Professor White’s diag

Topics:
Sunlight filters through the trees of the Diag as a woman passes through in the 1930s. (Photo courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library)

Andrew Dickson White, 24, arrived from Yale in October 1857 to teach history and English literature, the youngest faculty member. Of the campus, he wrote, “There were not more than a score of trees outside the building sites allotted to professors; unsightly plank walks connected the buildings, and in every direction were meandering paths, which in dry weather were dusty and in wet weather muddy.” So he marked off walkways, apparently including the basic X of the Diag. “I began planting trees within the university enclosure … Gradually some of my students joined me; one class after another …” 

—  From “Professor White’s Diag” by James Tobin, presented at the University of Michigan Heritage Project website, celebrating U-M’s 2017 bicentennial.

Tags:

Comments

  1. Mira Lancaster
    on January 22, 2015 at 10:25 am

    Beautiful.

Leave a comment

Commenting is closed for this article. Please read our comment guidelines for more information.