A poignant scene draws to a close at U-M's Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum as an 80-year-old American agave blooms for the first -- and last -- time in its majestic life. This American agave arrived at U-M in 1934, the same year a University task force declared the arboretum would "become a haven of quiet one hundred years from now when our rich native flora will have become a thing of the past in most places." (Images courtesy of Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum unless otherwise noted.)

In 1913 the University of Michigan hired its first staff photographer, 1897 alumnus George Robert Swain. He went on to complete a graduate degree in 1914. Thanks to Swain's comprehensive coverage of campus, we have a vivid visual record of our shared history.

The Nickels Arcade has beckoned to Michigan students, strollers, and shoppers for nearly a century. At its birth in 1915, it was the latest thing in retail — a collection of small shops offering premium goods to well-heeled customers. (Text by James Tobin.)

The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography, housed at the William L. Clements Library, offers virtually every photographic format used in the 19th and early 20th centuries: daguerreotypes, tintypes, stereographs, and more. The captions that accompany these select images were sourced from Tinder’s Directory of Early Michigan Photographers. Read more about this fascinating collection.

A special sanctuary inside Nichols Arboretum hangs on despite the spoilage wrought by human encroachment.

In honor of commencement season, Michigan Today celebrates the collective joy shared by every U-M graduate who's ever donned the cap and gown to mark this life-changing milestone.

As the academic year winds down Michigan Today celebrates some of the student-athletes who delivered so much excitement to sports fans, captured in action by the team at Michigan Photography. Congrats to all of our Wolverines!

What's it like to be an eyewitness to history? Ask Jay Cassidy. As a photographer for the Michigan Daily from 1967-70 he was often no more than a brick's throw away from the action during the most tumultuous three-year period in recent American history. Cassidy now lives in Los Angeles and is an award-winning film editor who has worked on such motion pictures as "An Inconvenient Truth," "Into the Wild," and most recently, "American Hustle."