Protecting Michigan State's Material Culture
By Madelyn McKinney During the hectic summer of 2020, CAP Crew had the opportunity to excavate sections of a mid-twentieth century midden uncovered by water main replacement construction along Service Road, a thoroughfare running east to west through the southern half of campus. Landfills, of …
“What were you thinking?!” I asked myself a cool day in September. I kept my eyes down toward the black tabletop to avoid making eye contact with the trowels across from me that seemed to be staring back and whispering “you’re in the wrong building!” …
Archival research is one of the backbones of archeological work, especially in historical archaeology. Not only do we conduct archival research to find more information about the people who lived at a particular site and how the site was used, but it is also a critical step that must be done before any excavation even takes place. It helps us to understand what we might find before we put a shovel into the ground, what types of buildings or material culture we might encounter, where we should focus most of our attention, and what excavation methods may be necessary.
In preparation for field work this summer, I have been looking at archival sources, especially old maps of MSU’s campus, in order to anticipate what we might find in different areas that are to be disturbed by construction. I have focused on two zones: the south bank of the Red Cedar River between Farm Lane and Bogue Street and Munn Ice Arena. These areas are to be focuses of construction in the next year or two, so we plan on conducting fieldwork at these locations in advance of construction to detect any archaeological deposits.
Overall, these areas of campus were not major areas of construction until recently. During the first few decades of the University, activity was limited to the north side of the Red Cedar River, particularly in the area now encompassed by West Circle Drive. Construction did not occur regularly south of the Red Cedar River until well after 1900 (Kuhn 1955).
In the early- to mid-1900s, the south side of the River between Farm Lane and Bogue Street was used by the Dairy Department, possibly for pasture land since no buildings existed in these areas. A bull barn and two other dairy barns were also found south of this area at what is now Shaw Lane, further indicating the use of this land by the Dairy Department (1942 MSC Farm and Experimental Plots Map). Some time between 1927 and 1941, a WKAR radio tower and transmitter building, as well as a road or sidewalk to this facility, was built near Bogue street, not too far south of the Red Cedar River (1927 Map of Campus; 1941 Map of Campus). These areas then remained largely unaltered until the buildings that currently stand in these locations were constructed.
The land around Munn Ice Arena has a more complex history. At the current location of the arena, a group of cavalry stables and a military garage were built sometime between 1927 and 1941 (1927 Map of Campus; 1941 Map of Campus). In the 1950s, as veterans returned from overseas, fields of temporary Quonset huts and pre-fabricated apartment structures were set up to the south and west of the stables in order to house the great influx of students, faculty, and military personnel (1950 Map of Campus). Eventually, the stables and temporary housing were removed, and Munn Ice Arena was constructed a few years later in 1974.
This information, while not very detailed, will help us to determine where to focus much of our field work this summer, and will also help us interpret any finds that we do make during the process.
Author: Jeff Painter
References
Kuhn, Madison
1955 Michigan State: The First Hundred Years. The Michigan State University Press, East.
MSU Archives and Historical Collections
1927 Map of MSU Campus and Buildings. http://onthebanks.msu.edu/Object/1-4-114F/map-of-msu-campus-and-buildings-1927/
1941 Michigan State College Campus Map. http://onthebanks.msu.edu/Object/1-4-1598/michigan-state-college-campus-map-1941/
1942 MSC Farm and Experimental Plots Map. http://onthebanks.msu.edu/
MSU Map Library
1950 Map of Campus. https://lib.msu.edu/branches/map/MSUJPEGs/MSC_1950_front210/
This summer, Cowles House, MSU’s oldest standing building, is due to get a facelift. As part of this remodeling, crews will remove a few trees from around and inside the building and expand the west wing. In preparation for this work, I have been researching …
Thanksgiving for university students means a couple days off from classes to reconnect with family and relax before the last three weeks of school. It also means getting to eat turkey, and feast for a day. While we don’t have any archaeological record of feasting …
This is a Campus Archaeology Intern Update by Paige
I’m sure you’ve seen us around campus at some point, with our large Campus Archaeology banner and a bunch of shovels to boot. We dig 2×2 meter test pits, and when we find an artifact, we take it from the earth, tag it, bag it, and bring it back to the lab. This semester I plan on making these artifacts available to the public online.
I’ll be using the program OMEKA in order to create an online museum exhibit, in which we’ll be able to place not only the artifacts we’ve found over the past two summers of excavation here at MSU, but to place with them some information that I’m gathering from the MSU Archives. Although you won’t be able to see the real life artifact, you’ll be able to see pictures of what we’ve found, right from the comfort of your own home (or office, or library, or wherever!)
Before I get to the part where I spend my whole life placing things in OMEKA and creating the exhibit, however, I’m spending some good quality time in the MSU Archives. (If you’ve never been, it’s definitely worth the visit, they have some awesome historical literature, and that includes a lot from campus.)
What I’ve been focusing on in my research so far has been The Eagle, a “newspaper” (they’re more like clippings) from a year and a half or so of our Campus’ history, starting in February of 1892. The Eagle was edited and published by Roscoe Kedzie, a 10 year old boy living on campus. Through reading these clippings, I’ve been able to find some that directly relate to the artifacts we’ve found over this past summer, as well as the summer before.
“The North Part of the Greenhouse is being glazed, 10 painters are at work. About 20 painters are at work on the college grounds.” –The Eagle, August 5, 1982.
Brick. Did we find bricks this summer or what? But not only did we find brick, we found some glazed brick (it has a completely different texture, color, and the glazes even come in different colors!) This was the first quote I found relevant to an artifact, and it almost passed me by until I realized when they say “painting” they mean glaze, not acrylic or oil paint. It felt really good finding substance to the artifacts you found in the ground.
By reading about how important the painting of these building were at the time, it made me feel like what I was doing as an archaeologist had even more worth than just finding surprises buried beneath my feet; I felt like all of it had a greater purpose, and that I was reviving the past.
A very interesting thing we were able to excavate this summer were locks of hair. Since this was one of the last things we were expecting, finding it came as a real shock. One more thing that came as a shock (but more of a jolt of awareness) was when reading through the Eagle I found a quote saying “Jackson the Lansing Barber has a chair in room 75 Wells Hall, is at the college every Friday afternoon and evening to do work in his line.”
Although I’m hoping to find more on the topic of where barber shops were (I’ve seen a lot of advertisements for a barber in Lansing) this was the first I found that said we even cut hair on campus, directly tying in with what we had found. Here’s to hoping!
So far, researching at the archives for my particular project has been not unlike digging a test pit: you don’t know what you’re going to find until you start digging, but once you get into it, you find that you’re learning a whole lot more than just what it takes to find an artifact, or a quote. This summer as I dug, I found ants, green worms, hornets, and a very stubborn and friendly bee, just as in the archives I’ve found out much more about the people in the East Lansing area, their travels, their trials, and their doings. Not all of it is relevant to what my project is, but all of it is relevant to how it will shape my view of things.
Looking forward to updating you again soon! After all, there’s a lot more to the archives than just The Eagle, and I’m planning on finding it.