Collections

Professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan; correspondence; notebook containing philosophical jottings; papers of Helen Maud Sellars describing visit to Russia in 1946; and photographs.

The collection consists mainly of the papers of Roy Wood Sellars with some materials of his wife Helen and his son Wilfred. The collection includes correspondence and writings with a scattering of individual and family photographs.

R. R. Rives, Jr. (born 1906) was a minister of the Garden City Presbyterian Church in Garden City, Michigan. Collection consists of a photograph of Rives performing a mortgage burning ceremony, interior photos of Garden City Presbyterian Church, and exterior photos of East Nankin Presbyterian Church (the former name of Garden City Presbyterian Church).

The collection consists of a photograph of Rives performing a mortgage burning ceremony, interior photos of Garden City Presbyterian Church, and exterior photos of East Nankin Presbyterian Church (the former name of the Garden City Presbyterian Church).

Rudolf B. Schmerl was a professor at the University of Michigan from 1957-1988 and worked as both a visiting professor and a consultant in program development at the Tuskegee Institute from 1966-1967. The collection includes materials related to his personal and professional activities at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (now the Tuskegee University) such as correspondence, news clippings, speaker programs, a grant manuscript, and historical material relating to the Tuskegee Institute.

This collection documents the business and personal activities of Rudolf B. Schmerl in relation to the Tuskegee Institute. The materials include programs for two separate conferences in which Schmerl spoke on the topic of communication, newspaper clippings related to the exchange program written either by Schmerl or by other authors, and a manuscript copy of a 1967 grant application for the Model Cities Demonstration Program submitted by C.M. Keener (the mayor of Tuskegee at the time) to the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Schmerl's correspondence highlights his continued interest and involvement in the ongoing development of Tuskegee University after his official tenure as a professor and a consultant.

The bulk of materials date from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, as well as correspondence to and from Schmerl up to 2004.

Ann Arbor, Michigan banker and commissioner of the Michigan Banking Department during the depression. Correspondence and other papers concerning his activities as banking commissioner and officer of the Michigan Bankers Association; includes letters from Mrs. Christine Reichert to her children while touring Europe, mainly Germany, on the eve of World War II, 1939; also letters between Reichert and British manufacturer in which British-American foreign policy is discussed, 1939-1945; and photographs.

The Reichert papers span the period 1907-1965 but bulk largest for the years 1927-1936. The collection deals with Reichert's career as Commissioner of the State Banking Department of Michigan, his activities as a local bank president in Ann Arbor, an officer in the Michigan Bankers Association, and a stockholder in the Argus Corporation. There are a few scattered items of a personal nature, in short, such personal correspondence as was handled through his business office.

The papers are rich in materials on the financial crisis in Michigan during the Great Depression when he was Banking Commissioner. Reichert was also active until the early 1950's in the framing of both state and federal legislation dealing with banks, federal deposit insurance, etc., and he carried on a full correspondence with Congressman Earl Michener and Senator Arthur Vandenberg on these legislative matters. Considerable material exists on the Michigan Bankers Association, especially for the years 1941-1944, when he was an officer of the group. There is some material on Republican party matters, but it is not very full.

Ann Arbor's business and financial life is well covered for the whole period, including material on Argus, Inc. for the post-war period. The effect of both the depression and the war on small town economic life is particularly well documented. There is an interesting series of letters, 1939-1945, between Reichert and a British rope manufacturer named Hendy, in which British and American policy in foreign affairs and the conduct of the war is argued at length.

The collection has been divided into the following series: Professional Papers; State Banking Department and related; Biographical/Personal; and Photographs.

Correspondence and other papers relating to his work with the American Library Association's Committee on Revision of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 1935-1941; letters from his former students upon the occasion of his retirement in 1964; personal correspondence, including letters to his parents from relatives in Norway, 1880-1935 and letters written while in service during World War I; and photographs.

The bulk of the collection consists of Gjelsness' professional correspondence between 1930 and 1965; materials concerning the committees of the American Library Association on which he served, and relating to his foreign assignments; extensive files of drafts of the revision of the Catalog Code, together with related. correspondence; and comments on the final draft of the Code.

Some unusual items are letters in Norwegian written between 1881 and 1935 to Marius S. and Karoline O. Gjelsness, parents of Rudolph Gjelsness. The correspondents were family and friends in Norway, and residents of other Norwegian. communities in north-central United States. Business papers of Marius S. Gjelsness from 1885 to 1917 reflect his activities as a member of the local school board and as a leader in his church. Several catalogues of merchandise are included.

There are also early personal letters of Rudolph H. Gjelsness written to his mother and his sister Helen during the years he was in the army and later a student in Norway, as well as a few from his days as a library science student and a beginning librarian. There are also a few folders of his World War memorabilia.

The papers of Rudy Serra are concentrated on his involvement and interest in the revision of city ordinances in Ferndale and Ypsilanti, Michigan, widening the scope of civil rights protection to include sexual orientation. The collection includes his writings in support of ordinance revision, an article he wrote on sexual orientation and Michigan law, as well as correspondence related to, and press coverage of, the revision process.

The collection is comprised of four series: Ferndale Civil Rights Ordinance Revision; Ypsilanti Campaign for Equality; Other Litigation; Topical Files; and Writings.

Records of the Ruggles & Rademaker of Manistee, Michigan, and of the predecessor land and lumber enterprises of Charles Ruggles and Edward Buckley, including the Buckley and Douglas Lumber Co., the Manistee and Northeastern Railroad, and the Emeline Bath Co. of Chicago, Ill. Financial records and business correspondence of Edward Buckley, Charles Ruggles, and John Rademaker; also files concerning lawsuit between Ruggles and Buckley.

This record group, although named for the salt company owned and operated by Charles F. Ruggles and John Henry Rademaker from 1920 to its sale in 1931, is also an accumulation of records of the business enterprises and land dealings of Charles Ruggles beginning in 1866 and of the partnership operations of Ruggles and Edward Buckley. Included are business correspondence, financial records, organizational materials, and litigation files. Many of the financial records have been microfilmed.

Rup Chand was associated with the University of Michigan for over forty years as a collector and labeler of plant and bird specimens from India, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, and other parts of the Middle East and South Asia. The collection documents his travels and his work as a collector of plant and bird specimens, his association with Walter Koelz, collector of plants for the University of Michigan. The collection includes biographical information; correspondence; journals for the period 1934-1994 documenting his travels and specimen collecting; and photographs and slides of South Asia and the Middle East, and of his life and travels in the United States.

The Rup Chand Papers document Chand's travels and collection of plant and bird specimens throughout India, Tibet, Persia, Afghanistan, and other areas in South Asia and the Middle East in the 1930s and 1940s, and his life after immigrating to the United States in 1956. The Papers have been divided into four series: Biographical and Miscellaneous Material, Correspondence, Journals, and Photographs and Slides.

This collection is comprised of photographs of the Allen's Creek enclosure in Ann Arbor, and is mainly excavation views.

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.