RHC. Regional and Historical Collections

Collection Description

Collection of 19th and early 20th century correspondence and autographs from American authors. Includes personal and official routine correspondence primarily to and from American writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Christopher Morley, H.L. Mencken, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, Upton Sinclair, and Erle Stanley Garnder. Collected by Harvey E. Lemmen.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a small amount of material collected by attendees at a 461st Bomb Group reunion. It includes reunion agendas, a 461st Bomb Group badge, and two essays written about the 461st Bomb Group.

Collection Description

An 8 X 10 glass plate copy negative of the photographic portrait, taken by an unknown photographer, from the portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Matthew Brady in 1862. A digital scan and digital print reproduction from the image is also included.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of materials, compiled by collector Harvey E. Lemmen, as part of his extensive book, manuscript, ephemera and art collection on the life and death of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. The collection contains postage stamps, both used and unused, as well as decorative envelopes and assorted ephemera featuring Abraham Lincoln or commemmorating the events of Lincoln's life, death, and the United States Civil War.

Collection Description The collection consists of materials, compiled by collector Harvey E. Lemmen, as part of his extensive book, manuscript, ephemera and art collection on the life and death of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Three large scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and articles from local and national press are titled, v. 1 Lincolniana: his assassination and funeral; v.2 Lincoln in pictures; v. 3 Lincoln in advertising. The boxes contain additional scrapbooks and loose scrapbook...

Scope and Contents

Small collection of uncut advertising paper dolls used to promote products to adults, spanning the dates of around 1964 to 2005. The collection contains paper dolls in catalogues, cereal boxes, coasters, and on magazine pages and post cards.

Content Description

Collection contains ephemera and realia of the Alabastine Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The collection primarily contains 70 issues of Brush & Pail, a monthly publication produced by the Alabastine Company. Issues range in date from 1914 to 1926. Collection also includes catalogs, brochures, and other printed materials, as well as a paint sample kit. The materials range in date from 1895 to 1948.

Content Description Small leather diary with the word Memoramda stamped on it and the year 1879 written in ink. It records a year (1879-1880) in the life of a Alaska, Michigan settler. The diarist name is unknown. The diary includes a page listing customers, and 17 pages of supplies purchased. It seems the diarist was not the owner of the store, but worked there frequently as well as helping other farmers in the area. Entries document the diarist's daily activities and include names and nicknames of...

Content Description

Small collection of letters by Charles S Aldrich to his family, 1944-1945. Also contains 1990s letters from Russian Federation regarding commemorative medals, and biographical notes.

Collection Description

Videotaped interviews and transcripts of the former players in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The collection consists of interviews conducted by Grand Valley State University faculty and associates at reunions and other league events. Interviewees discuss their experience in the league and their lives after the league ceased to exist.

Collection Description

The Mathias J. Alten papers document the personal life and career of the West Michigan painter. The collection includes biographical information, business records, exhibit catalogs, and newspaper clippings collected by family members.

Content Description

This artificially created collection contains approximately 660 picture picture postcards, dating from 1895 to 1970, with the bulk of the cards dating between 1900 and 1920. The collection contains illustrated postcards, real photo postcards, advertising postcards, and occasional postcards, addressed to a variety of individuals.

Scope and Contents

The D. J. Angus photograph collection consists of over 10,000 negatives and prints from ca. 1900-1960s. They were taken by Angus in his birth place of Wisconsin; his home in Grand Haven, Michigan; his places of work Indianapolis, Indiana, and Lansing, Michigan (Michigan Agricultural College); and on recreational trips throughout the southwest, south, and Mexico.

Collection Description This collection of family papers contains family history information, marriage certificates, deeds, a friendship book belonging to Alice Griffin, and correspondence between Alice, her friends and family and her future husband J.J. Angus. Routine correspondence and the friendship book includes mention of women’s rights, abolition, Quakers, and the Sodus Bay Phalanx utopian community. Patents of J.J. Angus and schoolwork of D.J. Angus are included in the family papers....

Collection Description

Collection contains papers relating to Daniel M. Arbour of Redford, Michigan, spanning from 1845 to 1874. Includes five letters to his daughter in Michigan, dated 1861-1864; two envelopes are Wells, Fargo & Co. covers, one with three stamps; two letters announcing his death, another regarding his property, a lock of dark brown hair, and miscellaneous papers including poetry, a Detroit marriage certificate, an invitation to a ball and an obituary.

Collection Description

Handwritten diary maintained by David M. Austin of Elsie, Michigan. The diary is written in a day book. Entries begin on January 1, 1913 and conclude on December 31st 1916. Austin records the details of his everyday life including the weather, his work around the farm and jobs he is hired to do, and details of friends and family.

Inserted in the diary are a newspaper article, a poem, and a program from a Merchant of Venice performance.

Collection Description

Includes technical correspondence, primarily astronomical; correspondence concerning the publication of the book, "The Deadly Fuze" articles, general correspondence, speeches, copies of personal papers and an autobiography called "The Life of Ralph Baldwin" for which supplements were added annually.

Collection Description Balinese palm-leaf manuscript (lontar). Manuscript is made from dried palm leaves and bound between wood blocks by a cord running through the middle of the blocks and each leaf. A coin is tied to the cord. Translation of this document, conducted in 1973, speculates that this may not be authentic to the period (prior to the 19th century when printing presses were introduced), and may have been created for commercial purposes. The first 27 pages are lists of words seeming to bear no...

Scope and Contents There are five ledgers that Jessie Loring Barker used to chronicle her various trips and tours taken between 1892 and 1902. These ledgers are all produced by National Blank Book Co. in half-Russia binding and measure 7.875 x 9.75 inches. In them Jessie provides daily detailed and thoughtful commentaries about the travel, her companions, the weather, and objective (and sometimes humorous) observations about people she meets in the conveyances and destinations. She also adds supplementary...

Content Description One photograph album, 233 x 319 cm. 37 leaves. Dark blue embossed cloth over thin boards with "Photographs" embossed in gold on cover. Contains 256 black-and-white photographs of various sizes, the majority identified with dates, places, and names. All are attached to the album leaves with corner mounts, although there are a number of photographs which had been removed before acquisition. The majority of the photographs were taken in West Warwick, Rhode Island and Fall...

Collection Description These military records and personal papers document the career and personal life of Lt. (later Capt.) F.W. Beasecker, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Military records include diaries, correspondence, orders, blueprints and plans, manuals, and correspondence. Other military records include publications, artifacts and memorabilia. Photographs of training at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts; visit to the Gibbon Boat Works in New Orleans, manufacturer of parts for the LCVP; housing in Carabelle,...

Content Description Collection contains 59 letters, cards, and envelopes addressed to Emma Simila, her mother Maria, and her sister Elma from a variety of correspondents, dated from July 1939 to February 1975. Correspondents include Victor Belmonte (see biography above) who is responsible for bulk of the items, 1941-1943. Other identified writers are: Ernest Eino Mytty (1912-1954) was born in Michigan to parents of Finnish heritage; he was a machine operator in a Muskegon factory and...

Abstract

John Bennitt was a physician from Centreville, Michigan. He joined the 19th Michigan Infantry Regiment as an assistant surgeon, and remained in military service until the end of the war. The collection consists of over 200 letters from John Bennitt to his wife and daughters. In them he shared his detailed observations of army life as a surgeon. Three diaries accompany the correspondence.

Scope and Contents Collection of World War II era correspondence, photographs, press and personnel releases, military papers, printed material, and memorabilia of Jim Bergers. Correspondence includes letters to and from Jim Bergers from 1941 to 1945 while he was in the United States Army, as well as enclosures such as newspaper clippings and photographs. The press releases and personnel papers are written by Bergers and provide information regarding the soldiers of Fort Eustis, Fort Bragg, and Fort Hood, and...

Scope and Contents In the collection are 292 letters and envelopes. 207 were written by Harry Berne and sent to his parents and sister in St. Louis, dating from 29 January 1947 to 11 September 1949, with a few significant gaps. 49 letters were written to Harry by his sister, Marie Berne, dating from 30 January to 19 April 1947; 17 letters were written to Harry by his parents, Henry and Marigold Berne, dating from 5 February to 15 April 1947. Finally, there are 19 letters written to Harry and other...

Content Description Collection contains 33 letters written by Harry A. Biddle, Carpenters Mate, 2nd Class, 61st Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees), Company C, 2nd Platoon, to his wife Mary. 14 April 1943 to 9 January 1944. She was living at 2067 Nereid Avenue, Apt. 66, Bronx, New York through 1943, and relocated to Cos Cob, Connecticut in January 1944.Contents generally describe conditions in and around the 61st N.C.B. stationed at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, although the location is...

Collection Description

Correspondence to Grace Bedell Billings from friends, family, and from individuals requesting autographs and information about the letter she sent to Lincoln, 1925-1928.

Collection Description

Collection contains the business and personal papers of James Boring, spanning from 1949 to 1986. The business files primarily document Boring's activities as the Director of Ground Transportation Division of Air Asia Company Limited in Taipei, Taiwan in the 1960s and early 1970s. Also included in the collection are personal papers, including documentation of Boring's employment history, moving records, personal correspondence.

Collection Description Collection documents the involvement of Judson Bradford and other residents of Holland, Michigan in the founding of Grand Valley State University. Materials include Citizen Advisory Council records, correspondence with L. William Seidman and others, GVSC publications and promotional materials, notices and invitations, and newspaper articles. Also includes interview conducted in 2011 by President's Office for Grand Valley's 50th Anniversary and an employee stock ownership advocacy notebook...

Content Description

Collection of handbooks, magazines, printed ephemera, uniforms, scrapbooks and diaries, organizational reports, and artifacts relating to the Camp Fire Girls youth scouting organization, spanning from around 1912 to the mid 1960s.