Background
The Background series includes bylaws, operating structure, and constitutions from several different years (to show the changes from one period to the next).
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Michigan Archaeological Society records, 1924-2019 (majority within 1956-2010)
9 linear feet — 1 oversize item
The records of the Michigan Archaeological Society records cover the period since 1924. The record group consists primarily of reports, meeting agenda and minutes, correspondence, newsletters, and clippings. The series in the record group are Background, Administrative, Activities, Local Chapters, Topical, and Publications.
Researchers should note that this collection contains depictions of the lives and cultures of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadami Nations in Michigan (among other Indigenous cultures across North America) in an archaeological context, described by primarily white archaeologists. As such, materials in this collection may contain offensive language and descriptions of those cultures.
Administrative
The Administrative series is comprised of the usual organizational materials--agendas and minutes, newsletters, correspondence, and reports. However, a substantive part of this series is the long run of annual meeting materials from 1956 to 2014. Arranged by year, these records summarize the activities and concerns of the MAS. These records also show the hierarchy of the organization in any given year. At each meeting, annual reports were given by the president, the treasurer, and the presidents of local chapters. The Society's annual reports to the Eastern States Archaeological Federation (ESAF), of which it is a member, are included in this series because this is when the reports are presented to MAS members. Although not every year is consistently documented with the same amount or the same kinds of reports, taken as an aggregate, the annual meeting records are an invaluable retrospective source showing how the MAS changed and grew over an extended period of time.
Also illuminating within the Administrative series, despite the obvious chronological gaps, are the general and president's correspondence, as well as both the state and executive boards' agendas and minutes. All of these records are arranged by year in ascending order, although only the agendas and minutes are arranged chronologically therein. Given that these records span from the earliest years of the Society's incorporation in the 1950s, up to the 2000s, they complement the set of annual meeting reports and fill in the details that annual reports can only summarize. The correspondence mainly documents three things: 1) archaeological work done by MAS members, 2) organizational structure, or 3) the MAS' relationship with other associations, agencies, or institutions. The president's correspondence especially shows how each president shaped the objectives and activities of the MAS during his one-year term.