Collections

The Michigan Sea Grant Program is a joint project between the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) addressing issues concerning the livelihood of the Michigan Great Lakes area. Includes technical reports, annual reports, newsletters, brochures and other printed material produced by the program.

The Michigan Sea Grant Program Publications consist of 5.5 linear feet which includes annual reports, brochures, extension bulletins, directories, ephemera including flyers, fact sheets, posters, programs, histories, manuals, newsletters, proceedings of conferences sponsored by Michigan Sea Grant, and reports. These publications are divided into two series: Unit Publications and Topical Publications. The bulk of the publications are technical reports that were published between 1972-1998.

Established in 1969, Michigan Sea Grant is a joint program of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. It is part of the National Sea Grant College Program, a network of 30 university-based programs in coastal states across the country. Michigan Sea Grant funds research projects and educational activities related to all aspects of the Great Lakes. The records document the administration, funding, research and educational programming of the Michigan Sea Grant Program.

The Michigan Sea Grant record group consists of 21 linear feet of material, which span the years from 1969 to 2005. The record group includes administrative material, budget and project proposals, and research project files which document the program's efforts to conduct research and educate the public on issues related to the use of the Great Lakes. The records have been divided into five series: Administrative Files, Proposals and Omnibus Proposals, Research Project Files, Research Materials and Visual and Audio Materials.

The Michigan Silversmiths Guild was established in 1948 to provide support to silversmiths and those artisans who work in other metals through workshops, exhibitions, and other activities. Articles of incorporation and constitutions, history, minutes of executive board, membership lists, newsletters, announcements and other mailings to members, and photographs.

The records of the Michigan Silversmiths Guild document the activities and educational programs of the guild and include correspondence, minutes, articles of incorporation and constitution, histories, membership lists and photographs. The records are divided into four series: Articles of Incorporation and Founding Documents, Yearly files, Photographs and Albums, and Newsletters.

State-wide organization coordinating some activities of local Women's Club; records include correspondence, reports and minutes of meetings.

The records of the organization relate primarily to the formative years of the Federation, the late 1890s to approximately 1920. Included are secretary's records and reports, correspondence, and committee materials.

Minutes of executive committee, 1874-2002 (with some gaps); minutes and proceedings of state convention, 1873-1880; financial records; and roster, 1873-1978, of lodges chartered by Michigan Grange, showing date of charter, location and other data; also records of various defunct local granges.

The records of the Michigan State Grange include minutes and proceedings of the state convention, minutes of the executive committee, financial statements; and rosters and applications for membership of individual chapters of the State Grange. Whenever a local chapter ceased operations, its records would be transferred to the State Grange office. The records of some of these defunct chapters make up the bulk of the State Grange record group. Records of local Granges may include minutes of lodge meetings, financial records and membership lists. The local records are listed in the contents list in the order in which they were received they were received from the state office. Two indexes, one by chapter name and the other by chapter number, should be used to locate the records of a particular chapter. The chapter numbers were assigned consecutively as the chapters were organized. Counties represented in these defunct chapters include Alcona, Antrim, Arenac, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Chippewa, Crawford, Emmet, Genesee, Gogebic Hillsdale, Iosco, Jackson, Lenawee, Macomb, Marquette, Menominee, Midland, Monroe, Montmorency, Oscoda, Otsego, Sanilac, Saginaw, Schoolcraft, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Washtenaw, and Wayne.

Another portion of the record group includes materials of W. J. Brake, who was a lecturer for the National Grange and who held office for the State Grange.

Other records of the Michigan State Grange were donated to the University Archives and Historical Collections of Michigan State University. The MSU Archives holds the Grange records from the following counties: Allegan, Barry, Benzie, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Clare, Clinton, Eaton, Grand Traverse, Gratiot, Ingham, Ionia, Isabella, Kalamazoo, Kalkaska, Kent, Leelanau, Manistee, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola, Otsego, Ottawa, Shiawassee, St. Joseph, Van Buren, and Wexford.

Records of United States land offices in Marquette and Grayling, Michigan. Plat and tract books containing the record of the survey and sale of public lands in Michigan.

The records originally came from two sources. Volumes 1-51 and 78 to 87 (tract books for the Lower Peninsula) and the outsize folders (Lower Peninsula plat maps) are copies of earlier records made in 1894 for the Grayling Land Office. When that office was closed in 1898 the records were transferred to the Marquette Land Office. Volumes 52-77 and 88 (tract books for the Upper Peninsula) and volumes 150A-161 (plat maps for the Upper Peninsula) are the original records kept in the Marquette Land Office (originally in Sault Ste. Marie) beginning in 1847.

The records were transferred to the General Land Office in Washington, D.C., when the Marquette Land Office was closed in 1925. In 1940, the Auditor General of Michigan, who was the chairman of the Michigan State Land Office Board, accepted the records for the state. (The State Land Office Board was established in 1937, and was not related to the Michigan State Land Office, which was abolished in 1914 and replaced by the Public Domain Commission.) Because of crowded conditions in the State Capitol, the Auditor General asked that the records be deposited in the Michigan Historical Collections, where they could be used by a WPA Writers Project study of the disposal of public lands in Michigan. They have been on deposit at this library since that time.

The Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) is the official student government organization for the University of Michigan. Established in 1906, the student government now known as MSA has existed under the names the Student Council, the Student Legislature, the Student Senate and the Student Government Council. The MSA record group is comprised of annual reports, minutes, resolutions, organizational files, scrapbooks, and publications.

The Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) record group is comprised of annual reports, minutes, resolutions, organizational files, scrapbooks, and publications produced by the Assembly, its committees, and its officers in official and unofficial capacities. The record group has eight series: Minutes, Reports, Records, Files, Student Legal Services, Visual Materials, Scrapbooks, and Publications.

Women's organization of the Michigan Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Michigan formed in 1919 through merger of the Michigan Woman's Foreign Missionary Society and the Michigan Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. papers include administrative files, annual reports, and minutes of committees and annual meetings

The records of the Michigan Synodical Society document its historical development, the administration of its business, its annual meetings, and its interests in missions, both foreign and home missions, from 1873 to 1973. These records document the beginnings of both the foreign (1873) and home (1879) missionary societies which eventually became the Michigan Synodical Society (1919). The bulk of the collection, however, covers the later period, 1942-1968.

Statewide organization based a the University of Michigan to promote cooperation between industry and educational institutions and to encourage industrial and economic development in Michigan. Records include correspondence, minutes of meetings, topical files and reports.

The records that make up the 1992 accession of the Michigan Technology Council record group document the founding and formative years of a broad-based Michigan organization concerned with an issue of vital concern to educational, business, and governmental leaders of the 1980s: the impact of high technology upon industry and society as a whole. Researchers interested in the changing nature of research and industry in the United States (and particularly in Michigan) during the technological boom of the 1980s will find in the record group ample accounts of such changes from the perspective of the people most interested in promoting them and profiting from them. Resistance to and fear of such changes are documented in the record group, as well, through letters and newspaper articles that present views opposing those of the MTC. The record group also provides insights about the relationships between industry, higher education, and government; particular technological topics such as computers, robotics, and biotechnology; tactics for promoting and marketing technological advances in various sectors of the community; and, of course, the history and organization of MTC itself.

Because the records of the 1992 accession were donated to the Bentley Historical Library not by the MTC but by a loosely related organization, the Industrial Development Division of the Institute for Science and Technology, and because the IDD's 1986 reorganization substantially diminished its connections to the MTC, the record group cannot provide a complete picture of the MTC; it documents the early rather than the recent history of the organization, and it concentrates heavily on a few MTC subcommittees and activities while providing scant details about others. Anticipated subsequent accessions to the record group should be able to fill in these gaps. Nevertheless, the records of the first accession document relatively comprehensively the organization's primary goals and concerns, as expressed through agendas, minutes, correspondence, reports, and pamphlets.

Michigan Theater Foundation was formed in 1979 when it purchased the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Mich., a historic landmark built in 1928 and restored by the fundraising efforts of the Foundation. The record group comprises administrative records, including files of the Executive Director, Board of Trustees and administrative committees; grant proposals, materials related to fundraising, theater restoration, renovation, and membership campaigns; descriptions of programs, series, and individual events taken place at the theater; publicity photographs, audio- and video (VHS) recordings, and outsize posters and calendars of events.

The records date to the period of the Michigan Theater Foundation's intensive fundraising campaign to preserve the Michigan Theater and the first 15 years of its life after the theater reopened its doors in 1986.