Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Correspondence and other papers series documents Woodrow Woody's life, politics, and association with Hillcrest Country Club in Mount Clemens, Michigan. The series consists of correspondence between Woody and various political figures primarily from the Republican Party, as well as newspaper clippings about Woody and his Pontiac dealership in Hamtramck. Additionally, the series contains two scrapbooks documenting the Hillcrest Wolverine Open during the years 1960 to 1964. The photographs, newspaper clippings, and other materials have been removed from the scrapbook and re-housed in folders.

The correspondence is arranged in strict chronological order according to the date of the letter received and the date of the reply to it. This means that the letter and its response are sometimes widely separated. However, the date of the reply was often noted on the incoming letter in blue pencil. Two indexes have been created to provide some access points to the chronological correspondence files.

A name index lists many of the most significant authors or recipients of letters. The alphabetical listing cites letters by the author by date. A second index provides access by broad topics and subjects. In the index notations, dates for original letters and responses are given. If the reply is in the same folder as the incoming letter, the dates in the index appear in order, separated by a comma. If the reply is in another folder, its notation is preceded by an R and the box, folder number, and date are given. Starting in 1913, copies of replies are sometimes on the back of the incoming letter itself so the researcher should check there also

President Hutchins continued the operation of the university as it had been under previous presidents, although with increasing expansion of course offerings and student numbers university management was beginning to become unwieldy. There was no organizational structure demarking administrative functions. This lack meant that a wide range of inquiries were addressed to the president -- including those regarding appointments, admissions, student financial aid, and medical care in the university hospitals. These were referred to the heads of the various departments and schools, to the secretary of the university, who oversaw financial affairs, or to the Student Christian Association, which arranged for student jobs.

An indication of how highly regarded the university was across the country may be found in the large number of inquiries from university or government officials in recently admitted states in the west where state systems of higher education were being developed. The range of topics on which they sought advice may be seen in the index listings under "Inquiries from other Educational Institutions".

Correspondence and other Papers (1949 accession) is a chronologically arranged series and dates from 1822 to 1896. The letters concern family affairs, business, state and national politics, particularly the presidential candidacy of Lewis Cass and the elections of 1848 and 1852, and the Felch estate.

The bulk of the collection has been arranged into a chronological series: Correspondence and other papers of family members. This series dates from 1761 to 1916 and contains an amalgam of personal, business, and political materials. As these papers were accumulated by different family members, it was not always possible to separate papers into series by name of either Burrows, Avery, or Smith family member. To facilitate access, therefore, the papers were arranged into one chronological sequence.

The earliest materials in this series were of Latham Avery, a Connecticut businessman. This is followed by papers of his daughter, her husband Roswell Burrows, and two of their children Roswell Burrows Jr. and Lorenzo Burrows. Papers from the period when Lorenzo Burrows was served in Congress consist primarily of letters to him requesting his aid in obtaining positions within the government and letters about his Whig party activities. It is in the papers for the years 1849 to 1853, that the researcher will find correspondence from Whig politicians, Washington Hunt and Millard Fillmore.

For the mid to late nineteenth century, the correspondence is primarily to Julia Smith from her sister and her nieces about family matters. For the twentieth century, the letters are mainly addressed to Emeline Burrows and also relate to family matters. Business correspondence is interspersed throughout with the family letters.