Forever Unfinished: Making and Remaking a Public University
September 5-October 27, 2017
Hatcher Library Gallery (Room 100)
The University of Michigan was founded in 1817 as a public institution, a concept for which there were few models. What makes a university public? What should it look like? Whom should it serve? Who should have access to its resources, and where should those resources come from?
This exhibit explores how students, faculty, staff, politicians, and citizens have attempted to answer these questions. These stories invite us to imagine U-M's future as a public university based on what we know about its past. Link for a walk-through video of the exhibit.
Exhibit team: Jonathan Farr, Nora Krinitsky, Michelle McClellan, Gregory Parker, Emily Price, Kate Silbert
From Swing to Hip-Hop: A Photographic History of Music Performance at the University of Michigan
March 4-April 30, 2017
Michigan League Lobby Gallery
Music has always been an integral part of life in Ann Arbor and at the university. This exhibit explores how Wolverines and others have employed music for a range of purposes, from embracing a common creative past to fomenting political or artistic rebellion. The images are drawn from local archives and depict a rich history of musical performance in Ann Arbor and nearby venues. Link for a walk-through video of the exhibit.
Exhibit team: Joshua Mound, Gregory Parker, Jacques Vest
The Leaders and the Rest: Boundaries and Belonging at the University of Michigan
January 4-February 25, 2017
Hatcher Library Gallery (Room 100)
Who belongs at the University of Michigan? Who gets to draw its boundaries? Michigan students have asked and answered these questions for nearly two hundred years. This exhibit showcases key moments of student expression, politics, and culture from the first decades of the university’s existence in Ann Arbor, through the upheavals of world wars, and to the social and cultural turmoil of the late-twentieth century. Link for a walk-through video of the exhibit.
Exhibit team: Jonathan Farr, Nora Krinitsky, Michelle McClellan, Gregory Parker, Emily Price, Kate Silbert
Digital Exhibits
1963: Pop Art Comes to the University
This online exhibit is based on multi-year research into the early exhibitions of Pop Art held at the University of Michigan. The bulk of the site draws upon work carried out by students in the University of Michigan class History of Art/American Culture 244, “Art of the ‘American Century,’” in 2014 and 2016, under the direction of Professor Rebecca Zurier.
Living in History: Names of U-M Residence Halls
Many buildings at University of Michigan are named after figures from the university’s past. Recent controversies over the names of campus buildings demonstrate how important naming can be to our sense of community. This research project explores names associated with four residence halls: Alice Lloyd, Mary Markley, Bursley, and Baits. Who were these people? Why did the university choose to honor them in the naming of dorms?
The History Department's Michigan in the World: Local and Global Stories (MITW) initiative features online, public exhibitions of research conducted by undergraduate students about the history of U-M and its relationships with the wider world. These projects lay the foundations for a critical appraisal of the university’s trajectories during the bicentennial comemoration. Projects include:
- Give Earth a Chance: Environmental Activism in Michigan
- Go Blue: Competition, Controversy, and Community in Michigan Athletics
- "A Dangerous Experiment": Women at the University of Michigan
- Divestment for Humanity: The Anti-Apartheid Movement at the University of Michigan
- Ending the Business of Injustice: Anti-Sweatshop Activism at the University of Michigan, 1999-2007
- Go Blue: Competition, Controversy, and Community in Michigan Athletics
- Resistance and Revolution: Anti-Vietnam War Activism at the University of Michigan, 1965-1972
- The University of Michigan and The Great War