Protecting Michigan State's Material Culture
During this semester, I have been working through some of the decorated ceramics that were found in the Gunson assemblage (Find more information about the excavation here). Working toward the goal of generating a better picture of what types of vessels were found and the …
Ketchup can be found in 97% of American kitchens. Think about that for a moment, 97%! Some people can’t imagine eating a French fry, hot dog, or hamburger without it. The only condiment/sauce used more here on campus is most likely ranch dressing (I was …
Over the summer, we found some yellow-green bumpy glass within the Gunson collection. It was a unique color that didn’t fit with the normal range of aqua, clear, green and brown glass, and appeared to be in a form that was nicer- like a vase or drinking glass. It also had an odd raised pattern that we hadn’t seen before.
That’s when we pulled out the black light and discovered it glowed! We had found our first sample of Uranium Glass on campus.
Uranium glass, also known as vaseline glass due to its color, is glass that has uranium added to the mixture during the molten period when color is added. The amount of uranium can range from 2-20%, and can vary in color from yellow to yellow green or even avocado coloring. Due to the presence of uranium oxide in the glass, the glass will glow a bright green color when put under a black light- this is the best way to identify it. While uranium is radioactive, it isn’t actually bad to drink or enjoy food in the glassware that uses this. The amounts that leach out of the glass is so tiny, that it won’t have an effect on you.
Vaseline glass became popular during the mid-19th century, and was at its height of popularity from the 1880s to 1920s. Uranium oxide was first used as a coloring agent in the 1830s, and spread throughout Europe during the 1840s. It was produced by a variety of companies, who specialized in different tones of greens and yellows. Each company had unique names for their specific color of uranium glass, including citron, jasmine, golden green, mustard, Florentine and more. During the Depression, iron oxide was added to the glass to increase its green glow- although antique collecting purists argue that this shouldn’t be included in true uranium glass collections. The glass was formed into a variety of decorative and practical dinnerware pieces including cups, bowls, plates, vases, figurines, paperweights and more.
In 1943, production of vaseline glass was stopped due to the implementation of heavy regulations on the use of uranium. It wasn’t until 1958 that uranium was deregulated and the production of vaseline glass resumed, this time using depleted uranium instead. While still radioactive, depleted uranium only emits alpha particles–which have a difficult time penetrating human skin–and thus is not considered a substantial health risk unless ingested. For this reason, glass produced with depleted uranium is now rarely used to create dinnerware.
At the Gunson/Admin site, our uranium glass included a piece of golden green hobnail glass. Hobnail glass is a specific pattern of decoration where bumps of glass are added to the exterior or interior of the glass to produce a raised pattern. While these were most popular during the 1940s and 1950s, they came into production during the Victorian period. Our uranium glass is a unique piece of history, and is just plain cool. The glowing glass is something that today we may view as strange- who would ever want to drink out of a glass colored with a radioactive material- but in the past was a unique collectible. You can still find examples of uranium glass today in antique shops, but buyer beware. There are fake vaseline glass products that have the neon green coloring but do not glow under a black light. Unless it glows, it isn’t real uranium glass!
Author: Katy Meyers Emery
Updated 12/16/2022 (Akey): Removed wording that implied depleted uranium was non-radioactive. Added new source (EPA link).
References
Antique Vaseline Glass. Collector’s Weekly. http://www.collectorsweekly.com/glassware/vaseline-glass
These People Love to Collect Radioactive Glass. Are They Nuts? Collector’s Weekly. http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/these-people-love-to-collect-radioactive-glass/
Uranium Glass. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass
My project involves examining where, what company, and the timeframe the different marker’s mark, collecting from the excavation from the Admin/Gunson site, came from. As we wrapped up with Unit A on Monday, I finished taking and collecting pictures of the marker’s mark found from …
One of the major tasks for the semester (in reality probably the entire school year) is to sort, catalog, and accession the artifacts from the Summer 2015 field school. The five units produced an astounding volume of artifacts. We began the field season under the …
One of the bigger question surrounding the Hannah Admin building assemblage is, “Where in this area could these high quality ceramics have come from?”. They’re nicer than what would have been found in typical student areas, the site is south of faculty row, and they date to a wide time span.
As Kate mentioned in her last blog, during our research we noticed a building in the general area of the current Hannah Admin building that had potential as the ceramics contributor. On maps prior to 1941, campus building no. 63 is labeled as Greenhouse/ Gunson Residence.
However, following Dr. Gunson’s death in 1940, the building changes names to the Anna E. Bayha Home Management House (sometimes also being labeled just Bayha house, or home economics house). According to the August 28, 1941 Board of Trustees Notes it was Dean Dye, of the College of Human Ecology, that proposed to convert the Gunson residence into another home management practice house.
The home management practice houses were designed to give women enrolled in home management courses practical experience with their new skills. The management house system was started in 1916, and as of 1943 there were four of these houses on campus. The original three were in faculty row (#6 Ellen Henrietta Richards home, #5 Maude Gilchrist home, #4 Ethel Gladys Webb home), and the Bayha house was the newest addition.
Each home had an advisor, and seven to eight students who were responsible for taking care of the household. During their eight week stay in the house, the girls were tasked with living on three different levels of food costs; 30 cents per person per day, 50 cents, and lastly 75 cents. The program was designed to give students experience in nutrition, meal planning, cooking, and the daily maintenance of a house. (Source: News Paper Article “Here’s Food Budget of 30 Cents a Day” by Bernice Carlson, State Journal Women’s Writer” no date)
Although maps and financial statements provided important information, Kate and I set off to try to find images of the inside of the home, with the hope that perhaps there were some pictures of the ceramics/dishes used by the women.
Thankfully, we were in luck! The archives have a collection of Home Management House scrapbooks, ranging from 1928 to 1971.
We were even further rewarded when we located the scrapbooks specifically associated with the Bayha Home. Although we have not been able to match specific pieces from the assemblage to the photos, they do show a wide variety of dish wear in use within the home.
Later maps and a President’s report from August 7, 1947 mention that the Bayha house was modified to be used as a nursery school. This change occurred because of the construction of Polacci Hall. This building combined all four of the home management houses into units within a single building. The house remained a nursery until it was razed in late 1953-early 1954 to make room for the new library.
Author: Lisa Bright
During archaeological excavations, some of the most ubiquitous artifacts unearthed are ceramic sherds that were once part of bowls, plates, vases, or other decorative pieces. It is relatively easy to appreciate the skills and techniques that go into the creation of meticulously crafted ceramic vessels. …
When COVID hit our campus, CAP was forced to rethink how we perform our community outreach. We needed new, innovative ways to engage and educate the public without requiring them to meet in large groups. One of the ways we did this was to transition …
The presence of international students on campus began early in MSU’s history. Not even two decades after MSU’s founding, four international students were enrolled for the fall semester in 1873. Two of these students were from Japan, one from Holland, and one from Canada [1]. Since then, MSU has made a strong commitment to fostering international relationships with students from around the world. As of the Fall 2019 semester a total of 5,961 students from 129 different countries were enrolled at MSU. Additionally, international scholars and their dependent family members put the international student presence on campus at over 9,000 from 140 countries [2]. Compared to the rest of the nation’s international student population, MSU ranked 11th for colleges with the most international students [3].
Below are gradient maps of the geographic origins of international students at MSU in the fall of 2019. The first map includes all the countries and US territories represented at MSU while the second map excludes China so as to show the differences from other nations better. Zoom in and hover over or click on a country to see the the number of students from that state enrolled at MSU. The lighter the color (the more yellow), the fewer the students are from that country while the darker the color (the more orange and red), the more students are from that country. Nations represented as just the satellite image indicates that no student from that country was enrolled at MSU in 2019 (excluding the US).
Although going to another country to get an education can be fun and enriching, it is no doubt stressful. Adjusting to your host country’s cultural norms (not to mention the cultural norms of US college students which is a microcosm of distinct customs!) while also trying to not lose those of your home country can be a tough negotiation of personal identities. With the added stress of a language barrier in some cases, it should be no surprise that there are numerous student groups on campus that cater to international students as a whole as well as groups focused on specific countries or cultures. At MSU, the Office for International Students and Scholars (OISS) is an entity that helps students from foreign countries in adjusting and getting involved at MSU, making their time here as enjoyable and fulfilling as possible.
While international students make up to 10% of the overall student population today, how can we as archaeologists unearth evidence of their lives and experiences on campus since the first international students began taking classes? The overwhelming majority of artifacts discovered by CAP on MSU’s campus were made for Western consumers. This means that when international students arrived and began living on campus, and depending on their country of origin, they may have begun using products and amenities that were unfamiliar to them.
MSU Institution Ware by MSU Campus Archaeology Program on Sketchfab
An example of this is through institutional wares – a type of ceramic that was mass produced for repeated use at institutions; i.e. plates, bowls, and cups at campus dining halls. MSU-specific institutional wares have been found during CAP excavations, particularly in 2015 at the Gunson site and at the recent Service Road dump. A thick improved white stoneware plate with colorless glaze and three thin green stripes show that this sturdy plate was designed or purchased specifically for MSU and intended for repeated use. This plate was made by the Onondaga Pottery Company (a company known for producing institutional wares) out of Syracuse, NY around 1914. While this connection of a mass-produced plate to international student experiences may on the surface appear extraneous, it can act as a symbol for the pressures on international students to assimilate to American culture. In nineteenth and early-twentieth century America, ideas of proper citizenship were linked to, among other things, buying the proper products and eating ‘American’ foods. [4] (For more information on institutional wares at MSU, see Jeff Painter’s blog on the subject linked here.)
Upon this mostly undecorated plate would have been foods that the university provided for all students, regardless of their country of origin. Food is one of the strongest cultural ties that people have. By repeatedly consuming foods on these plates that international students were not used to, they were likely in conflict by eating American (or even Midwestern) foods as a way to fit in while also desiring the foods of their home culture. This is even discussed in a 1962 brochure from MSU titled “Housing Information For Foreign Students”:
“Foreign students will find quite a challenge in adapting themselves to American food and their way of eating. The residence halls, as much as possible, attempt to provide a reasonable variety of foods that should generally fill the needs of all individuals regardless of diet restrictions due to religious or national customs”. [5]
The point of on-campus dining was to provide students with what they needed, rather than what they may have necessarily wanted. This was likely a jarring culinary experience that would have made international students desirous of their own culture’s cuisine as the brochure later states:
“One major difference in the food is that Americans use lesser amounts of spices in their cooking. American food seems very bland to many foreign students”. [5]
The additional factor of “bland” American food would not have made the pressures towards assimilating into American culture any easier or even desirable! Today, MSU dining halls serve myriad types of food from many countries and cultures. Additionally, the large, year-round international student population in East Lansing meant that restaurants serving international cuisines also became common. The focus of the university now appears to be on inclusion and celebration of diversity, rather than assimilation. International students now have dining options that more closely resemble their home countries and can be in clubs and groups that cater to their cultural desires while also enjoying “American” amenities, giving them a richer and more rounded experience at MSU.
While on the surface, artifacts such as the green-striped MSU institutional ware plate may seem like just a dining hall plate, they represent the notion that people from vastly different backgrounds, countries, cultures, religions, etc. are all here at MSU to gain new experiences. Everyone eats. Cultural exchanges between students undoubtedly happen over the dining hall tables. It is important to remember that international students on campus may be “out of their element” compared to those born in the US. Understanding their point of view and having a dialogue about each other’s cultures (perhaps during a meal when the pandemic abates) will create greater respect and an overall more enjoyable experience for everyone.
References:
[1] https://inclusion.msu.edu/about/our-inclusive-heritage-timeline.php
[2] MSU Office of the Registrar – Geographical Source of Students – Foreign Countries (https://reg.msu.edu/roinfo/ReportView.aspx?Report=UE-GEOForeign)
[3] https://www.bestcolleges.com/features/most-international-students/
[4] Camp, Stacey L., 2013, The Archaeology of Citizenship. University of Florida Press, Tallahassee, FL
[5] Housing Information For Foreign Students. Brochure, 1962. Courtesy of MSU Archives.
Introducing our latest project: The Archaeology of MSU in 20 Artifacts. Below you can view a 3D virtual exhibit where you can uncover some lesser known tidbits from MSU’s history…one artifact at a time! Each week we will share a 3D model of – and …
