The Marshall McLennan papers contains materials created and accumulated by Dr. McLennan throughout his years instructing in the Historic Preservation program in the Geography and Geology Department at Eastern Michigan University (EMU). The collection dates from 1974-2001, with the bulk of materials dating from 1979-2009.

This collection contains course proposals for the EMU Historic Preservation program, photographs from McLennan’s Huron River Project and architectural examples from the New Jersey area, Preservation Briefs, historic surveys, National Register nominations, Historic District Committee reports, Cultural Landscape Reports (CLR), Historic American Building Surveys (HABS), Historic American Landscape Surveys (HALS) Historic American Engineering Records (HAER), student reports, Sanborn Maps and other historic preservation resource materials. Further, this collection contains publications on the subjects of conservation, preservation law, preservation planning and from various historic preservation organization and preservation causes/projects.

Materials in this collection are divided into two series: Academic and Professional Service and Engagements. The Academic series contains files for correspondence, field surveys, visual materials, and one subseries, Historic Preservation Programs, which contains materials pertaining to: Architecture, Conservation and Technology, Cultural Landscapes, Geology and Geography Courses, Historic Preservation Courses, Preservation Law and Preservation Planning. The Historic Preservation Course files contain materials on Vernacular Architecture including articles, course and graphic materials specific to this course.

The series Professional Service and Engagement contains three subseries: Heritage / Historic Districts Nominations, Historic District Nominations and Organizations and Offices. These sub series contain materials of McLennan’s various nonacademic activities, along with materials accumulated for reference purposes. Materials are arranged within the subseries alphabetically.

This collection does not contain materials such as syllabi, tenure documents, proposal for sabbatical, course reviews, lecture notes, lesson plans, departmental operations, ledgers, or a large amount of correspondences.