COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Abstract

In 2004 the College of Engineering will celebrate 150 years of engineering education at the University of Michigan. This is a story of the evolution of the Engineering campus over the years. Of course, universities are profoundly human endeavors. Great achievements, such as those characterizing Michigan’s College of Engineering, happen because talented and dedicated faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends make them happen. Although this essay is focused on the campus of the College of Engineering, it also attempts to introduce the people and events that have contributed so much to the College’s history. It is a patchwork, stitching together images with the words of those members of the Michigan family who participated directly in the building of the College and the University. This effort draws not only on the historical archives of the Bentley Historical Library, University publications such as the Michigan Technic, the Michigan Alumnus, and The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey, but also on the vast writings, personal papers and photographs of two Engineering Deans, Mortimer Cooley and James Duderstadt. A more complete description of resource materials and acknowledgement of assistance is provided in an appendix. The history of public higher education in America is both rich and significant, particularly for leading universities such as the University of Michigan and for distinguished academic programs such as its College of Engineering. Yet all too often, public universities tend to ignore their history, each generation of faculty, students, and administrators paving over or obliterating the artifacts and achievements of earlier students and faculty with a new layer of structures, programs, and practices. Beyond the importance of preserving such history for future generations, it is also the case that to ignore the past is to condemn one to repeat its mistakes in the future. This photographic history was created both to document and honor the remarkable achievements of the College of Engineering during its century-and-a-half of leadership in engineering education and, perhaps as well, to provide a resource to guide those who will determine and benefit from its activities in the future.