ABOVE: Campus Martius circa 1895. LEFT: The Society’s 1899 Constitution, By-Laws and List of Members listed 92 members. The page showing the officers elected at the fourth annual meeting of the Society is pictured.
LEFT: The Society’s first president, Walter S. Russel, a civil engineer and a graduate of the University of Michigan, was the founder (along with his brother George) of the Russel Wheel and Foundry Company. In 1911, he purchased K-R-I-T Motor Car Co. Tragically Mr. Russel lived to see both his son Sydney R. and 8-year-old grandson Walter II drown in a tragic boating accident on Lake St. Clair. BELOW: A vintage advertisement for the Russel Wheel & Foundry Company, which manufactured railroad car wheels and castings. It employed about 400 people, a sizeable number in pre-assembly-line days.
ABOVE: Detroit Water Works is where the Society was formed on May 1 , 1895. This photo, from the Library of Congress, was taken at roughly that time.
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