The collection varies in its scope and content. The most prominent item in it is a book entitled “Building on Faith in Flint.” Arthur Pound wrote it with funding from Union Industrial Trust and Savings Bank. It was published in 1930. The book tracks the history of two banks founded in Flint: Union Trust & Savings Bank (founded 1893) and Industrial Savings Bank (founded 1909). Both banks merged in 1929 to form Union Trust & Industrial Savings Bank. This bank failed one year later. Pound began as far back as 1615 with the early history of Michigan after the arrival of the first Europeans. Native Americans never received any coverage. He wrote of the need for both banks to provide better than “wildcat” banking in Flint and to assist labor and industry. Illustrations of the banks and their branches accompany histories of both banks.

Other items in this collection include a pamphlet issued by the Industrial Workers of the World in response to the Flint Police Force arresting two labor activists, programs from First Baptist Church, including one for the church’s fiftieth anniversary (1903), and photostatic copies of an unidentified Civil War-era diary and the Pierson family. The I.W.W. pamphlet represents the cause of Joseph H. Downer and Daniel Atcheff, who were arrested for criminal syndicalism by Flint police during a labor rally. The I.W.W. argued that both men preached non-violence as the path forward for labor. Articles from the Flint Journal reported that both men had advocated for violence. The Flint Journal also spelled Atcheff’s last name as Acheff. The fiftieth anniversary program for First Baptist Church provides the names of prominent members and a timeline of the church’s first year, 1853. The diary was written in 1865 by an unidentified Union soldier who served in Tennessee and later Washington, D.C. From the entries, he may have been present for the Hampton Roads Conference and while never seeing Abraham Lincoln did catch sight of the three Confederate commissioners who attended.

The records largely reflect the constitution, by-laws, and regulations of Genesee County Freemasons. Others are the 1873 Flint ordinances and an issue of “The Michigan Teacher.”

Little was researched about them due to mold damage. Contents will be retained due to uniqueness of materials for digitization in the future.

The collection consists to two paper currency bills. The older of the two is from the pre-World War I German Empire and is dated for 1908. The other bill comes from the Soviet Union and is dated for 1921. Cyrillic script represents information on this bill.

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

The collection was divided into multiple series due to its large size. Series I is composed of advertising materials, pamphlets, menus, bulletins, and voter ballots by Wolverine Citizens Printing between 1918 and 1923. 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 collection is composed to numerous account booklets from Union Trust & Savings Bank. Other unlabeled booklets document accounts as well. The account booklets document financial transactions between the 1880s and 1890s. There are other booklets detailing checks issued to various entities and persons. These booklets document activities from the late 1890s to the early 1900s. Other records include newspaper clippings, invoices, receipts, and financial statements.

The records, while extensively documenting financial transactions, do not reveal much in the way of who H.J. Bachtel was and little about his business. That business involved customers renting sheds for ten cents for their horses in the 1880s to early 1900. Feed could be bought for an additional charge of five cents. This information is found only on one document detailing the charges.

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 VI represents more forms and other items printed by Wolverine Printing for various businesses and clients in Flint and Genesee County. The date range stretches from 1924 to 1932. Contents are arranged in chronological order only by month.

The breadth of records in this collection is expansive, covering many aspects of the life of Frank D. Baker and family members. Represented are correspondence, newsletters, newspaper clippings and pages, class yearbooks, meeting minutes, expense ledgers, and poems. Some of these were collected and produced by Baker, others by family members. Records reveal Baker had a varied career and life. The expense ledgers detail purchases made by customers of good in his store, notably pharmaceuticals. The ledgers represent purchases made in the early 1880s. All writing in them is in cursive. Baker served a single-year term as Mayor of Flint in 1889 and was subsequently elected twice as Sheriff of Genesee County. An opponent, William A. Garner, in 1893 accused Baker in a letter of illegally occupying the office, despite Baker have won a majority in the election. Baker is reported to have resigned the office to avoid a confrontation. He returned to his business but later joined the board of the Flint Building Corporation in the 1920s, which oversaw capital development in Flint. He also served as a delegate to the 1924 Democratic National Convention in New York City. He also served as postmaster of Flint between 1914 and 1922. He died in 1927.

Records relating to other family members largely represent those of a daughter, Mattie. Her school records compose most of what is present. These include yearbooks and composition books. She also undertook a long holiday in Europe in the early 1930s as evidenced from brochures and tickets.

The remaining records include minutes of the Genesee County Board of Supervisors from 1892 to 1893, handwritten poems by an unnamed author, and World War II-era ration cards. Another descending served as postmaster for the city in Flint in the late 1940s.