History

  1. June 5, 2023

    Heritage Project — Michigan in the making

    From the first painting of U-M’s rural campus by Jasper Cropsey in 1855 to Richard Rummell’s work in 1907 depicting a bustling landscape, U-M’s campus had become a new kind of enterprise entirely.

  2. May 22, 2023

    Heritage Project — Kelly Johnson to the rescue

    The U.S. Army Air Force wanted Clarence “Kelly” Johnson to build a top-secret jet plane that would need to fly more than 500 miles per hour to combat a new Nazi fighter. 

  3. May 1, 2023

    Heritage Project — The War of 1817

    People were vaguely aware that 1837 was the year associated with the university’s birth, although there had been some small, failed experiment with a territorial college in Detroit way back when. A new seal for U-M was designed in the 1890s that featured the year 1837. With that, the lawyerly mind of Frank Culver saw red.

  4. April 24, 2023

    ROTC students learn the realities of D-Day where it happened

    Stepping out of the classroom and onto the beaches of Normandy, France, ROTC cadets and midshipmen from U-M embarked on a journey recently to process the reality of World War II’s D-Day.

  5. April 24, 2023

    Heritage Project — Professor Porta’s predictions

    Professor Albert F. Porta predicted that on Dec. 17, 1919, “the most terrific weather cataclysm experienced since human history” would begin.

  6. April 17, 2023

    Heritage Project — Angell, China and opium

    During a grand dinner in 1910 celebrating James Burrill Angell’s nearly 40-year tenure as U-M’s president, Angell touted among his accomplishments the treaty he negotiated with China regarding opium.

  7. April 10, 2023

    Heritage Project — Such horrible business

    Early one morning just before Christmas 1857, men arriving for work on the construction of a church found heaps of fresh earth next to empty graves in a little graveyard.

  8. April 3, 2023

    Heritage Project — Professor Ford

    U-M knew Jerry Ford as a star football player, earning Most Valuable Player honors as a senior in 1934. But he had never stepped on campus bearing the title he did in the spring of 1977: Professor Gerald R. Ford.

  9. March 27, 2023

    Global museums initiative addressing 21st century challenges

    A group of natural history museums has mapped the total collections from 73 of the world’s largest natural history museums in 28 countries, including the collections from four U-M museums.

  10. March 27, 2023

    Heritage Project — The first women

    More than a half century after the first woman was admitted to U-M, the Alumnae Council of the U-M Alumni Association sent a questionnaire to every woman who had attended U-M to date.