INDICATIVE of the generally greater esteem in which the sciences have been held in the Middle West as compared with their status in institutions of the East, provision was made for the study of botany and zoology from the very beginning of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. That these subjects were to be well taught was made evident in the first appointment to the faculty, that of the immortal Asa Gray (M.D. Coll. of Physicians and Surgeons [West. Dist., N.Y.] '31, A.M. Harvard '44, LL.D. Michigan '87), whose compendium on taxonomic botany has been standard for many decades (see Part III: Department of Botany) . On July 17, 1838, the Regents adopted the following resolution (R.P., 1837-64, p. 50): "Resolved, That Dr. Asa Gray be and he is hereby appointed Professor of Botany and Zoology in the University of Michigan, and that the committee on Professorships be instructed to correspond with Dr. Gray in detail relative to his appointment." His salary was to be $1,500.
Gray, whose doctorate was in medicine, not philosophy, did not, however, come to Ann Arbor. He was given leave of absence for a year to travel in Europe, was paid his stipulated salary to defray the expenses of the trip, and was asked to purchase books for the University library while abroad, to cost not more than $5,000. Even the following year (1839-40), Professor Gray did not come to the University, for it was not until the autumn of 1841 that the buildings and staff were ready for students in Ann Arbor. In April, 1840, Gray was asked to agree to a suspension of his salary for the second half of the school year, and assented. In the Regents' annual report of December 31, 1840, he was listed as Professor of Botany and Zoology in the Central Institute of the University at Ann Arbor, but he was not actually in residence. The only other faculty position similarly listed was that of Douglass