The Department of Mechanical Engineering record group is comprised of manuscript and visual materials transferred between 1995 and 2001. The materials are arranged in eight series Minutes, E-Mail to Faculty, Office Files, Contact Sheets, Photographs, Panoramic Prints and Slides, Negatives, and Website. The manuscript material covers the periods 1922 to 1941 and 1993 to 2007 while the visual materials are mainly from the time period 1985-2000. The earlier accessions include a series of faculty minutes covering the period from 1922 to 1941 and 1993 to 1999. The earlier accessions also include a small group of electronic mail correspondence (printout) that was sent from the central departmental office to the departmental faculty from 1993 to 1996. Subsequent accessions include a small selection of office files alphabetically arranged and additional faculty minutes.
Visual materials, documenting departmental activities ca. 1985-2000, form the bulk of the record group. The departmental website, as of June 2001, also forms a part of this record group. The visual materials in the record group include color and black and white photographs, contact sheets, slides, and negatives. The visual materials are either arranged by a numerical sequence or alphabetically by topic or last name. Materials in the numerical sequence filing system include 4 x 6 prints, contact sheets, and negatives. While the materials in the numerical sequence are categorized by format, the materials in this sequence were designed to form one system. That is the 4 x 6 prints, contact sheets, and negatives reference each other.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering began in 1868 as the Mechanical Engineering program, with a mandate to instruct students in the new field of machine, power and marine engineering. Both the departments and its facilities grew steadily from 1900 to 1940. Although the department split and merged with other engineering departments over the years as new fields of engineering developed, one of the most significant shifts occurred in 1956 when the status of the Industrial Engineering section was elevated, and the department was renamed Industrial and Mechanical Engineering. Two years later Industrial Engineering split off from Mechanical Engineering altogether. Another major shift occurred in 1978 when the department merged with Applied Mechanics and became Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM). However, in 2000 the departments split again, giving the department its present name. In 1984 the department left its home of eighty years on Central Campus (in the East and West Engineering Buildings) and moved to new, modern facilities, including laboratories, offices, and classrooms, on North Campus.
A detailed history of the department through 1993, including research projects and curricula, can be found in the publication 125 Years of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Michigan in the MEAM Publications record group (University of Michigan. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. Publications).
Chairs of the Department of Mechanical Engineering
| Date |
Event |
| 1881-1904 | Mortimer E. Cooley |
| 1904-1917 | John R. Allen |
| 1917-1937 | Henry C. Anderson |
| 1937-1939 | John E. Emswiler |
| 1939 | Ransom S. Hawley (Interim) |
| 1940-1951 | Ransom S. Hawley |
| 1951-1955 | Edward T. Vincent |
| 1956-1965 | Gordon Van Wylen |
| 1965-1966 | Arthur Hansen |
| 1966-1974 | John A. Clark |
| 1974-1975 | J. Raymond Pearson (Interim) |
| 1975-1978 | J. Raymond Pearson |
| 1978-1981 | David Pratt |
| 1982-1983 | Richard Sonntag (Interim) |
| 1983-1992 | Richard Sonntag |
| 1992-1995 | Panos Y. Palambros |
| 1995 | James R. Barber (Interim) |
| 1996-1998 | Panos Y. Palambros |
| 1998-2001 | A. Galip Ulsoy |
| 2002-2007 | Dennis N. Assanis |
| 2007-2008 | Panos Y. Palambros (Interim) |
| 2008-2018 | Kon-Well Kang |
| 2018 - | Ellen M. Arruda |
Name Changes
| Date |
Event |
| 1868-1870 | Mechanical Engineering Program |
| 1870-1881 | Reabsorbed into Department of Civil Engineering |
| 1881-1956 | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| 1956-1958 | Industrial and Mechanical Engineering |
| 1958-1979 | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| 1979-2000 | Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) |
| 2000- | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
