Allen N. and Lisa Hibner collection of Upjohn Family Papers, 1790-1898, 2003
0.1 linear feet
Copies of family letters and photos. The collection includes one CD-ROM containing scanned images and transcribed documents and some paper copies.
0.1 linear feet
Copies of family letters and photos. The collection includes one CD-ROM containing scanned images and transcribed documents and some paper copies.
3.3 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The collection is divided into three series: Journals, Farm records, and Other Family Members.
1 linear foot
The Boyd family collection includes correspondence, diaries of family members, addresses, photographs, and miscellaneous papers concerning family and business affairs, temperance, slavery and the First Presbyterian Church of Monroe, Michigan. Correspondents include: Isaac P. Christiancy and Alpheus Felch.
22 linear feet (in 24 boxes) — 69 volumes — 5 microfilms — 39.4 GB (online)
The collection gathered together by D. C. Allen includes published materials, manuscripts and other paper documentation, and photographs, postcards, and other visual materials. The published material consists mainly of books and pamphlets written by House of David founder "King Benjamin" Purnell and his wife Mary and others associated with the House of David. This collection was formerly stored at the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center.
1 linear foot (in 2 boxes)
The Edwin Franko Goldman Autograph Collection consists of two series: Background Materials and Autographed Photographs and Manuscripts. The collection contains autographs, letters, photographs, and musical scores of such notable musical celebrities as Antonin Dvorák, George Gershwin, Franz Liszt, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Philip Sousa, Johann Strauss, and Igor Stravinsky.
3.5 linear feet (in 5 boxes) — 1 oversize folder
The records of Ermine Cowles Case span the course of his professional career, including his research, travels, and involvement in many scientific circles. Outside of academia, Case maintained correspondence with several family members and close friends, which this collection also contains. Aware of his contributions to history, Case filed away his many professional and personal correspondences noting in the first folder, "These letters are worth keeping and looking over. They contain much information of what went on, and many signatures of men active in Geology and Paleontology, both in U.S. and abroad, in my working time" (1947). Several small notes like these can be found throughout the collection among letters, photographs, and research materials. The series in this collection include: Professional Files, Personal Files, and Visual Materials.
23.5 linear feet (in 25 boxes) — 7 oversize volumes
The Ferry family papers document the rise to prominence of this family who first gained their fortune as seed merchants. The papers also reveal the workings of other Detroit businesses, the development of the Detroit Institute of Arts, turn-of-the-century Michigan politics, and the suburban development of Grosse Pointe. The papers span the years 1758 to 1989 with the bulk of the materials covering 1855 to 1959. The collection consists of: account books, ledgers, journals, and business reports; blue prints, deeds, titles, abstracts, and mortgages; correspondence (business and personal); appointment books, diaries, scrapbooks, and clippings; receipts and tax returns, photographs, and printed miscellanea. It is important to note that the Michigan Historical Collections does not house all extant Ferry materials. The donor, Dexter M. Ferry, III, retains possession of several early account books, ledgers, and journals related to D.M. Ferry & Co.; he also kept some family correspondence and virtually all photographs.
The Ferry family papers arrived at the Michigan Historical Collections in an order based on when the donor reviewed the materials. In the course of reprocessing, this order was altered, and an arrangement assigning primacy to the generation of Ferry who created the document was followed. This reprocessing has resulted in three series: Historical and Background, materials predating Dexter M. Ferry; Dexter M. Ferry; and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. The few problems presented by overlap between generations are duly noted in the contents list. Within these generational series the materials are arrayed in business, personal, philanthropic, and political subseries. Given the natures of the family and the family business, the researcher should note that murkiness exists between subseries divisions. In general these dividing principles work well. They preserve Dexter M. Ferry, III's original order at the folder level while facilitating access by independent researchers.
The strengths of the Ferry collection are myriad. The family correspondence provide unique insight into a family which grew wealthy but remained close-knit. Especially interesting are the long runs of correspondence between Dexter M. Ferry and his mother, Lucy Ferry Crippen, and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. and his mother, Addie Miller Ferry. The former run reveals much about the fluid society of late nineteenth-century Detroit, and the latter reflects the pressures of more rigidly defined social strictures. The correspondence between Ferry, Jr. and his sisters, Blanche Ferry Hooker and Queene Ferry Coonley, are illuminating on the handling of the family business in the changing economic climates of the twentieth century.
Some facets of the development of the Detroit business community are well documented as the family invested heavily in local real estate and business. The strengths of the present collection revolve around the Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. materials relating to business and finance in Detroit from 1920 to 1950, particularly the banking community's reaction to the crisis of the Depression. The links between automobile touring, the good roads movement, and the development of ancillary industries to support the burgeoning automotive industry are fairly well documented by Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.'s papers. Young Ferry's close association with the development of the Detroit Institute of Arts is extremely well documented and these papers provide a case study of twentieth century patronage.
A somewhat refracted view of Michigan politics at the turn of the twentieth century is provided through the scrapbooks and clippings on Dexter Ferry's failed campaign in 1900 for governor of the state. The papers are stronger in their documentation of Dexter Ferry, Jr.'s political involvement with the local governance of Grosse Pointe. Here the details of community control are thoroughly covered by correspondence, reports, and minutes.
10 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The John G. Parkhurst collection consists of correspondence from family, friends and associates regarding personal and business affairs, military matters, and Democratic politics; miscellaneous other materials and photograph. the collections has been divided into the following series: Correspondence; John G. Parkhurst Civil War service; John G. Parkhurst diplomatic and other activities; and Other family materials, business records, and miscellaneous.
4 microfilms
The John Monteith microfilm collection consists of correspondence, diaries, sermons, and papers of other family members. The originals of these materials are also available at the library; to best preserve the originals, access is limited to the microfilm copies.
The correspondence includes letters from Monteith to members of his family and others discussing current events, his work, travel, places visited, temperance reform, slavery, and bank failures. There are also letters to/from Monteith's wife, Abigail, his daughter, Sarah, his sons George, John Jr., Charles, and Edwin, and scattered letters from other relatives and friends. George's letters cover his service as an officer in the Fourth Michigan Infantry during the Civil War. Besides the letters there are diaries kept by Monteith (1815-1838), notes on his library, sermons and a volume of sermon outlines, speeches, notes on class lectures and other subjects, personal account books, a notebook (1820) containing Chippewa-English vocabulary, student notes (1797-1798) taken by Alexander Monteith at Dickinson College. In addition, there is a manuscript play written by John Monteith Jr. entitled, "The Raging Firelands," and a biography of Abigail Monteith, written by her son, Edwin (1859).
Of special interest is the annual report, Nov. 1818, of John Monteith to governor and judges of Michigan Territory concerning the University of Michigania.
1 linear foot (in 2 boxes) — 1 oversize folder
The Slatford and Bird family papers were collected by Julia Bird Martin, who was the great grand-daughter of Job Slatford and grand-daughter of Jane Slatford Bird. The collection consists of family correspondence from various members of both the Slatford and Bird families. The collection not only relates to family matters, but also includes letters of John Slatford written from the California gold fields, 1851-1853. In addition there are clippings, photographs, postcards, and family memorabilia.