Old School
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February 10, 2014
The last engineer
Staff member Russell Hurst drives the coal train in 1955. Hurst was the last engineer to serve the University of Michigan Railroad.
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February 3, 2014
New president
Harlan Hatcher, newly invested president of the University of Michigan, is congratulated by Regent Roscoe Bonisteel in 1951.
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January 27, 2014
Popular
Author Kurt Vonnegut appears at a January 1969 program at Canterbury House on Maynard Street, just west of Nickels Arcade.
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January 20, 2014
Janitor and bell ringer
William Bliss Jolly spent 10 years working as a janitor and bell ringer for U-M in the mid-1800s, but he dressed more like a statesman than a janitor.
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January 13, 2014
MLK at U-M
In November 1962, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the stage at Hill Auditorium to an audience. He also spoke before a small gathering at the Michigan Union during his visit to campus.
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December 16, 2013
Boiler Rats
The Central Power Plant was erected in 1914. Coal was delivered to the plant by a small locomotive towing a coal car and was shoveled by hand by staff members known as stokers or “boiler rats.”
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December 9, 2013
Missing statue
This plaster cast of the Winged Victory of Samothrace was exhibited in Alumni Memorial Hall through the 1920s, then relocated to University High School, now the School of Education building. It was reported missing in the 1960s.
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November 25, 2013
President Ford returns
In November 1977, alumnus and former President Gerald R. Ford viewed the site and blueprints for the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library on North Campus.
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November 18, 2013
Past traditions
In 1876, students pose at a smoker’s club gathering. Smokers were social events that became popular in American universities near the beginning of the 20th century, specifically among male students. Female students were known to hold smokeless smokers.
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November 11, 2013
Birth of a thoroughfare
Following the Civil War, circa 1868-74, the Methodist Episcopal Church is the only building to be seen along State Street, looking south of Huron.
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