Hi! My name is Jerielle and I’m a first year CAP fellow, working on my PhD in forensic anthropology. I have an undergraduate degree in biology and a masters degree in forensic anthropology. Unlike many other CAP fellows, my interests lean more towards (human) skeletal …
Hi, my name is Katie Simonson and I am one of the students taking part in the 2024 field school, where we are working on the site of the original observatory here on MSU’s campus. Part of the foundations were found earlier in May of …
This academic year has allowed me to explore several digital methods I had little to no knowledge about. This is partially due to my teaching position at MSU in the Lab for the Education and Advancement in Digital Research (LEADR). While in this position, I was a LEADR TA for Dr. Gillian Macdonald’s ISS 325: War and Revolution course. The topics covered in the course were international security and borderlessness. One of the class projects involved creating a story map encompassing these concepts.
You may be asking, what is a story map? A story map is a method that utilizes time, space, and media to tell a story and showcase research. As a public-facing tool, this method is a great way to get ideas across to your audience.
The tricky thing was that, while I understood the concepts behind story maps and why they are an important tool for disseminating research, I did not know how to make a story map myself. This meant that I needed to create one so that I understood the process and could help students work through any potential hiccups or roadblocks that they would encounter. But I was facing my own mental roadblock in that I had no idea what to make a story map about! So, after discussing potential ideas with Ben, our Campus Archaeologist, we thought that making a CAP-themed story map would be a great CAP project.
My project is not the first CAP story map (for example, if you’re interested in a story map about past campus cuisine, you can find that here), so I was able to scroll through past projects and learn more about what had already been presented by CAP Fellows. For the ISS course, I created a story map focusing on significant excavations conducted by MSU’s Campus Archaeology Program. Due to the substantial volume of archaeological fieldwork CAP has performed, and the constant turnover of Campus Archaeology fellows, the function of this storymap was meant to be two-fold: 1) create a public-facing description of some of CAP’s
Like many CAP Fellows before me, I utilized Knightlab StoryMapJS to create my project. Knightlab is an open-source project created and hosted by Northwestern University, which you can learn more about here. This particular tool has a lot of published instructions and how-to’s, making the tool more accessible for people to learn.
The editing tab of the story map that I created to learn the process for the ISS 325 course.
While I enjoyed this project, much of the information has been presented by a previous CAP Fellow (you can visit that story map here). We will also be working to update the existing project with some of the excavations we’ve done since the map was made. With that skillset in had, the real work can begin!
The story map that I am creating will be called “To MSU and Beyond: How our campus fits in the world.” I will be exploring where MSU artifacts come from, and when they could have made their way to our campus. Most of the artifacts come from around the United States, but there have been a few international finds as well. When working with Knightlab StoryMapJS in particular, each new slide will move to a new space on the map; to the right side, there will be a panel with a picture and information about the artifact(s) that came from the area pinpointed on the map. The goal is for this story map to be utilized by CAP in the future to show the general public how we are connected to other states and other countries, and when those connections were occurring.
Stay tuned to see the final product launch in a few months!
This past summer has been one of the busiest, if not the busiest, summers of my time as director of the MSU Campus Archaeology Program. While we did not have a field school as we generally run them every other year, a remarkable discovery was …
Holly Long I love tea; I drink it every single day. It is warm, hydrating, and is known for healing properties. But the tea leaves most drink today are imported and are not indigenous to North America and are rarely grown here. Tea leaves, not …
Construction along Service Road in 2020 found a mid-20th-century midden. The artifacts found were associated with the history of temporary post-World War II student housing on Michigan State’s campus. After the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, or the GI Bill, became law, college enrollment increased in the United States (Dressel 1987). This required more housing on campus, especially for married students, many of whom had families (Offices of Board of Trustees and President 1944).
During the summer of 2021, I worked on the Campus Archaeology summer crew. On rainy days, we worked in the lab, cleaning and cataloging materials from Service Road. While cataloging, we noticed a lot of underglaze, decal-decorated institutional-ware ceramics with similar patterns. By the end of the summer, we identified four distinct decorative patterns, which we named MSU Green Band, Esquire, Mobile, and Cross Stitch. These would have been used in dining halls, and their decorative styles allowed us to learn more about the places on campus where these ceramics would have been used. Additionally, we were able to find distinct dates for the ceramics based on the maker’s marks and date codes, when present. Date codes allow for a level of granularity in our analyses that is rare with other kinds of artifacts, providing a means to trace shifting patterns of institutional requisition.
Ceramic plate with the Shenango China Company maker’s mark. The date code is indicated by the red arrow.
MSU Green Band
Plate with MSU Green Band design with the Michigan State University logo.Bowl with MSU Green Band design with the Michigan State College logo.Creamer with MSU Green Band design.
The MSU Green Band design is named for the single green line just below the rim. Additionally, on some vessels the institution’s seal is located just below the green band. This pattern was used on dining hall dishes for much of the 20th century. Based on our preliminary analyses, it appears this design may have been gradually replaced by the Esquire pattern.
Two versions of the MSU Green Band design are pictured. As Michigan State shifted from College to University in 1955; the MSU Green Band design shifted as well, which can be seen reflected in the two distinct seals pictured in the examples provided above. MSU seems to have ordered this design from multiple companies, and the examples in the Service Road collection were produced by either the Shenango China Company or the Mayer China Company. MSU Green Brand was the most enduring ceramic style in the Service Road collection, with maker’s marks indicating a date range of 1950 to 1963. The MSU Green Band design is the most represented of the four ceramic types, comprising the majority of ceramics recovered from the site.
Esquire
Mug with a broken handle, the Esquire design runs below the rim.
A second decorative pattern identified in the Service Road collection has been named ‘MSU Esquire’. The Esquire pattern takes its name from a similar Shenango China design called “Esquire.” Relative to the original Shenango design, the vessels recovered from the Service Road landfill had rectangular spiral designs rather than squares, and the laurels extend along longer stretches of the design (Replacements 2021). It seems likely that MSU commissioned a distinct version of the Esquire pattern for the university, though we have not been able to locate records to corroborate this. Our preliminary analyses suggest this design may have gradually replaced the MSU Green Band design.
Mobile
Cup with the Mobile design running from rim to the center of the body.
The Mobile design consists of a fading grey band along the rim and a singular black and grey baby “mobile” motif that then extends from the rim to the larger undecorated portion of the vessel. The Shenango China Company created these ceramics, and the dates for this vessel range from 1951 to 1961. This pattern was created specifically for MSU’s new Kellogg Center for Continuing Education (Pratt 2003:116).
Cross Stitch
Cup with the Cross-Stitch design running below the rim.
The last design found was Cross Stitch (Arthus 1955). The pattern consists of squares arranged in a floral motif, resembling traditional cross-stitching patterns. The stems and leaves are green, with blue and red alternating flowers; these designs run below the rim. The Cross Stitch design had Shenango and Mayer China maker’s marks. Compared to other designs discussed here, we recovered substantially fewer examples of the cross-stitch pattern. The few finely-dateable examples of this pattern in the Service Road collection were produced between 1958 and 1959, though we know from the archival photo below that use of this pattern at the university extends back to at least 1948.
Women being served on Cross-Stitch design ceramics, which are circled in red. Dated January 15th, 1948. Photo courtesy: MSU Archives and Historical Collections.
This archival photograph of dining service at Landon Hall features this pattern, suggesting that it was used in women’s dining halls alongside other patterns like the MSU Green Band (also pictured). Given this photographic evidence and gendered imagery incorporated into the design, this pattern may have been exclusive to women’s dining halls (Michigan State University 1960; UAHC 2021).
Final thoughts
The ceramics found in the Service Road midden were used in several distinct areas of campus, ranging from dining halls to the Kellogg Center. The abundance of complete and near-complete dishes in the Service Road collection allowed us to begin serializing ceramics used on campus in the mid-twentieth century. Being able to identify different ceramic designs utilized across MSU’s campus supports future CAP research efforts, as we now have a better sense of when and where on campus they were utilized.
References
Arthus, Gerard (1930) Mayer China: Illustrated Book of Decorations, No. 10. Mayer China Company, Beaver Falls, PA.
Dressel, Paul (1987). College to University: The Hannah Years at Michigan State, 1935-1969. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI.
Michigan State University (1960) “The Helot: Student Handbook”, Michigan State University Publications, East Lansing, Michigan. Available online, https://onthebanks.msu.edu/Object/162-565-2184/student-handbook-1960/, accessed December 23, 2021.
Offices of Board of Trustees and President (1944) Meeting Minutes, December 21, 1944. UA 1. University Archives and Historical Collections, East Lansing, Michigan.
Pratt, Michael E. 2003. Mid-Century Modern Dinnerware: A Pictorial Guide: Red Wing to Winfield. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub.
As we near the end of the semester, I want to reflect on one of my favorite experiences of fall 2022: the Midwest Historical Archaeology Conference! This year’s conference was organized by: Dr. Michael S. Nassaney, Professor Emeritus of Western Michigan University; our own Director …
While cataloguing artifacts from Service Road, we stumbled across an intriguing piece of a milk glass jar featuring an applied color label with bright red and blue hues. I say it was intriguing because many of the artifacts we have left from Service Road are …
This past summer, the Campus Archaeology program had the opportunity to offer a field school to archaeology students from MSU and across the state—our first field school since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Directly taking part in ongoing CAP research into life in the mid-century MSU campus, 18 students spent five weeks gaining exposure to a variety of archaeological research techniques including pedestrian survey, shovel-testing, unit excavation, archival research and laboratory work. This blogpost recounts the activities of the field school and provides a brief summary of the results of the fieldwork and research projects undertaken by our students.
Choosing the Research Area
The on-campus component of this year’s field school focused on Cherry Lane Park, an open space on the western edge of campus slated for development of a athletics facility. The Campus Archaeology Program’s interest in this area of campus was two-fold. On one hand, an upcoming construction project in this area of campus prompted CAP to assess what archaeological materials might be disturbed by future development. Secondly, this area of campus fit into CAP’s emergent research interest in the material culture of campus in the mid-twentieth century and postwar era—a period of rapid change for the institution.
Specifically, MSU’s post-war era was marked by rapidly changing demographics—with increasing numbers of women students, greater numbers of children living in campus residences—and concurrent leaps in enrollment and programming as the institution moved from a relatively specialized agricultural college to the university we know today. Many of these changes can be at least partially attributed to the impact of the G.I. Bill, which provided financial support to returning veterans and their families enrolled in higher education.
In the years following the end of World War Two, campus infrastructure was dramatically expanded to accommodate the influx of veteran students, including a massive ‘temporary housing area’—a patchwork of trailers, pre-furbished structures, and barracks-style apartments—stretching across much of west campus. As many students came to the college with families, this era also marked the beginning of substantial campus investment in family-student housing options that would later become permanent in spaces like Spartan Village and University Village over the coming decades.
An aerial photograph of the temporary housing area taken shortly after residential units were installed, 1946. Photo faces roughly south, center right of frame features the intersection of Harrison Road and Shaw Lane. Image Courtesy of the MSU Archives and Historical Collections
Fieldwork at Cherry Lane Park
Today, a substantial part of this former temporary housing area for veteran students and their families overlaps with Cherry Lane Park, including barrack’s style family apartments and the ‘Faculty Bricks’. CAP’s selection of this area as the site of our 2022 field school thus sought to assess whether deposits from this era would be impacted by upcoming construction and to recover material culture related to this transitional moment in the development of Michigan State University.
TA Reid Ellefson-Frank prepares students to perform a pedestrian survey of Cherry Lane Park.
The summer’s fieldwork began with a pedestrian survey across Cherry Lane Park, through which students learned to systematically comb through the campus landscape looking for surface artifacts and landform features associated with the temporary housing area. While artifacts that could be confidently dated to this period were few and far between, student’s attention to landforms and vegetative changes allowed us to identify the location of structural footprints and former road grades associated with mid-century student and faculty residences, and in turn improved our geo-referencing of historical imagery. This exercise also provided a chance to students to familiarize themselves with the spatiality of temporary housing area and—combined with historical aerial photography and maps—orient themselves within the site.
Students Izzy Wickle, Celeste Adaway, and Kinsey Skjold shovel-testing in the field.
Following the pedestrian survey, students participated in shovel-testing in a few strategically chosen areas of Cherry Lane Park believed to have been minimally disturbed since their usage as part of the temporary housing area. Despite the importance of within the world of professional archaeology, it is rarely emphasized in field school settings in favor of a focus on unit excavations. Given that we had no knowledge of how intact artifact deposits and features from the temporary housing area would be, this was a necessary step in research but–importantly–also provided us the means to train students in an important field method they would encounter regularly if they choose to pursue archaeology.
Students Stephen Bush and Alex Withey record strata after digging a shovel-test.
While some material culture from the era we were interested in investigating was recovered, the results of our shovel-testing efforts largely indicated a dirth of intact deposits related to the temporary housing area within the tested areas. Though not particularly exciting results, students were thus exposed to one of the inconvenient realities of fieldwork— archaeology is almost just as much about ‘negative’ data and where thingsare not as it is about where (and what) things are.
Students Levi Webb and Ahnna Swanson practicing mapping skills.
Back in McDonel Hall, students were introduced to methods within historical archaeology laboratory work, including the identification and dating of glass containers and ceramic vessels. Specifically, students worked with artifacts from the Service Road landfill, a 1950s-early 1960s campus landfill along Service Road which CAP staff recovered in the summer of 2020 (see more about the Service Road collection here or here). This collection includes a diversity of refuse from various spaces on campus, including residential, academic, and dining related items. After gaining some experience in the cataloging process, students worked on groups research projects that combined artifact analysis and archival research to elucidate specific aspects of life on the mid-century campus. We hope to integrate the insights of these projects into some of CAP’s digital outreach platforms in the coming months.
Collaborations & Off-Campus Fieldwork
Dr. Duane Quates guides students prior to demonstrating processes associated with geophysical survey.
Outside of our research on the mid-century campus, students also participated in fieldwork off-campus in the vicinity of the Rose Lake USDA-NRCS Field Office. Guided by two professional archaeologists (and Michigan State alumni) Duane Quates and Christopher Valvano, as well as recent MSU graduate Gabrielle Moran, students participated in various phases of research at two sites associated with pre-contact occupations including unit excavations, geophysical survey, and shovel testing. This collaboration allowed us to broaden the scope of our field school and introduce students to additional professional skillsets that we may not have had the capacity to offer in our on-campus research. Multiple field school students have continued to work with Duane and Christopher after the end of the field school to gain further experience and guidance as they explore the possibility of working within professional archaeology—an outcome we view as an abundantly clear sign of an effective collaborative undertaking.
Dr. Christopher Valvano and Gabrielle Moran instruct students in unit excavation techniques.
Our field school was also fortunate to have two representatives of the Gun Lake Tribe Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO), Cultural Resources Specialist Kaila Akina and THPO intern Onyleen Zapata join us to participate and observe our summer fieldwork. We were incredibly fortunate to have their help and perspectives during their visit, and look forward to other avenues of future collaboration and capacity building between the Campus Archaeology Program and the Gun Lake THPO.
Out of the field, the CAP was also fortunate to feature guest lectures from a variety of professionals in the world of archaeology and associated fields, including Michigan State Historic Preservation Officer Dr. Sarah Surface-Evans, Gun Lake Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Lakota Hobia (Gun Lake THPO) and colleagues, MSU NAGPRA Program Manager Dr. Jessica Yann, our collaborators at Rose Lake (Dr. Duane Quates and Dr. Christopher Valvano), UM-Flint Professor Dr. Bev Smith, and then-current MSU Campus Archaeologist Jeff Burnett. Topics of lectures comprised a broad swath of topics, including discussion of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), working as an archaeologist for state/federal agencies, zooarchaeology, and the history of race, racism, ethnicity and gender at Michigan State University.
The Campus Archaeology Program would like to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who helped make this field school possible and an engaging learning experience for our students, including (but absolutely not limited to) everyone mentioned in this blog post. On a personal level, I’d like to also thank all the field school students who collectively made my first official teaching assistant position at the university a pleasant and rewarding experience, and extend a special thanks to my two fellow TAs Alex Kelley and Reid Ellefson-Frank (note: do not forget to refrigerate your unit stakes).
A Salty Tale I wanted this blog to be about patents, not Ruth Van Tellingen. Or should I call her Ruth Bendel? Or Ruth Elizabeth Thompson? I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we delve into Ruth’s life, let’s review the concept of patents as they …