The Home Front
Wars are fought on the home front has well as on the battlefield. The United States maintained a relatively small military force prior to the outbreak of World War I. With the coming of the War, the USA was forced to mobilize at a level not seen before. These resources help document life at home during the War.
Collections
Airplane frame at the Fisher Body Aeroplane
Division Factory, Detroit - Fisher Body
Corporation, Aeroplane Division, photograph
album
Aeroplane Division Photograph Album (Fisher Body Corporation)
Photos of airplanes, factory interiors and exteriors, stages of airplane production, and workers.
William Herbert Hobbs Papers
Professor of geology at the University of Michigan and chairman of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, branch of the National Security League during World War I. Correspondence and other papers concerning his activities with the National Security League, his interest in Arctic geology and exploration, and his dispute over the political views of Charles A. Lindbergh in 1941; also notebooks, 1921-1922, concerning the expedition of the University of Michigan to the Pacific, and travel notes of trips to the Near East, Spain, the West Indies and Switzerland; articles and other writings; and photographs. Correspondents include: William C. Alden, Frederick M. Alger, Peter Freuchen, S. Stanwood Menken, Hugh Mitchell, Robert E. Peary, George H. Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, William A. Smith, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Henry L. Stimson, Charles E. Townsend, John G. Winter, Leonard Wood, and Henry A. W. Wood.
Finding Aid available online.
William Christian Weber Papers
Detroit, Michigan businessman and civic leader. Business correspondence relating to Weber's activities as a dealer in timber lands, his role as a member of the Art Commission in the development of Detroit, Michigan's Cultural Center, his involvement in the construction of the Detroit-Windsor bridge and tunnel and his activities during World War I; and correspondence and class notes of his sons, Harry B. and Erwin W. Weber, while attending University of Michigan; also photographs and maps.
Finding Aid available online.
Workers assembling parts at the Fisher Body
Aeroplane Division Factory,- Fisher Body
Corporation, Aeroplane Division, photograph
album
Jay G. Hayden Scrapbooks
Washington correspondent for the Detroit News. Extensive comment on national politics and foreign relations, particularly as they relate to Michigan. Personal subjects include: Sherman Adams, Smith W. Brookhart, Prentiss M. Brown, William Jennings Bryan, James F. Byrnes, Benjamin N. Cardozo, James Couzens, George Creel, Charles DeGaulle, Edwin Denby, Lewis Douglas, John Foster Dulles, Dwight D. Eisenhower, James A. Farley, Henry Ford, Felix Frankfurter, John Glenn, James Hoffa, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev.
Finding Aid available online.
Sligh Family Papers
Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan, family whose members include James Wilson Sligh, Grand Rapids businessman and officer in Michigan Engineers and Mechanics in the Civil War; James May Sligh, physician and officer in the Michigan Engineers and Mechanics during the Civil War; Charles Robert Sligh, Grand Rapids furniture manufacturer, Republican state senator, and gubernatorial nominee; and Charles Robert Sligh, Jr., Grand Rapids businessman, past president and executive vice-president of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Series II : papers, 1866-1927, of Charles R. Sligh, including eight volumes of account books and ledgers, three scrapbooks, one letterbook, forty-nine diaries and small notebooks, four feet of correspondence, speeches, clippings, pamphlets, legal documents, and biographical notes dealing with the furniture industry, family affairs, Grand Rapids, Michigan, business enterprises in California, Arizona, and elsewhere, World War I activities (preparedness movement, Plattsburg training camp, National Security League, and airplane production) and politics on the local, state and national level, especially bimetallism, 1893-1897, the election of 1896, Michigan Senate activities, 1922-1924, and the Michigan primary election of 1924.
Finding Aid available online.
James C. Foster Papers
Chairman of the Luce County (Mich.) War Preparedness Board during World War I. Directives and reports received by the Board and correspondence, including letters from Governor Albert E. Sleeper.
Calvin Thomas Papers
Professor of German at University of Michigan and Columbia University. Diaries, correspondence, scrapbooks, lecture notes, speeches, photographs, and other papers of Thomas and his family covering his European travels and his activities as a student at University of Michigan and the University of Leipzig, and as a college instructor; also material dealing with his professional interests (including the German language and literature) and the attitude of academia towards Germans in World War I, and correspondence with his publishers.
Finding Aid available online.
Ray E. Bassett Scrapbook
Ann Arbor, Michigan, city forester. Scrapbook containing clippings and printed materials about his work, also the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, and Ann Arbor's patriotic activities during World War I.
Brecken Family Papers
Grand Rapids, Michigan, family. Brief family history; letters to Clarence Brecken, also his journal, while stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison during World War I; journal of Jennie Brecken, 1965; legal documents; and photographs.
Finding Aid available online.
Henry Bourne Joy Papers
President of the Packard Motor Company. Correspondence concerning his business activities in Detroit, Michigan, his support of the Lincoln Highway Association, his campaign against the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition), and his interest in the Federal Council of Churches; also business letter books, 1888-1892, and 1902-1903; photograph album, 1915, concerning automobile trip from Detroit to San Francisco; scrapbooks, 1883-1937, containing newspaper clippings and articles relating to the development of the automobile industry, national economic affairs and Republican politics; and collection of printed pamphlets and newsletters, 1927-1936, of conservative individuals and organizations, including the American Coalition, American Liberty League, the Vigilant Intelligence Federation, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Elizabeth Dilling, Robert E. Edmonson, the Industrial Defense Association, the National Civic Federation, and the Union League of Michigan. Correspondents include: James J. Couzens, Elizabeth Dilling, Warren G. Harding, Charles E. Hughes, Edward Hunter, Harry A. Jung, Alfred M. Landon, Andrew W. Mellon, Truman H. Newberry, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, William H. Slayton, and William H. Taft.
Bay City (Mich.) City Government Records
Records of the municipal government offices of Bay City, Michigan. Correspondence files of the mayor, city attorney, the city manager, and the city engineer; contain papers, primarily 1913-1921, concerning the city's water supply, life on the homefront during World War I, the League to Enforce Peace, veterans affairs, the city's campaign against venereal disease in 1920, unemployment, and the work of the Michigan Municipal League.
Finding Aid available online.
Rudolf Muenzinger Papers
German Lutheran pastor of Metz and Lupton, Michigan, and Toledo,Ohio. Correspondence, baptism, marriage, and communicant records, certificates of naturalization and ordination, musical compositions, picture album of his seminary in Nördlingen, Germany, newspaper clippings, and letter, June 8, 1917, from Herbert Hoover concerning food conservation and the war.
Clifford Wilcox Papers
Student at the University of Michigan. Research papers relating to professors of German at the University of Michigan during World War I and to the Michigan Daily during the Vietnam War.
Claude Halstead Van Tyne Papers
Professor of history at University of Michigan and scholar of America's revolutionary era. Correspondence concerning the historical profession, publishing, current events, and personal matters, lecture notes, newspaper clippings concerning personal matters and travels in Europe and India; also papers concerning his activities during World War I, particularly with the National Security League; and photographs.
Finding Aid available online.
Charles Henry Graff Photograph Album
Photographs of family and friends, airplanes, World War I preparedness exercises; views of Ann Arbor, Marshall, Albion, and Dexter, Michigan, including cyclone damage in Dexter, boating, and views of Chicago.
John Francis Murphy Papers
Father of Frank and George Murphy. Correspondence, 1884-1926, with sons, especially relating to World War I, and newspaper clippings and materials concerning Democratic Party in Michigan and elections of 1886 and 1888; also papers of his wife, Mary Brennan Murphy.
Hartley Clifton Shafer Papers
Resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Reminiscences of his experiences working as a machinist in the early automobile industry in Detroit and as an inspector during World War I; also notes on the Shafer family and photographs.
Howell Taylor Papers
Architect and engineer from Adrian, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Correspondence and other papers concerning his attempts to participate in some branch of the service during World War I, his career as an architect and worker on the historic American buildings survey, and as a teacher in Beirut, Lebanon; also photographs.
Americanization Committee of Detroit Papers
Correspondence, minutes of meetings, reports and other materials concerning the assimilation of the foreign-born residents of Detroit and the committee's educational programs on behalf of the city's immigrant population during World War I and after.
Council of National Defense, Women's Committee, Michigan Division Records
Women's service organization formed during World War I. Correspondence, reports, minutes, and other materials relating to their work in food conservation and the distribution of consumer literature. Correspondents include: Caroline Bartlett Crane, Mary Markley, and Albert E. Sleeper.
Roy Dikeman Chapin Papers
President of Hudson Motor Car Company and U.S. Secretary of Commerce, 1932-1933. Correspondence, speeches, articles, interviews, business papers, receipts, scrapbooks, photographs, and miscellaneous items of Chapin, his wife, and his biographer, John C. Long, concerning family matters, highway transportation, the automobile industry, general economic conditions, foreign trade, World War I, national defense, state and national politics, the Republican Party, and the University of Michigan; also extensive papers concerning the Hudson Motor Car Company, including information on management policies, production, and labor organizing.
Finding Aid available online.
Lionel H. DeRemer Papers
Pioneer aviator, resident of Bay City, Michigan. Clippings and other papers relating to his career in aviation, including a report on production of airplane parts at C.R. Wilson Body Co. in Bay City during World War I; transcript of radio interview discussing his aviation experiences; also photographs.
Home Guards of Ironwood Records
Minutes of meetings, constitution, by-laws, correspondence and miscellanea.
Liberty Bond Drive at Campall Square,
G. R. M. [Grand Rapids, Michigan], Merle R.
Peterson photograph collection
Merle R. Peterson Photograph Collection
Son of a cook at Camp Bogardus (later renamed Camp Davis), the summer engineering camp of the University of Michigan. Group portraits of staff and students, and views of the camp; also photos of the construction of Hardy Dam on the Muskegon River, near Oxbow, Michigan; and photo of a parade and Liberty Bond rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Published Resources
Michigan Historical Commission, Prize Essays Written by Pupils of Michigan Schools in the War History Contest for 1918-19 (Michigan historical commission: Lansing, Mich, 1919)
Michael W. R Davis, Images of America (Arcadia Pub: Charleston, SC, 2007)
Peace!: The World War Is at an End!: It Closed in Complete Triumph of the Forces of the Entente Allies, Hostilities Ceasing at the Hour Set by Marshall Foch for Germany's Answer to Allies (Evening News: Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. and Ont, 1918)
Carr-Hutchins-Anderson Company, How Grand Rapids Celebrated Peace. A Collection of Pictures That Tells the Story of the City's Celebration of the End of the Great World War (Published by Carr-Hutchins-Anderson Company: Grand Rapids, Mich, 1918)
Emmett J Scott, American Negro, his history and literature (Arno Press: New York, 1969)
The Manistee News-Advocate: Peace Edition (Manistee News-Advocate: Manistee, Mich, 1919)
William John Cameron, Washington in War Times; a Series of Articles Published in the Detroit News, July 29-August 22, 1918 (The Detroit news: Detroit, Mich, 1918)
Cadillac Motor Car Company, Cadillac Participation in the World War (Cadillac motor car company: Detroit, Mich, 1919)
Historical Commission Michigan, Michigan War Records; Plan for Organizing County War History Committees to Collect and Preserve the Historical Records of Michigan Counties, and to Make a Permanent Record of the Participation of the Citizens of Michigan in the Great War (Michigan Historical commission: Lansing, Mich, 1919)
David Friday, Profits, Wages, and Prices (Harcourt, Brace and Howe: New York, 1920)
Minne Elisabeth Allen, Tenderness & Turmoil: Letters to a German Mother, 1914-1920 (Seven Locks Press: Santa Ana, Calif, 1998)
Wilson to Reveal Armistice Terms to Congress Today (Detroit News: Detroit, Mich, 1918)
Jan Richardi, Lenawee County Historical Society, Seeds of time (Lenawee County Historical Society: Adrian, MI, 2001)