Protecting Michigan State's Material Culture
Friday I had the privilege of evaluating the Anthropology section of the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) in the MSU Union. I was very impressed with the quality of research and the ability of each presenter to discuss their project goals and outcomes. …
Kate Frederick– Kate is a fourth year PhD student, and is beginning her second year as Campus Archaeologist. Though her dissertation research revolves around hunter-gatherer food storage practices in northern lower Michigan, she has found a true passion in the history of MSU. For her …
In order to achieve the goals of Campus Archaeology (and to lessen the burden of the campus archaeologist), every year CAP works with several graduate students on a handful of intriguing projects. These projects use the artifacts, excavation reports and historic documents to conduct research about MSU’s past and engage the public in archaeology. Meet our new fresh and fit CAP grad students!
Amy Michael has worked for Campus Archaeology for the past two years and is excited to start her third year as a CAP researcher. Her ongoing project is on the sustainability of the historic MSU campus with data drawn from both archival records and material culture. She has worked cooperatively with the MSU Archives to locate and record information related to early sustainability practices on campus with a focus on food, energy, and transportation. These themes can be traced from the inception of the college up to modern times, with archaeological data supporting how changes in food, energy, and transportation practices were employed or experienced by students and faculty on the historic campus. This semester, she will continue to work with MSU Archives to identify documents and photographs that can further explain some of the material culture recovered in CAP excavations. Her goal this semester is to draft a manuscript with Dr. Lynne Goldstein and former CAP researcher Dr. Jennifer Bengtson reporting the findings of their collective project. They intend to publish the results in a journal focusing on sustainability at the university level.
Blair Zaid is a dual Ph.D. student in African American and African Studies and Anthropology. Her graduate research focuses on the Kongo Kingdom of west central Africa. She looks forward to beginning her second year as a member of CAP. This year she will continue her typology project in which she is constructing a typology that will be used to assist future students with adding new information to our collections as CAP continues to unearth MSU’s past. Blair looks forward to incorporating the fantastic finds from this summer’s field research.
Andrew LoPinto is not only new to CAP, but he is also a new student in our Anthropology Department here at MSU. His specific research interests are in bioarchaeology, mortuary analysis and Egyptian archaeology. He hopes that his experience in Egyptian mummies will add a fresh spin to our research at CAP.
As a new addition to the Campus Archaeology Program, Andrew’s project will focus on our social media. His project aims to generate creative ways to engage the public and enhance our public archaeology outreach.
Katy Meyers is a fourth year PhD graduate student studying mortuary archaeology. Her research specifically focuses on examining the spatial relationship between cremation and inhumation burials in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. She enjoys working both in the field on various projects and on the digital side of archaeology. She has been an active member of the Campus Archaeology Program since her first year here. For the past two years, she has been the CAP’s Campus Archaeologist and is proud to continue working with CAP in her new role as a graduate research fellow. Over the next year, she will be helping CAP to accession their sites, and developing a more enhanced GIS system. You can learn more about her personal research and interests at www.bonesdontlie.com, and follow her @bonesdonotlie.
Adrianne Daggett is a PhD Candidate in the MSU Department of Anthropology, and although she has been in the department for some years, this is her first year of involvement with Campus Archaeology. She is quite excited to get in on the action in what is hopefully her last year in the graduate program here. Over the last few years she has been working on her dissertation research based in Botswana. Her research focuses on small-scale prehistoric farming and herding settlements in the Kalahari Desert, how they used their local landscape, and their involvement with the trade networks and political systems of their time in southern Africa. The project she will be developing for CAP is called ‘Dig the Past: A Hands-on Intro to Archaeology’, this project will culminate as a monthly series of hands-on activity sessions at the MSU Museum. Planning for this project is actually well underway, and the first session is scheduled for September 21st! The goal of the project is to increase public awareness and understanding of campus history and the nature and practice of archaeology through direct contact with archaeologists and artifacts, as well as to provide opportunities for anthropology students to gain experience working with a lay audience. If you’re interested in getting involved with ‘Dig the Past’ contact Adrianne at daggetta@msu.edu.
This academic year has been enlightening and challenging for me. I dove into continuing a specific project that explores the heart of campus at MSU. I used archival evidence to glean the social, structural and spacial landscape of campus throughout the four time periods of …
I am still working on the sustainability project which seems to have generated endless research questions. As I try to reign it all in, I have been writing about a category that I have blandly termed “Student Life” in my draft. This is the catch-all …
As I continue to work on the sustainability project, I will be sharing excerpts from the draft that I am writing. Last week I came across a very helpful bound volume detailing receipts for food services from 1864-1874. Dr. Manly Miles kept a ledger of all prices paid for food produced on campus, which allows us to examine how costs and demand changed over this ten year period. Each customer (often, the names of notable faculty members appear!) order was recorded and end of the year costs of the college were declared in these volumes. I am still reading through the script handwriting, which is at times a slow procedure, but I am interested to see how the Civil War impacted the sale of foods on campus.
Below is a portion of the manuscript I am writing on campus sustainability in the past. One section of the paper deals with food and agriculture, so in light of my recent discovery of Dr. Miles ledger, I have decided to share that part of the paper this week:
In 1883, dining clubs were developed to more efficiently feed the growing campus community. These clubs allowed students to pool boarding fees and collectively purchase and prepare food, a portion of which was sourced from the campus farms. During large conferences such as the annual Michigan Farmers’ Institutes, the dining clubs would accomodate campus visitors. Dining clubs continued in Period 3 (1900-1925), with advertisements in the MAC Record demonstrating that at least some meat was beginning to be sourced from local off-campus butchers. Advertisements around the turn of the century also indicate that local eateries were established as a result of a growing student population. Period 3 saw an increase in university extension work with outreach focusing on gardening and food sustainability at the household level.
In a pamphlet for the Michigan Farmers’ Institute meeting of 1910, it is noted that meals could be procured for 25 cents each at the college boarding clubs. Two restaurants supplied food for visitors as well, one of which, called Ye College Inn, was in the basement of Abbot Hall. By 1923, the annual pamphlet for attendees of the Institute noted that meals were widely available on campus at the Women’s Building, Dairy Building, and the Armory, presumably in response to increasing student enrollment. Food service on campus appeared to expand rapidly in the third and fourth periods and by 1951, the union cafeteria was serving meals for one dollar each.
During Period 4 (1925-1955), both the Depression and World War II dramatically affected student life on campus. Many struggled economically with the costs of college and moved off campus to rent inexpensive rooms in town. During these difficult times, MSU faculty and administration encouraged victory gardening. This return to campus-based food sustainability benefitted students who were able to purchase fresh, local foods for as little as $2/week (approximately $33/week today). In 1936, the university began to buy houses intended as co-ops where students could live, budget, and cook together. Historical photographs from this time period show university officials biking to work, clearly promoting fuel conservation during wartime.
In a letter dated May 20, 1929, Professor EL Anthony stated that during his term at the college (1921-1928), there was a general agricultural depression though the dairy industry did not suffer as greatly as livestock and grains production. Anthony noted that prior to 1925, the dairymen in Michigan had produced all products required by state consumers. Additionally, a number of dairy products were exported out of the state, especially butter. After 1925, the demands of the consumers surpassed the dairy production operations in Michigan and it became necessary to import dairy products.
Author: Amy Michael
This Friday, Sabrina Perlman and Katy Meyers will be presenting a poster on behalf of Campus Archaeology at the Graduate Academic Conference hosted by the Council of Graduate Students here at MSU’s Kellogg Hotel Conference Center. This is the fifth year of the GAC, a …
In honor of Black History Month, this post is dedicated to the archaeological work and research of African descendants past and present. While the African descendant presence in our field is still low, the research on U.S. and African Diaspora communities is burgeoning with interest. …
This semester, I have been searching the MSU Library for resources that would potentially be useful to the Campus Archaeology Program. I have been working on creating a database that contains a list of Michigan State University theses and dissertations of which some aspect of MSU was the subject of study. With the help of folks from the MSU Special Collections, I have been searching for theses and dissertations using specific keywords, including “Michigan Agricultural College,” “College Campus,” and “East Lansing”. Based on the titles that have emerged as a result of my inquiries, I’ve been able to gain insight into the various topics and themes that have been studied throughout MSU’s history.
At the turn of the 20th century, for example, several works were published on the “spring activity” of plants, shrubs, and trees throughout the M.A.C. campus (e.g. McCue 1901), which offer precise records on the timing of leaving and flowering. In the 19-teens and 1920’s, students studied rainfall rates, floods, and other water-related topics, such as:
A Sanitary Survey of the Grand River (Milroy, Claude B. 1916)
A Study of the Rainfall & Floods at East Lansing, Michigan (Hayes, George R. 1918)
The Use & Wastes of Water on the Michigan State College Campus (Patterson, Andrew H. 1928)
A Study of the Yield of the Campus Wells (Dawson, James H. 1926)
Also in the 1920’s (and into the 1940’s), research into structural and structural engineering topics related to buildings and roads were quite abundant, such as:
Plans & specifications for proposed road on Michigan State College campus (Beeman, Wilber 1926)
The Michigan State College Property Boundary from the Southeast Corner of Pinetum Woods to the Intersection of Grand River Avenue & Abbott Road (Gallis, George 1935)
Design of Michigan State’s Campus Airport (Shelberg, Edward 1942)
The Design of a Campus Road (Knapp, Henry 1947)
A Traffic Analysis of Michigan State College Campus (Moulton, Charles 1947)
A Traffic Control Plan for East Lansing (Mulholland, John 1947)
In the 1930’s, several dissertations on campus monuments were published, including:
Campus Monument Survey (Aldrich, James 1935)
Vertical Elevations of Campus Monuments (Van Atta, Ward 1937)
In the 1970’s, several dissertations were produced which highlighted activism on MSU’s campus during the previous decade. Research into activism, as it occurred on our campus, can potentially shed light on which spaces were used for particular events.
Student Activism at Michigan State University During the Decade of the 1960’s (White, Katherine 1972)
Black Student Activism at Michigan State University September, 1967 to June 30, 1972 (Winston, Eric 1973)
Additional dissertation and thesis titles that could help better inform our campus’ past include:
Food Consumption Study of a Randomized Sample of Twenty Young Married Student Couples Occupying Living Quarters on Michigan State College Campus (Johnson, Jean 1952)
The Controversy Over the Location of Michigan Agricultural College (McGoff, John 1956)
Wives of Foreign Students: Their Problems in Home Management (Lieberman, Leslie 1965)
They Came Before Us: A Story of Women at Michigan State University 1870 – 1895 (Weber, Christy 2004)
Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to compile my database!
Author: Sylvia
Identity and university are connected in multidimensional ways. First, there is the individual student who shapes her identity based on the people, activities, and knowledge she is associated with from the time she starts her college experience. She also already has an identity she brought …