Demeter and Hugley award winners 2020
Demeter Award 2020
Justification and decision-making process:
The Director of the Museum selected recipients who are graduate students studying historical archaeology that have volunteered for at least 60 hours over the course of a semester in the Museum of Anthropology, analyzing and preparing publications of materials from within the museum's collections. This year's winners all performed extensive research in the museum that led to the culmination of publications in the journal The Michigan Archaeologist.
Kathryn Slocum
Thomas W. Killion, Kathryn Slocum & Terri Renaud. Springwells, Historic Fort Wayne, and the War of 1812 in Southeast Michigan: Exploring Detroit's Past in War & Peace. In The Michigan Archaeologist 60:73-93.
Kathryn performed archival, historical and landscape research using the museum's archival materials on historic Fort Wayne and GIS systems, leading to the publication of an article on the site's role in the early nineteenth century.
Kelsey Jorgensen
The Detroit People Mover Faunal Assemblage: Diets of Wealthy Nineteenth to Early Twentieth-Century Urban Neighborhoods. The Michigan Archaeologist 60:53-72.
Kelsey analyzed faunal (animal) remains from several archaeological sites excavated in the early 1980s prior to the construction of the People Mover. These collections are housed at the Grosscup Museum. Kelsey's analysis led to a publication increasing our knowledge of the foodways of history Detroit.
Hannelore Willeck
Dirty Deed Done for Science: An Archaeological Soil Analysis of Two Early Twentieth-Century Light Industrial Sites along Detroit's East Riverfront. The Michigan Archaeologist 60:7-26.
Hanne used museum laboratory equipment to analyze soil samples collected from archaeological sites in Detroit to evaluate the industry of early Twentieth Century Detroit. These soil samples were part of archaeological collections housed at the museum as part of our regional collections.
Hugley Award 2020
Justification and decision-making process:
The Director of the Museum selected recipients for the Hugley Award that have shown dedication to the Anthropology Museum, Library, and Archives through participation in volunteer activities. The donor requests that the funds be rotated through the disciplines of anthropology, library science, and archives administration, and we had an excellent library science student volunteer this year which we wish to recognize. We also had two excellent anthropology students which we wish to recognize. While renewal is automatic if volunteers maintain their level of volunteer work, only one previous recipient is still a student, and they did not maintain this level of volunteer activity.
Rachel Davies (Library & Information Science)
Rachel Davies spent extensive time organizing the paperwork from two years of excavations at the Wooden Walker Tavern Site and creating a finding aid for this material. Walker Wooden tavern is a state-owned site that was excavated by museum staff in the 1970s, so paperwork and artifacts are held at WSU, but the collection is the property of the State of Michigan. Rachel created a detailed, 15-page finding aid for the collection, organized and re-housed the paperwork, including field notes, maps, and photographs. This is the first professional finding aid created for one of our collections and will act as a model for future projects. The finding aid will also be extremely helpful to future researchers and was gratefully accepted by our colleagues at the State.
Mikayla Swasey
Mikayla volunteered extensively in the anthropology museum in the fall semester and continued her volunteer efforts during the winter semester until the museum was closed. Mikayla performed a variety of duties in the museum, enthusiastically and well. Duties included inventorying and rehousing the African ethnographic collection, accessioning and cataloging incoming donations, researching and writing up objects from the African and South American ethnographic collections, assisting with exhibit construction, hosting monthly coffee hours, cataloging archaeological materials, monitoring collections rooms weekly, maintaining regular hours as a gallery docent and assisting with special events such as Noel Night.
Kristen Doby
Kristen volunteered extensively in the anthropology museum throughout the academic year. Kristen performed a variety of duties in the museum and actively sought out opportunities to be involved and improve our programming. Duties included inventorying and rehousing the African ethnographic collection, cleaning incoming donations, researching unidentified materials from our South American ethnographic collection, transforming our monthly coffee hour into a weekly event for majors, maintaining regular hours as a gallery docent and assisting with special events such as Michigan Archaeology Day.