As the University grew, the first
Faculty of two members gradually increased, though
for years the roster was far from impressive.
What this first Faculty lacked in numbers, however,
it made up in character and ability. One has
only to read the whole-hearted and loving tributes
of early graduates to discern the powerful personalities
which inspired them. It is true that for the
most part they were scholars of an older school, content
to hand on the classical learning of the contemporary
college course, rather than original investigators.
But how well they performed this task! They inspired
a real enthusiasm and love of knowledge for its own
sake in those they taught, and furnished them, as
well, an ideal for right living all for
five hundred dollars a year. We of a later generation
cannot honor them too much.
About these men, strongly individualized
in the minds of their students, have clustered stories
which have become almost classic. Sharply contrasted
in particular characteristics, they have lived as vivid
personalities for future college generations in the
memories of those students, “who studied syllogisms
under the noble Whedon, who polished Greek roots for
the elegant Agnew, who bungled metaphysics to the
despair of the learned Ten Brook, who murdered chemistry
under the careful Douglas whose experiments never
failed, and who calculated eclipses of the moon from
the desk of Williams, the paternal.” This
characterization by a member of the class of ’49
is paralleled in a more caustic estimate of a somewhat
later Faculty by a member of the class of ’65
who speaks of “Boise the precise, Frieze the
effusive, Williams the plausible, and White the thinker.”
Always first in any reminiscences
of the early days was Professor George Palmer Williams,
the first real member of the Faculty, always known
to his students as “Punky,” possibly,
as Professor D’Ooge suggested, because of the
“dryness of his wit.” Freshmen were
even known to address him as “Professor Punky,”
only to be pardoned with a never to be forgotten kindliness
when they discovered their awful mistake. Professor
Williams was a graduate of Vermont (1825) and came
to the University from the Pontiac branch to take
the Professorship of Natural Philosophy. He was
especially loved, not only for his fatherly kindness
and genuine sympathy that won the confidence of his
students, but also because “the college student
pays unstinted admiration to a witty teacher, for no
teacher ever had more ready wit and such genuine humor.”
The Rev. Theodoric R. Palmer of the class of ’47,
who for ten years was Michigan’s oldest graduate,
told how Professor Williams on discovering a goose
occupying his chair remarked: “I see you
have a competent teacher,” and wished the class
“Good Morning,” leaving them to discover
the point of their joke.
Professor Williams’ strong religious
spirit did not prevent an apt employment of examples
from the Scriptures on occasion, as his rebuke to
an overgrown and too active freshman showed: “Sir,
you remind me of Jeshurun; the Bible says ‘Jeshurun
waxed fat and kicked.’” But in the class
room he was traditionally lenient. One student
who found himself unable to fit his carefully prepared
notes and the examination questions together, finally
handed them both in and was passed, but only because
it was the “wrong year”; “I condition
one every other year and if I conditioned you I would
have to have you again next year.”
Professor Williams served the University
long and faithfully, and only resigned his active
work in 1875. In 1876 the alumni established a
Williams Professorship Fund which eventually amounted
to nearly $30,000. This eased his last years
until his death in 1881 at the age of 79 years.
Although the fund was subsequently greatly lessened
by very careless administration, it now amounts to
something over the original sum and is administered
by the Regents in the form of a retiring allowance,
the holder being nominated by the Alumni Association.
The Rev. Joseph Whiting, Yale, ’23,
under whose charge was the classical training of the
six youngsters of that first class, was a man of different
type. A fine scholar, he made Greek and Latin
“glow with life and beauty,” and by his
distinguished bearing formed a happy complement to
the “jovial and rotund” Williams.
His death while he was serving his term as the annual
President just before the first class was graduated,
was recognized as a great loss by the students, as
well as by the Regents, who acknowledged “his
urbanity and gentleness of manners,” and “his
knowledge of character and other properties which especially
fitted him to act the part of a governor and counselor
of youth.”
Professor Douglass Houghton died during
the same year, 1845. The services of these two
men, as well as those of Charles Fox, Professor of
Agriculture, and Dr. Samuel Denton of the first Medical
Faculty, are commemorated by the little weather-beaten
monument with the broken shaft, which has doubtless
aroused the idle curiosity of thousands of students,
who have never taken the trouble, however, to decipher
the Latin inscriptions which set forth the life records
of these early professors.
In 1842 Dr. Abram Sager, a graduate
of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1831), who later
became the first Dean of the Medical Faculty, came
to the University as Professor of Zooelogy and Botany.
He was then about thirty-two years of age and had
for some time been connected with the State Geological
Survey as botanist and zooelogist. His contributions
to the University while in that position formed the
foundation of the present zooelogical collection.
One of his students speaks of him as “of exceedingly
sensitive mind and heart and of very high and pure
morality.” A Professor of Intellectual and
Moral Philosophy, the Rev. Edward Thomson, Pennsylvania,
’29, was appointed in 1843, but served only
one year. He was succeeded by the Rev. Andrew
Ten Brook, Madison University, ’39, who took
a vigorous part in the University’s life until
his resignation in 1851, not to return until 1864 as
Librarian and historian of the University’s
early days. Professor Ten Brook was of the Baptist
persuasion, exceedingly well read, particularly in
the literature of his chair. Ordinarily in his
classes he was master of the situation, “so
long as he had Dugald Stewart’s Metaphysics before
him,” but when discussion became free in his
classes and “scholastics were let loose”
one of his thought students they “got a little
the better of him.” That he was a shrewd
and honest observer with remarkably little personal
prejudice even in memories of trying times,
is shown by his book on “American State Universities”
which offers much that is fascinating to those interested
in the first days of the University.
In the same year Silas H. Douglas,
M.D., who studied at the University of Vermont, was
appointed assistant to Dr. Douglass Houghton, Professor
of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Zooelogy, who never took
up the active duties of his chair. Dr. Douglas
speedily became one of the “strong men”
of the Faculty and created the Chemical Laboratory
which lent so much prestige to Michigan in its early
years. He was of a systematic and orderly temperament
whose experiments before the class always came out
brilliantly. His careful business-like methods
were greatly appreciated by the Regents and he was
entrusted with the oversight of the construction of
the South College when it was erected in 1849.
So successful was he that he saved some $4,000 over
the cost of the first building and had enough bricks
left besides to build a large part of the Medical
Building which was completed in the same year.
Those who knew him best supported him loyally in the
great dispute which arose over his administration
of the affairs of the Chemical Laboratory and their
confidence in his uprightness and sterling integrity
was justified by the final decision in that most unfortunate
case.
These were the men who taught the
first class that was graduated from the University
in 1845. The same year saw two additions to the
Faculty, the Rev. Daniel D. Whedon, Hamilton, ’28,
who was elected to the chair of Logic, Rhetoric, and
History, and Dr. John H. Agnew, Dickinson College,
’23, who assumed the Professorship in the classics
left vacant by the death of Dr. Whiting. Both
had a prominent share in University affairs for a
few years. Professor Whedon was a Methodist clergyman,
lank and angular in form and feature with a “considerable
sprinkling of vinegar at times in his ways of expressing
himself,” but, according to our oldest living
graduate, “his commanding presence, imperative
logic and sesquipedalia verba, always used
with mathematical precision, hammered truth into us
and clinched it.” Professor Agnew has been
described as a Greek from head to foot, the exact opposite
of Dr. Whedon, extremely careful in his dress and
appearance and correspondingly neat and precise in
the expression of his thoughts. He represented
the Presbyterian and Congregational element in the
University. The reasons for the resignation of
these two Professors in 1852 have already been suggested
in the lack of unity and the sectarian rivalries of
their time.
Perhaps the most picturesque figure
of this early group was Louis Fasquelle, the first
Professor of Modern Languages, whose widely used text-books
contributed not a little to the prestige of the University.
When he came in 1846, his chair was almost a new field
in an American college. Only a single term in
French was given at first and in fact neither he nor
Dr. Sager, charged with the scientific course, were
required to give their whole time to their university
work for some years. It is somewhat suggestive
too, that both Spanish and Italian were offered in
the University before a course in German was announced
in 1849. Professor Fasquelle was educated at
the famous Ecole Polytechnique in Paris,
but was obliged to leave France on account of his
participation in the revolutionary movement of that
period. As Professor in the University he proved
“peculiar, but very learned and efficient.”
The stories of his difficulty with the English language
are many, and most of the classic stories told of
various members of the French Faculty by successive
student generations were originally told of him.
He was the first “infiddle,” though he
was always punctilious in attendance at chapel, which
he adjourned on one occasion because the “praying
Professor” did not appear. His “vocabul’-ary”
was good, but in the words of the time-honored song,
“He went up on his emphas’-is.”
The new regime of Dr. Tappan witnessed
the establishment of a different tradition. The
former deference to denominational precedent was definitely
abandoned and increasing stress was laid upon scholarly
as well as personal qualifications. The new President
took the chair of philosophy left vacant by the resignation
of Professor Ten Brook, while the old chair of ancient
languages was speedily divided. James R. Boise,
Brown, ’40, who already enjoyed a growing reputation
as a scholar, became Professor of Greek, while the
Rev. Erastus O. Haven, Wesleyan, ’42, afterward
the second President, became Professor of Latin.
Professor Boise though of a delicate physique possessed
great force and impressed the students with the absolute
necessity of getting their Greek lessons, ruat
coelum. His insistence on discipline and high
standards in recitations had a profound influence on
the mental habits of those in his classes. Professor
D’Ooge, ’62, his successor, remarks of
him that “probably no teacher of those days got
so much downright hard work out of his pupils.”
Alvah Bradish was also appointed to the chair of Fine
Arts at this time, but without compensation, and, though
he apparently lectured occasionally, the course soon
disappeared from the catalogues, not to be revived
for fifty years. The name of the Rev. Charles
Fox also appears momentarily as a Professor of Agriculture,
a department also destined to quick extinction with
his death in less than a year, in spite of the President’s
best efforts, for the Legislature had already taken
the preliminary steps toward the establishment of a
College of Agriculture at Lansing.
The strength of President Tappan’s
policy is shown in the group of men he appointed to
Professorships leaders as well as scholars.
Among the first was Alexander Winchell, Wesleyan,
’47, whose versatility was shown by the range
of his teaching as well as by his long list of published
works. He came to Michigan in 1853 as Professor
of Physics and Civil Engineering, but within two years
was transferred to the chair of Geology, Zooelogy,
and Botany, which he held until his resignation in
1873 to accept the Chancellorship of Syracuse University.
He returned to Michigan in 1879 as Professor of Geology
and Paleontology, and ended his days in Ann Arbor
in 1891. With a personality vigorous and powerful,
if somewhat unyielding, he was always a factor in
faculty affairs, though he was not so happy in his
relations with the students as some of his colleagues
and therefore does not figure so prominently in their
reminiscences. He has been described as a sober,
earnest, eloquent, sometimes shrewd and witty but
very absent-minded, scholar whose “beautiful
and even eloquent language led many to an admiration
and love for sciences.” His work on the
Michigan Geological Survey of which he was twice director,
and his life-long effort for the reconciliation of
science with religion, brought wide recognition to
the University.
A totally different personality was
Dr. Henry Simmons Frieze, Brown, ’41, who came
to Michigan the next year as Professor of Latin Language
and Literature, in place of Dr. Haven, who assumed
the Professorship of History and English Literature.
No name on Michigan’s long Faculty roll has
been more honored than his. He brought to the
University not only well-grounded ideals of true scholarship,
but also a broad culture, not too common in those
days, and an inspiring interest in literature and
art which left a deep impression. It was such
spirits as Dr. Tappan, Dr. Frieze, and Andrew D. White,
who was also of that early company, that set for the
University standards in academic life and ideals which
have never been lost, and which enabled Michigan to
take her place with such extraordinarily little delay
as one of the country’s great educational forces.
Unhampered by the formalism and traditions of the Eastern
universities of that time, these men found here an
opportunity for the establishment of the progressive
methods of the better European universities.
The services of Dr. Frieze as Acting President for
the two years preceding President Angell’s election
are mentioned elsewhere. He was once more called
upon to be Acting President during the year Dr. Angell
was in China in 1881 and again for a few months in
1887. But these were only interludes, for his
influence during his long Professorship, where he
easily stood primus inter pares, must be the
gauge of the high favor in which he was held by students
and Faculty alike. Among the many facets of his
genius was a remarkable ability as a musician, and
the impetus he gave the musical life of Ann Arbor resulted
in the organization of the Musical Society and the
naming of the Frieze Memorial Organ in his honor.
Andrew D. White tells us, in his “Autobiography,”
that he found him one of the most charming men he had
ever met, simple, modest, retiring to a
fault, yet a delightful companion and a most inspiring
teacher. “So passionately was he devoted
to music that at times he sent his piano away from
his house in order to shun temptation to abridge his
professorial work, and especially was this the case
when he was preparing his edition of Virgil. A
more lovely spirit never abode in mortal frame.
No man was ever more generally beloved in a community;
none, more lamented at his death.” Hardly
less important was the inspiration and support Dr.
Frieze gave to the study of art through his contributions
to the University’s art museum. This dates
particularly from a gift he made of books, engravings,
photographs, and copies of statues and paintings, purchased
abroad in 1856 with the unexpended balance of his
salary, amounting to $800. This was the real
beginning of the University’s art collection.
The same day in June, 1854, that witnessed
the appointment of Dr. Frieze, saw the election of
Dr. Franz F.E. Bruennow, a graduate of the University
of Berlin, as Professor of Astronomy and Director of
the new Observatory. He too was destined to have
a profound influence upon the future of the University
though his years in Ann Arbor were comparatively few.
Dr. Bruennow had already gained a European reputation
as a scientist before he decided to come to America,
which he did largely upon Humboldt’s advice,
and because of his desire to use the astronomical
clock and meridian circle which were made in Berlin
under his direction for the new observatory in Ann
Arbor. The long list of distinguished astronomers
who have been students at Michigan may be said to
trace their academic lineage back to his acceptance
of this position. His successor, James C. Watson,
was his pupil and Professor C.K. Adams in his
memorial address on Professor Watson said: “During
the senior year the Professor of Astronomy lectured
to Watson alone. And I remember years afterwards
hearing Professor White say to one of his historical
classes that the best audience any professor ever had
in this University was the audience of Dr. Bruennow
when he was lecturing to this single pupil.”
Dr. White dwells with particular appreciation on the
little musical circle formed by Dr. Frieze, Mrs. White,
and Dr. Bruennow, which may well have been the original
impulse for the future development of musical interests
in the University and the community. Dr. Bruennow’s
quiet simplicity, which led those “who knew him
best to love him, most,” sometimes led to humorous
situations, as on the occasion when President Tappan
requested Dr. Bruennow to find some one to take his
place at morning prayer the next day. This commission
was performed with Teutonic literalness, for each
of the professors interviewed was greeted abruptly
with the somewhat startling question, “Professor,
can you bray?” He returned to Europe
at the same time Dr. Tappan left the University, but
his influence remained in the work of his students
and the scholarly traditions he established.
Andrew D. White, Yale, ’53,
came as Professor of History and English Literature
in 1857. His influence was only less vital than
that of Dr. Tappan and Dr. Frieze because his active
service with the University was to last but six years.
He was a very young professor, indeed only
twenty-four but he had had the best of training
in France and Germany and was inspired by a vision
of a chair of history alone, unencumbered by any allied,
or supposedly allied, subjects; something apparently
unknown elsewhere, certainly at Yale, his Alma Mater.
He tells with relish in his “Autobiography”
of the attentions paid him by the students. As
soon as they caught sight of him at the station they
asked him if he were going to enter the University.
Of course he was. They immediately proceeded
to “rush” him, not discovering that he
was the new Professor of History until he signed the
hotel register. His students were often older
than he was and his experiences were many, particularly
when he had it out with one student whom he had sized
up as a ring-leader in class disturbances. This
man was always elaborately innocent when trouble was
brewing, but the young professor was sure he was right
in his suspicions as to the seat of the trouble.
Finally he delivered an ultimatum: “I see
either you or I must leave the University.”
The student pleaded not guilty but Professor White
insisted, suggesting that the Regents might feel the
same as he in the matter. After some diplomatic
passages, in which the student seemed not unimpressed
by the importance given him, he acknowledged that perhaps
he had been a little foolish and suggested that they
try to live together a little longer. He afterwards
became a strong friend of the young teacher and later
fell at the head of his brigade at Gettysburg.
The success with which Professor White
and his contemporaries labored among their students
is shown by his later statement that from among them
came senators, congressmen, judges, professors, lawyers,
heads of great business enterprises, and diplomats.
One became his successor in the Professorship of History
and later in the Presidency of Cornell, and a well-known
American historian of his time. Another became
his predecessor in the Embassy to Germany. Professor
White left Ann Arbor in 1863, partly because of business
interests, partly because of his election to the New
York State Senate and the Presidency of Cornell University.
With these men as leaders Michigan
boldly embarked on a series of departures from educational
precedents. Though the time was not ripe for
graduate study, its desirability had been recognized
emphatically in the annual catalogues. In their
class rooms several of the Faculty endeavored to do
more than follow the accepted textbooks, through lectures,
assigned readings, and exercises designed to develop
the individual powers of each student. Professor
White was particularly fertile in these expedients.
The claims of comparatively new subjects, foreign
to the traditional curriculum, were recognized in chairs
of history, English literature, the modern languages,
and above all the sciences, where true laboratory
work was gradually introduced until Michigan had under
Professor Douglas what was probably in its early years
the largest chemical laboratory in any American university.
The new scientific course, which was established within
the Literary Department and not as a separate school,
was particularly significant of the progressive spirit
of this early Faculty. This came to be so well
recognized that Dr. Angell remarked in his inaugural
address that the drift of intelligent opinion had
been for twenty years towards some of the positions
early adopted by the University, such as elective studies
and larger opportunities for the study of history,
modern languages, and the natural sciences. He
also took occasion to suggest that the University
would always have to be in a measure dependent upon
the alumni, since the Legislature would never become
so generous in its appropriations as to make private
gifts undesirable or unnecessary.
While the liberal policy which laid
the foundation for this expansion of the University’s
field may properly be said to have been formed during
President Tappan’s administration, it was continued
and wisely expanded under his successors. President
Haven’s first years were difficult, but he had
the support of his colleagues and was fortunate in
the appointment of the new members of the Faculty
necessitated by the reorganization which ushered in
his administration. One of the first of his appointments
was that of Dr. Bruennow’s favorite pupil, James
C. Watson, ’57, to succeed him as Professor
of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory.
Professor Watson’s brilliant work had already
attracted wide attention, he “was bagging asteroids
as though he lured them with a decoy” though
he was at that time still a very young man, and his
methods as a teacher somewhat peculiar. He paid
scant attention to those not vitally interested in
his subject, and, as one chronicler observed, showed
the folly of a set course of studies and contributed
in this way not a little to the eventual adoption
of the elective system in the University. His
lectures were sometimes brilliant and always lucid,
though he was not exacting in recitations or in examinations.
The story is told of his passing one student in an
examination who had died earlier in the year; he had
merely taken the name from the roll prepared the first
day of the semester. Whatever were Professor Watson’s
personal qualifications, however, the long list of
eminent astronomers who were his pupils during the
years from 1863 to 1879 are ample evidence of his
genius, for they include such names as those of his
successor Professor Harrington, ’68, Otto J.
Klotz, ’72e, of the Observatory of the Dominion
of Canada, Monroe B. Snyder, ’72, Director of
the Philadelphia Observatory, Robert Simpson Woodward,
’72e, President of the Carnegie Institution,
John M. Schaeberle, ’76e, Astronomer in the
Lick Observatory from 1888 to 1897, and George Cary
Comstock, ’77, Director of the Observatory of
the University of Wisconsin.
Edward Olney, whose spirit still lives
in the memory of older graduates, also came at this
time. He was, unlike most other members of the
Faculty, for the most part a self-made scholar of whose
ability as a teacher one former student rather ruefully
remarked that the “students knew something about
mathematics when they got through with him.”
He was always a prominent figure in the shaping of
University policies and to him no small measure of
credit is given for the diploma system of admission
from the high schools in ’71 and the elective
system of ’78.
The year 1867 brought the appointment
to professorships of two men, already mentioned, whose
reputation eventually became nationwide. The
first was Charles Kendall Adams, who afterward became
President of Cornell University and the University
of Wisconsin. He was graduated from the University
with the class of ’61, and after some years as
instructor and Assistant Professor followed Andrew
D. White in the chair of history. The other was
Moses Coit Tyler, Yale, ’57, Professor of Rhetoric
and English Literature, whose “History of American
Literature,” published before he left Michigan
in 1881, to go to Cornell, as well as many later works,
gave him an established place as an authority in this
field.
Professor Boise resigned the chair
of Greek in 1868 to accept a similar place at the
University of Chicago. It is said that his reason
for the change was, in part at least, his desire to
give his daughter, Alice Boise, an opportunity to
matriculate in an institution where women were enrolled.
While living in Ann Arbor she had already attended
unofficially at least two classes, and was probably
the first woman to recite in the University.
Professor Boise was succeeded by Professor Martin
L. D’Ooge, ’62, whose fine enthusiasm for
the best in classical culture and his genius for friendship
were long with the University. For several years
before his death in 1915, Professor D’Ooge was,
with Dr. Angell, one of the few links which tied the
present Faculty to the era of those earlier leaders.
But the names of all the hundreds
of members of the Faculties, who came in ever-increasing
numbers after this period, cannot all be mentioned,
though many have played important roles in the growth
and development of the University. No record
of the Faculty, however, can be left without mention
of the Rev. Benjamin F. Cocker, M.A., Wesleyan, ’64,
who succeeded Dr. Haven in the chair of Mental and
Moral Philosophy in 1869, a strong and vital figure,
of English birth but a citizen of the world, who at
one time nearly lost his life at the hands of cannibals
in the South Seas. He and his family arrived
in America penniless, but his ability as a thinker
and preacher soon made him a place and eventually a
professorship in the University, where he was long
remembered. He was succeeded by Professor George
S. Morris, Dartmouth, ’61, who had come to the
University in 1870 as Professor of Modern Languages,
a man of totally different caliber, not so rugged
and picturesque but more sensitive and profound, the
first real scholar in the modern sense in the Department
of Philosophy. Upon his death in 1889 he was succeeded
by the eminent philosopher John Dewey, Vermont, ’79,
who was followed in turn in 1896 by Robert Mark Wenley,
who came to Michigan bearing the highest honors of
the University of Glasgow. Within the Department
of Philosophy has also developed the special chair
of Psychology, held by Professor Walter B. Pillsbury,
Nebraska, ’92, who came to the University in
1897 as instructor in the subject. Of these men
it may be said that they have all contributed their
share to the singularly high place the study of philosophy
and metaphysics has continued to hold, even in this
utilitarian age, among the students of the University.
Elisha Jones, ’59, who became
Assistant Professor of Latin in 1875 and Associate
Professor in 1881, was also a teacher to whose memory
long generations of students pay tribute, not only
for their introduction to Latin through his textbooks,
but for his fine simplicity and enthusiasm for his
work. At his death in 1888 his widow established
a fellowship which for many years aided many embryo
classical scholars. Professor Frieze, the head
of the department, outlived him and was succeeded by
Francis W. Kelsey, Rochester, ’80, whose labors
in behalf of the classics, and as president of the
American School of Classical Studies at Rome, and
the Archeological Institute of America, have been widely
recognized. Associated for long years with Professor
D’Ooge in the Department of Greek was Albert
H. Pattengill, ’68, who died in 1906. He
was another extraordinary teacher, whose strong personality
will long be remembered, while his love of outdoor
sports will be honored by generations of athletes
whose interests he served unselfishly throughout his
lifetime.
The resignation of Charles Kendall
Adams brought another loved personality to the University,
Richard Hudson, ’71, whose gentle peculiarities
only endeared him to his students. He succeeded
Professor D’Ooge as Dean of the Literary College
in 1898. He was a most conscientious teacher
who believed in the meticulous presentation of facts
in his lectures, though one student at least found
that after a long series of lectures about the “low
countries,” “Flanders,” and the
“Spanish cities,” something else was needed,
when confronted by an examination on the history
of Belgium. His method of teaching was his
own but effective, though many alumni will appreciate
his remark to a young instructor, as he poised his
right forefinger in midair and cleared his throat,
“I wonder if you have any mannerisms that would
make you conspicuous before a class?” Professor
Hudson not only gave his library to the University
but also left a legacy of $75,000 for the establishment
of a Professorship in History. Another popular
figure of a generation not too long ago was Andrew
C. McLaughlin, ’82, the son-in-law of Dr. Angell,
now Professor of History at the University of Chicago.
Upon the retirement of Professor Hudson in 1911, Claude
H. Van Tyne, ’96, Professor of American History
since 1906, became head of the Department.
In the Department of English and Rhetoric
Professor Tyler was succeeded in 1881 by Isaac N.
Demmon, ’68, who had been Assistant Professor
of Rhetoric and History since 1876. Professor
Demmon’s service in the University, which did
not end until his retirement as Emeritus Professor,
and his death, in 1920, was long and self-sacrificing.
He left a monument to his interest in the Library
in several special collections, particularly in the
Dramatic and Shakespearian libraries, while his knowledge
of the University’s history and his remarkable
acquaintance among the alumni have been invaluable
in the editing of various editions of the Alumni Catalogue,
and the revision and extension of Professor Hinsdale’s
“History.” In 1903 Fred N. Scott,
’84, became head of the newly created Department
of Rhetoric. As occupant of this chair Professor
Scott, in addition to his scholarly work, evinced by
many books and articles, has been an inspiration, guide,
and father confessor to hundreds of students and alumni
whose interest lay in literature and authorship.
In modern languages, the task dropped
by Professor Fasquelle at his death in 1862 was continued
by Edward Payson Evans, ’54, until 1870 and
then by George S. Morris until his acceptance of the
Professorship of Philosophy in 1879. Edwin Lorraine
Walter, ’68, was then elected to the chair.
In 1887 the Department was divided and Calvin Thomas,
’74, became Professor of Germanic Languages
and Literature, to be succeeded, after his call to
Columbia University in 1896, by George A. Hench, Lafayette,
’85, who lost his life three years later in an
accident in the White Mountains. Max Winkler,
Harvard, ’89, the present occupant of the chair,
eventually succeeded him. After Professor Walter
lost his life on the Bourgogne in 1898, the chair
of French was filled by Arthur G. Canfield, Williams,
’78.
When the new chair in the Science
and Art of Teaching was first established in 1879,
William H. Payne was appointed as the first Professor.
He was an experienced teacher in the secondary schools
of the State and contributed much to the eventual
success of the new department. After he resigned
in 1887 to become Chancellor of the University of
Nashville, Burke Aaron Hinsdale, a graduate and for
some time President of Hiram College, Ohio, and an
intimate associate of President Garfield, was elected
to succeed him. Under Professor Hinsdale’s
strong and vigorous guidance, the department rapidly
advanced to a recognized place in the curriculum.
Though his bearing was somewhat austere and overwhelming,
he could unbend, as was proved on one occasion in
the Library when his booming voice brought an admonition
from an official. Just then an influential member
of the Library Committee chanced to appear. He
proved a greater disturber of the peace than Professor
Hinsdale, who, nudging his companion, slyly inquired,
with the suspicion of a grin, “Why don’t
you tell him to keep quiet?” Professor
Hinsdale was distinguished by his prolific and scholarly
writings and left a monument in his “History
of the University,” which will long be recognized
as the standard for the period up to 1900. His
death occurred in that year, and the chair thus left
vacant was occupied by Allen S. Whitney, ’85,
whose title was changed in 1905 to Professor of Education.
After the resignation of Professor
Watson in 1879, the chair of Astronomy was occupied
by Mark Walrod Harrington, ’68, until 1892; later
he became President of the University of Washington.
He was succeeded by William J. Hussey, ’89.
Since the death of Professor Olney in 1887, the Department
of Mathematics has been under the charge of Wooster
W. Beman, ’70, a member of the Faculty since
1871, whose name now stands first as to length of
service on the academic roster.
Albert Benjamin Prescott, ’64m,
who eventually succeeded Dr. Silas H. Douglas as Director
of the Chemical Laboratory, became Assistant Professor
of Chemistry in 1865. He organized the course
in Pharmacy three years later, becoming Professor
of Organic and Applied Chemistry and of Pharmacy in
1870. In 1876 he became Dean of the new College
of Pharmacy and in 1884 Director of the Chemical Laboratory.
Upon his death in 1905 he was succeeded as Director
of the Chemical Laboratory by Edward DeMille Campbell,
’86, who had been Professor of Chemical Engineering
and Analytical Chemistry since 1902. After the
retirement of Professor Williams in 1877, Charles
K. Wead, Vermont, ’71, became Acting Professor
of Physics, to be succeeded in 1885 by Henry Smith
Carhart, Wesleyan, ’69, who held the chair of
Physics and the Directorship of the Physical Laboratory
until his retirement in 1905. His successor was
John Oren Reed, ’85, who became also Dean of
the Literary Department in 1907. Upon Dean Reed’s
death in 1916 the Professorship of Physics passed to
Harrison McAllister Randall, ’93, who became
Director of the Physical Laboratory in 1918.
At the end of Professor Winchell’s
first period in the University in ’73, the several
subjects which comprised his professorship were divided.
The chair of Botany passed to Eugene Woldemar Hilgard,
Ph.D., Heidelberg, ’53, who was succeeded two
years later by Volney Morgan Spalding, ’73,
as Instructor in Botany and Zooelogy, becoming Professor
of Botany in 1886. Upon his resignation in 1904
the chair was occupied by Frederick Charles Newcombe,
’90. The work in Zooelogy passed to Joseph
Beal Steere, ’68, who became an Assistant Professor
in 1876, after five years of travel in the interests
of the University in South America, China, and the
East Indies, where he collected some 20,000 specimens
for the Museum. He became Professor of Zooelogy
in 1879, and retained the chair until 1894, when he
was succeeded by Jacob E. Reighard, ’82.
William Henry Pettee, Harvard, ’61, assumed the
work in mineralogy in 1875 under the title of Professor
of Mining Engineering. In addition to his work
in his own subject, he served from 1881 to 1904 as
editor of the University Calendar and advisory editor
of other University publications. Edward Henry
Kraus, Syracuse, ’96, who occupies the chair
of Mineralogy at present, first came to the University
in 1904 and succeeded to the chair in 1908. When
Professor Winchell returned to the University after
his term as Chancellor of the University of Syracuse,
he became Professor of Geology and held that position
until his death in 1891, when he was succeeded by
Israel Cook Russell, New York University, ’69.
Upon Professor Russell’s death in 1906, William
Herbert Hobbs, Worcester Polytechnic, ’83, was
called to the chair from the University of Wisconsin.
Though courses in economics were given
in the University almost from the first and; in fact,
with International Law, formed the special field of
work assumed by Dr. Angell for some years, the Department
of Political Economy as such was not organized until
after Henry C. Adams, Iowa College, ’74, who
came to the University as a lecturer in 1881, accepted
the chair of Political Economy in 1887. The first
step toward a chair in Sociology came with the appointment
in 1899 of Charles Horton Cooley, ’87, a son
of Judge Thomas M. Cooley, of the first Law Faculty,
as Assistant Professor of Sociology, from which position
he rose to a full professorship in eight years.
A separate chair of Political Science was not created
until 1910, when Jesse Siddall Reeves, Amherst, ’91,
came as the head of the new department. The Department
of Music had its first beginning with the appointment
of Calvin Brainerd Cady, Oberlin, ’74, as instructor
in 1880. He became Acting Professor of Music in
1885, but resigned three years later when Albert A.
Stanley, Leipzig, ’75, came as the head of the
Department and a few years later Director of the University
School of Music, now closely associated with the work
of the University though not in any way a part of
it. After the disappearance from the Faculty
roll of the name of the Detroit portrait painter, Alvah
Bradish, who apparently gave a few lectures on Fine
Arts during the period from 1852 to 1863, no work
in fine arts was given until the appointment of Professor
Herbert R. Cross, Brown, ’00, in 1911. The
work in elocution and oratory was definitely established
with the appointment in 1889 of Thomas C. Trueblood,
M.A., Earlham, ’85, who had for some years held
a lectureship in the University, as Assistant Professor
of Elocution and in 1892 as full Professor of Oratory.
The chair of Semitics and Oriental
Languages, held since 1914 by Leroy Waterman, Hillsdale,
’98, was first established in 1893 when James
A. Craig, McGill, ’80, came as Professor of
Oriental Languages, a title which was changed to Semitic
Languages and Literatures and Hellenistic Greek the
following year.
Following the example of Yale and
Cornell, Michigan established a Department of Forestry
in 1903, and called Filibert Roth, ’90, to fill
the chair thus created. For some time courses
in forestry had been given in connection with the
work in botany, but the growing interest in the preservation
and conservation of America’s timber resources
made more intensive and systematic training seem desirable.
A few years later, in 1909, a course in landscape
design was established, which shortly became a department
under the charge of Professor Aubrey Tealdi, a graduate
of the Royal Technical Institute of Livorno, Italy.
The history of the development of
special courses and degrees in the University, though
interesting and suggestive, can only be given here
in a brief outline. As Dr. Angell remarked in
one of his reports, the governing board has been distinguished
for the boldness and originality of its policy, making
frequent changes in traditional college usages, some
of which were freely criticized at the time by those
who afterwards approved and even adopted them.
We have seen how the University departed from the
dead level of contemporary college practice in establishing
Scientific Courses, and the admitting of those who
were not seeking a degree as special students.
A few years later, in 1855, came the first indication
of one of the principal differences between the old
University and that of the present time the
system of elective studies. The concession was
a very small one, it must be acknowledged, one-third
of the work in the senior year; but it was a break
in the dike. This was all that was allowed for
fifteen years, or until 1871, when all the studies
of the senior year except philosophy became elective.
The establishment of an English course
in 1877-78, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Letters,
which consisted largely in the study of modern languages
and history, and aimed to co-ordinate with similar
high school courses, formed another break, which was
emphasized by a modification and revision of the other
courses and a change from the Latin and Scientific
to the Latin course. Almost half the work required
for a degree now became elective. This action
was far-reaching in its effect; not only was there
an immediate increase of almost twenty percent in the
number of students, but due to it, curiously enough,
can be traced the subsequent rise of a true graduate
school. The principle of general election of
studies was gradually extended until the required work
was decreased to certain introductory courses in Latin,
Greek, modern languages, rhetoric, history, mathematics,
and sciences, according to the special fields chosen
by the student. The special degrees of B.S.,
Ph.B., and B.L. were abolished in 1900 and all graduates
of the Literary Department were granted a degree of
A.B. after that time, though the B.S. was later restored.
Of late there has been a reaction toward more formal
programs of study, with an increased emphasis on certain
introductory work which must be observed in planning
the course necessary for a degree. But the great
latitude left to the student in the choice of his
work still remains.
The growth of the Graduate School
should also be noted, for upon this the standing of
the University as a center of learning must eventually
rest. In spite of Dr. Tappan’s efforts to
introduce “university” courses, Michigan
was long a college rather than a university, so much
so that President Haven discouraged the use of the
word “undergraduate” when “graduate”
students were almost non-existent; while the opportunities
offered them, except possibly in astronomy and chemistry,
where the facilities were unusual for that period,
were only those of a high grade college curriculum.
But the leaven was working, in two particulars especially;
the seminar method of teaching and the development
of the elective system. The first seminar was
held by Professor Charles Kendall Adams in 1871 in
some of his courses in history. He was followed
a little later by Professor Moses Coit Tyler in English
Literature, and in time by most of the other departments.
This, with the corresponding laboratory methods in
the teaching of the sciences, had a profound influence
on the growth of scholarly ideals in the University.
Michigan was in all probability the first American
institution to naturalize these products of Continental
universities. The broadening of the course in
1877-78, with its great increase in electives, enabled
the members of the Faculty to increase the scope of
their work and to expand their courses. As an
immediate answer there came an ever increasing demand
for true graduate work, not only from graduates of
the University, but from those of other institutions
as well. This movement grew so rapidly that the
number of advanced students enrolled increased from
four in 1870 to 56 in 1892, when a Graduate School
was formally organized in connection with the Literary
Department. This was expanded some twenty-five
years later into an entirely separate Department,
or School, following the revised nomenclature of 1910,
of which Professor Karl Eugen Guthe, Marburg, Ph.D.,
’89, of the Department of Physics, became the
first Dean. Upon his death in the summer of 1915
he was succeeded by Professor Alfred H. Lloyd, Harvard,
’86, of the Department of Philosophy.
Thus graduate work in the University
came into its own. At last the ideals of President
Tappan, who admitted the first graduate student in
1856, were in some measure at least realized; though
the real results of his labors did not show for many
years after he left.
Throughout all the early period the
general attitude towards advanced work was decidedly
haphazard and casual; the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
was not given until 1876, when Dr. Victor C. Vaughan,
the present Dean of the Medical School, was one of
the first recipients; while the Ph.D. as well as the
M.D. were sometimes given as honorary degrees.
This attitude toward graduate study, however, was by
no means confined to Michigan, for the systematic
regulation of advanced courses has been comparatively
a recent development in all American universities.
The first organization of the School
under a Graduate Council within the Literary Department,
was therefore a great step in advance, however anomalous
its position, a graduate school practically
controlled by an undergraduate faculty, though
there were, it is true, certain representatives of
the professional departments on the Council.
Nevertheless the work grew rapidly after this time.
Not only was there a steadily increasing enrolment,
but there was a distinct increase in the number of
advanced courses, as well as in the time given by teachers
to graduate instruction and to research work, which
greatly strengthened the prestige of the University
as a center of higher education.
The final establishment of the School
as a separate division of the University naturally
gave a decided impetus to this development. A
suite of offices was set apart for the administrative
force; special encouragement was given to the publication
of the results of their work by members of the Faculty,
particularly through such agencies as the University
Humanistic Series, and similar series in other fields,
while fifteen University fellowships were also established,
as well as the State College Fellowships mentioned
above. In addition a number of fellowships have
been privately established by individuals and corporations,
ranging from the classics to paper-making. During
the last few years there have been in all between
thirty-five and forty-five fellowships ordinarily
available. The enrolment in the School reached
570 in 1916. There was naturally a falling off
during the war, though by the year 1919-20 the enrolment
had once more reached 509. Of this number 227
were registered in the summer session, 173 were women
and 195 were graduates of other institutions than
Michigan.
The history of the University Library
has been closely associated, as is only natural, with
the growth of the Literary College, and it is proper
to include a word about the Library in this place.
The appointment of the first Librarian in 1837 did
not make a library, and for many years the fine but
small collection of books gathered in Europe by Professor
Gray was housed in different places about the Campus
and was used only as a circulating library open
for one hour each week for the use of the professors
and students. However a note in the library regulations
to the effect that: “The present instructors
are of opinion that there are very few of the books
in the library which would be useful to students,”
seems to limit even this function of the little collection.
All this was changed in 1856 when the whole North
Wing was set apart as a Museum and Library. Here
for the first time, the books were properly shelved
and arrangements made for their daily use in an adequate
reading-room under the charge of Dr. Tappan’s
son, John L. Tappan, who took charge as the first
real Librarian. He arranged the books scientifically
and began the first card catalogue.
Almost at once the Library sprang
into a new place in University life. Not only
did President Tappan make the Library one of his first
interests, but the Regents came to realize the desirability
of regular support. This inaugurated a period
of ever-increasing growth, which has placed the Library
well to the front among American college libraries.
Progress at first was rather slow, only about 800 volumes
were added each year up to 1877, when the Librarian
reported that there were almost 24,000 volumes in
the collection. Not very large even then; but
the rate increased from that time, rapidly, and at
the present time the Library numbers some 430,000
volumes including the departmental collections.
In 1877 the Legislature was brought
to see the imperative need of an adequate library
and made a special appropriation of $5,000, which was
renewed every two years, and even gradually increased,
until in 1891 the amount appropriated was $15,000,
with a grand total over a period of fifteen years
of $79,000. These biennial appropriations ended
in 1893 with the increase of the mill-tax from one-twentieth
to one-sixth of a mill. This enabled the Regents
to double the income of the Library, making it $15,000
annually. The income increased gradually until
the library budget of 1920 was over $150,000, of which
$50,000 represents the approximate cost of books;
the balance being spent for the salaries of the large
staff which is necessitated by a library of this size.
Upon the completion of the first Law
Building in 1863 the Library was given new and better
quarters where it remained until the old Library was
completed in 1883. This was at the time considered
the last word in a college library and was dedicated
with special exercises at which an address was given
by Dr. Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University.
For thirty-five years this building, situated at the
center of the Campus, with its picturesque twin towers
rising above the ivy-covered apse, served the University
well. Here was not only the center of academic
life, but from one of the towers the Campus clock chimed
the hours and quarters for the convenience of the
students. In the end, however, the old building
proved inadequate and unsafe for the valuable collections
it housed, in spite of an increase in stack capacity
in 1899. The building was therefore finally removed
to make way for the new Library, completed in 1919,
which, through its perfect adaptation to the purposes
for which it is designed, is considered the most conveniently
appointed and successful college library in the country.
The building will accommodate over one million volumes
and there are definite plans for future extension
which will house over three-quarters of a million
in addition. The stack wing of the old Library
was incorporated in the building, permitting the gradual
erection of the new structure in such a manner that
the use of the books was not interfered with at any
time. The new Library was formally opened on
January 7, 1920, with an address by Mr. R.R.
Bowker, the editor of The Library Journal, as
the principal feature of the programme. The building
cost, completed and furnished, $615,000, of which
amount the sum of $550,000 was especially appropriated
by the State Legislature.
After the resignation of the first
Librarian, the Rev. Henry Colclazer, in 1845, the
charge of the Library was passed around from one member
of the Faculty to another until the appointment of
John L. Tappan in 1856, nominally the eighth, though
in reality the first Librarian. He was followed
by Datus Chase Brooks, who held the position one
year, when the Rev. Andrew Ten Brook, who had once
before held the title during the year 1850-51, returned
to the University as Librarian in 1864. Not only
were the affairs of the Library well cared for during
his administration, but he also found time to write
his “History of State Universities,” which
gives the only adequate picture we have of the beginnings
of the University, by one who shared their trials and
triumphs. Upon his resignation in 1877 Raymond
Cazallis Davis, ’55-’57, A.M. (hon.) ’81,
succeeded him, contributing greatly during the twenty-eight
years of his administration towards the establishment
of the Library on its present effective basis.
In this effort he was supported by the advice and
co-operation of Professor Isaac N. Demmon, who was
for thirty-seven years a member of the Library Committee.
Theodore Wesley Koch, Harvard, ’93, became Librarian
in 1905, coming from the Library of Congress in Washington.
It was his main effort to popularize the use of the
Library among the students and Faculties, through
making the reading-rooms more attractive and the books
more accessible. The Library of Congress was
again called upon for his successor after he resigned
in 1915, when the present Librarian, William Warner
Bishop, ’92, came in time to give his experience
and administrative ability to the planning and construction
of the new Library Building. To him in no small
measure is due its acknowledged success as a working
library which has won the praise of all practical
librarians throughout the country.