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Graduate School of the University of Michigan. Records include dean's topical files, 1892-1996; files of associate deans; minutes of the executive board; project and grant files detailing faculty and student research; lists of degrees granted; records of fellowships and awards granted by the graduate school and university; and files relating to academic departments and programs, including reviews of degree programs.

The records of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies document the administration of the school, its academic programs and research projects and fellowships funded by the school and outside sources. The records include Dean's Files, minutes of the Executive Board and Administrative Council, Academic Unit and Program Evaluation files, and grants administration records.

Records of the Graduate School have been received by the library in numerous accessions, some large others quite small. Some accessions represent continuations or complements to previously received materials. This finding attempts to intellectually integrate continuing or similar record series received in multiple accessions.

The records are organized into a number of series. Among the more significant are:

1. Deans' Topical File
2. Research Records
3. University Units
4. Program Evaluations
5. Faculty Research Grants
6. Degree Lists
7. Faculty Fellowships, Grants and Awards
8. Graduate School Executive Board and Administrative Council

In 2008, the Rackham School of Graduate Studies announced that it would become a 'paperless' office and that future accessions to the Bentley Library would be electronic. The materials from 1990 to 2003 were thus digitized by Rackham staff (from the original paper records) and saved as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. As of 2012, these digital accessions comprise two subseries within the Graduate School Executive Board and Administrative Council series and Program Evaluation series.

The Middle English Dictionary (MED) is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language as it was used between 1100 and 1500. The MED was in production at the University of Michigan from 1930 to 2001. The collection contains correspondence of the chief editors, administrative records, files on editorial matters, and miscellaneous files and production material.

In August of 2001 the administrative records and most of the materials pertaining to the history and making of the Middle English Dictionary (MED) from its beginnings at the University of Michigan in 1930 up to its completion in 2001 were deposited in the Bentley Historical Library by the project and by the administrative unit responsible for it, the Office of the Vice President for Research. These materials consist primarily of correspondence, administrative records (including budget), files on editorial matters, and miscellaneous files and notes on other matters. In February of 2010 the remainder of the MED materials was transferred to the Bentley Library from the Buhr Storage Facility, where they had been kept since the fall of 2001, along with the books from the former MED library (now dispersed), under the supervision of the Special Collections Library. All of these materials form a collection separate from the citation slips used in the printed MED (along with the supplementary slips), which are now catalogued as Middle English Dictionary Citation Slips. The total number of boxes in the present collection is 98 (of various sizes), amounting to 68 linear feet.

The Middle English Dictionary records are organized in three major subgroups, RECORDS BY EDITORIAL ERA, MISCELLANEOUS MED MATERIALS, and NON-MED MATERIALS.

In the first 20 boxes (21 linear feet) the materials are in standard-size boxes in 8 1/2" x 14" folders and are arranged strictly chronologically by the editorial eras of the chief editors: Samuel Moore (1930-1934), Thomas A. Knott (1935-1945), Hans Kurath (1946-1961), Sherman M. Kuhn (1961-1983), and Robert E. Lewis (1982-2001), except that the Moore and Knott eras have been combined because of the difficulty of separating the files, other than correspondence, in those two eras. In the later MED boxes (21 through 78), the materials are stored in a mixture of formats (8 1/2" x 14" folders, 6 1/2" x 9" cards, 3" x 5" cards and slips, etc.), and the organization is topical, though still generally chronological. Non- MED materials (specifically, the Early Modern English Dictionary (EMED) materials) appear at the end (in boxes 79 through 98).