Elizabeth M. Farrand History of the University of Michigan

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. This book has been written for those who have been, or are, or shall be connected with the University of Michigan.<br><br>The attempt has been made to collect from many documents into one volume the story of the University, to put into a convenient and accessible shape what has been already written, and to gather also something from its traditional history, placing upon record what has hitherto remained only in memories which are now fast fading.<br><br>It is greatly to be regretted that the men who were students of the University in its early days have given us no reminiscences of their college life, of its duties, its customs, its hardships, and its pleasures so different from those of modern college life.<br><br>The author of this book is much indebted to some of the early graduates, and especially to Dr. George Pray, of the class of 1845, for assistance rendered; from them alone has it been possible to gather any knowledge of the customs of their time. By them alone, however, can the subject be adequately treated.<br><br>The suggestion is offered that the classes which left the institution before the days of college papers and of class histories, should each have its historian, and that a determined effort should be made to collect reminiscences of college life in Ann Arbor.<br><br>The University is not too young to number among her children, white-haired men. Many of the instructors and many of the students, who taught and studied here in the days when the number of instructors and students was very small, are silenced by death. Yet in 1884 no class fails to respond to the roll-call.