Memoirs, Letters, and Sketches from Early Campus Residents
Last semester, I finished up my Archives work for the ongoing CAP sustainability project (now to put all that information together in a coherent draft of a paper!). My last few visits to the Archives were spent going through collections donated by individuals who saved all manner of ephemera: letters, dance cards, invitations, ribbons, pictures, doodles, and more. At our first CAP meeting this semester I proposed the idea of writing biosketches of some early campus residents using these pieces and, hopefully, tying this information back into the archaeology of campus.
I have identified a few individuals from each CAP time period, starting with Charles Adolphus Jewell who left behind letters to his family about attending Michigan State College as well as descriptions of his time spent fighting with the Union Army. Letters and documents show that Jewell used his MSC training in agriculture to experiment with different farming techniques in cooperation with the college. Another student, Hubert M. Wells, donated memoirs describing college days, activities, buildings, professors, and everyday life including classes and work. Perhaps the most interesting collection I have looked through to date is that of Irma Thompson who, luckily for archivists and archaeologists, saved an incredible variety of materials. She was a talented artist who sketched the facades of campus buildings at the turn of the century and donated photographs of the wooden bridges crossing the river banks.
I look forward to learning more about these early students and residents of the East Lansing area in my attempt to link archaeological material to the historical record. Ideally, I would like to determine if any of the individuals who donated memoirs and letters were residents of Saint’s Rest as CAP has a wealth of material remains from the building. I’m in the early stages of the biosketch project, but I anticipate it will be an interesting pursuit.In addition, Nicole Geske and I will be compiling information from the Archives about Chittenden Hall. The building is set to be repurposed for graduate school space, but in its earlier forms it was both the Dairy building and the Forestry building. We’ve only started to look into the history of Chittenden, so I expect there will be more to come in future blogs!
Author: Amy Michael