as Dean of the Department at the time of his
resignation in 1886. The Fletcher Professorship has been held since 1897
by Judge Victor H. Lane, '74_e_, '78_l_. A Tappan Professorship was
established in 1879, an honor acknowledged with great pleasure by the
first President, then living in Switzerland, and was held for four years
by the Hon. Alpheus Felch, Bowdoin, '27, one of the most distinguished
citizens of the State, who had served as United States Senator,
Governor, and Regent. The Professorship passed eventually to Henry Wade
Rogers, '74, afterward Dean of the Yale Law School, and in 1903 to Henry
M. Bates, '90. Mr. Walker resigned in 1876 and Judge Cooley in 1884,
though the latter continued to give lectures on special subjects and
remained on the Faculty as Professor of American History and
Constitutional Law. Judge Campbell became the first Dean of the
Department but resigned in 1871, when he was succeeded by Judge Cooley.
After the latter gave up his active duties Charles A. Kent became Dean,
to be followed by Henry Wade Rogers, '74, in 1885; Jerome C. Knowlton,
'75, in 1890; and Harry Burns Hutchins, '71, in 1895. The present Dean,
Henry M. Bates, '90, succeeded Dr. Hutchins when he was elected to the
Presidency of the University in 1910.

The Law Library, which contains over 40,000 volumes, is the largest of
the departmental collections. In addition to Judge Fletcher's early gift
of eight hundred volumes, two other considerable gifts have added to its
resources, the Buhl Collection, presented by Mr. C.H. Buhl of Detroit in
1885, with a fund of $10,000 for additions to it, and the library
presented by Judge S.T. Douglas of Detroit in 1898. The Library now
occupies a large room at the south end of the second floor of the
present Law Building.

The first courses of the Law School were given in the old chapel in the
North Wing, or Mason Hall, where the Law Library was installed with the
General Library above. This proved a most unsatisfactory arrangement
for the growing school and in 1863 a new Law Building was dedicated on
the northwest corner of the Campus. This building in turn quickly became
inadequate for the needs of the still rapidly expanding department. Some
relief was given in 1872 by using the Chapel in the new University Hall,
and again in 1882, when the University Library which had been housed up
to this time in the Law Building was moved to its new quarters. The Law
Building was remodeled and enlarg