The University of Michigan, an encyclopedic survey ... Wilfred B. Shaw, editor.

PREFACE

As a part of the celebration of the first hundred years of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, held June 14-19, 1937, provision was made for the preparation and publication of an historical and factual survey of the University. This volume includes the first two of nine parts planned in fulfillment of this project. Upon completion of the series the nine parts will form four bound volumes.

To the University Committee on Archives, as an editorial board, the plans for this part of the program of the celebration were referred by the committee on the 1937 celebration. This committee felt that a treatment, in encyclopedic form, of the University's past and present accomplishments, by those most competent to chronicle them, would form a desirable and unique evidence of the progress of the University since its first establishment in 1817.

Various University executive officers and department heads have co-operated in the preparation of the more than four hundred articles. It may be assumed that they have an especial interest in the development, historical background, and present status of their own divisions of the University.

In a presentation of this type it is recognized that there will be, necessarily, a certain amount of repetition. The editor is conscious, for example, of some duplication in the accounts of the University's constitutional position, the story of the first institution in Detroit, the University's later organization in Ann Arbor, the complications of fiscal policies, the relationship of the University to the school system, and the development of the different divisions of the institution. In every case, however, these subjects, approached from somewhat different points of view by the various authors, form essential parts of the presentation of the topics assigned.

In planning this work, which has been under way for the past five years, the first step was the preparation of a general outline of the topics and the subjects to be covered. This outline was studied and approved by University officers as well as by different members of the editorial board. The articles projected were then assigned to the heads of the various University divisions and departments. Each one has either written the article himself or has asked some member of his staff to do it. In some cases, particular features of departmental programs have been the subject of special articles. Bibliographical references are given for all of the articles, although in many cases it will be recognized that much of the factual material represents the personal familiarity of the writer with his subject. References to bibliographical material and cross references to other articles will, it is hoped, facilitate more extended study of special topics. Footnotes have been avoided as far as possible. A full index will be provided at the end of Volume IV.

It will be noted that such biographical information as is given is only incidental. This has been done deliberately, since a supplementary volume giving the biographies of all officers of the University and members of the staff above the rank of assistant professor has been contemplated.

The editors feel deeply indebted to the members of the faculty and the University staff who have co-operated with interest and enthusiasm in this project. Without their good will and loyal help it would not have been possible to carry out such an ambitious program. The editor also desires to express his personal appreciation of the invaluable help given on all occasions by the editorial advisers and the devotion and self-sacrificing labors of the assistant editors, Mr. Walter A. Donnelly and Miss Helen I. Travis, and also Professor Egbert R. Isbell, who was associate editor for a period in 1937.

Above all, the editors, and the University, are especially grateful to the donor of the publication fund, a loyal alumnus of the University, whose interest in the University and its publications has made possible the final appearance of this Survey.

Wilfred B. Shaw

, Editor