7 Alumni
8 References
8.1 Specific
8.2 General
9 External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of the University of Michigan
Painting of a rolling green landscape with trees with a row of white buildings in the background
University of Michigan (1855) Jasper Francis Cropsey
The University of Michigan was established in Detroit in 1817 as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, by the governor and judges of Michigan Territory. The Rev. John Monteith was one of the university's founders and its first President. Ann Arbor had set aside 40 acres (16 ha) that it hoped would become the site for a new state capitol, but it offered this land to the university when Lansing was chosen as the state capital. What would become the university moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 thanks to governor Stevens T. Mason. The original 40 acres (160,000 m2) became part of the current Central Campus.[7] The first classes in Ann Arbor were held in 1841, with six freshmen and a sophomore, taught by two professors. Eleven students graduated in the first commencement in 1845.[8] By 1866 enrollment increased to 1,205 students, many of whom were Civil War veterans. Women were first admitted in 1870.[9] James Burrill Angell, who served as the university's president from 1871 to 1909, aggressively expanded U-M's curriculum to include professional studies in dentistry, architecture, engineering, government, and medicine. U-M also became the first American university to use the seminar method of study.[10]
From 1900 to 1920 the university constructed many new facilities, including buildings for the dental and pharmacy programs, chemistry, natural sciences, Hill Auditorium, large hospital and library complexes, and two residence halls. In 1920 the university reorganized the College of Engineering and formed an advisory committee of 100 industrialists to guide academic research initiatives. The university became a favored choice for bright Jewish students from New York in the 1920s and 1930s when the Ivy League schools had quotas restricting the number of Jews to be admitted.[11] As a result, U-M gained the nickname "Harvard of the West," which became commonly parodied in reverse after John F. Kennedy referred to himself as "a graduate of the Michigan of the East, Harvard University" in his speech proposing the formation of the Peace Corps while on the front steps of the Michigan Union.[12] During World War II, U-M's research grew to include U.S. Navy projects such as proximity fuzes, PT boats, and radar jamming.
By 1950, enrollment had reached 21,000, of whom more than one third: 7,700 were veterans supported by the G.I. Bill. As the Cold War and the Space Race took hold, U-M became a major recipient of government grants for strategic research and helped to develop peacetime uses for nuclear energy. Much of that work, as well as research into alternative energy sources, is pursued via the Memorial Phoenix Project.[13]
Red brick plaza, surrounded by trees with green leaves, with two white tents and an American flag flying from a flagpole in the center
