordinator under the Associate Vice President for Media Relations and Public Affairs.

The Vice President for Communications (University of Michigan) records consist of files created and collected by Julie Peterson, Associate Vice President for Media Relations and Public Affairs under the Vice President for Communications, and by Deborah Greene, Executive Communications Coordinator under the Associate Vice President for Media Relations and Public Affairs.

University of Michigan office overseeing institutional development and fundraising activities. Includes miscellaneous brochures, directories, newsletters, organizational charts, reports, and statistics of the Vice-President for Development and the Office of University Relations and Development; also includes brochures and newsletters from the various financial campaigns such as the Campaign for Michigan-A Heritage for Leadership, the Annual Giving Program, and the Campaign for Michigan.

The University of Michigan. Vice President for Development Publications (5 linear feet) include annual reports, brochures, directories, ephemera including flyers, invitations, posters, and programs, histories, manuals, newsletters, and reports. These publications are divided into three series: Unit Publications, Sub-Unit Publications, and Major Campaign Publications. The bulk of the publications document the day-to-day activities of the Development Office. Researchers will also find publications detailing the Development Council, the Michigan Alumni Fund, Office of Trusts and Bequests, the Presidential Societies, and major capital campaigns, including the $55 Million Program to Ensure the Vital Margin, a Heritage of Leadership: Campaign for Michigan, the Campaign for Michigan, and the Michigan Difference.

Records of University of Michigan office (and its predecessor administrative offices) responsible for external fund raising and development activities, including subject files of development officials Arthur Brandon, Lyle Nelson, and Michael Radock; staff files; and photographs.

The records of the Vice President for Development date from 1948 to the present and measure 39.5 linear feet. They reflect the basic concerns of the office for these four decades: preserving and improving the university's public image and planning major fundraising efforts. Unfortunately, both activities are incompletely documented. In the area of public relations the records tend to discuss how immediate problems will be dealt with, rather than overall conceptions of the university's image. The thought behind the innovative fundraising devices created or employed by the office is sometimes recorded through consultant reports, but in general is not well documented.

The manuscript records have been divided into two subgroups, one representing the records of the vice president (or senior staff person, for those years in which there was no vice presidency), the other containing records created by the development office. The Vice Presidents subgroup has been divided by the name of each person who has held the office: Arthur Brandon, Lyle Nelson, and Michael Radock. Researchers should note that since Nelson and Radock used their predecessor's files for some time before inaugurating their own records, the relationship between office tenure and file dates is not an exact one. The Development Office subgroup contains records of that office and its subsidiary units. Several accessions of Development Office records received in 1989 and 1990 have been grouped together as Development Office subgroup: 1989-1990 accessions.

Office established in 1968 as the Vice-President for State Relations and Planning; reorganized and name changed in 1974 with the appointment of Richard L. Kennedy who already had the position of University Secretary. University Secretary became a separate office following Kennedy's retirement in 1994. Files relating to the University's liaison with state government agencies, including budget and appropriations materials; also topical files and materials documenting the communication process between the University and the state, and slides; also files of the university's office in Washington, D.C.

The records of the Office of Vice President for Government Relations reflect the core functions of the office (local, state, and federal government relations and planning) and the various incarnations of the office, including the duties of Secretary of the University variously performed by the office. Documentation is primarily from the Ann Arbor campus office, but also includes files on the federal relations office operated by the university in Washington, D.C. Files received directly from the state relations office in Lansing are not included here. Materials detail the budget and appropriations process, interaction with community, state and federal legislators, and lobbying and monitoring efforts in Washington, D.C. on issues such as research funding, student loans, and support for higher education. The records are physically arranged in the manner in which they arrived in the archives. In this finding aid the records are described by their intellectual organization and similar material for the various accessions is described and listed together. Researchers should note that later accessions often extend records series and topics from prior accessions.

The records of the University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Government Relations and Secretary of the university have been divided into the following series of material: University Budget, Topical Files, Office Assignments and Communication Records, Special Topical Files, Correspondence Files, Evolution of the Office, Audio-Visual Materials, Washington Office Files, and Vice President for University Relations Correspondence, .

University of Michigan administrative office, established as the Dean of Student Affairs in 1921, responsible for overseeing many aspects of non-academic student services and activities including at various times: counseling, financial aid, student housing, student activities and organizations, health services, student discipline, and fraternities and sororities. Records provide extensive documentation of student life.

The records of the Vice President for Student Life provide a unique perspective to the extracurricular life and customs of students at the University of Michigan and an insight to the development of the office of the Vice President. The records span the years 1908-2005 with the bulk of the material covering 1941-1995. The material from the early years is especially rich in documenting student life from the 1920s to the 1950s. The strongest feature of this collection is in documenting the administration's response to the needs and to the demands of student, ranging from disciplining drinkers during Prohibition, dealings with fraternities up to 1960, reacting to student protests in the 1960s to the 1988 debate over the Student Code for Non-Academic Conduct, and the 2000 protest against Michigamua. The records also contain materials related to students' health, housing, organizations, and activism. The coverage of these areas varies across administrations as office reorganizations altered the focus and functions of Student Services.

This uneven documentation reflects the fact that, over time, different offices were created to handle more narrowly-defined areas of responsibility. Areas which had originally been handled by Dean Bursley under his broad conception of control over non-academic student life came to be administered by separate offices. Frequently the records of these administrative units were not included with the Vice President for Student Life records. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of student life, as refracted through the lens of University Administration, one should also refer to the records of the Housing Office and Student-Community Relations Office, and the papers of Peter Ostafin, director of housing.

The Vice President for Student Life collection consists of correspondence, reports, memos, minutes, and financial reports generated by both the University Administration and students. These materials are arranged in chronological series by the administrative head in charge of students' extracurricular affairs. Nine series represent records of Vice Presidents of the office: Joseph A. Bursley, 1913-1950; Erich A. Walter, 1925-1959; James A. Lewis, 1908-1964; Richard L. Cutler, 1950-1969; Barbara W. Newell, 1965-1970; Robert L. Knauss, 1962-1973; Henry Johnson, 1950-1985; Mary Ann Swain and Maureen Hartford, 1990-2005; and E. Royster Harper, 2000. In addition, the collections includes a Topical Files series, 1953-1995 (records of several Vice Presidents that have been received by the Bentley in various accessions); as well as a Printed Materials series. This organizing scheme required some manipulation of the files, but it best enables the researcher to trace the changing nature of the student body concerns and the development of the office itself.

The researcher should note that the strict chronological sequencing of the series was not possible. This was due in large part to a series of office reorganizations which resulted in some files created during Bursley or Walter's tenure ending up in later series. The most significant move here resulted in Lewis' series containing a good deal of Bursley and Walter materials on fraternities and student organizations. Lewis created the fraternities subseries in 1959 and compiled the student organization subseries during a May 1963, office reorganization. The researcher should also be conscious that early series contain a variety of materials which may not reflect the full scope of Bursley, Walter, or Lewis' responsibilities. Gaps are also discernible in the later series, but these are more readily fleshed out by referring to other University collections.

Publications of the office of Vice Provost for Academic and Multicultural Affairs include annual reports, bibliographies, handbooks and manuals, newsletters entitled Beyond Diversity and the OMA Update, reports, and surveys. Also includes brochures, flyers, and proposals from the King/Chavez/Parks Educational Initiative.

Publications of the office of Vice Provost for Academic and Multicultural Affairs include annual reports, bibliographies, handbooks and manuals, newsletters entitled Beyond Diversity and the OMA Update, reports, and surveys. Also includes brochures, flyers, and proposals from the King/Chavez/Parks Educational Initiative. The Publications are divided into three series: Unit Publications and Sub-Unit Publications.

The office of the Vice Provost for Academic and Multicultural Affairs was originally established to develop and support programs to aid the University of Michigan in the recruitment and retention of students, faculty, and staff of color. The scope of the duties of the office were later expanded to include administrative oversight of a number of programs and services for faculty and students. The bulk of the record group is comprised of topical files related to multicultural issues, correspondence and reports relating to particular initiatives and funding programs, and administrative office files.

The records of the Vice Provost for Academic and Multicultural Affairs document the activities and functions of the office from its creation in 1987 through 2000. The record group has been received in increments over the years, with some overlap in content between different accessions; the researcher may want to consult the files in multiple accessions to ensure receiving the most complete account of a particular subject. Some scattered records predating the formal establishment of the office are present in the early accessions. The record group consists of records of Vice Provost Charles D. Moody, Sr. and Lester Monts relating to work of the Office; series concern relations of office with outside organizations as well as activities within the university. It also includes administrative files, chronological files, and files on units reporting to the Office such as Military Officer Education Programs and Undergraduate Admissions.

While the earlier accessions mainly concern the vice provost's involvement in multicultural affairs, later accessions include information on the office's broader academic affairs responsibilities, including administrative oversight of various student academic services. It should be noted that, for the most part, folder headings assigned by the vice provost's office have been retained, and reflect the use of terms such as "African Americans," "Blacks," "Hispanics," and "Latinos" by the office.