Northern Michigan University (or NMU for short) is a four-year college public university established in 1899 and located in Marquette, in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. With a population of nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Northern Michigan University is the Upper Peninsula's largest university.

Northern Michigan University was established in 1899 by the Michigan Legislature as Northern State Normal School with the original purpose of providing teacher preparation programs in Michigan's then-wild and sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. When it opened its doors in 1899, NMU enrolled thirty-two students who were taught by six faculty members utilizing rented rooms in Marquette City Hall. The original 20-acre (81,000 m²) campus-site at the corner of Presque Isle and Kaye Avenues was on land donated by local businessman and philanthropist John M. Longyear, whose namesake academic building, Longyear Hall, opened its doors to students in 1900.

Throughout the school's first half-century, education and teacher training was the primary focus of the small regional school. During this time, the school built the native sandstone buildings Kaye and Peter White Halls, as well as a manual training school adjacent to the campus buildings, J.D. Pierce School. Modest increases in enrollment resulted in several name changes throughout the years:

The University of Michigan (commonly referred to as Michigan, U-M, UMich, or U of M) is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan. It is one of the original eight Public Ivy universities and is one of the founding members of the Association of American Universities. U-M also has satellite campuses in Flint and Dearborn.

The university was founded in 1817 in Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, about 20 years before the Michigan Territory officially became a state. What would become the university moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 onto 40 acres (16 ha) of what is now known as Central Campus. Since its establishment in Ann Arbor, the university has physically expanded to include more than 584 major buildings with a combined area of more than 31 million gross square feet (712 acres or 2.38 km²), and transformed its academic program from a strictly classical curriculum to one that includes science and research. U-M was the site of much student activism in the 1960s. When presidential candidate John F. Kennedy visited the University on October 14, 1960, he gave an impromptu speech on the steps of the Michigan Union that led to a University of Michigan student movement which contributed to the establishment of the Peace Corps. The University was also a focal point in the controversy over affirmative action within higher education admissions.

Northern Michigan, also known as Northern Lower Michigan (known colloquially to residents of more southerly parts of the state and summer residents from cities such as Chicago as "up north"), is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan. A popular tourist destination, it is home to several small- to medium-sized cities, extensive state and national forests, lakes and rivers, and a large portion of Great Lakes shoreline. The region has a significant seasonal population much like other regions that depend on tourism as their main industry. Northern Lower Michigan is distinct from the more northerly Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale, which, obviously, are also located in "northern" Michigan.

The southern boundary of the region is not precisely defined. Some residents in the southern part of the state consider its southern limit to be just north of Flint and Grand Rapids, but more northern residents restrict it to the area north of Mount Pleasant: the "fingers" of the mitten-like shape of the Lower Peninsula. The 45th parallel runs across Northern Michigan. Signs in the Lower Peninsula that mark that line are at Mission Point Light. (just north of Traverse City), Suttons Bay, Cairn Highway in Kewadin,Gaylord, and Alpena. These are five of 29 places in the U.S.A. where such signs or monuments are known to exist. One other such sign is in Menominee, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. People from Northern Michigan generally use the term "down south" or (less commonly) "downstate" to refer to people and places south of the region.

Michigan (ⁱ/ˈmɪʃɨɡən/) is a state located in the Great Lakes region of the Midwestern United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". Michigan is the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and the largest city is Detroit. Michigan was admitted into the Union on January 26, 1837 as the 26th state.

Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. Michigan is one of the leading U.S. states for recreational boating. The state has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. A person in the state is never more than six miles (9.7 km) from a natural water source or more than 85 miles (137 km) from a Great Lakes shoreline. It is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River.

Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is often noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as "the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km) channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The Upper Peninsula is economically important due to its status as a tourist destination. There is also a variety of natural resources to be found there, including a sizable amount of iron ore.