The collection was originally received by the Museum on September 7, 1993. Images were added to the collection through 2007. The collection reflects the work of a committee that was founded to compile Black history. Not all images in the collection have been digitized. Access to the full collection is available in the Sloan Museum of Discovery Research Room by appointment.

The collection depicts scenes of Black life in Flint, Michigan including people, buildings and objects. The images feature ordinary and prominent members of the community as they went about their daily lives.

The collection contains several handwritten letters from individuals of the Calkins, Train, and Youngkin families or in an association with them. None of the letters show a relation to Genesee County or the city of Flint. Furthermore, none of the letters suggest relations among any of the families. The length of chronology for the letters is 1831 to 1910. All were handwritten, but some are photocopy and photostat reproductions of the originals. Registration records make no mention of the status of the originals during time of donation. The reproductions will be retained as part of the collection to ensure no context is lost of the lives of the correspondents.

The Calkins letters were written by Uriah Carson to a sister identified only as S. Calkins. He wrote in 1862 from Nashville, Tennessee that her husband had died of diarrhea. The other letter describes the inability of the husband to receive pay for nearly a year due to the actions of Confederate raids. The paymaster refused to travel there to distribute pay.

The Train letters are from 1865. They were written by one individual, Fred A. Patz, who wrote two letters to Lucy Train. He professed his love for her as a secret admirer in the first and later revealed himself in the second, continuing to profess his love, though apologizing for his deception.

The Youngkin letters stretch from 1831 to 1910. Authors remark about various family members, how they are, where they are living. There are no mentions of the ongoing Civil War in the letter from 1862. The letter from 1910 discusses the involvement of one woman of the family in the Detroit Women’s Club.

This collection consists of various papers and documents on Flint Michigan during the 1950’s. The first two boxes hold information on the Flint Centennial held in 1955. They include contracts as well as letters from various committee members of the time. Also included are schedules for the event, including a visit from Richard Nixon, a script for the performance written by George Montgomery, and information about the various committees for the Flint Centennial celebration.

Also included in this collection are programs for the National Science fair, Flint Junior Colleges Pre-convention as well as program dedications to the Cady B. Durham Natatorium, the Robert T. Longway Planetarium, and the F.A. Bower Theater. Programs for an opening night theater production at the F.A. Bower Theater is also included.

The National Science Fair is included in this collection with various newspaper clippings, letters from various individuals involved as well as programs for the event. A celebration of the 38 millionth car made in Flint Michigan by General Motors is featured in this collection. Black and white photos of various stages of the Chevy Impala Sport Coupe are included with program booklets and letters of invitation to various people to attend the celebration.

Information on Flint's Golden Committee include a GM calendar of events as well as financial information, information of the pioneer picnic. There are also pioneer picnic photos. Newspaper cutouts on cardstock are included as solicitation lists for various Flint businesses for the Golden Committee. Costume and prop requirements, float information and correspondence are also included. As well as information for the Highway US-23 from Fenton to Clio.

Included in this collection are street decoration proposals and sketches for the Flint Golden Milestone Celebration. General Motors booklets with information on the Golden Milestone, as well as various General Motors facts and information.

Telegrams for the Flint Centennial as well as the Flint Golden Milestone celebration are typed and still legible. The Golden Milestone pageant parade with lists of those participating. Photos from the celebration show the parade as well as the celebration itself.

Records of the collection primarily reflect the business activities of members of the Atwood family, and of them mostly J.B. Atwood and Island Mill Lumber. These predominantly come in the form of correspondence written to Atwood and the mill and reflect transactions, negotiations, and other matters. Little correspondence comes from Atwood. Correspondence that is personal shows relations between family members and that they were often lending money between one another. The correspondence and other records stretch from 1867 to 1911, but the bulk of it is from between 1869 to 1876, which may have been a very active time for J.B. Atwood and Island Mill Lumber.

An unrelated document is a small booklet printed by General Motors in 1911 about its operations.

Unrelated to the other contents is a yellow legal pad with previous processing notes written on its pages. These notes offer details on specific letters. It has been retained because of its potential value to researchers and staff alike.

These documents represent the academic and career accomplishments of Beatrice Welzel who worked for the Central Foundry Division of the General Motors Corporation.

Bea Munson was born in 1910 in Flushing, Michigan. She graduated from Flushing High School in 1927. She began working at the General Motors Corporation the same year. According to census records, she married George Welzel, a salesman in the hardware industry. Their son, George P. Welzel, was born in October of 1949. The family resided in Saginaw. She celebrated 25 years at General Motors in 1952. She died in 2008.

The collection includes letters from the General Manager J.H. Smith, a history of the Central Foundry Division written by the Public Affairs office, a certificate of achievement and a booklet explaining employee benefits document life as a General Motors employee in the Central Foundry Division-Financial Department. The collection also features pamphlets, photographs, souvenir programs, seating charts for the Annual Quarter Century Banquet, buttons, a souvenir coin, a ruler and a GM branded Table of Frequently Used Units card.

Butler Funeral Home was the first black-owned funeral home in the city of Flint. It first opened its doors in 1932 as Robinson & Chandler Funeral Home by owners Charles H. Robinson and Robert C. Chandler at the address 3115 St. John St. With the death of both Robinson and Chandler in 1956, the funeral home came under the ownership of Robinson’s widow, Ailene R. Butler.

Robinson & Chandler Funeral Home was renamed Butler Funeral Home in 1957. Likely due to the looming land acquisitions by the State of Michigan for the construction of I-475, Butler Funeral Home moved out of the St. John St. building and relocated 2 miles northwest to address 4915 N. Saginaw St. in 1964. In 1970, Butler Funeral Home relocated 1.5 miles West to 906 W. Park Blvd, replacing the Lenczycki Funeral Home that previously occupied the property. Butler Funeral Home remained at this location until its closure in 1986. In 1987 the property was purchased, renovated and reopened as Lawrence E. Moon Funeral Home which remains at this location as of the date of this finding aid.

Fourteen box collection with two different sets of boxes, a numbered set and lettered set. The collection’s first eleven boxes are numbered and individual files in these boxes are listed alphabetically by surname of the deceased. The boxes are listed in the order as follows: 1-57, 58-119, 120-178, 179-193, 225-280, 281-304, 305-348, 349-383, 394-440, 441-482, 483-507.

The collection’s additional three boxes are listed by letters: A-H, J-M, N-Z. Individual files are listed in these boxes alphabetically by surname of the deceased along with their date of death. Files in this collection include various documents necessary for funeral services and burial: Obituaries published by Butler Funeral Home, funeral home receipts/billing for services offered, obituaries written by family of the deceased for the funeral home to produce funeral programs, funeral notice order forms for publication in the Flint Journal obituary section, death certificates, funeral memorial service cards/programs produced by Butler Funeral Home. Consistent features in each file are funeral home internal purchase orders and invoices, newspaper clippings of obituaries, copies of life insurance policies, correspondence in cases of non-payment between the funeral home director/owner Ailene R. Butler and clients. Some files also contain I.D. or insurance cards of the deceased and photographs provided for reproduction on funeral programs.

The collection consists of a single autograph booklet owned by Sarah A. (Emmons) Miller. The date range is approximately 1887 to 1888. Miller, at the time, lived in Cass City, which is located in Tuscola County, Michigan. Miller used the booklet to collect autographs and messages from women friends, explicitly stating in the booklet that it was her intention. Friends signed their names and wrote messages hoping Miller enjoyed a long and happy life.

Sales catalogs of three Whiting automobile models and carriages for the Flint Wagon Works.

The scrapbook contains clippings from Barron’s Weekly that record business dealings and personal episodes from the life of William C. Durant. The clippings come from articles written from January to February 1926.

The collection is largely composed to records created by the Genesee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution over the course of conducting its activities. A minority of the collection is composed of newspaper clippings and other items collected by members that came into possession of the chapter. Some of these contents are related to the chapter and the DAR; others are not.

Records reflecting its activities come in many forms, but predominantly in chapter rosters, a treasurer’s journal, and minutes recorded by various secretaries between 1897 and 1929. These reflect that the chapter focused more on contributing money to charitable and educational causes due to other women’s groups in Flint taking on duties similar to other chapters of the DAR in other American cities.

Contents collected the by that are related to the DAR include multiple scrapbooks with cards, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Indexes were created for some of these scrapbooks and printed out from computers. No electronic copies are known to exist. These reflect events and stories about the DAR, both local and national. Some coverage is given to the Flint Ladies’ Library Association.

Contents unrelated to the DAR have unknown provenance, but do not reflect any connection to the chapter or the DAR. Many precede the chapter’s establishment by several decades. A number of ledgers document purchases from the 1840s to 1850s. How they were included in the collection is unknown.