page_title: History of the University of Michigan
section_title: Founding of the modern University and early expansion (1837–1900)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the University of Michigan / Founding of the modern University and early expansion (1837–1900)
caption_attribution_description: English: The building is now part of the Ann Arbor City Club (formerly the Ann Arbor Women's City Club). JUNE 18, 1907: 35th REUNION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CLASS OF 1872, at the Washtenaw Avenue home of fruit farmer and land developer Evart A. Scott. Seated right in the middle of those in the first row of chairs is Madelon Louisa Stockwell of Kalamazoo, who was the first female student admitted to the University of Michigan. (Her married name was Turner.) Also in the crowd was Prof. Horatio Nelson Chute, teacher of physics, who was hired at the Ann Arbor High School immediately after graduation, and was still teaching there in 1907. Dr. William James Herdman, famous Ann Arbor physician, also was present for this gathering. So was Professor Otto Klotz, Astronomer Royal of Canada, who supervised the laying of the first Pacific Ocean Cable, a project that took two years. (Klotz was married to a sister of Pauline Widenmann Kempf, wife of Reuben Kempf, of the Kempf House Museum in Ann Arbor.) The Scott house is now embedded in a wing of the Ann Arbor City Club (formerly the Ann Arbor Women's City Club). Nearby Scottwood Avenue bears the family name, and Austin was named for J. Austin Scott, father of Evart Scott.
context_page_description: The history of the University of Michigan began with its establishment on August 26, 1817 as the Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania. The school moved from Detroit to Ann Arbor in 1837, on land offered to the university by the city. The first classes were held in 1841, and eleven men graduated in the first commencement ceremony in 1845. Although the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan was formed as a new legal entity in 1837, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 1856 that it was legally continuous with the Board of Trustees of the University of Michigan that was formed in 1821, and with the Catholepistemiad, or University, of Michigania that was formed in 1817.
  The University of Michigan has since expanded to become one of the top universities in the United States, with one of the largest research expenditures of any American university as well as one of the largest number of living alumni at 526,000. The university is also recognized for its history of student activism and was the first American university to use the seminar method of study. It was also the location chosen by President John F.
context_section_description: In preparation for statehood, Michigan held a constitutional convention in 1835, although actual statehood was withheld by Congress until 1837, after the resolution of the so-called "Toledo War" with Ohio. Sarah Austin's English translation of Victor Cousin's Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia had just gained widespread attention, and thanks to its influence on two men, John Davis Pierce and Isaac Edwin Crary, the Michigan Constitution of 1835 was the first state constitution in the country to embrace the Prussian model of education, in which a complete system of primary schools, secondary schools, and a university are all administered by the state and supported with tax dollars. The constitution created the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Governor Stevens T. Mason appointed Pierce to the post.
  The Organic Act of March 18, 1837, created the University of Michigan, governed by a Board of Regents consisting of 12 members appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Senate, along with the Governor himself, the Lieutenant Governor, the Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court, and the Chancellor of the state. It also created the office of Chancellor of the University, who was to be appointed by the Regents and serve as ex officio President of the Board. In practice, however, the Regents never appointed a Chancellor, instead leaving administrative duties up to a rotating roster of professors, and the Governor chaired the board himself.
  A group of businessmen called the Ann Arbor Land Company had set land aside in the village of Ann Arbor, trying to win a bid for a new state capital. When that did not happen, they offered it for sale to the state for use by the university. A second act passed two days after the Organic Act called for the University to be established in Ann Arbor, and directed the Regents to secure a site. The Board of Regents held its first meeting in Ann Arbor on June 5, 1837. At this meeting they chose 40 acres on the farm of Henry Rumsey as the new site for the university.
  The first classes were held in 1841; six freshmen and a sophomore were taught by two professors. Eleven men graduated in the first commencement ceremony in 1845.
  A new state constitution was adopted in 1850, with two significant changes related to the university. The office of Regent was changed from an appointed one to an elected one, and the office of President of the University of Michigan was created, with the Regents directed to select one. In 1852, they chose Henry Philip Tappan as the university's first president.
  Tappan modeled UM's curriculum on the broad range of subjects taught at German universities (the so-called "research model"), rather than the classical models (the so-called "recitation model"). The German, or Humboldtian model, was conceived by Wilhelm von Humboldt and based on Friedrich Schleiermacher’s liberal ideas pertaining to the importance of freedom, seminars, and laboratories in universities. To that end, Tappan enlarged the library, and supported the development and establishment of laboratories, an art gallery, and the Detroit Observatory. However, Tappan was dismissed in 1863 over conflicts with the Board of Regents concerning matters of policy and personality.
  The Medical School was founded in 1848, and graduated 90 physicians in 1852. UM opened the first university-owned hospital in the U.S. in 1869. The first student newspaper, The Peninsular Phoenix and Gazetteer, was founded in 1857, which was followed by the biweekly University Chronicle in 1867 and The Michigan Daily in 1890.
  By 1865 to 1866, the university's enrollment increased to 1,205 students, with many of the new enrollees veterans of the Civil War. In the July 1866 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Harvard University Professor F.H. Hedge depicted UM as the model public institution of higher education for the growing nation. UM began to draw students from across the United States and abroad, and its student body included African Americans. More than 520 of the students enrolled in 1867 were studying at the Me
caption: University of Michigan Class of 1872- 35th reunion at Evart A. Scott's house (called the "Elm Fruit Farm,") on Washtenaw Ave, Ann Arbor, June 18, 1907
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