History of the University of Michigan

The history of the University of Michigan traces back to the colonial era of New France, beginning as a system of Christian schools located at or near Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit. By the turn of the 19th century, following the Great Fire of 1805, parishioners, including students and teachers from these Christian schools whose schoolhouses were destroyed in the fire, formed a corporation known as the Église Catholique, Apostolique et Romaine de Sainte Anne du Detroit, under its rector, Gabriel Richard. After much agitation by Richard for the establishment of an "institution for higher learning," the territorial government created an entity in 1817 named the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania. This entity formed in 1817 is the direct legal antecedent of today's University of Michigan, as confirmed by a decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in January 1856, thereby making it the oldest institution of higher education in the State of Michigan.

The Catholic parish of Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit is instrumental in the founding of the university, and a substantial portion of the university's initial endowment likely stemmed from a larger grant allocated for both the church and the university. At its foundation, the university oversaw all cultural establishments within the territory and only relinquished its control over the territory's preparatory schools after the passing of an organic act on March 18, 1837, to focus on higher education. Michigan was the second U.S. institution to issue the Bachelor of Science degree in 1855, following Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School. Its university hospital, which opened in 1869, is the oldest in the country. The university was the first in the country to offer courses in aeronautical engineering, nuclear science & engineering, material science, metallurgy, and forestry.

The university was one of the early doctoral-granting U.S. institutions in the late 19th century, awarding its first Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 1876.