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A Singular Program Delves into Industrial Heritage
What Michigan Tech graduate program is unique in North America and among just four in the world? The Department of Social Sciences built a program that joins just two others in England and one in Sweden in the field of industrial archaeology-the study of the buildings, machinery, and equipment of industry. Tech's master's program began in 1993, the PhD program in 2005. The discipline of industrial archaeology (IA) started in England as an effort to preserve the birthplace of the industrial revolution. "Our students," says Bruce Seely, chair of the social sciences department, "are better trained than almost anybody else to interpret and understand the industrial past." Seely says that the future of both graduate programs is limited only by imagination and one overriding challenge: generating the money and opportunities for graduate students to undertake research projects for one to four years. So far, the range of opportunity for students has been broad-from the Copper Country to Cold Springs, New York; from St. Croix in the Caribbean to Svalbard, an island archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Svalbard, one of the more exciting prospects for student work, is the site for a multination study of coal mining at the site of the historic Arctic Coal Company. Students will work with scholars from Norway, Sweden, Britain, Russia, and the Netherlands. The late John Longyear—a mining engineer from Marquette and a former member of the MTU Board of Control—started the Arctic Coal Company around 1905. Many of his papers reside in the Michigan Tech Archives, and European scholars have traveled to Houghton to study them. Professor Patrick Martin, director of Michigan Tech's graduate program in IA, says, "They also were interested in our industrial archaeology techniques." The venture promises the opportunity for long-term research that may expand to a multinational study of human activities—particularly whaling and the extraction of furs—in the Arctic and Antarctic. Behind these overtures from Europe, Seely says, "is our reputation as the people to do this kind of work. The crucial thing is that they approached us." The future of the program bodes well because, Seely says, such is the demand for them that "we can pretty much guarantee they will get jobs." A natural laboratory in the KeweenawWho doesn't remember the broken-down buildings, lonesome chimneys, and slag piles visible from campus? Abandoned mineshafts, stamp mills, and piles of poor rock are scattered around the Keweenaw.
Martin knows the program fits the geography. Being located in the area of an "iconic" mining boom, he says, puts Tech "in the middle of a natural laboratory for doing this work. The archives are great. The sites are great." The two, he says, ideally comprise the inquiry called industrial archaeology. "History and archaeology in most universities are in different departments, whereas ours are in one." And Martin reminds us, "If it weren't for the copper, this community wouldn't exist. That whole process, the rise and fall of industrial societies, is really what we're interested in." "I think we should care about these visible reminders of the basis of our modern society," says Martin. "I don't begin to advocate that we keep every waste pile from every derelict industry. But I do think it's worthwhile to save some of them. Palpable, physical things stir questions and memories in people in a way that's very different than just talking about it. Ruins and resources tie memory, feeling, and experience together to commemorate these important events of the past." The public image of archaeologists is people sifting through the earth with trowels and brushes and sieves, looking for pottery sherds and arrowheads and bones. "We do that, too," Martin says, but students also "sense buried things" using remote-sensing technologies, such as ground penetration radar and proton magnetometers. Industrial archaeologists also study, Martin says, "the big and obvious"—steam engines, dams, and bridges. "A handful of institutions in the world do that," he says. All of it suggests to him "the role of industry in the broad sweep of social development." "Industrialization," he says, "is one of the most profound sets of events and processes in all of human history." It resulted in the switch from local to global consumption, from self-sufficiency to labor specialization and mutual dependence. Looking at industrialization is key, Martin says, "to understanding how the world we live in came to be." Curator connects with the pastOne day in February, when winter laid siege on Upper Michigan, Barry James '95, was asked about his work as curator of education for four state-owned historic sites in the UP.
A native of Marquette who received a master's degree in industrial archaeology from Michigan Tech, he works for the Michigan Historical Center, helping to oversee the state historical sites in the Upper Peninsula: Michigan Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee, Fort Wilkins State Park at Copper Harbor, Fayette Historic Townsite in Garden, and the Father Marquette National Memorial in St. Ignace. James, 40, loves his work—educating the public about history—and has only one lament: "I don't get a chance to get my hands dirty anymore." He's talking about fieldwork. Tech's industrial archaeology program, he says, combined historical archaeology, material culture, and the history of technology to tell a compelling story about the exploration and settlement of the UP, and the growth of its copper- and iron-mining industries. While at Michigan Tech, James wrote a paper on early transportation and roads in the Keweenaw. "There were no roads in the beginning," he says of the mid-1840s settlement of the region. "People came by small boat or canoe and eventually built roads from harbors to mines or mines to harbors. Only later did they connect the mining sites with inland roads." Such work fascinates him. "Many people think of archaeology as Indiana Jones going to exotic areas with tombs and artifacts. Industrial archaeology examines industrial sites and cultural remains—both above- and belowground—to tell the story of people who lived and worked in an industrial environment. It also studies the industrial processes at these sites." It's an important legacy, he says. "For more than 150 years, Michigan's iron industry has contributed to the nation's growth. It has supplied the raw material that built American cities and transportation networks. Its two operating iron mines contribute nearly twenty-five percent of the nation's iron today." Quite simply, he says, "industry is part of the fabric of life" in the region and the nation. He strives to keep that historic role foremost in people's imaginations. His most important work, he says, is educating people about historical sites and archaeology in the UP. "I really enjoy teaching students about history and trying to convey a sense of ownership of these sites." "I've used nearly everything I learned at Tech in my work. That's a pretty strong statement. The education and practical training I received in the IA program was outstanding." Industrial Archaeology at MTU1969: MTU social sciences department established. 1971: Society for Industrial Archeology (SIA) founded. 1993: MTU master's program in Industrial Archaeology (IA) begins. 1995: Tech becomes the headquarters for SIA and Industrial Archeology journal. 2005: MTU PhD program in IA begins. By the numbers:
For more on the IA graduate program, go to www.ss.mtu.edu/IA/iahm.html. |
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© 2006, Michigan Tech Magazine |
Michigan Tech Magazine | Spring 2006 | http://www.mtu.edu/alumni |
Many people see the sites as mining junk to be cleared away; others see them as reminders of a fascinating past to be preserved. For graduate students in Tech's industrial archaeology program, the sites are the perfect laboratory, mixing social science and technology, combining history and archaeology.
"Right now I'm learning what I don't know much about," he said, explaining that he is researching the Jesuit missionaries who helped explore the Lake Superior region, "snowshoeing in the kind of weather we're seeing today, and we're getting pounded." James, in his winter cubbyhole known as the iron museum, was out of reach of the weather but right in touch with the region's history and its explorers.