Selected
Primary and Secondary Sources by Historical Eras:
Pre and Post Civil War Era | Progressive
Era |
Depression Era | Post-WWII Boom | Post-Modern
Era
Ku Klux Klan Collection,
1920s-1930s. (Since the acquisition of materials from the estate of a Michigan
Klan member over a decade ago, this collection has grown in size and quality.
Most of the primary items in the collection date from the 1920's and 1930's,
a period of growth in the Klan's history. Constitutions, installation ceremonies,
advertisements for Klan merchandise, and the role of women in the Klan are all
included from this period. There are also of the Kourier, the official monthly
magazine of the Knights of the KKK. (A full run of this title is on microfilm
in the Microfilm Library, 3rd floor West). The collection features a number
of secondary studies of the Klan, as well as the research materials used by
Wyn Wade in his book, The Fiery Cross (1987). In 1994, a large collection of
United Klans of America material was added to these holdings.)
At the Michigan
State University Libraries American Radicalism Collection
Gerald L. K. Smith papers,
1922-1976. (Founder of the America First Party, head of the Christian Nationalist
Crusade, and outspoken anti-Semite. During the 1930s, Smith was a vocal opponent
of communism and the CIO. Correspondence, speeches, oral history transcript,
memoranda and other materials detailing his criticism of America's participation
in World War II, his Michigan senatorial race in 1942, his campaign for the
presidency in 1944, his opposition to the spread of communism after the war,
and his support of conservative Christian causes and right wing individuals
and organizations).
Finding aid online at the Bentley
Historical Library.
Polish Activities League
(Detroit, Mich.) 1923-
Finding aid online at the Bentley
Historical Library
Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation 1925 - (Founded to serve aged persons in Detroit, Hannan Foundation provided comprehensive lifetime assistance to hundreds of low-income seniors living in their own homes. In 1971, the Foundation built Hannan House, a four-story licensed home for the aged to provide an affordable living environment that promoted independence. In that same year, The John Scudder Foundation for Old People merged with the Hannan Foundation The results of the The Hannan Study of Older Adults in Detroit’s Central City inform Hannan's strategic plan, programming, and service provision so that we may better serve older adults in central Detroit.
League of Women Voters
of Michigan records, 1924-1985. (Papers of the state office of the League
of Women Voters. Minutes, annual reports, presidents' letters, legislative programs,
issue files concerning its involvement with such issues as child welfare, civil
service, the Constitutional Convention of 1961-1962, election law reform, environmental
quality, fair employment practices, human resources, reapportionment, taxation,
and voters services; also include materials relating to local branch offices).
Finding aid in the library at Bentley
Historical Library. Also at Bentley are other local records such as League
of Women Voters of Mount Clemens-Clinton Area Records 1932-1989 online at Bentley
Historical Library.
League of Women Voters Lansing Records 1924-1979 at the State
Archives of Michigan. See Records Relating to Women Circular 35
Child Development Center
(Detroit, Mich.), 1926-1969
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57
American Committee for
Protection of Foreign Born, 1926-1980. (The collection contains case files
of individuals assisted by the Committee, conference proceedings, correspondence,
legal documents, writings, publications, news releases, newspaper clippings,
financial records, and subject files, which document the Committee's public
appeals...relations with other ethnic, labor, and civil liberties organizations
and with the foreign language press; litigation with the Subversive Activities
Control Board, which listed the Committee as a subversive organization in the
1950s because of its aid to persons and groups with Communist affiliations;
and relations with area committees for protection of foreign born, particularly
Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Minnesota.)
Unpublished finding aid available in the Joseph
Labadie Collection.
Copper Country TB Sanatorium,
1926-1967
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57
Howell Sanatorium, 1927-1962
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57
Horace H. Rackham and
Mary A. Rackham Fund records, 1929-1950 (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.[ In 1935, with financial support
from the Horace H. and Mary A. Rackham Fund and the McGregor Fund, the University
of Michigan Institute of Health and Social Sciences was established, and was
later renamed the Institute of Public and Social Administration]. 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.)
Finding aid online at the Bentley
Historical Library.
Children's Fund of Michigan records, 1929-1965 (Philanthropic foundation created by Senator James J. Couzens and administered by William J. Norton to fund organizations in Michigan involved in child health and child guidance. The largest was the The Children's Center of Detroit. Finding aid online at the Bentley Historical Library.
Welfare Commission, 1929-1939
State
Archives of Michigan See Commissions Circular 42
Jewish Home for the Aged
Collection
Finding aid online at Walter
P. Reuther Library of Labor and
Urban Affairs.
Social Welfare Selected
Case Records, 1930-1945
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57
Pokorny, John E. Papers,
1930-1941. (Assistant to Harry Bennett in personnel and security for Ford
Motor Company and active in the National Sojourners and other patriotic and
veterans organizations in the 1930s. His papers include minutes of meetings
of allegedly communist organizations in the Detroit area and of the Civil Rights
League, which Pokorny infiltrated; lists of "known communists" in the Detroit
area in 1932 compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor; a report, "Radicalism
in the University of Michigan" (ca. 1939) ; and notes and correspondence regarding
his investigation for Ford of communist infiltration of labor unions and his
cooperation with congressional committees investigating subversive activities.)
At the Joseph
Labadie Collection
Edith and Arthur Fox
Collection, 1930s. (Both Edith and Arthur Fox were longtime political and
labor activists in Detroit. They were employed in the auto industry and militantly
involved in union work, he in Local 600 (Ford Rouge Plant) and she in Local
3 (Dodge Main in Hamtramack), The collection has pamphlets, election material,
and shop papers which document their involvement in a number of dissident groups
within the United Auto Workers, including the United National Caucus which lobbied
for a more democratic union structure. As members of the Trotskyite Socialist
Workers Party they collected a good deal of internal party material from the
late 1930's to the Vietnam War era.)
At the Michigan
State University Libraries American Radicalism Collection
League of Women Voters
of Detroit records, 1931-1988
Finding aid in the Bentley
Historical Library.
Emergency Relief, 1931-1954
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57
Ypsilanti State Hospital,
1931.
At the State
Archives of Michigan See Mental Health Records Circular 12
Planned Parenthood League,
Inc. records, 1932-1979. (Records of the Planned Parenthood League, Inc.,
Detroit and Oakland County affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of
America. Histories, board of directors file, and committee records; grants,
clinic reports, and applications; records detailing their relationship with
the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and various Michigan organizations
and agencies; and photographs.)
Finding aid online at the Bentley
Historical Library.
National Housewives'
League of America 1931- 1996. (Organization established to encourage African American
housewives to patronize African American-owned businesses)
Finding aid online at Bentley
Historical Library. See also Marie Dessaw papers, ca.1956-ca.1985 at Bentley
Historical Library.
Depression-Era Agencies 1933- (During the Great Depression a number of
state and federal programs were established to help Michiganders cope with the
consequences of widespread unemployment and dislocation. Some evidence of this
assistance can be found in records for Civilian Conservation Corps, Federal
Emergency Relief Administration, National Youth Administration, Work Projects
Administration (WPA)and the State Planning Commission) at the Michigan
State Archive See Depression Era Agencies Circular 23
Katherine Hill Campbell
papers, 1933-1939. (Superintendent of the Women's Division of the Detroit
House of Correction. Reports, articles, history of women's division, and expressions
of friendship from women of the prison).
Collection at the
Bentley Historical Library.
Arthur Dunham Papers
ca. 1900-1980. (Social worker in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, professor of
community organization at the University of Michigan, a pacifist imprisoned
as a conscientious objector during World War I, a founding member of
Ann Arbor Society of Friends. Papers include correspondence, subject files and
research material relating to his work and teaching, files assembled for a history
of the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, material on his pacifist activities and published
and unpublished writings. Dunham was appointed professor of community organization
at the University of Michigan in 1935, holding this post until his retirement
in 1963. From 1962 to 1972 he held posts as a visiting professor at a number
of universities. In 1956 he made a trip through Europe and Asia, spending three
months in India where he studied their community development programs. Dunham
also made a trip to Northern Ireland in 1971 to serve as a consultant to the
Northern Ireland Community Relations Commission.)
Finding aid online in the Bentley
Historical Library.
School of Social Work
(University of Michigan) records 1935-ongoing (Records of the School of Social
Work (formerly the Institute of Social Work) include minutes, correspondence,
curriculum records, and topical files, concerning the activities of the University's
social work program under the direction of Robert Kelso, Arthur Dunham, Federle
Fauri, Phillip Fellin, Harold R. Johnson, and Paula Allen-Meares.)
Finding aid online at the Bentley
Historical Library.
Social Security History In this extensive collection of history-related materials, both the institutional history of the Social Security Administration and the history of the Social Security program are presented.
Michigan Historical Records
Survey records, 1936-1942. (Records survey undertaken by the US Work Projects
Administration. Correspondence, drafts of guides to county archives, proceedings
of county boards of supervisors, field reports of workers, and copies of land
patents for some counties. Included are surveys of records for Detroit and Wayne
County. There are also records from the Survey’s "Inventory of Negro Manuscripts" project with information about historical personalities and private collections.
Finding aid in the Bentley
Historical Library.
Jenny Lind Club of Detroit
(Swedish-American women) 1937 -
Correspondence; minutes of meetings; and yearbooks containing annual reports
at Bentley
Historical Library.
Jewish Community Council
1937-
Finding aid online at Walter
P. Reuther Library of Labor and
Urban Affairs
Northern Michigan Sanatorium,
1937-1963
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57
Northern Michigan TB
Sanatorium Medical Reports, 1937-1962
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57
Women's International
League for Peace and Freedom, Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Branch records, 1938-1996.
(Correspondence, minutes, newsletters and newspaper clippings concerning activities
of the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti branch; also collected materials from the state chapter
and from local branches in Detroit, Ingham County, Oakland County, Rouge Valley,
and Traverse City, Michigan.)
Collection and finding aid in the Bentley
Historical Library.
Mel Ravitz Collection:
Papers, 1939-1997(Predominantly, 1960s-1990s). (The Mel Ravitz Collection
offers a rich source of documentation on the momentous changes engulfing Detroit
and other large, northern industrial cities during the latter half of the twentieth
century and local attempts to deal with the far-reaching social and economic
problems arising from these changes. The papers reflect not only the turbulent
history of Detroit politics during those years, but Dr. Ravitz’s professional
and scholarly interest in community participation in redevelopment decisions,
urban housing policy, police-community relations, mental health care, race relations
and regional planning). Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs
Detroit Japanese American Citizens League 1940 -1995
Finding aid online at Bentley
Historical Library.
Kellogg African American
Health Care Project 1940-1969.(Documents the health care experiences of
African Americans in southeastern Michigan consisting primarily of oral history
interviews with African American health care practitioners and administrators
covering the period 1940-1969, background files relating to the project, and
oral history transcripts and tape recordings.)
Finding aid online at Bentley
Historical Library. See also Documenting
the Historical Experiences of African Americans in Southeastern Michigan with
Regard to Health Care, the Health Professions and the Health Sciences.
UAW-Ford Sixty Years of Progress 1941-2001 Beautiful quality labor and war effort photographs, early union hand bills, and consumer ads are archived in this pdf file.
Grob, Gerald
N. AMERICAN PSYCHIATRY: AN AMBIVALENT SPECIALTY. [journal
article]
Prospects, 1987, 12: 149-174.
... In the 1940's, psychiatry shifted from the institution and the mental
hospital toward environmentalism and social factors. The new leadership in the
American Psychiatric Association steered toward social concerns and away from
institutional problems...
Booker T. Washington
Business Association 1941-
Collection at Bentley
Historical Library.
Ingham County TB Sanatorium,
1941-1973
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57
Detroit (Mich.) Race
riot scrapbook, 1943.
Scrapbook at Bentley
Historical Library.
Boy's Vocational School,
1947-1958
State
Archives of Michigan See Confidential Records Circular 57\
Rose P. Kleinman papers,
1947-1977, bulk 1964-1977. (Detroit social activist and reformer. Correspondence
and subject files relating to her interest in cooperatives, especially organizations
concerned with low-income, open housing projects; also photographs and audiotapes.)
Finding aid online at the Bentley
Historical Library
Sex Deviate Research,
1947-1955
At the State
Archives of Michigan See Studies Circular 53
Boysville of Michigan/Holy Cross Children's Services, 1948-. (Agency is currently archiving it's records on site and plans to donate them to the Walter Reuther Archives. It also retains the archives of the Michigan Association of Children's Agencies and the Michigan Federation of Private Child and Family Agencies)
Aliya Hassen papers,
1910 -1991. (Arab-American community leader in the Dearborn-Detroit area
of Michigan. Articles, manuscripts and poems on Islamic topics; topical files,
1948-1991, relating to Arab community affairs, including files concerning the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, 1986-1991 and the
Federation of Islamic Associations of the US and Canada; also correspondence
and articles of Malcolm X; and photographs.
Collection and finding aid in the Bentley
Historical Library.
G. Mennen Williams papers.
(Michigan Democratic Governor, 1949-1960; Assistant Secretary of State
for African Affairs, 1961-1966; US Ambassador to the Philippines, 1967-1969;
Michigan Supreme Court justice, 1970-1987. Many of the issues Williams faced
as governor impacted on the city of Detroit. )
Finding aid online at the Bentley
Historical Library.
Selected
Local Records by Historical Eras:
Pre and Post Civil War Era | Progressive
Era
Depression Era| Post-WWII
Boom | Post-Modern Era
A.
Digital archives |
B.
Archival Repositories
Part I: General Library Sources for the
Literature Review
Part
II: Subject-Specific Databases for the Literature Review
Selected Local Records by Historical Eras were based on:
Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.
Joseph Labadie Collection, University of Michigan Hatcher Graduate Library
Michigan State University Libraries American Radicalism Collection
State Archives of Michigan, Lansing (717 West Allegan, Lansing, Michigan)
Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University
|
Document Custodian: Sally
Haines Last revised: 28 February 2007 |