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  Happy Halloween wishes to you 1900-1920.

Frederick W. Spencer was a farmer in Shepherd, Michigan. F rom at least 1934 to 1938, Will  functioned as an oil drilling agent for Phillips Drilling Company of Butler,  Pennsylvania. Multiple mid-Michigan counties were explored for oil and gas  including Clare, Clinton, Isabella, Gladwin, Gratiot, Ionia,  Kent, Mecosta, Missaukee, Montcalm, Newaygo, Ogemaw, Saginaw, Shiawassee, and  Washtenaw counties.  Above is an example of one county plat book in his collection. He color coded parts of them and pursued the owners to sell oil and gas drilling rights to Phillips. Here are some examples of various types of records from his collection. This is one of 3 lists of land owned by Indigenous people that was listed by the US Dept. Of the Interior, Indian Services, as available for lease in 1934, 1936. Above and below are examples of letters of interest from land owners. Everyone wanted a "Valuable consideration" for access to their land, and this phrase appears on copies of legal do

On Fri 10/22/2021 in the afternoon my students Mitchel and Larissa and I boxed and moved 37 cu.ft. of School of Music (SOM) recordings from what was once the Music Resource Center.  I forgot to do a before photo  until we had boxed 4 shelves.    Larissa had to leave about 1/2 way through, but here is Mitchel after we finished boxing. Above you see 5 archives carts full of boxes of recordings. This will be added to the earlier collection of SOM recordings already processed and described in the Clarke. Between Honors and SOM we had quite a workout Friday.

  On Friday 10/22/21 my students and I boxed and moved nearly 70 cubic feet of materials. First, in the morning, with help from Kristal in Honors (see above in CMU shirt), my students (left to right) Mitchel, Katie and Larissa and I (looking like a shark in the above photo) boxed and moved  about 30 cubic feet of the CMU Honors Program's Organizational records into the Clarke. Kristal let us fill her truck and helped us box, load and unload. She was so helpful! Without her truck we would have had to make multiple trips with my car, so this was much more efficient. We spent two solid hours boxing and  lifting heavy boxes. Everyone gave a great effort, which I appreciate so much. Honor's history will be inventoried, processed and described.  We all had an excellent work out. I'm so glad it didn't rain.  Archives rock! For part two of our big Friday, read tomorrow's blog entry.

 Here is an example of 1963-1964 style binders and how you open them. These are legal-size forms for daily reports for the Ann Arbor Railroad. They had a lot of forms, reports, and binders. I've worked with thousands over the years. There are also many letter-size reports and forms. For ease of use, the company used these binders. They were stored in boxes on shelves, which were easier to find and less apt to fall on the floor then binders.  Here's how one looks in the box on a shelf. Each has a label and a ring to make it easier to pull it off the shelf. This type of housing was common in courts and businesses as it was compact and functional. The reports are on onion skin paper. They are held down by a rectangular metal piece. The first step is to rotate a piece of metal which looks like a V into an upside position. This loosens the rectangular piece, which acts like a clamp holding all the papers in place Next you move the rectangular piece away from the papers. This allows

  PT Archival Processing Internship, Grand Valley State University Working on-site under the direction of the University Archivist and Digital Collections Librarian, the Archival Processing Intern will develop and undertake a processing plan for the papers of Robert Merrill, civil engineer and archaeologist, including the cleaning and rehousing of glass lantern slides and possible digitization of a portion of the collection.   NOTE: Grand Valley State University has a COVID-19 Vaccine requirement that requires all faculty, staff and students to be vaccinated. New hires will be expected to adhere to the policy unless they are eligible for allowable exemptions or postponement. Up-to-date information can be found on our Lakers Together website.   Number of hours to be worked per week: 29 Start and End Date: January 6, 2022 – May 5, 2022 Hourly Rate:  $23.55   Position Responsibilities [concise overview with additional duties as assigned]: Review materials and deve

  PRESERVATION ASSISTANCE GRANTS FOR SMALLER INSTITUTIONS from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) NEH Preservation Assistance Grants (PAG) help small and mid-sized institutions—such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, cultural organizations, town, city, and county records offices, and colleges and universities—improve their ability to preserve and care for their significant humanities collections. Humanities collections may include special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, decorative and fine art objects, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, furniture, historical objects, and digital materials. DEADLINE: January 13, 2022 Award Amount: Up to $10,000 ($15,000 for projects related to the “A More Perfect Union” initiative) Eligible Activities for NEH PAG Grants include: - General Preservation

Sometimes we find objects in collections. Here are some examples from Rose Traines demonstrating her connections to a couple major organizations in Mount Pleasant, Michigan..  First a 50 year anniversary medal for Central Michigan Community Hospital, front and back views. We find a lot of centennial or anniversary objects in collections, pins, ribbons, medals, programs.  Next, she received a ceramic Warriner Hall statue for CMU's centennial. These were widely distributed. This type of building plan for an early 20th century administrative building is commonly found in many universities, and I've seen similar anniversary ceramic buildings for other universities. I've also seen them for buildings with more distinctive shapes. Lastly we have her portable, detachable drawing or sketch kit. 

Application Available for Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions!   Due : January 13, 2022   Maximum funding:  $10,000  ($15,000 for A More Perfect Union planning projects)   Funding for:  Preservation assessments, planning, and supplies; Professional development on preservation & access topics   More information:   https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/preservation-assistance-grants-smaller-institutions   Questions?:   preservation@neh.gov   Preservation Assistance Grants help small and mid-sized cultural institutions improve their ability to preserve and care for their significant humanities collections through assessment, consultation, training and the purchase of supplies, furniture, and equipment. Projects may support the preservation of physical as well as digital humanities collections.    Applicants must draw on the knowledge of consultants whose preservation skills and experience are related to the type

 Lots of physical paper-based processing is happening. Josie is processing an addition to the collection of James Bradshaw and Mitchel is tackling the collection of Rose Traines. 

Here are some clothes that belonged to Mount Pleasant, MI, metal artist Rose Traines. Prepare to go aaaaahhhhh. I usually transfer objects to the CMU Museum as it provides Cultural Resource Management students opportunities to learn how to professionally clean, catalog and preserve these objects. Here is Rose's baby clothes. She was born in 1928. The frilly diaper cover is made of waterproof plastic. Rose's little dress and slip or nightie with a photo of her wearing the dress. She's about age 4-5 here.

 McNair images of students and descriptions of their projects are now posted in the main hall of the Park Library. This year the Clarke has two students who are McNair Scholars, Katie Higley and Camille Hixson. I am also Katie's mentor but without a Ph.D. I am an unofficial mentor.

Falmouth (Michigan) Cooperative Association was where farmers bought cattle food in bulk for their herds. PBB was accidentally mixed into cattle feed and distributed to Falmouth Coop Assoc. by Farm Bureau Services. Farmers unknowingly bought contaminated feed at Falmouth and fed it to their cattle, who were sickened and deformed by the PBB. Farm animals ingested PBB-contaminated feed in many counties in Michigan, resulting in PBB entering the state and national food chain through milk, meat, and eggs, poisoning Michiganders and other people who unsuspectingly ate Michigan food products.  By 1977 scientists knew that anyone who had ingested PBB had it in their systems and mass burial pits in Oscoda and Kalkaska were debated, and later filled with dead animals-cattle, swine, sheep, and poultry. For a brief synopsis of this event and the start of the PBB health survey see this article in the New York Times May7, 1978. https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/07/archives/experts-testing-3500-in-mic