History

  1. March 10, 2014

    Key initiatives: Heritage and Bicentennial Celebration

    President Mary Sue Coleman early on identified the 2017 bicentennial as a chance to celebrate the University of Michigan’s past, and provide fresh inspiration for its future.

  2. February 24, 2014

    Black history milestone

    Alvin D. Loving in 1956 became the first African-American faculty member to teach students at the University of Michigan-Flint. He later joined the Ann Arbor campus faculty and served as assistant dean of the School of Education.

  3. February 17, 2014

    Opening ceremonies first

    USA Hockey officials said former Wolverine Jack Johnson was the first-ever American National Hockey League player to participate in the opening ceremonies for an Olympics.

  4. February 10, 2014

    The last engineer

    Russell Hurst was the last engineer to serve the University of Michigan Railroad. 

  5. February 3, 2014

    New president

    Harlan Hatcher newly invested president of the University of Michigan, is congratulated by Regent Roscoe Bonisteel in 1951. 

  6. January 27, 2014

    Popular

    Author Kurt Vonnegut appears at a January 1969 program at Canterbury House on Maynard Street, just west of Nickels Arcade.

  7. January 23, 2014

    Rare civil rights-era newsletter now available online

    The U-M Library has digitized the complete set of Selma Inter-religious Project Newsletters and made them available to the public via the HathiTrust Digital Library.

  8. 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. 

  9. January 10, 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.

  10. 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.”