SMITH ON AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MICHIGAN. 35 



AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MICHIGAN. 



HARLA.>" I. SMITH. 



Beginning tlie second semester in the college year lSt)l-l)-, due to 

 the desire on the part of students for sucli study and to the support of 

 Prof. Francis W. Kelsey, of the Latin Department, a full course in 

 museum work in American Archieologv was ofl'ered at the University 

 of JNIichigan^ under his general direction. Two students availed them- 

 selves of this opportunity and some of the laboratory work was done on 

 Michigan material. Regular university credits were given both that 

 year ami the one following, but the course is no longer offered. 



In 1S1>:> and 1804, as a direct outgrowth of the interest in the course 

 and the co-operation with the University, of the Detroit Branch of the 

 Archaeological Institute of America, several surveys were made of the 

 prehistoric earthworks known as "garden beds" near Kalamazoo. From 

 this data one of the groups was modeled and copies were taken h\ the 

 Peabody Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. 



The Michigan Academy of Science was organized in the fall of 1894 

 and at the first meeting, December 2G, the anthropology of the State was 

 represented by a single paper on "The Data and Development of Mich- 

 igan Archiieology." This paper was published in two parts, that re- 

 ferring to the data together with a note predicting a future activity 

 on the part of the State in the preservation and study of its archaeologi- 

 cal resources, appeared in the American Antiquarian, May, 180G. The 

 second part referring to the development of Michigan archaeology was 

 published simultaneously at the University in The Inlander. This 

 paper not only plead for the subject but suggested a general plan 

 of action particularly that the work be systematic and directed from 

 some such public institution as the State L'^niversity where the results 

 could be assembled for study and permanent free public exhibition, 

 and that the antiquities of the State should be photographed, surveyed 

 and plotted on a map. 



Later a plea for enclosing mounds in public parks, cemeteries, etc., 

 was published in the local papers. 



In 1900 the Detroit Branch of the Archaeological Institute of America 

 appointed a committee composed of James E. Scripps, owner of the 

 Detroit News-Tribune, Prof. Francis W. Kelsey, of the University of 

 Michigan, George AV. Bates, president of the Detroit Branch, Hon. 

 Wra. C. Quinbj', owner of the Detroit Free Press, and Levi L. Bar- 

 bour, to prepare and have passed by the State Legislature a bill to 

 establish a survey of the antiquities of Michigan and make appropri- 

 ations therefor. This bill was prepared after careful consideration with 

 members of the American Museum of Natural History, Bureau of 

 American Ethnology and Smithsonian Institution, as well as those 



'See Anthropological Work at the University of Michigan, Memoirs of the International Con- 

 gress of Anthropology, Schulte Pub. Co., Chicago, 1894. Also I'niversity Reiord, Feb. 1804. 



