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Records of the University of Michigan College of Engineering include histories, correspondence and topical files of deans; minutes of the executive and other committees; faculty records, including minutes of meetings and faculty biographies; miscellaneous student and alumni records; photographs, microfilm, digital files, and archived website.

The College of Engineering records date from 1860 to 2014 and measure 118.5 linear feet, 3 oversize folders, and 1,196 GB. The records document the internal activities of the College of Engineering, both administrative and academic, the role of the college as a unit of the University of Michigan, and research developments and trends over the years. Correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, financial records, and other material reflect changing research interests within the field of engineering as well as the curriculum development that has accompanied technological advances. Of particular interest are the files relating to outside work by faculty members, a question of enduring concern within the college. The records reflect the relations of the College of Engineering with private industry, especially through the documentation of funding from outside sources and the involvement of professors in outside research.

Records of astronomical observatories operated by the University of Michigan including the Detroit Observatory on the Ann Arbor campus (1855-), the Lamont-Hussey Observatory (Bloemfontein, South Africa, 1928-), the McMath-Hulbert Observatory (Portage Lake, Michigan, 1935-1979), the Portage Lake/Peach Mountain Observatory (Dexter, Michigan, 1948-. Records include correspondence files, administrative files, observation notebooks, photographs and architectural drawings.

The University of Michigan Observatory records include those of the Lamont-Hussey Observatory, the McMath-Hulbert Observatory, the Peach Mountain Observatory, the Angell Hall Laboratory, the Department of Astronomy, and records of faculty members. Documentation consists of correspondence, astronomical and meteorological observation records, financial records, reports, scrapbooks and blueprints. The collection is divided into seven series: Correspondence, Observatories, Department of Astronomy, Scrapbooks and Clippings, Observation Charts and Notebooks, Photographs, and Blueprints.

Graduate of the College of Engineering of the University of Michigan, later founder of Radio Construction Company, firm that erected various radio towers, notably the University of Michigan's Peach Mountain Radio Astronomy Observatory. Files relating to his construction business and to University of Michigan reunions; also collected materials relating to the history of Sturgis, Michigan.

The William P. Favorite collection contains material relating to reunions of the 1917 and 1920 graduating classes of the School of Engineering at the University of Michigan; records, 1941-1962, of Radio Construction Company, including material related to the construction of the University of Michigan's Peach Mountain Radio Astronomy Observatory; and collected material relating to the history of Favorite's home town of Sturgis, Michigan.