Anniversary
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Anniversary
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VOL. XXXVII. No. 111 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1927
ALUMNI CLUBTO' OSERVE IN ET ETH ANN mVE
PRICE FIVE CENTS
SARY
UNIVERSITY ATTINS TOP HANK AMONG
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF NATIONi
AS SIX PRESIDENTS GUIDE ITS DESTINY
MANY SIGNIFICANT FORWARD STRIDES MARK
HISTORY OF SCHOOL FROM RATHER
INAUSPICIOUS BEGINMNG
BY PAUL J. KERN
Practically everything that exists at all has a history, and the Uni-
versity of Michigan is no exception. In order to have this history itj
was necessary for the University to be founded, also, and this is whereI
the story begins.
Recently a few idle alumni with nothing else to do have discovered
that the University of Michigan was actually founded in 1817 instead,
of 1837. The cause for this momentous change is found in the fact that
the "Per itorial Legislature made plans for such an institution at the
earlier date. This is a very useful point for alumni to argue about, if
they must argue, but if the inimitable logic of this viewpoint ke carried
to the extreme we could easily prove that the University was foutnded
in 1804, which is worse yet. At this date a preliminary grant of land
was made.
Carrying it down to the ultimate establishment,
HISTORICAL VIEWS OF CAMPUS IN EARLY PERIOD
FORRAI STATIONS TO. BROADCAST
SPECIL.ICHIGAN PROGRAMS TONIGHT
FOR MEETINGS THROUGHOUT COUNlT
LARGE NUMBER OF F ACULTY WILL SPEAK
AT COMMEMORATION GATHERINGS OF
VARIOUS STATE CLUBS
In celebration of the Moth anniversary of the University, and as
part of the general observance of the occasion being conducted icy alumni
groups throughout the country, a special Michigan Night Radio program,
comprising a number of brief talks by representatives of the University
and musical periods by the Varsity band and Glee club, has been ar-
ranged for tonight, it has been announced. The program will be broad-
cast at 7 o'clock from University hall through station WWJ, the Detroit
News, and in order that the alumni bodies over the whole of the United
States, assembled in banquets and meetings, may tune in on the program,
it will be picked*up and rebroadcast by station WGY, the General Elec-
tric company of Schenectady, N. Y., and by station KWOM of Pase-
dena, Calif.
The speeches will be further used, according to
Waldo Abbot, '13L, of the rhetoric department, an-
nouncer and program manager, when some of them
delivered earlier in the evening will be sent out over
the air again at midnight by station WABC, the 4t-
. 1lantic broadcastng company of New York. This
.t~k' ~station will also include on their program talks and
.musical numbers by alumni located in New York.
however, we can safely assign 1492 as the date of
foundation, for in that year Columbus discovered
America and certainly we should have no university
if the IDalian navigator had failed to perform this
rather vital function. Accepting 1492 as the date
of founding has also the added advantage of giving
us some 150 year start on Harvard, and makes us
easily the oldest educational institution on the con-
tinent.,
In 1837, however, the newly elected board of
19 that was to establish the University met in Ann
Arbor. Michigan had been admitted to the Union
only about two months before, and the June meeting
of the board was for the purpose of properly dis-
posing of the funds available from the grant from
state lands for the benefit of the University.
A short history of the city of Ann Arbor to this
date is perhaps proper here. Pine forests, which
abounded in the state early gained it the title of
the "Pine Tree State," however, and these pines,
which extended from about Saginaw throughout the
northern part of the southern peninsula and across
the Straits of Mackinac, were supplemented in the
southern portion of the region with hardwood forests.
To the early settlers, coming as they did from
New England, the rich and stoneless soil of Michi-
gan must have seemed like a paradise. The settle-
ment of the land went on rapidly, and in 1824 two
families, the Allen and the Rumseys, established a
village on the site of Ann Arbor. The original homes
built here were approximately on the location of
the court house and the town received its name from
the arbor that connected them in which the two
wives, both Ann, used to gossip.
By 1837 the town had grown to 2,000 inhabitants,
and there were three competing sites for the location
of the University. Detroit was one, Marshall was
the second, and Ann Arbor was the third. No one
seems to know exactly why the new school was not
located in Detroit, for even then the inhabitants of
the "motor" city candidly remarked that "Detroit is
Michigan." The forty acres of grbund which Ann
Arbor was willing to furnish was a real bargain,
however, and this factor probably turned the tide.
Perhaps some far-ighted legislator saw even then
the promise of the great industrial development o
Detroit, 'and its consequent unsuitability for a Uni-
versity.
This was the situation when the classes started.
The railroad connecting Ann Arbor with Detroit had
not yet been complet d, although Ann Arbor was
approximately the center of population of the state.
Early students rode into town on horseback, studied
with tallow candles, and the lone University building
was surrounded by a fence to keep the cows away.
A turnstile was constructed in order that the stu-
dents might enter.
At that time the campus itself was merely a 40
acre piece from the old Rumsey farm east of town
There was another site available, overlooking the
Huron river valley, and the reason for the selection
of the present campus, probably much more unin-
viting then than after the B. and G. boys finished
with it, is another one of the mysterious things that
happened in connection with the founding.
Now, we are practically ready to begin with the
sto'y. It might be mentioniw_ just parenthetically,
in erder to' do more complete justice to this 1817
idea, that the scheme actually was proposed by
Judge Augustus B. Woodward, who came to Michi.
gan on federal appointment and who proposed an
institution to be named "Catholepistemiad" at the
earlier date. This rather imposing name means
something to the effect of universal science, but the'
understanding of the term itself was farther than
most residents of the state reached in their primitive
la of nation
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Top, the campus in 1863, showing
the old law building, Mason hall, and
Souh Wing, front the site of Cal-
,kins-Pleteher's.
Upper left, the first Law building,
located cere the present on4' stands.
Upper ;fight, l*oary zwtlks on the
dia.gonal, in the '6os.
Center,
before it
the old library, taken just
was ra::ed in 1918.
Lower left, same view as at
the
top, showing University
construction between Mason
South wing, 1772.
Lower right, view of the
sity in the '50s.
hall in
hall and
Univer-
A large number of faculty men are listed on the
programs of various University of "Michigan alumni
clubs throughout the state. Included among them
are Prof. Arthur E. R. Boak of the history depart-
ment who will address the alumni group of Sagi-
naw; Prof. William A. Frayer of the history de-
partment who will give a talk before the alumni
'in Bay City; Shirley W. Smith, secretary of the 'Uni-
versity who is booked for a speech in Hastings;
Joseph A. Bursley, dean of students, who will talk
before the Battle Creek group. Prof. Thomas H.
Reed, of the politiscal science department who will
address the University alumni in Owasso, and Dean
Wilbur H. Humphreys of the literary college, who
will speak in Kalamazoo. Randolph G. Adams,
custodian of Clement's library will go to Pittsburgh
to address the alumni group there.
The program broadcast direct from the University
will be prefaced by a five minute prologue from the
banquet hall of the Detroit Alumni association in
the ball room of the Hotel Statler. At 7 o'clock,
when the Detroit News station will be connected by
long distance telephone with the microphones in the
old Adelphi rooms in University hall, the Varsity
I band, under the direction of Norman Larson, will
open with the "Victors", and the second chorus 1ll
be sung by the glee club.
The welcome to the Michigan alumni will be
given by James E. Ottaway, of Port Huron, president
of the Alumni association, and his two minute talk
will be followed by two songs by the Glee club:
"Laudes Atque Carmina" and "College Days", taken
from the Michigan Union opera "Koanzaland". The
Glee club is under the direction of Theodore Har-
rison.
The second of the talks is to be given by Dean
Mortimer E. Cooley, of the Colleges of Engineering
and Architecture. The musical period following will
be given over to three more selections by the Glee
club: "Goddess of the Inland Sea", "'Tis of Michi-
gan We Sing", and "I Want to go Back to Michigan."
Former dean of women, Mrs. Myra B. Jordan, will
speak to the alumni for the next of the numbers on
. the program. The fourth musical interim is to be
supplied by the band playing "Varsity", the last verse
of which will be sung by the Glee club.
In the absence of President Clarence Cook Lit-
tle, Dr. Frank E. Robbins, assistant to the President,
will read the welcome to the alumni prepared by
President Little. The glee elv! will follow this talk
with "Men of the Maize and lue", "Drink, Drink",
and "Joy Rules the Day".
Prof. Victor H. Lane, of the Law- school and
former president of the Alumni association, serving
in that capacity for 21 years, will give the fifth of
the series of two minute talks. "Old Friars Song",
and "The Bum Army" will be the songs given by the
Glee club following the talk.
The last of the talks will be given by Prof. Ralph
W. Aigler of the Law school, a faculty representa-
tive on the Board in Control of Athletics, wlfo will
summarize the athletic situation at the University.
The program will close with the playing of "The
Yellow and Blue" by the band, and sung by the Glee
club.
Telegraphic greetings from the various alumni as-
sociations wil be received and read during the pro-
gram, it is planned. In case the whole hour is not
- taken by the regular program, both the band and
the Glee club will give encores.
The wave length of the Detroit News station is
452 meters.
I A further opportunity will be given the alumni to
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THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Today your Alma Mater celebrates her ninetieth
birthday.
wounds, strentthened their resolve, advised them in
their doubting moments and then has sent theiout
to bear her standard.
luxuriant whiskers which characterised the seventies
or the high wheeled bicycles and the brown-derbied'
dandies of the nineties.