The collection touches on most aspects of Green's life from 1940 to 1967. Material on his business activities is, however, minimal. It is his archeological and historical work that the collection documents most thoroughly. Green's correspondence is full of reports, inquiries, and discussions about the theoretical and practical facets of archaeology, focusing largely upon fossil and artifact finds in southwestern Michigan; the letters also illuminate the occasionally trying relationship between professionals and amateurs in the field. The practical aspect of archaeology is documented, too, in an incomplete assortment of Green's site notes. Green's historical research interests are well represented in his correspondence, as well as in some interesting source material and notes on Ft. St. Joseph and on Jesuit missions in Berrien County. Most of Green's writings on both archaeology and history--in the guise of formal papers and informal presentations--are included. A large number of newspaper clippings provide an overview of the activities and achievements of both Green and the Southwest Chapter of MAS. Chapter activities are also documented in its newsletter, its annual reports, and its miscellaneous mailings.
The collection contains virtually nothing on Green's life to 1932, thus omitting his work on the Franz Green Mound. From 1932 through 1939 only scattered portions of correspondence exist. Documentation is substantial, though still not complete, for the years 1940 through 1967; in places letters are obviously missing from the correspondence file, no draft exists of Green's 1961 paper, "An Adena-type Gorget in Michigan," and neither his filmstrip nor a final draft of the narrative for it is extant. Neither Green's large artifact collection nor his library is represented. The collection contains virtually nothing about his farming activities or his family.
The Amos Green Papers have been arranged into nine series: Biographical and Personal, Correspondence, Publications and Presentations, Archeological Fieldwork: Site Notes and Reports, Research, Maps, MAS Southwest Chapter, and Photographs.
Amos Green was by trade a farmer. He also raised and sold flowers for a time and earned money by selling agricultural supplies for the Dekalb Agricultural Association, Inc. in and around Berrien County, Michigan. But Green's passion in life was archaeology and local history. To read his correspondence one would think he was a professional archeologist, for farming receives only an occasional and passing reference; he remained, however, highly conscious that he was an amateur. Though with only a high school degree, he immersed himself in the literature of archaeology, paleontology, geology, and anthropology. He threw himself, too, into the practice of archaeology, excavating burial mounds and surveying construction sites. Green was also a leader in the reconstitution and growth of the Michigan Archeological Society (MAS), an organization that brought amateur and professional together. Green early earned the respect of the professionals with whom he worked; he published papers in prestigious journals and he corresponded regularly and familiarly with the professors at the University of Michigan museums of paleontology, archaeology, and anthropology. In addition, Green earned the esteem of his community, for much of his energy went into outreach programs to encourage farmers and other citizens to be more aware of and take an active interest in the history and prehistory of Berrien County.
Green began his archeological work in 1913 when, with Harvey Franz, he excavated the Franz Green Mound in Porter County, Indiana. Service in World War I and the care of his farm and ailing mother apparently kept his other activities to a minimum until the 1940s, when he returned to the field for several excavations.
In 1946 the Michigan Academy for Sciences, Letters, and the Arts published one of his papers, "The Bevel in Steel and Stone Tools," which he had presented at an earlier Academy meeting. Among his more important "professional" activities in the following years were the presentation of papers at the 1952 meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society and at the 1956 meeting of the American Archeological Society, the supervision of the excavation of the Horseshoe Ditch at Sumnerville in 1954 and an archeological survey of a portion of the Muskegon Pipeline in 1957, the preparation of an educational filmstrip to be distributed through MAS in 1958. After helping to revive the MAS in 1950, Green served for eight years as president of the Southwest Chapter, and for 17 years on the executive board of MAS central. In Berrien County, he was the unofficial contact person for citizens who made archeological finds (the most important of which was the "Prillwitz" Mammoth in 1962), wrote newspaper articles and gave talks on local archaeology and history, and successfully promoted the marking of historic sites. For example, during the 1960s he created a series of short radio programs on the early history of Ft. St. Joseph, gave radio interviews on the early culture of Michigan's native Americans, and successfully promoted the marking of the site of a French Jesuit mission in Berrien Springs.
Green never married. He remained active until he was mortally injured in a car accident in May of 1968. He died on July 18, 1968, at the age of 81.
