The University of Michigan Law School Photograph and Artwork Collection contains portraits of faculty, alumni, and notable legal figures as well as several inventories of the art, and documentation requesting portraits, risk management measures, and decisions to remove much of the artwork.
The records are arranged into four series: Documentation, Individual Photographs and Portraits, Other Artwork and Documents, and Oil Paintings.
For many years, the University of Michigan Law School solicited portraits of its most prominent graduates to decorate its classrooms, study areas, and public spaces with law-related themes. Through these efforts many new portraits were added to the large body of paintings and photographic portraits already displayed in the Law School. Although the Law School made several partial inventories, no comprehensive effort was made to inventory all the Law School artwork until the university received support from the Michigan Commission on Art in Public Places in 1988, at which point a detailed description of all the art was made.
In 1994, the Law School put together an updated catalog of its art, and in 1997-98, additional inventories were made for risk management and insurance purposes, but they lacked the level of detail of the 1988 inventory. In 1993-94, several administrators proposed that much of the art be removed from the Law School. The works were re-evaluated based on their condition and subject matter, and eventually most were removed from classrooms and study areas.
The framed photographs, documents, and artwork that were removed from the Law School were stored in various locations throughout the Law School. In 2008, the removed artwork was transferred to the Bentley Historical Library. For storage and preservation purposes, most images were removed from their frames with the exception of oil paintings.
