no college or university in the United States offered credit for work in speech. In the second semester of 1887-88 Trueblood was given the title of Assistant Professor of Elocution and Oratory in the Department of English. This arrangement was continued for the next two years, Trueblood relinquishing some of his other lectureships and also combining his courses at Ohio Wesleyan into the first semester of each year.
In 1889, college work in speech was extended to the full year, and Trueblood devoted his entire time to the University of Michigan. So successful was the development of new courses to meet the demands of all classes of students in both the Law and the Literary Departments that in 1892 a Department of Elocution and Oratory was created and the chairman was granted a full professorship. By this step, the University of Michigan created the first separate department and also the first professorship in speech in any of the large universities in the United States.
For the next eleven years, or until the end of 1903, the courses in elocution and oratory were handled entirely by Professor Trueblood. Soon, however, the enrollment became so heavy that assistance was needed, and in 1904 an instructor was added. In 1909, two more persons were added to the staff; others were added in 1914 and thereafter, until, at the time of Professor Trueblood's retirement in 1926, the departmental personnel consisted of nine members. Since that time it has continued its rapid growth; at present there are fifteen full-time staff members and an equal number of teaching fellows and assistants.
During the nearly fifty years of its existence (to 1940), the department has had several titles: Department of Elocution and Oratory, 1892-1908; Department of Oratory, 1908-19; Department of Public Speaking, 1919-27; Department of Speech, 1927-32; Department of Speech, Phonetics, and General Linguistics, 1932; Department of Speech and General Linguistics, 1932-39; and Department of Speech, since 1939.
In the years since Professor Trueblood's retirement the department has been under the chairmanship of three persons. Professor James Milton O'Neill (Dartmouth '07), who came to Michigan from the chairmanship of the Department of Speech at the University of Wisconsin, served from 1927 to 1932. Henry Arthur Sanders ('90, Ph.D. Munich '97), for many years a member of the faculty and now Professor Emeritus of Latin, served from 1932 until his retirement in 1939. Since that time Professor Gail Ernest Densmore ('22, A.M. '24), who joined the staff of the department in 1922, has been Chairman.
In addition to the departmental chairmen, the following persons of University Senate rank have been appointed to the staff, in the order indicated: Richard Dennis Teall Hollister ('02, Ph.D. '36); Ray Keeslar Immel (Albion '10, Ph.D. Michigan '31), now dean of the School of Speech at the University of Southern California; Louis Michael Eich ('12, Ph.D. '23), also secretary of the Summer Session; Carl Gunard Brandt ('21l, LL.M. '22), also Chairman of the Department of Engineering English in the College of Engineering and Director of Student-Alumni Relations; John Henry Muyskens ('13, Sc.D. '25); Valentine Barthold Windt (Cornell '21, A.M. Princeton '22), also Director of Play Production; Henry Michael Moser (Ohio State '24, Ph.D. Iowa '37), also academic counselor in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; Clarence Linton Meader ('91, Ph.D. '00), now Professor Emeritus; Waldo Mack Abbot ('11, '13l), also Director of the Broadcasting Service; Henry Harlan Bloomer (Illinois '30, Ph.D. Michigan '35), also manager of
