This folder contains images of Black owned businesses in Flint, Michigan.

This folder contains images of Black churches in Flint, Michigan.

This folder depicts significant events in Black History.

The images in this folder depict Black musicians.

This folder contains images of members of Black organizations in Flint, Michigan.

This folder contains images of people in the Black community in Flint, Michigan.

What is arranged in Series I is what remains of what was accessioned in 1965. Extensive weeding removed empty envelops and letterhead that lacked prices and services offered. Government publications were retained, in particular those related to the Flint Board of Health when William DeKleine served as director. The Flint Board of Health contracted Wolverine Citizens to print many health notices related to the 1918 smallpox epidemic, the Spanish influenza, and proper handling of milk canisters. Other government bodies include the Flint Board of Education and the Flint Police Force. Materials retained from private organizations include business cards, coupons, and restaurant menus, bulletins issued by businesses, copies of bond tickets when the city of Flint raised money to pay for road improvements, and advertisements for social events. Numerous organizations contracted with Wolverine Citizens, including the Knights of Columbus, Flint Board of Education, Consumers Power Company, and Hardy Bakery.

The arrangement of Series I is strictly chronological. This may have been how Van Bolt received the collection. The arrangement is retained due to many items lacking dates. Dates are noted on folders. No arrangement by subject exists in Series I.

Series II represents records from St. Paul’s Episcopalian Church from its inception in 1839 to the early 1950s. Records include two-minute books that track meetings of the church’s vestry from 1839 to 1880. They are strictly limited to church business. All entries are handwritten in cursive and black ink. Other information includes the names of vestry members and other church members. The minute-books reveal few details as to how rectors and vestry members made decisions, but a handwritten history that halts in 1890 offers some details, such a year-long dispute between a rector and the vestry over whether the rector could energetically maintain the parish in its then-current size.

Other records offer more details of St. Paul’s history. Pamphlets, newsletters, and orders of service show what activities were held by St. Paul’s over several decades. By the late 19th century several committees and organizations had formed under the church’s umbrella. These included the Page Club, the Tri-C’s, Junior Vestry, the Woman’s Auxiliary, and the Choir Mothers’ Guild. Sunday schooling outside of summer was another major activity.

Series III represents records from Wolverine Printing Company specifically. Nearly all of them are contained on the pages of several ledgers used by employees. The ledgers represent orders taken by Wolverine Printing. Little has to do with other operations. Copybooks from 1894 to 1908 reflect correspondence Rankin sent to various customers in the course of taking orders and accepting payments for services rendered. Some copied letters are in purple typed font. Others were handwritten in black ink and in cursive. A great many ledgers deal with purchases made over the course of several decades from the late 1860s to the mid-1940s. Information is often spare, but tends to encompass the names of purchasers, whether individuals or organizations, what was purchased and how much, and for what prices. Entries are nearly entirely handwritten in cursive and in black ink or pencil. Some purchases from the period between 1918 and 1923 reflect those preserved from Series I.

Other records include a trustee account book dated to 1903. Stephen and Prudence Crocker deeded in trust for Francis H. Rankin to distribute property and other payments among their grandchildren. Rankin served as plaintiff against the grandchildren a decade later in circuit court in chancery. The case dealt with proper distribution of payments.

Series IV represents records from the Knights of the Loyal Guard, a beneficiary society found in Flint in 1895. It collected dues from members to be paid out as needed to the dependents of other members who had died. It was organized hierarchically, with the Supreme Division overseeing several grand divisions, each overseeing several subordinate divisions. The organization grew rapidly in the late 1890s, reaching a membership of 5,000 members across 104 subordinate divisions. The Loyal Guard paid out in its first seven years $225,000. Members met at the Grand Council every four years. Women were not initially welcome, but began admitting them in 1898 under special circumstances. Full admittance came a year later.

Records in this series are various and show in great detail how the organization operated, but at the level of the Supreme Division. Records from grand divisions and subordinate divisions exist, but only in occasional correspondence to the Supreme Division. Copies of the constitution and laws of the Loyal Guard are present for multiple years. Ledgers contain minutes for meetings of the Supreme Division and also of Grand Council meetings. The series contains many issues of The Loyal Guard Magazine past 1905. Those before exist in far fewer numbers, though the series does include the first published issue. Other records include reports on meetings, voting, business correspondence, membership, and issuance of benefits to dependents of deceased members. No records, however, show how the Loyal Guard ended.