. When Michigan became a State, broad plans for public education were laid. The men who framed the Constitution were men of large views. Most of them were college bred and appreciated the importance of a well organized system of public education. Isaac E. Crary, who was chairman of the committee on education in the Constitutional Convention, drafted the article which provided for a state superintendent of public instruction and the establishment of common schools, a library in each township, and a university.

The Rev. John D. Pierce, a graduate of Browns' University was appointed the first Superintendent of Public Instruction. He planned the school system of Michigan in his first report to the legislature. He provided for the government of the University by a Board of Regents and also for three departments: one of Literature, Science, and the Arts; one of Law; and one of Medicine. The scope of instruction was to be as broad as under Judge Woodward's scheme. The Report was adopted and the University established in March, 1837. It was located at Ann Arbor where a tract of forty acres of land was given by the Ann Arbor Land Company.

At one time the income from the lands given to the support of the University came near being distributed to establish colleges throughout the state. The bill passed the Senate and was defeated in the House by only one vote. Mr. Pierce secured the defeat of the bill by personal effort.

The very first professor appointed was Dr. Asa Gray, the noted botanist. He was sent to Europe to purchase $5,000 worth of books. This was the beginning of the library which now numbers 368,238 volumes.

The Regents received a loan of $100,000 from the state. They had five buildings completed and ready to admit students in September, 1841. Five freshmen and one sophomore entered, and two professors had charge of the work. Dr. Henry Philip Tappan was chosen first president in 1851. The school then had seventy-two students with a faculty of ten professors.

The University was endowed with two townships of land by the general government, which were sold by the state for $545,964, on which the state

pays interest at seven per cent, producing annually $38,500. The legislative appropriation for current expenses is a three-eighths mill tax, as fixed by Act No. 303, Public Acts of 1907.

Buildings and Equipment. The campus of the University comprises the original forty acres of land and nineteen buildings. Among these are University Hall, Presidents' House, Library, Museum, Engineering Buildings, Medical Building, Natural Science Building and Law Buildings. Thirty-thres other buildings are located near the campus. The University also owne Ferry Field (men's athletic grounds); a ninety acre arboretum and garden; the new Botanical Garden of twenty acres; the Saginaw Forestry Farm of eighty acres, one mile west of Ann Arbor; the Eber White Woods of 43 acres; and the Bogardus Engineering Camp and Biological Station, a tract of 2200 acres of land in Cheboygan County, seventeen miles south of the Straits of Mackinac.

They contain in all 368,238 volumes and 4580 maps; 1710 periodicals are regularly received. Books may be drawn by all officers and students of the University and by others having special permission. The reading room for general use will seat 270 readers. Separate rooms are provided for advanced students, where work is pursued with the necessary books at hand. A new library building is being erected and should be completed in 1918. The library is open fourteen hours daily except during the summer vacation, when it is open ten hours daily.

The Astronomical Observatory was founded in 1852, through the liberality of the citizens of Detroit, and on this account it was named Detroit Observatory. It is situated on the northeastern border of the city of Ann Arbor, about half a mile from the University, on a site overlooking the valley of the Huron River. The Observatory grounds have recently been increased from

four to thirty acres. The Observatory is supplied with telescopes and numerous other instruments for the study of astronomy. It has a set of seismographs for the registration of vibrations due to earthquakes. A shop supplied with excellent machine and hand tools is maintained. It has been an important factor in developing the resources of the Observatory, by the construction of new instruments and the modification of old ones, to meet the requirements of instruction and research. The large instruments are intended for research and may be used by students who have the technical ability to use them to advantage.

The University Museums contain collections in zoology, anthropology, geology, mineralogy, botany, materia medica, chemistry, anatomy, the industrial arts, and the fine arts. These are deposited in the various buildings devoted to the subjects they illustrate, except the zoological and anthropological collections, which are housed in a separate building-the Museum of Zoology. All these are open to both students and visitors.

The Zoological Collections contain specimens of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, mollusks and insects from Michigan as well as from various parts of the old and new worlds. There are about 1000 specimens of mammals, most of which are from Michigan. The collection of birds includes about 8000 skins and 1600 mounted specimens. The fish collection has about 2000 specimens and the mollusk collection includes shells of about 6000 species representing most of the genera of the land, fresh-water, and marine shells. The insect

collection at present contains several thousand determined species, representing about 150 families, which are systematically arranged and catalogued. The collection is particularly strong in Michigan material.

The Anthropological Collection contains the entire Chinese Collection which was sent to the New Orleans Exposition. It was presented to the University by the Chinese government in 1885. Weapons, clothing, farm implements, carpenters' tools, porcelains, and idols from China, Formosa and the Philippines were secured by the Beal-Steere Expedition, and an interesting series of South Sea Islands weapons were presented by the Smithsonian Insti

tution. There is a collection of Peruvian and New Mexican pottery, implements and wearing apparel of the North American, South American, and Alaskan Indians, and a series of rare implements of the Stone Age.

The Museum of Fine Arts and History. The works of art belonging to the University have been removed from the galleries formerly occupied by them in the Library Building and have been installed in the Alumni Memorial Hall. The collection was begun in 1855 and contains a gallery of casts of the most valuable ancient statues and busts, such as the Hermes, the Apollo Belvidere, the Laocoon, the Wrestlers, the Sophocles, the statue of Nydia, casts of modern statues, busts and reliefs, engraved copies of some of the great master pieces of modern painting, besides, several private collections donated or bequeathed by the owners to the University. The Stearns Collection of Musical