Meet Your Interns

               This past September, we posted a blog entry discussing the search for an intern for the Fort St. Joseph Museum.  I am proud to say that I am one of two people selected for this position.  My name is Aaron Howard.  I am an undergrad anthropology student at Western Michigan University.  I was part of the 2013 Fort St Joseph Archaeological Project field school.  The following fall, I was privileged enough to have the opportunity to work in the archaeology lab at WMU under the supervision of Dr. Michael Nassaney and gained a greater understanding of how archaeology works by analyzing and interpreting some of the artifacts recovered in the field season.

Attendees of the 10th Annual MHAC wait for a tour of the Fort St. Joseph Museum

                John Cardinal is the other undergrad anthropology student that was chosen as an intern this year.  He also worked at Fort St. Joseph in 2013 and has volunteered his time in the archaeology lab.  John is partly responsible for the 2013 FSJ t-shirt design and has contributed several illustrations to Dr. Nassaney’s upcoming book on the Fur Trade.

                John and I have been working on several projects since the fall semester began.  Our job description is simply to promote the Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Project.  Our first project was to aid Dr. Nassaney in the 10^th annual Midwest Historical Archaeological Conference that took place in Niles, Michigan in late September.  After the conference, we have been working with some fellow WMU students in Dr. Nassaney’s Historical Archaeology course to create a five-year plan for the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project using data collected from attendees.  We have had some other great opportunities such as presenting a table display at Michigan Archaeology Day, a one-day event held at the Michigan Historical Museum  in Lansing this October, and are working on further efforts to spread the word about Fort St. Joseph.  We've also been managing the FSJAP blog and Facebook page, and just expanded our social media presence by implementing a new Twitter account!  Follow us at @fsjarchaeology.

Our first tweet!

For the past several weeks, John and I have been working with Dr. Nassaney and Michael Worline, a graphic designer with Western Michigan University’s College of Arts and Sciences to create an exhibit display highlighting the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project.  On Monday, December 1, we installed the display in the Bernhard Center here on WMU’s campus.  The display discusses the history of the fort, the project’s recent achievements and accomplishments, and future project events.  The display is down for the break but will be back up on January 12!

Be sure to check out our display in the Bernhard Center

We have one more semester working as interns and we could not be more excited about continuing our work with the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project.  Remember to keep checking the blog, look us up on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Sincerely,

Aaron Howard

2014-15 Fort St. Joseph Museum Intern