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.
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| 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 10th 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.
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| 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!
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| 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
