Collections

Emerson Frank Greenman was a prominent Michigan archaeologist who served as Curator of the Great Lakes Division of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan from 1945 to 1965. The Greenman papers include correspondence, administrative materials related to the Camp Killarney field school in Ontario, Canada, site files for archaeological sites in Canada, research and topical files, scrapbooks and photographs.

The Emerson Frank Greenman Papers are comprised of six series: Correspondence, Camp Killarney, Research and Miscellaneous Files, Photographs, Scrapbooks, and Canadian Site Files.

George H. Forsyth (1901-1991) was an archeologist, architectural, and art historian who led archeological expeditions to Angers, France, Mount Sinai, Egypt, and countries in the Near East including Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Forsyth was a professor at the University of Michigan, chairman of the History of Art Department and director of the Kelsey Museum. The collection is comprised of personal materials, teaching materials, and extensive documentation of George's personal travel and archeological expeditions to Europe and the Near East such as correspondence, field notes, and visual materials.

The George H. Forsyth papers primarily document Forsyth's career. The collection includes personal materials, biographical information, daybooks, family photographs, teaching and lecture notes, and extensive documentation of George's personal travel and archeological expeditions to Europe and the Near East. Material related to expeditions includes field notebooks, photographs, negatives, architectural drawings, correspondence, and manuscripts of various publication activities.

George Forsyth died prior to completing the publication of his landmark drawings of Saint Catherine's Monastery (Mount Sinai, Egypt). Publication efforts were continued posthumously by his wife, Dr. Ilene H. Forsyth, an art historian and professor at the University of Michigan.

Researchers should note that a scrapbook in this collection contains visual material with racist content; specific information is included at the item level.

The Humphry and Moses Marshall papers primarily document the careers of botanist Humphry Marshall and his nephew and business associate, Moses Marshall.

The Humphry and Moses Marshall papers consist of 233 items: 181 letters (including drafts), 15 legal documents, 11 manuscripts, 10 poems, 4 account books, and several each of books, letter books, arithmetic notebooks, and broadsides. The materials span from 1721-1863.

The first series contains correspondence and a few legal documents and writings, arranged chronologically. The correspondence dates from 1733 to 1863 and is predominantly incoming. Humphry Marshall is the recipient of the bulk of the material (approximately 40%), followed by Moses Marshall (approx. 30%). The majority of the outgoing correspondence comes from the two "letterbooks" kept by Moses Marshall in 1791 and 1793. These books contain correspondence from a couple of days each, but provide a record of Marshall's response to inquiries from clients.

The bulk of correspondence prior to 1800 relates to Marshall's horticultural and botanical operations. Substantial numbers of orders are for plants and seeds from clients in other parts of the United States, England, Ireland, France, and Germany, and communications with middle men in the operation detail methods of packaging and shipping. Also of botanical interest is the correspondence with Marshall's "agents" in the field, including Moses Mendenhall, John and James Watson, Matthias King, Samuel Kramsh, and James Kenny. These men were admirers and friends of Humphry Marshall, and provided him with specimens collected from various regions of the country. The unsuccessful search for wild Franklinia alatamaha is mentioned in several letters (April 8, 1788: "There is not a plant of the Franklinia to be found"), and other letters include discussions of scientific expeditions either actualized or planned, mostly involving the participation of Moses Marshall. On November 14, 1786, Humphry described the logistics of tracking down ginseng, providing insight into the duties of plant collectors: "both of you being obliged to…encamp in the mountains strike up a fire & lie by it all night in the morning…climb up the sides of the mountains and dig towards evening…about 20 days in Going and Coming home again & digging the roots packing up &c." The content of the letters does not indicate the Marshalls' scientific interests or abilities, but this correspondence provides documentation for the complex network used by the Marshalls to collect, sell and distribute plants.

Approximately 18 letters relate to the Revolutionary War (see "Subject Index" under "Additional Descriptive Data"). These include letters that indicate Marshall's support for the nonimportation agreements (January 6, 1775), second hand reports of the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 25, 1775) and of Yorktown (August 24, 1781), and an important series of correspondence from Samuel Preston Moore relating to the resignation of the trustees of the General Loan Office when American revolutionaries seized control (June 17 and 21, 1777). Also significant are two letters from Quaker conscientious objectors on the morality of paying taxes to support military activities (undated c. 1780 letter; July 14, 1781), a letter relating to the North Carolina Regulator insurrection (March 3, 1771), and one concerning the arrest by American forces of Quakers suspected of Loyalist sympathies (September 6, 1777). Finally, in the pre-Revolutionary period, the letters of James Kenny provide excellent descriptions of plant collecting and the area around Fort Pitt in 1759-60.

The items from 1840-1863 mainly relate to Moses Marshall, Jr. Most notable in among them are several letters from William Darlington written as he was preparing his Memorial to Humphry and Moses Marshall in 1848 and 1849. Moses, Jr's pro-Confederacy political views are clearly expressed in the series of three speeches written during the Civil War, also included in the series.

The Poetry series includes 10 undated poems. The Bound Materials series comprises the arithmetic notebooks of Jacob Martin, whose relationship to the Marshalls is unclear; Darlington’s manuscript, Historical Introduction to Bartram & Marshall, Marshall's copy of Dover's Useful Miscellanies; and nine uncut and unfolded sets of signatures from Arbustrum Americanum.

James Bennett Griffin was one of the major forces in the development of North American archaeology and served as the director of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan from 1946 to 1975. The papers contain correspondence, extensive research and photograph files on North American archaeological sites, cultures and artifacts, and information on Griffin's writing, professional activities, and teaching within the University of Michigan Department of Anthropology.

The James B. Griffin Papers are a rich source of information about Griffin's life, the history of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, archaeological sites and topics, particularly in North America, and the overall development of the field of North American archaeology from the 1930s to the 1990s. The papers consist of 16 series: Biographical and Personal; Student Years; Correspondence, 1930-1975; Correspondence, 1975-1997; Radiocarbon Laboratory; Teaching and Advising; Conferences and Symposia; Professional Associations and Affiliations; Speaking Engagements; Travel and International Initiatives; Writings and Publications; Hopewell; Topical Files; Archaeological Sites and Projects; North American Archaeology Card Files; and Photographs.

Melvin Randolph Gilmore was one of the preeminent ethnobotanists of his generation and served as Curator of Ethnology for the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan from 1929 to 1939. The Gilmore Papers contain correspondence, topical files, field notes, photographs, and manuscripts related to his work among Native American groups of the Plains and Prairies, including the Arikara and the Omaha.

The Melvin R. Gilmore Papers consist of three series: Correspondence; Research, Writing, and Field Work; and Photographs. With the exception of the Correspondence series, much of the material in the papers is undated, but appears to date mainly from 1905 to 1930.

Richard K. Beardsley was a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan from 1947 to 1978 who served several terms as the director of the Center for Japanese Studies. The papers document his anthropological fieldwork in Japan, Spain, and California, and include research and field notes, interviews, questionnaires and surveys in English and Japanese, photographs, and a small amount of correspondence.

The Richard K. Beardsley Papers document Beardsley's anthropological fieldwork in Japan, Spain, and California, and include research and field notes, questionnaires, interviews, photographs, and a small amount of correspondence. The papers consist of three series: Topical Files, Research Files, and Photographs.

The Samuel Finley, Field Notes for Bouquet's Expedition (60 pages) contains detailed descriptions of the topography of Bouquet's route though Pennsylvania and Ohio during his march against the Ohio Indians (October 2-25, 1864). Finley, a field engineer, recorded minute descriptions of physical and environmental features of the landscape, such as the direction and speed of rivers and streams, characteristics of the terrain, soil, and timber quality, and tree and undergrowth density.

The Samuel Finley, Field Notes for Bouquet's Expedition (60 pages) contains detailed descriptions of the topography of Bouquet's route though Pennsylvania and Ohio during his march against the Ohio Indians (October 2-25, 1764). Finley, a field engineer, recorded minute descriptions of physical and environmental features of the landscape, such as the direction and speed of rivers and streams, characteristics of the terrain, soil and timber quality, and tree and undergrowth density. Finley recorded these notes to serve as permanent records of the journey that the army could use for future map-making.

The volume begins: "The following Courses & Distances are the Roads that the Honourable Col. Henry Bouquet Marches the Army under His Honours, Command To wards the Lower Shannees Towns Down the Ohio River." He began to survey and measure the road on October 2, and kept distance totals for each page of notes. He also totaled the distance from the last camp and from Fort Pitt each morning (written under the date). He numbered each change of course and added 1-2 sentence remarks for each entry. The group traveled along numerous rivers, including the Allegheny River, Big Beaver River, Monongahela River, Muskingum River, and the Walhonding River (then called White Woman's Creek).

In addition to the survey, the volume also contains a short (incomplete) narrative of John Palmer's escape from the Indians on October 6, 1764 (page 76). Also, an unknown person later recorded payroll notes and food accounts on empty pages of the journal. These records, written on the inside of the front and back covers and on pages 50-51 and pages 73-76 (the 20 pages between these two sections were ripped out), are dated between 1846 and 1849. The entries include records of payments for wheat, oats, corn, rye, and hogs, and concern Michele Kruck, Michele Fogle, Cyrus Hower, and M. Marshall.

Volney H. Jones was a leading ethnobotanist and served as Curator of Ethnology at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology from 1945 to 1969. The papers include correspondence with ethnobotanists and anthropologists, including Edward F. Castetter and Leslie A. White, administrative files, biographical information on anthropologists, teaching files for Jones' courses within the Department of Anthropology, and notes for unpublished textbooks on ethnobotany. The papers also include correspondence with Chase S. Osborn, Stellanova B. Osborn, and Milo M. Quaife concerning a project to establish a Friends of the Michigan Indian organization, and correspondence and reports from Ted Bank concerning the University of Michigan expeditions to the Aleutian Islands.

The Volney H. Jones Papers include correspondence with ethnobotanists and anthropologists, including Edward F. Castetter and Leslie A. White, administrative files, biographical information on anthropologists, teaching files for Jones' courses within the Department of Anthropology, and notes for unpublished textbooks on ethnobotany. The papers also include correspondence with Chase S. Osborn, Stellanova B. Osborn, and Milo M. Quaife concerning a project to establish a Friends of the Michigan Indian organization, and correspondence and reports from Ted Bank concerning the University of Michigan expeditions to the Aleutian Islands. The Jones papers are comprised of eight series: Correspondence, Administrative Files, Biographies and Bibliographies, Teaching Files, Culture Areas and Ethnobotany Textbook Files, Hopi Research Files and Maize Research.

Often termed the father of Michigan archaeology, Wilbert B. Hinsdale developed and cared for the collections of the Great Lakes Division of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan from 1922 to 1944, after retiring from his position as Dean of the Homeopathic Medical College. The papers contain correspondence, topical files related to archaeological subjects, site files for archaeological sites throughout Michigan, and personal scrapbooks, diaries, and photographs.

The W.B. Hinsdale Papers consist of five series: Personal, Correspondence, Topical Files, Writing and Michigan Site Files.

University of Michigan alum (Ph.D. in Geology, 1960), University of Michigan professor of Geology (1965-2000), and curator at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology (1975-2000). Farrand's papers primarily document his career in geological archaeology through correspondence, field notes, research files, publications, and visual materials.

The William R. Farrand papers primarily document the research activities and career of William R. Farrand, an archeological geologist, educator, and scholar known for his work in the Near East and the Mediterranean. His papers mostly pertain to the various expeditions and excavations he conducted, including at Fontéchevade, France; Franchthi Cave, France; Karystos, Greece; Mt. Ararat, Turkey; Qafzeh Cave, Israel; Yabrud (Yabroud), Syria; and Yarimburgaz Cave, Turkey. Record types present include correspondence, field notes, research and reference materials, topical files organized by name, publications, slides, section maps, and photographs.

Remaining materials include materials that document his activities in professional organizations, publications, and topical files. Materials also include notes by Henry Wright, Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan (as of May 2024).