dy and
investigation." He also aimed to gather about him a Faculty in which
every chair was filled by a man of exceptional ability and thorough
training, "not a picked up, but a picked out man," to quote Professor
Frieze in his Memorial Address on Dr. Tappan.

These are the cardinal principles which guided Michigan's first
President throughout his career in the University, and, as ideals, have
been a powerful factor in its growth since his time. More apparent to
his contemporaries were the immediate benefits of his strong
administration. He saw at once the urgent need of more funds for the
library and obtained a subscription from Ann Arbor citizens of some
$1,515, to which the Regents added $300, resulting in an increase of
1,200 volumes. From that time dates the steady and consistent growth of
the University Library. Even more pressing appeared to him the need for
an astronomical observatory. From the very day of his inauguration, he
made the raising of sufficient funds for this purpose one of his first
tasks and so effective were his efforts that the Observatory was opened
in 1855; the result of a gift of $15,000 by citizens of Detroit, to
which the University had added an appropriation of $7,000. This gave
Michigan one of the three well-equipped observatories in the country at
that time. The telescope, a thirteen-inch objective, was purchased in
this country, but other items of equipment were obtained in Berlin under
the advice of Professor Encke, the Director of the Royal Observatory,
whose assistant, Dr. Bruennow, came to America as Michigan's first
Professor of Astronomy.

It was during Dr. Tappan's administration also that the professional
departments, as they were long called, came into their own. The Medical
School had been organized since 1849, when the first building was
completed at a cost of about $9,000; but the work was only fairly under
way when he came. The new department was opened in October, 1850, with
ninety matriculates and grew with extraordinary rapidity, so that for
the first years the enrolment exceeded that of the Literary Department.
When Dr. Tappan left the University in 1863 there were 252 students in
the Medical Department and by 1866-67 their number increased to 525, the
largest enrolment in the history of the School. The creation of a Law
Department was considered at the same time the Medical Department was
organized, but lack of resources as well as any enthusiastic support
from the l