University of Michigan

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Publications Sponsored

The Making of the University of Michigan 1817-1992, by Howard Peckham, edited and updated by Margaret L. Steneck and Nicholas L. Steneck

Within three decades of its re-founding in Ann Arbor in 1837, the University of Michigan became the largest and arguably most progressive university in the United States. By century’s end, its influence in higher education stretched from coast to coast—from Cornell to Stanford—and touched professional, graduate, and undergraduate education. At the end of the twentieth century, the University of Michigan continues to rank among the nation’s leading universities, setting the standard for higher education in the twenty-first century.

Howard Peckham’s history of the University of Michigan was published in 1967 to help celebrate the University’s 150th anniversary. This new edition by Margaret and Nicholas Steneck continues Peckham’s broad coverage of the University of Michigan through its 175th anniversary, covering the administrations of Robben Fleming, Harold Shapiro, and the beginning of the presidency of James Duderstadt.

The Stenecks have also reformatted and edited the earlier Peckham chapters to turn The Making of the University of Michigan into an accessible and engaging book to read or to browse, covering all aspects of campus life, from sports and students to the coming and going of faculty, administrators, and regents, with over seventy-five photos carefully integrated into the text.

Margaret and Nicholas Steneck are historians at the University of Michigan who currently teach a large and popular undergraduate lecture course on the history of the University of Michigan.

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Aspirations for Excellence—Alexander Jackson Davis and the First Campus Plan for the University of Michigan, 1838, by Julia M. Truettner

In 1838, the Regents of the University of Michigan contracted with distinguished New York architect Alexander Jackson Davis, who provided landmark designs in the Gothic Revival style. Although approving Davis‘s designs, the financial situation forced the regents to ultimately abandon them and instead build in the classical style. The architect of these structures has been unknown, as has been the source for the plan for placing them on the campus.

Aspirations for Excellence explores the early physical development of the University of Michigan’s campus from 1838 to 1880, the designs of architect Alexander Jackson Davis, and the mystery of the sources of the classical buildings. Showcasing the beautiful designs that Davis drew for Michigan, this book provides a view of his career and his place in the development of campus planning and design in America.

Many previously unknown documents and unique illustrations have been brought together for the first time in this collection that tackles issues related to campus planning, history of higher learning institutions, architectural history of the nineteenth century, and the influence of the physical development of college campuses in the 1830s and 1840s on the campus of today.

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Plaque Dedications

The History and Traditions Committee will often hold dedication ceremonies to mark the installation of one of its numbered markers. Sometimes these events are reported in the local press, especially the University Record. On other occasions, numbered markers are dedicated during the course of other events, such as the marker for the Detroit Observatory, which was dedicated during the ceremony marking the completion of the restoration. Similarly, markers for the First Medical Buildings and for the First University Hospital were installed as part of the Medical School Sesquicentennial celebration activities. Links to articles about these events, where available, are below.

• Native American Land Gift
  University Record article 
• Detroit Observatory
  Observatory website
  University Record article 
• Professors’ Monument
  University Record article
  Michigan Daily article 
• Alumni Memorial Hall dedication plaques reinstalled
  In the fall of 2000, the History and Traditions Committee sponsored the reinstallation of the original dedication plaques in Alumni Memorial Hall. Originally installed in 1914 to mark the memorial purpose of the building (which had been built in 1910), the plaques were removed during a renovation in the 1960s and placed in storage. A remodeling project in 2000 afforded the opportunity to bring the plaques out of storage and install them in the first floor landing of the north stairwell. The two plaques consist of the main, very large, dedication plaque, and a smaller plaque naming the building committee—which was responsible for raising the funds for the memorial structure, a campaign begun shortly after the Civil War—and the architects. To commemorate the reinstallation of the plaques, and renew the memorial intent of the building, the committee held a rededication ceremony on December 14, 2000. 
  University Record article
  News Service news release