AmericaJR’s Jason Rzucidlo recently visited the University of Michigan for their Bicentennial Celebration. A new exhibit at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, curated by the Bentley Historical Library, explores the origins of the Michigan Union and the Michigan League through an architectural lens, showing how their design reflected the era’s ideas about gender, morals, and coeducation. Constructing Gender: the Origins of Michigan’s Union and League, running January January 28 – May 7, 2017, looks not only at how brothers (and U-M alumni) Irving K. and Allen Pond meticulously conceived and constructed the two clubs—one for men, one for women—but how they built ideas about gender and society into the very fabric of the Union and League themselves.
“Constructing Gender: the Origins of Michigan’s Union and League”
Visitors checking out the special exhibit
Empty Billiards Room, Michigan Union
Four young men playing pool/billiards
The Banquet Hall, Michigan Union (1915)
Early view of Michigan Union Ballroom
Sophomore Prom, Class of 1922, Michigan Union (1920)
Formal dance in Michigan Union Ballroom (1950)
KODAK Digital Still Camera
Dedication of swimming pool in Michigan Union (1926)
Michigan Union under construction (1917)
A bedroom in the Michigan Union (1910)
West and East elevations of Michigan Union (1917)
Elevation of Tower, Section of Tower, U-M League Building (1927)
Mrs. Arthur Vandenberg addresses crowd at laying of cornerstone for Michigan League (1928)
Michigan League by Wilfred B. Shaw
Proposed home of the Michigan Union (1915)
The Michigan Union by Wilfred B. Shaw
Seventh Annual Interfraternity Ball (with Ella Fitzgerald autograph)
M-Hop dance card (1943)
Class of ’39, SOPH PROM (1936)
Third Annual Engineering/Engineers Ball (1937)
Michigan Union as it stands today
For more information about the Bicentennial Celebration at the University of Michigan, visit http://bicentennial.umich.edu/
