The Division of Anthropology is responsible for the curation of both ethnographic and archaeological collections. The majority of the ethnographic collections curated by the Division of Anthropology are donations of individual or small sets of artifacts by both the public as well as from university faculty and staff engaged in domestic and international programs. The accumulated regional representation of these materials, however, has resulted in several strengths, including Native American objects from the Great Lakes of North America, and twentieth century materials from Southeast Asia and various parts of Africa. Of particular importance are two major groups of systematically collected and documented objects, the Ellison Collection from Somalia dating to the 1980s, and the Robbins Collection from East Africa from the 1970s. The Division of Anthropology ethnographic collections are housed in environmentally controlled facilities at Central Services Building.

The archaeological collections held by the Division of Anthropology are extensive, and focus on Michigan and the Great Lakes region. The bulk of these collections are housed at the Consortium for Archaeological Research (CAR) at McDonel Hall on the MSU campus. The greatest geographic scope is afforded by the earliest large donation; the Boudeman Collection, accessioned in the 1950s. The Boudeman Collection includes materials that span much of North America, in particular an impressive array of precontact period ceramics from the southeastern United States, and numerous ground stone objects including atlatl weights and ground stone axes. Many of these items have general provenance that makes them susceptible to broad scale analytic questions. Most, however, lack accurate provenance, and form the core of our teaching collections and for use in exhibits.

By far the strength of the archaeological collections of the Anthropology Division is in the systematic research undertaken in Michigan over four and a half decades by MSU Museum curators. Three areas of Michigan are well represented by both survey and excavation collections and their associated documentation; the Saginaw Valley, the upper Grand River valley, and northern Lower Michigan including the broader Straits of Mackinac region.


The Saginaw Valley Region. Perhaps the greatest time depth of the Saginaw Valley collections is present in the Ira Butterfield/ W. Schmidt Collection, donated by Hon. Ira Butterfield of Kawkawlin, and incorporating the extensive collections of Walter Schmidt. The materials from these combined collections were acquired during the period from between World War I and II, through the 1980’s. Each site collection is systematically documented, and many of the site collections present are from locations that have since been destroyed by modern development and are no longer available for inspection. The Butterfield/Schmidt Collection provides one of the few available glimpses at the Saginaw Valley’s rapidly vanishing regional archaeological record.

Additions to the Saginaw valley collection have derived from both the work of MSU Museum curators, as well as donations. Saginaw Valley research has resulted in large excavated collections from the Bay City area, including the Fletcher site, the Marquette Viaduct site, the Defoe Park site, and others, curated by the Division of Anthropology. These specific site collections have been augmented by the donation of systematically excavated materials from the Casassa, Bear Creek, and Shiawassee River sites, donated by the property owners and the Great Lakes Gas Transmission Pipeline Company. Limited research collections are also available from the Schultz site at Green Point in Saginaw. These extensive excavated collections continue to provide significant data for ongoing contemporary research in the region by faculty, staff, students and visiting scholars, and have contributed substantially to graduate student dissertations and theses in the Department of Anthropology.


The Upper Grand River Basin. The MSU Museum Division of Anthropology has undertaken consistent and ongoing research into the upper Grand River valley region of central lower Michigan. Major research collections include those from the Root site, the upper Grand River valley, the Looking Glass River, the east and west Upper Maple Rivers, the Red Cedar River, Vermillion Creek, Rose Lake, the I-69 survey, and the US 127 survey. These systematic research collections have been augmented by donations from Birt Darling from the Lyons Prairie/Arthurburg Hill localities, the Rhodes Collection from Round Lake, and various collections donated by members of the Upper Grand Valley Chapter of the Michigan Archaeological Society.


Northern Lower Michigan/Straits of Mackinac. The Division of Anthropology has deep historical research roots in the area surrounding the Straits of Mackinac. Multiple decades of systematic archaeological work has resulted in numerous extensive excavated site collections from this region, many of which have formed the core of graduate student dissertations and theses. Collections from the Samel’s Field site, the Skegemog Point site, the O’Neil site, the Pine River Channel site, the Portage site, the Wycamp Creek site, the Antrim Creek site, and numerous smaller sites are central to this group. Excavation at interior sites such as the Johnson site, the Ponshewaing Point site, and the Screaming Loon site supplement the geographic scope of the collections, as does work at the Cloudman site on Drummond Island. Extensive multiyear research has been conducted at the Marquette Mission site in St. Ignace, and these collections have recently been incorporated into a comprehensive Geographic Information System database. These collections span time periods from as early as 10,000 years ago through the nineteenth century.