Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Homer A. Neal papers, 1961-1997, document the professional career of high-energy experimental physicist, professor and academic administrator Homer Alfred Neal. Neal has held academic and administrative positions at Indiana University (1967-1981), State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook (1981-1987) and the University of Michigan (1961-1966, and 1987-present), all of which are represented in the collection. The collection documents Neal's involvement with a number of professional and scientific organizations, including the National Science Foundation, Argonne Universities Association, the Superconducting Super Collider, and Smithsonian Institution. The collection also features a significant amount of material related to Neal's research activities in high-energy physics, including the early use of computers.

The Homer A. Neal papers, 1961-1997 (39 linear feet), are organized into eight series: Biographical Information (1971-1997); Class Work and Student Teaching (1961-1966); Research (1964-1997); Teaching and Academic Administration (1967-1997); Professional Activities (1968-1996); Speeches and Presentations (1966-1997); Publications (1966-1996); and Photographs (1963-1995). With the exception of Class Work and Student Teaching, which only contains documents from Neal's time as a graduate student at the University of Michigan, each of these series spans the entire time period represented by the collection, and represents the multiple functions that Neal has carried out throughout his career. Within each of these series, documents are organized by institution or project, and then roughly chronologically.

Republican U.S. Senator from Michigan, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines; files relating to his various career responsibilities, photographs, sound recordings.

The Homer Ferguson collection has been divided into eleven series based primarily upon the important phases of his public life: Personal; Circuit Judgeship; Senate Career; Interregnum: November 1954 - April 1955; Hoover Commission; Philippine Ambassadorship; United States Court of Military Appeals; Inter-Parliamentary Union; Photographs, Sound Recordings, and Myrtle Ferguson Papers.

Methodist clergyman and author; pastor of the Ann Arbor (Mich.) First United Methodist Church. Drafts and galleys of books and articles, correspondence relating to writings and printed sermons.

The collection is comprised almost entirely of drafts of his writings and other materials relating to publication of his writings. There is also an extensive run of his published sermons.

Michigan farmer. Transcript of description of daily activities and business transactions.

Description of daily activities and business transactions. Transcript.

The last will and testament of Horace H. Rackham provided for the establishment of a trust fund to provide for the health and welfare of individuals, particularly the sick, aged, the young, the poor, and other underprivileged. Much of the trust money went to the University of Michigan to be used for a building for the graduate school and an endowment to be used for different kinds of research. The Fund also awarded grants to agencies involved in child welfare, community culture, education, health, philanthropy, and science. The Fund distributed money from 1934 until about 1941. The series in this record group consist of administrative and executive files, and project applications and grant files.

The records of the Horace H. Rackham and Mary A. Rackham Fund document the continuing generosity of Horace Rackham and Mary Rackham to numerous charitable, educational, and scientific organizations and causes. The records contain the files of the Fund's trustees and directors and provide insight and information about such topics as the administration of a philanthropic fund-giving organization during the mid-1930s, the kinds of gifts made, the relationship among the Fund's trustees and officers, and the relationship between the Fund and the grant recipients. Because of the size of the gift, most of the documentation within the record group details the close ties between the Fund and the University of Michigan. These files concern not only the establishment of the Rackham endowment to the University, but also the different scientific and educational grants made. Additionally, these files detail the construction of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies building in Ann Arbor and the Rackham Educational Memorial building in Detroit.

The records of the Fund cover the period of 1929-1950 though they bulk largest for the period of the Fund's greatest activity, 1934-1940. The record group has been separated into two series: Combined Administrative and Executive Office Files and Project applications/grants.

Graduate School of the University of Michigan. Includes Bulletins and Announcements of courses and degree requirements, graduate student hand books and other information for graduate students.

The Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies Announcements, Bulletins and Handbooks series consists of publications directly related to graduate school policies and procedures and includes information on degree program requirements and curriculum.

Academic degree program requirements are defined in what is called the university "bulletin" or general catalog. For example, program requirements outline how many credits and what subjects a student needs to complete in order to receive a degree in an academic program within a specific school or college. At the University of Michigan, the degree program requirements are positioned as a contract between the university and the student with regard to the definition and program requirements.

Included in this series are the Announcement (or Bulletin), Graduate Student Handbook and Information for Graduate Students. Some publications (or their successors) may no longer be available in print but are available on the school s website.

Note that other publications produced by the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, such as Rackham Reports, are separately cataloged.

Graduate School of the University of Michigan. Records include dean's topical files, 1892-1996; files of associate deans; minutes of the executive board; project and grant files detailing faculty and student research; lists of degrees granted; records of fellowships and awards granted by the graduate school and university; and files relating to academic departments and programs, including reviews of degree programs.

The records of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies document the administration of the school, its academic programs and research projects and fellowships funded by the school and outside sources. The records include Dean's Files, minutes of the Executive Board and Administrative Council, Academic Unit and Program Evaluation files, and grants administration records.

Records of the Graduate School have been received by the library in numerous accessions, some large others quite small. Some accessions represent continuations or complements to previously received materials. This finding attempts to intellectually integrate continuing or similar record series received in multiple accessions.

The records are organized into a number of series. Among the more significant are:

1. Deans' Topical File
2. Research Records
3. University Units
4. Program Evaluations
5. Faculty Research Grants
6. Degree Lists
7. Faculty Fellowships, Grants and Awards
8. Graduate School Executive Board and Administrative Council

In 2008, the Rackham School of Graduate Studies announced that it would become a 'paperless' office and that future accessions to the Bentley Library would be electronic. The materials from 1990 to 2003 were thus digitized by Rackham staff (from the original paper records) and saved as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. As of 2012, these digital accessions comprise two subseries within the Graduate School Executive Board and Administrative Council series and Program Evaluation series.

Professor of law at University of Michigan, and specialist in corporation law. Correspondence, speeches, newspaper clippings, notes, and manuscripts of books and articles, relating to his professional career, Ann Arbor, Michigan organizations and issues, particularly progressive political movements and prohibition, including the Michigan Anti-Saloon League, the anti-trust movement, and the 1912 Progressive Party; also photographs.

The Horace L. Wilgus papers include correspondence, speeches, clippings, notes, manuscripts of books and articles dealing with his professional career, the many Ann Arbor organizations and issues in which he was interested: particularly progressive political movements and prohibition, including the Michigan Anti-Saloon League, the anti-trust movement, and the 1912 Progressive Party. The collection also includes University of Michigan Law School course materials, family genealogical information, and a small series of photographs, many of them of his home on Washtenaw Ave. in Ann Arbor, Michigan.