Collections

Judge of Common Pleas. Correspondence and other materials relating to politics and to Polish-American interests.

The collection relates primarily to his interest in the Democratic Party in Michigan and to his involvement in Polish-American activities and organizations.

The collection consists of county maps, subdivision maps, and township maps of northeastern Michigan and the Saginaw Valley, especially Bay City.

Circuit court judge and Michigan Supreme Court justice; his wife, Ann Lapham Graves, was a Battle Creek educator and civic leader; their son, Henry B. Graves, was a Detroit lawyer. Family correspondence concerning life in Battle Creek, Michigan, student life of H. B. Graves at the University of Michigan, 1879-1882, Kansas land speculation, 1883-1885, the Spanish-American War and legal affairs; personal journals and circuit court and Supreme Court record books of B. F. Graves; and photographs.

The Benjamin F. Graves papers consist of family correspondence concerning life in Battle Creek, Michigan, student life of H. B. Graves at the University of Michigan, 1879-1882, Kansas land speculation, 1883-1885, the Spanish-American War and legal affairs; personal journals and circuit court and Michigan Supreme Court record books of B. F. Graves; and correspondence of Henry B. Graves and Ann Lapham Graves. The collection has been arranged by name of individual family member: Benjamin F. Graves; Lapham family; Henry B. Graves; and Miscellaneous.

The correspondence of Benjamin F. Graves includes letters from Henry B. Brown, December 26, 1890; Julius C. Burrows, March 17, 1869; James V. Campbell, 1858-1883; Isaac P. Christiancy, June 1868, November and December 1862, February 1873, August 1877; Thomas M. Cooley (throughout); Donald M. Dickinson, undated and December 1883; Alpheus Felch, December 1894; and John W. Longyear, April 1864 and March 1865.

Correspondence relating to politics and his activities as regent of the University of Michigan; also material concerning the depression and impact of the New Deal on agriculture in Michigan.

Professor of English at the University of Michigan. Correspondence; lectures and speeches; and miscellaneous articles, essays, and poems.

The Bennett Weaver collection is comprised of three series: Correspondence; Lectures, speeches, and addresses; and Miscellaneous. Most of the lectures and speeches concern Anglo-American poetry, the Bible as literature, and patriotic themes.

Athlete and football coach at the University of Michigan. Correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials relating to University athletics, especially football.

The Bennie G. Oosterbaan collection documents his career as athlete and coach at the University of Michigan, especially his time as head football coach. The collection is comprised of the following series: Correspondence; Papers collected from different period of his career; Miscellaneous; Scrapbooks; and Photographs. The collection relates to his career at the University of Michigan, especially as football coach.

Signed portraits of prominent musicians and U-M music professors, including Ross Lee Finney and Paul Doktor.

Documents and correspondence relating to some soldiers in the U.S. 339th Infantry and related units, who fought in northern Russia in 1918-1919, the "Polar Bear Expedition."

Documents and correspondence relating to some soldiers in the U.S. 339th Infantry and related units, who fought in northern Russia in 1918-1919 (known as the Polar Bears). Includes copies of military discharge papers, correspondence between the library and family members about names omitted from the library's online Polar Bear roster, and miscellaneous other biographical documents. The collection includes a small number of digitized images and documents scanned or photographed by donors who have retained the original items

The Bentley Historical Library (BHL) houses the Michigan Historical collections, which documents the history of Michigan; and the University Archives and Records Program, which maintains the historical records of the University of Michigan. Founded in 1935 as the Michigan Historical Collections, directors of the library include Lewis G. Vander Velde, F. Clever Bald, Robert M. Warner and Francis X. Blouin, Jr. The publications include annual reports, bulletins, bibliographies, newsletters, and books produced by the BHL using its holdings

The PUBLICATIONS (3.7 linear feet) are divided into two series: Unit Publications and Sub-Unit Publications.

The Unit Publications series contains complete runs of the Bentley Historical Library publications. These include annual reports, 1935-2012 (except for 1989-1990 and 1997-2004, when no annual reports were published). The Unit Publications series also includes brochures, calendars, exhibit programs and manuals such as the University Archives and Records Program Records Policy and Procedures Manual. There is a complete run of topical resource bibliographies including the Bibliographic Series (No. 1-11) dating from 1973 to 1988 and the Guide Series written starting in 1996. In 2001 a guide to holdings relating to Detroit was published. The Unit Publications series includes a comprehensive collection of bibliographies such as the Guide to Manuscripts in the Bentley Historical Library published in 1976 and a bibliography of works derived using the holdings in the Bentley Historical Library, 1935-2010, issued as the Bentley celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2010. The Bulletin Series is a series of booklets largely written on Michigan or University of Michigan topics using Bentley Library collections and record groups as source material. This series began in 1947 and continues to the present.

The Unit Publications series contains monographs published by or in conjunction with the Bentley Historical Library. This eclectic subseries includes a biography of Ann Allen written by Russell Bidlack, a history of the Detroit observatory by Patricia Whitesell, and an updated edition of Howard Peckham's history of the University of Michigan. There have been two newsletters published by the unit, the Michigan Historical Collection Gazette published from 1967 to 1988 and the Bentley Historical Library which began publication in 1989 and continues to the present.

The Sub-Unit Publications series contains undated brochures from the Friends of the Bentley Historical Library.

The Bentley Historical Library houses the Michigan Historical collections, which documents the history of Michigan; and the University Archives and Records Program, which maintains the historical record of the University of Michigan. Founded in 1935 as the Michigan Historical Collections, directors of the library include Lewis G. Vander Velde, F. Clever Bald, Robert M. Warner, Francis X. Blouin, Jr., and Terrence J. McDonald. The records include administrative files, correspondence, meeting materials, files on exhibits, archived websites, images, audio-visual media, and documentation of special projects such as the Vatican Archives project.

The records of the Bentley Historical Library were received in six main accessions 1991, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2014. Together the records comprise 79 linear feet, plus two oversize boxes, and oversize folder, three flat file drawers, and more than 16 GB of data spanning the years 1935-2014. The researcher should consult the summary box list on page vii for a quick overview of the materials in the collection.