The University of Michigan

Wilfred Byron Shaw, general secretary of the Alumni Association and editor of The Michigan Alumnus, wrote this 1920 book on the University of Michigan, illustrated with photographs and four etchings by the author. His preface says it is not meant as a history, since earlier writers have covered that, but as a survey that sketches the development of the University and dwells on incidents and personalities.

One passage tells of the lands set aside for the University: tracts chosen in 1827 by the Trustees of the old University of Detroit within the limits of what is now Toledo, partly exchanged in 1830, and sold for far less than they later came to be worth. Another describes class rivalry around 1900, when a flag with class numerals was run up the University flagpole and brought down by a student from the Law Department, and when the class of 1902 painted its numerals on the Law Building. A passage on class memorials mentions the statue of Ben Franklin left by the class of '70.