Michigan Tech Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections

Bill Brinkman Collection
Collection # MS - 029
Documents, Photographic Prints, Photographic Negatives, 1890?s ? 1980?s

Biographical Note: William (Bill) H. Brinkman, Jr.
William H. Brinkman was born in Redridge on August 22, 1906. A son of Emma and William Brinkman, he graduated from Painesdale High School in 1926. Bill attended Michigan Technological University for a year and was awarded a degree at Northern State Teacher's College in 1928.
Bill was a World War II veteran, having served in the Navy. He was also a member of the U.S. Navy Band that entertained troops in North Africa. Bill taught math and general science at the Redridge School where he served as teacher and principal for 27 years. He also taught in Kodiak, Alaska, the Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and in Montana until his retirement in 1970.
As a young man he took up the hobby of photography from Charles Saltzer another Redridge photographer. In Bill's collection some of the photographs of the early years in Redridge are actually Mr. Saltzer's work. Following his retirement from teaching, Bill worked as a photographer, reporter, and associate editor of the Daily Mining Gazette.
William H. Brinkman died at the age of 88 in the Dickinson County Hospital in September 3, 1994.
In this collection photographs range from local people at Schmidt's Corner Bar to copper stamp mills in the Redridge area.

Scope and Content Note:
This collection contains mostly photographic material of the Freda/Beacon Hill Area, in Houghton County, Michigan. The collection came to us as a disorganized set of negatives and prints. Paulette Morin, lifelong resident of the Freda/Beacon Hill area, painstaking sifted through and sorted the collection during the winter of 2001. During the processing of the collection it was necessary for Paulette to write the brief descriptions for every negative and print, as there was no description provided by the photographer. The prints have been arranged according to topic and the negatives have not at this time been placed in any topical arrangement. Subjects may included but are not limited to: area mining operations, schools, towns scenes, and group photos.

Related Material:
Related biographical material pertaining to Bill Brinkman can be found at the following locations: Keweenaw Character, The Foundation of Michigan?s Copper Country by David Mac Frimodig, F572.K43 1990 ARCH; Michigan Tech Archives ? Biography Files ? Brinkman, Bill; Michigan Tech Archives ? Humanities Collection, Acc. #128, 6-2-82

RECORD SERIES 1 ? DOCUMENTS
RECORD SERIES 2 ? PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS
RECORD SERIES 3 ? OVERSIZE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS
RECORD SERIES 4 ? PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVES
INDEX OF PHOTOGRAPHICS NEGATIVES

INDEX FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVES
#00001-00400
#00401-00800
#00801-01200
#01201-01600
#01601-02000
#02001-02400
#02401-02800
#02801-03200
#03201-03600
#03601-04000
#04001-04400
#04401-04800
#04801-05200
#05201-05600
#05601-06000
#06001-06400
#06401-06715

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