A History of Flags at the University of Michigan
The University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, boasts a rich history dating back to its founding in 1817. Throughout its existence, various flags have played a role in representing the institution, its values, and its spirit. From the iconic Block M flag to the official university seal flag, each has its own unique story and significance.
Early Days and the Flagpole on the Diag
The tradition of school colors appears to date back to 1836 England, when the University of Cambridge outfitted themselves in “Cambridge blue” for a boat race against the University of Oxford. Blue had been an unofficial color of U-M since the school’s founding, and by the mid-1800s, diplomas were adorned with blue ribbons. In the early years, the University's presence on campus was marked by the acquisition of a significant artifact: the flagpole from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. In 1898, the University of Michigan purchased the flagpole of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in 1898, and visitors can now find it on the Diag. The University acquired this piece of history for $375 and installed it on the Diag in July of that year. An item in The Michigan Alumnus reported: “A flagstaff recently purchased by the Regents of the University of Michigan has been set in place in the center of campus. It consists of a steel tube of 77 feet long, sunk ten feet in the ground, surmounted by a ship’s mast 95 feet long.” Originally, the flagpole sat south of its current position, closer to the old general library building. When the old library was demolished in 1918, the flagpole was moved to its current position.
The Evolution of School Colors
A U-M postcard from around 1908, before a deeper blue and golden maize were adopted in 1912 as the university’s official school colors. What quickly became a problem, however, was the fact that the committee provided no standards for the two hues - and soon there was a range of blue and yellow across campus. In 1912, the Board of Regents decided to end the discrepancy. After researching the evolution of U-M’s two school hues, the committee decided that the shade of blue associated with U-M had started as navy, then gradually faded to baby blue. The committee decided the deeper blue adopted by U-M’s athletic clubs was preferable to the faded blue in campus décor. To quell future color confusion - and to serve as examples for all university events, materials and attire - the committee selected maize and blue ribbons in the now-official U-M shades.
The Block M Flag: An Unofficial Symbol of Spirit
Perhaps the most recognizable flag associated with the University of Michigan is the Block M flag. This flag typically features a yellow or gold block "M" on a dark blue field, and vice versa, a dark blue "M" on a yellow/gold field are known. The Yellow Block M on a blue field version of the flag flies over the city hall of its cross state rival's town after a victory. It flies over the Student Union building, and from the central flagpole on campus. This version is the one seen most often on houses, etc. The Block M flag is a ubiquitous symbol of school spirit, displayed at sporting events, student gatherings, and alumni events.
While its exact origins remain somewhat unclear, the Block M has become an emblem of Wolverine pride. It is widely used by students, alumni, and fans to show their support for the university and its athletic teams.
Read also: Michigan State's Emblem Explained
The Block M flag's popularity transcends the campus, with many alumni and supporters displaying it at their homes and businesses. It serves as a visual representation of their connection to the University of Michigan, and a symbol of their shared experiences and pride.
The Official University Flag: Seal on a Light Blue Field
In contrast to the Block M flag's widespread popularity, the official flag of the University of Michigan features the university's seal on a light blue field. The link at www.umich.edu/pres/inauguration/ceremony.html reports on the inauguration of the current president of the university. Behind her in the picture at the top, you can see the Block M flag. In the picture below it, the flags of the various schools within the university are shown, although you can't make out any of the designs. In the middle, just behind and to the right of the president's head is the official flag of the university consisting of the seal on a light blue field. The close-up picture of the speaker farther down the page has a slightly better picture, but still far from enough to make a drawing.
The U-M Official Flag is light blue with the coat of arms (seal minus the double circle) center. About 13 short horizontal bars of several colors separated by black begin at the the hoist. Coat of arms: shield in dark red with an Or/yellow rising sun with 11 rays and lower scroll with "ARTES (dot) SCIENTIA (dot) VERITAS".
The official flag is typically used in more formal settings, such as official university ceremonies, academic events, and administrative offices. It represents the university's history, traditions, and academic mission.
The President's Flag
The U-M President's flag description: University's coat of arms on a white field with four-pointed stars of various colors potentially encircling the coat of arms and arching along the fly. Starting at the top of the fly the stars colors are: Dark green, purple, white (intersecting with the potential circle), gray, Very light red. For the stars visible starting at the 11 o'clock position: Light red (R-), Light blue (B-), peach? at a 45 degree tilt to the fly, white (again shared with the fly arch of stars), yellow (Y).
Read also: University of Georgia Sorority Guide
The Apollo 15 Miniature Flags
For many years there was an urban legend on campus that the crew of Apollo 15 planted a Block M flag on the moon in 1971. The campus newspaper, "The Michigan Daily" debunked the myth, finally, in 2003. The facts are that 20 miniature University flags ORBITED the moon (not planted on the moon), and they were NOT the Block M flag, but the official Seal on Blue flags. You can tell that from the picture in the article. The picture is too small to see the details, but the red is a dead give-away that it's not the Block M flag.
Two alumni set foot on the lunar surface on the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. They established a chapter of the University's alumni association on the Moon. Buning said he thinks the rumor started because of the 20 miniature Michigan flags that accompanied the astronauts as they broke the bounds of Earth but never left the spacecraft. Upon their return to Earth, some of the flags were given to the aerospace engineering department. Buning keeps one at his Ann Arbor home.
Maize and Blue: A Colorful Identity
The University of Michigan's colors, maize and blue, are deeply intertwined with its identity and visual representation. These colors are prominently featured on the Block M flag, as well as in athletic uniforms, campus décor, and university publications.
The tradition of school colors appears to date back to 1836 England, when the University of Cambridge outfitted themselves in “Cambridge blue” for a boat race against the University of Oxford. Blue had been an unofficial color of U-M since the school’s founding, and by the mid-1800s, diplomas were adorned with blue ribbons.
The specific shades of maize and blue have evolved over time, with the university officially adopting a deeper blue and golden maize in 1912. These colors have since become synonymous with the University of Michigan, evoking a sense of tradition, pride, and excellence. The yellow shade is Maize although there is a lot of discussion if this correct.
Read also: History of the Block 'M'
The Controversy of the University's Founding Date and the Seal
When Culver was a student at U-M in the 1870s, the campus was only about 30 years old. Ann Arborites of the post-Civil War years felt a parent’s pride in the University. People with a head for history knew there had been some small, failed experiment with a territorial college in Detroit way back when. A fiftieth birthday in 1887-this big event fixed the idea in the public mind that U-M had been born in 1837. So in the 1890s, someone-no one later could figure out exactly who-decided the University needed a new official seal.
At the instigation of President Hutchins himself, the Alumni Association had emerged as an independent, vigorous and quite powerful organization that took a vigorous interest in campus news. The new man with much to say about the University’s founding was the opinionated Wilfred Shaw, a U-M graduate of 1904, a generation younger than Frank Culver.
In 1920, Shaw published his book, The University of Michigan. It was the first comprehensive history written for a broad, 20th-century audience. Wilfred Shaw was an amateur artist as well as a journalist. He drew this image for a book he published in 1937, A Short History of the University of Michigan.
Culver burrowed into boxes of old documents. He studied land deals and deeds. - That on August 26, 1817, the Michigan Territory’s legislators passed an act to establish a legal corporation called the Catholepistemiad [pronounced cath-oh-lep-iss-TEEM-ee-add], or University of Michigania. In spite of its unpronounceable name, it was a bona fide public entity duly authorized to create a university. Its leaders were Father Gabriel Richard, the Rev. - That some land in Detroit-originally given by Native American tribes and by the federal government in Washington-was conveyed to this new corporation for the purpose of establishing an educational institution.
One was another aging lawyer, William L. No one else seems to have thought much about it, not even the leaders of the Alumni Association. In 1927, the new, young president of the University, Clarence Cook Little, announced a grand and ambitious Ten-Year Program to raise millions for the University.
The most determined foe of 1817 was Regent Lucius Lee Hubbard of Houghton, who swung a large weight on the board. But there it was on the agenda of the regents’ first monthly meeting in the fall of 1928. But the regents took no action. “It probably makes very little difference whether the University was born in 1817 or in 1837,” Shaw wrote. Shaw acknowledged the key point for 1817-that the Michigan Supreme Court had indeed determined the University’s “corporate existence” dated to 1817.
Back came Bill Jenks to the regents’ meeting in October. “Hell’s bells,” Judge Spill sputtered when he got news of the defeat, “1837 isn’t a date! To anyone else, the Regents’ decision would have seemed the final word. In fact, it only whetted the appetite for war among the pro-1817 men. So Regent Hubbard, sick in bed over the 1928 holidays, put pen to paper to defend 1837. When he got too ill to finish, he turned his manuscript over to Wilfred Shaw for polishing and fact-checking. “Why not state the case in plain English, so that everyone can get the just meaning of the facts?” Hubbard demanded. “Were they not within their rights when they thus signalized 1837 as the beginning of a new era of higher education for Michigan, and commemorated that date on the seal of the newly born ‘University’?
In a retort to Regent Hubbard in the Alumnus, Schurtz laid out the argument like a first-class litigator in front of a jury. He was simpler and clearer than Frank Culver had ever been. “The advocates of 1837 would blot out the first twenty years of the history of the University,” Schurtz wrote. “Why? We do not know.
Then Wilfred Shaw took a leave of absence from the Alumnus to do a job for the Carnegie Foundation. “The advocates of 1837 would blot out the first twenty years of the history of the University. Why? We do not know.
On May 24, 1929, the regents convened. On the matter of the seal, there was apparently only a little discussion. It was noted that William Warner Bishop, librarian of the University, had passed along one of a number of documents proving the founding had occurred in Detroit in 1817. “U of M Plans Centennial and It’s Just 20 Years Late,” headlined the Detroit News. “Early in the day [U-M] was a sprightly adult of something like 90 years of age,” the writer said. “But by nightfall the ravages of inflicted age had taken their toll and it was a doddering old man of something around one hundred and twelve…Those of Michigan’s alumni who love to celebrate have been dealt a rather brutal blow. Whereas: much of the credit of securing official recognition of the correct date of the Founding of the University belongs to Frank H. Culver…who, by his determination, persistence, hard work, wide acquaintance and voluminous correspondence, has for years carried on a vigorous fight for consideration and settlement of this question, therefore, be it resolved that this Club tenders to Mr.
In the summer of 1937, shortly after the event titled “The Celebration of the Centennial of the Establishment of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor,” Shaw put together a published booklet of the proceedings. At that meeting, Shaw noted, “activities began out of which emerged the institution of the present. “It was not to be taken, however, as a celebration of the actual founding of the University.
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