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Formerly called the Department of Journalism; includes administrative files, records of sponsored workshops, conferences, and lectures; faculty personnel files; and records of internship programs, including reports from students interning at local Michigan newspapers.

The Department of Communication record group consists of ten linear feet of records dating from 1926 to 1995 and processed in four accessions. The pre-1984 accessions document the Department of Journalism. The 1984 accession includes materials accumulated by professor Marion Marzolf. The 1986 accession represents records created through the merger of Journalism with Speech and the records of the new department's chairman after the merger was accomplished. The 1996 accession contains material similar to the earlier accessions with the exception of material relating to the graduate Master in Journalism degree program and the decision to suspend the program.

The original accession (Boxes 1-5) documents Department of Journalism activity from 1928 to 1981 (primarily 1950-1970). The accession has been divided into three series: Administrative Files; Faculty Personnel Records; and Internships, Fellowships and Scholarships.

The 1984 accession consists of three series of records: those from a 1977 conference, "Kerner Plus 10: Minorities and the Media," those from the University of Michigan student chapter of Kappa Tau Alpha, and those from the student chapter of Women in Communications, Inc. (WICI). Both the Kerner conference records and the WICI records reflect the involvement of Professor Marion T. Marzolf in the Department of Communication.

The 1986 accession dates from 1964 to 1986 (primarily 1975-1984). It represents the records kept by Peter Clarke, last chairman of the Department of Journalism and first chairman of the Department of Communication, the files of William E. Porter, who served as chair after Clarke's resignation in 1981, and a few documents of John D. Stevens, who succeeded Porter in 1984. The accession has been divided into two series, Chairman's Correspondence (1964-1985) and a Topical File (1949-1986).

Research papers, 1967-1979, of students in journalism at the University of Michigan; contain essays relating to the history of Michigan newspapers and journalists, and the development of radio and television broadcasting; include papers concerning newspapers in Adrian, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Grand Rapids, and the journalistic efforts of Father Charles Coughlin, Henry Ford, and Gerald L. K. Smith.

The Department of Journalism research papers collection measures 2 linear feet and consists solely of student research papers written between 1967 and 1979. The papers contain essays written regarding the history of various newspapers -- many in Michigan cities such as Adrian, Ann Arbor, Detroit and Grand Rapids; journalists and the journalistic efforts of individuals such as Father Charles Coughlin, Henry Ford, and Gerald L.K. Smith; and the development of radio and television broadcasting.

The surviving administrative records of the Department of Journalism were retained by its successor unit, the Department of Communication, and can be found in that department's records.

Files of Detroit News conservation editor Albert Stoll and director of public relations Lee A. White. Correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and miscellaneous papers relating to the Detroit News' campaign to make Isle Royale a national park and to secure land for it; manuscript and notes of an article by Martha M. Bigelow, 1955.

The collections consists of the files of Detroit News conservation editor Albert Stoll and director of public relations Lee A. White who directed the Isle Royale campaign. The collection consists of correspondence, photographs, clippings, speeches, and other materials relating to Isle Royale and to its importance to the state, and to the effort to make the island a national park.

Jerald terHorst was a political reporter for the Detroit News and served as President Ford's first press secretary, before resigning in protest of the pardon of Richard Nixon. He also wrote a biography Gerald Ford and a history of Air Force One. The collection includes correspondence, speeches, newspaper articles by terHorst and about him, audiotapes, and video documenting his role in the Gerald Ford administration and his later literary and public career.

The Jerald F. terHorst papers consist of clippings, correspondence, speeches, audiotapes, and video related to terHorst, Detroit News reporter and President Gerald Ford's press secretary. Topics in this collection include his early life (particularly as a member of the Marine Corps), his work as a member of the Detroit News and White House, and other efforts (such as producing documentaries) that occurred after officially resigning as President Ford's press secretary in 1974.

Correspondent with the Detroit News, director of the Psychological Warfare Division, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Forces, during World War II. Scrapbooks with clippings of newspaper articles; copies of propaganda leaflets directed to German soldiers and civilians during the war; reports, correspondence with family, and printed matter relating to war-time service; and photographs.

The Russell Barnes papers span the years 1920-1978. The bulk of the material concerns the period 1941-1953, the years Barnes spent as foreign correspondent for the Detroit News and the three-year interval during which he served in the Office of War Information.

The collection consists primarily of scrapbooks of his news stories, OWT leaflets, collected propaganda, and letters which he sent to his wife Constance, and, less frequently, to his children, Jeannot (Lucie Jeanne) and Jamie (John James Ingalls) while overseas and in New York. The most detailed description of his professional activities can be found in the letters he wrote during the months at the OWI in New York. He discusses the OWI personnel, its reorganization and the conflict with the OSS. The letters from the OWI Cairo and Algiers contain lively discussions of local customs and the rigors of life there, but are constrained by war-time censorship and thus shed less light than might be expected on his role as PWB director. The letters written while he covered the U.N. sometimes reflect the tense atmosphere there and the pressure brought to bear upon newsmen to take a stand on the issues they report. Barnes also discusses the power struggle in the Detroit Foreign Policy Association.

Scrapbooks of Warren S. Wilkinson, member of the board of the Evening News Association, publisher of the Detroit News. Scrapbooks relate to the life and work of James E. Scripps, founder of the Detroit News, and to the struggle over the sale of the newspaper to Gannett Company in 1985.

The collection contains scrapbooks assembled by Wilkinson relating to the life and work of James E. Scripps, as well as the machinations surrounding the sale of the Evening News Association to Gannett Company in 1985. Most of the scrapbooks have been copied for the library and the originals returned to the donor. The collection consists of photocopies of the scrapbooks along with scanned images of many of the photographs. Scanned photos are identified by the scan number noted on the reverse of the page.

The family scrapbooks document James E. Scripps's personal life and his family, the history of the Detroit News, Scripps family interests including the Detroit Museum of Art, the Scripps home on Trumbull Avenue in Detroit, and Trinity Episcopal Church located at the corner of Trumbull and Grand River Avenues in Detroit one block from the family home.

Wilkinson's scrapbooks titled "The Twilight of the Evening News Association" contain photos, correspondence, trial transcripts, financial charts, and commentary documenting the company's struggle for profitability in the 1960s and 70s, and negotiations and lawsuits over the sale of the company in the 1980s. The first volume in this sequence contains many photos of News operations from the early part of the twentieth century.