Introducing our latest artifact of the week series: Lab Artifact of the Week! In this evolving exhibit you will see some of our favorite artifacts from ongoing work in the CAP laboratory. Each week we will share one artifact on Instagram, highlighting how we identify and learn from material culture. As students and archaeologists, we all have different experiences and knowledges…we can never know everything! Each time we step into the lab we learn (or re-learn) something.
We invite you to come learn with us as we share our methods, lab tips and tricks, and what we appreciate or are frustrated by. Comment on this post or on our Instagram page with any questions, advice, or your own stories of working with material culture!
Newspapers and magazines are not designed to be permanent, when they are not carefully preserved these fascinating artifacts can quickly be lost. If a newspaper does show up in an archaeological dig, they give archaeologists a great way to date a stratum (soil layer) or feature (soil representing an event). We can be fairly certain that the newspaper did not enter the feature or layer before that date, known to archaeologists as the terminus post quem, or “date after which.”
Left: Tattered newspaper fragment, dated Wednesday February 12, 1958 recovered from Service Road Construction, 2020. Newspaper is likely the Lansing State Journal. Image courtesy of Rhian Dunn. Right: Archival image of Lansing State Journal, Wednesday February 12, 1958. Call-out box shows same article as on the fragment recovered from Service Road.
Thank you, technology! In the age of smartphones and watches – and who knows what else – it can be easy to forget just how much the structure of research has changed. Finding the right newspaper could have once taken weeks – and now is one click away with a few choice key words in a search engine. While it may not always be easy to find original sources, we lucked out this week and were able to not only find the original newspaper, but the exact page that our #artifactoftheweek came from! This scrap of newspaper came from our Service Road excavation last summer and is extremely interesting for several reasons. First, it has a date! While many of artifacts from this excavation suggest an era extending from the 1930-60s, having an exact date is one sure way to verify our findings and help form new hypotheses or research paths. Secondly, it tells us more about the people who lived here and confirms that this newspaper was in circulation on MSU’s campus. We love to see that our local newspaper was making an impact even then!
Something seemed a little fishy in the lab this week – and by that, of course I mean our new #artifactoftheweek!
This old sardine can is another one of our many new artifacts that came from last summers the Service Road construction project. Although many of us are familiar with sardines (and may even have strong opinions about them being on our pizza), you may not know that the source of this can, Maine, was one of the biggest hubs for sardine canneries over the last century.
At its peak in the 1950s, Maine boasted approximately 50 canneries and employed thousands of workers! Maine sardine canneries first gained traction in the 1870s, but none are active today – in fact, the last sardine cannery in Maine, and in the United States, closed down almost 11 years ago.
Although not visible in this image due to its distorted shape, the bottom of the can reads “EASTPORT MAINE.” And this text helps us identify the source of this can as the Holmes Packing Corp. of Eastport in Rockland Co., Maine! This cannery was active from 1946 until a fire destroyed the building in 1985, which fits in with the other dates we’ve found from our Service Road artifacts (ca. 1940-60s).
One fun fact: The Holmes Packing Corp. actually trademarked the term “Sea Foam” for their canned fish from 1921 to 2007!
“Minnie Thomas, 9 years old, showing average size of sardine knife used in cutting. Some of the children used a knife as large as this. Minnie works regularly in Seacoast Canning Co., Factory #7, mostly in the packing room, and when very busy works nights. Cuts some, also cartons. She says she earns $2.00 some days, packing.” Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Prior to Holmes opening in 1946, Eastport already was the site of many sardine canneries. Prior to federal laws regulating child-labor in the 1930s, factory owners often hired children to work in their canneries. Read more about this history in an article by Alex Q. Arbuckle. The image above is one of many amazing photographs by sociologist Lewis Hine included in Arbuckle’s article.
Taking a Shine to Lab Work
Today, we are taking a look at another blast from the past from the Service Road construct project: An Esquire shoe polish bottle. If you aren’t familiar with this particular brand of shoe polish, this was actually the bestselling brand from 1940-60s in the United States!
During its reign at the top of the market, Esquire Shoe Polish and the Knomark Manufacturing Company that produced the polish were owned by Sam and Albert Adams. These two brothers turned the tides of the previously ailing company by pushing a strong advertising campaign, which included the famous Kate Smith (as seen inthe ads below), that helped turn a profit for the company.
Top left: Colorless glass bottle embossed with with “Esquire Lano Wax”; Middle left: Close up view of Esquire “Lano Wax” bottle (Images courtesy of Rhian Dunn); Bottom Left: Mid-20th century black and white advertisement for Esquire boot polish (Image source); Right: Mid-20th century color advertisement for Esquire “Lano Wax” (Image Source).
While the Adams brothers sold the company in the late 1950s, the Esquire brand has continued to change owners and still sells shoe polish today! The bottom of this artifact reads “KNOMARK MFG CO. INC. BKLYN, N.Y.,” which helps us identify that this particular bottle was sold while the company was still based in New York and when it was sold from the Esquire Building on 330 Wythe Ave (which was bought out in 1984 and later turned into a condo).
Our bottle is missing its cap, which would have held a built in brush for application purposes!
Check out this vintage advertisement for Esquire Lano Wax!
We Can Bear-ly Contain Our Excitement
This week, we would like to showcase a Ruth Van Tellingen Bendel Bear Salt and Pepper Shaker found at the Service Road construction project. Although we do not have both, this artifact is one of a set of two interlocking figurines!
Image courtesy of Autumn Painter.
We are able to identify this artifact due to the maker’s mark on the bottom, which reads “Van Tellingen // © BEAR HUG.” We can trace this artifact back to a patent by artist Ruth Van Tellingen in 1951 for a “condiment dispenser comprising interlocking figurines.” However, we also know that the word “Bendel” was added to the maker’s mark in 1958 – as “Bendel” is not included on this artifact, we can trace it back to a narrow range of 1951-58!
This precise dating fits in well with the previous artifacts we’ve looked at as a part of this series, helping us get a better picture for the time period this deposit represents!
Research credit: Emily Milton
Setting the Record Straight
As we continue to look at our artifacts from the Service Road construction project, we found this week’s artifact: An Edison Diamond Disc! This small red disc looks like an old music record, but was actually used with a machine, called the V.P. Edison Voicewriter (image 3), to record voice memos in the office!
With the simple press of a button, the machine would scratch a message into the disc, which could be played back at a later time for transcription or other purposes. While previous versions of these dictation machines (called “Dictaphones”) existed, they were bulky and relied on substrate, often wax, which could be easily scratched, reducing the quality of the recording. To combat this, the release of V.P. Edison Voicewriter in 1953 stood out in the market for its portability and the red 7-inch plastic discs (like our artifact!) that could withstand wear and tear. In fact, we at CAP are interested in finding out just how durable these discs are!
We have begun the process of researching just how we might be able to play the recording on this disc to not only see a bit of our history, but listen to it too!! We can’t wait to share what we learn!
The Sweet Smell of Success…fuly Dating an Old Spice Bottle
This week, we are highlighting a product that may be more familiar to viewers: An Old Spice cologne bottle!
But while you may have heard of this brand name or seen it in grocery stores, you have probably never seen it in this form! Original Old Spice bottles from 1938 featured a labeled with a large ship, as seen on our artifact, but the words “Old” And “Spice” were on either side of the centered ship. As our artifact has “Old Spice” underneath the ship, and has a paragraph of instructions on the back, we can identify that this bottle dates to 1956-1966!
This applied color label was able to tell us a lot of information despite its damaged appearance – one of the reasons we have strict artifact cleaning instructions! In order to avoid further damage to applied color labels, CAP fellows steer clear of any water or soap – instead, just a dry brush is used carefully. And while this artifact has been useful in continuing to confirm the date of the overall Service Road construction collection, we are hoping to use it in a new project looking at hygiene products used at MSU – and perhaps doings some analyses on the liquids still contained within them to see whether any remnants of the original product still remain!
Whetting one’s Whistle on a Dry Campus: Cutty Sark Whiskey
This week, our artifact takes the form of a large, green bottle with lettering that reads “FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE” and “BERRY BROS & RUDD LTD, LONDON, ENGLAND.” Although there is no paper label or applied color label on this bottle, the company – Berry Bros & Rudd LTD – gives us some great clues about the origin of this bottle! This bottle was a bit tricky to date for our lab team. One one hand, the bottle seems to have been hand-made using a mouth-blown bottle mold, a method that was largely replaced by bottle-blowing machines in the early 1900s–we can tell by the mold lines on the top and base of the bottle. On the other hand, the “Federal Law Forbids…” label came only began in 1935! We had to dig deeper to understand why a bottle no older than the mid-1930s was produced using methods from the 1800s!
Berry Bros & Ruff LTD are a company that has been in operation since the 1600s and is famous for its wine selection today. While they operate outside of the US, they actually played a huge role during probation in the 1920s. In an effort to branch in the US market, they created a new whiskey, Cutty Sark, in 1923 to sell in the Bahamas, a popular stop for alcohol smugglers. Cutty Sark sold so well in the US that 80,000 cases sold after the probation was appealed and it became one of the post popular whiskeys in the 1960s. The age of the company the fact that the bottle held imported whiskey, may explain the anachronistic (out of time) method of production–we think that maybe this was an expensive, specialty liquor at the time of purchase. It is possible that Berry Bros & Ruff used older methods at some point, either to highlight the exclusivity of Cutty Sark or because they produced the liquor in relatively small quantities, an did not need a bottle machine.
Considering the history of this whiskey within the company and the shape, color, and lettering on this bottle, it is very likely a Cutty Sark! And, because Cutty Sark switched to a screw bottle cap from a cork around 1970/71, we can then approximately date our bottle from 1923-1969! We can further narrow this date to between 1935 – 1964, because of the “Federal Law Forbids..” label, which was required by U.S. law during those years. So, who ever was drinking this Cutty Sark whiskey may have been breaking MSU anti-alcohol policy, but was not skirting federal prohibition.
Head Over Heels For Prell: A Mid-Century Shampoo Concentrate Gel
This week, we are featuring another hygiene product: a tube of Prell Concentrate Shampoo. Prell shampoo was first introduced in 1947 by Proctor & Gamble and is still sold in stores today, along with a matching conditioner that was reintroduced in 2019. After its initial release, this brand of shampoo was made famous by its strong advertising campaign, helping it become the best-selling brand of shampoo, along with Head & Shoulders, in 1977. As you can see in the advert below, in the mid-20th century Prell was part of a transition away from heavier, cream based shampoos popular in earlier decades.
Therefore, in order to date our shampoo tube, we can actually look at the evolution of ads over time to see how our product design changed over time! Looking at ads from 1953 (image 1), 1970 (image 3, and 1978 (image 4), we can see that the striped pattern behind the letters “PRELL” on our bottle is an exact match for the ad in 1970! So, we can date our product to approximately 1960s -1978 – this a later date than some of our previous artifacts from the Service Road construction project, but this just means this site was still being used around this time!
Below is an example of a Prell commercial from the 1960s that shows the stripped bottle we found at service road and provides an example of how the product was marketed at the time. While this commercial is not solidly dated, the Duke University Library dates another commercial with the same bottle to the 1960s. We do not share this video because it includes homophobic language, which while important to preserve for conversations about advertising, discrimination, exclusion in American society, is not appropriate for this series.
Not returning a Hudsonville Milk Bottle? How Dairy!
This week our artifact is another bottle that found its way into in the Service Road trash dump, but this one originates from a company you may know for one of their other products – ice cream! That’s right, our artifact is a Hudsonville Dairy half pint milk bottle!
Hudsonville Ice Cream, LLC began as a local farmer’s cooperative in 1895 who joined forces to sell products such as milk, butter, and cream. Together, they established a physical location in Hudsonville, Ottawa Co., MI where the ice cream side of the business took off. Although, it wasn’t until 1926 that Hudsonville produced ice cream in the summer months, with the invention of a continuous process freezer. Despite changing hands a few times, the company is still in business and remains family-owned and –operated to this day and has grown from only six to more than 30 ice cream flavors!
Back in 2011, a spokesperson for MSU cited Hudsonville Dairy as one of the many local products sold at the Brody Square dining facility and praised it as a campus favorite. However, with this artifact, we can say that Hudsonville Dairy has been a fixture on campus for much longer!
However, this is not the first milk bottle to be found on campus – check out our blog from 2012 on “Dairy Bottles Found on MSU’s Campus” to learn more!
Dandri-what now?!: A Bottle of Anti-Dandruff Chemical
This week, we are looking at another hygiene product: dandricide! Dandricide is a product that was produced by a company known as King Research Inc., which has been in operation since it opened its door in New York in 1947. Today, they are known for their similarly named product Barbicide, which is used to disinfect combs, razors, and other barber tools.
In comparison, Dandricide was geared towards members of the public and advertised to reduce even the toughest cases of dandruff. Although the product was officially trademarked between the years of 1967 and 2020, based on newspaper ads, we know the product was in circulation as early as 1954!
It’s really interesting to see so many hygiene products emerge from our Service Road construction project collection – and how many of these products have changed over time or have been pulled off the market. We can’t wait to learn more about this during our ongoing hygiene product study!
East Lansing’s First-Rate Fizz: A Hi-Klas Soda Bottle
This week, our artifact is an old local favorite: a Hi-Klas soda bottle! Hi-Klas Beverage Company was once one of the top-selling soda pops in five separate Mid-Michigan counties! The company was born through the work of Louis and Sara Shanker, a couple who immigrated to the United States from Russia and Poland before WWI. The couple originally sold Buckeye Beer in Lansing, MI before purchasing the assets of Hire-Kas Bottling Co. in 1993, changing the name company name to the now, well-known Hi-Klas Beverage Co.
In 1946, Hi-Klas Beverages Co. acquired the rights to bottle Dr. Pepper in order to increase sales, but in 1952, traded those rights in n order to bottle Canada Dry beverages. At this time, the company name changed to Canada Dry Bottling Co. of Lansing, which it is still called today!
Due to the applied color label on this bottle reading “Hi-Klas Beverages,” we know that this bottle must date between 1933 and 1952. And while, this bottle was chosen as our artifact of the week, this was not the only Hi-Klas beverages bottle in the Service Rd. construction project collection – clearly this local soda company was a favorite on MSU’s campus!
CAP’s Sauciest Artifact: An Open Pit Barbeque Bottle
This week our artifact is another bottle from the Service Road construction collection, but one that held a regional favorite – Open Pit Barbeque Sauce! Open Pit produced their first BBQ sauce in Detroit in 1953, released their second product, The Thick & Tangy, in 1986, and have since produced a wide variety of flavors, such as Brown Sugar & Spice, Honey, and Onion.
While their sauces were originally sold in glass bottles, Open Pit made the switch to plastic bottles in 2006. Our bottle is glass with a screw top and matches an ad released in 1961 (below). As the label is no longer present on our artifact, it is not possible to confirm which type of BBQ sauce was sold in this bottle. However, due to its resemblance to the 1961 ad and the range of dates of other artifacts in this collection (~1950-60s), it likely dates from 1953 and may have even held the original sauce recipe!
Our Puns Are Getting A Little Dry: An Arrid Deodorant Jar
With warm weather hopefully around the corner, it seemed fitting to introduce our next artifact: ARRID Deodorant! This product is famously produced by Carter-Wallace, Inc., which has had a long history since its start in Erie, PA. In the early 1800s, Dr. John Samuel Carter began to advertise “little liver pills” that gained so much popularity, a four-floor plant was built in 1859 to mass produce them. As sales picked up nationally, the company moved to New York and established itself as the Carter Medicine Company.
In the early 1900s, the company began to diversify its product line and realized a need for a combined deodorant and antiperspirant product, which was not yet available on the market. To solve this problem, the ARRID cream deodorant was launched in 1935, earning the company $1 million that year, and leading the company to change its name to Carter Products, Inc. in 1937. In 1965, the company again changed its name to Carter-Wallace, Inc. to recognize one of its divisions, the Wallace Laboratory, which had compiled more than 13 product innovations.
To date our artifact, we can break down some of these facts. Our container has the label “Carter Products, Inc.” (image 2) so we know that it had to have been produced between 1937 and 1965. However, our product is “ARRID with Perstop,” an extra ingredient that was not included in the original formula. By looking at an advertisement from 1957 (image 3), we see that introduces the “New ARRID with Perstop” product as “1½ times as effective.” As it advertises Arrid with Perstop as “new,” we can estimate that our artifact likely dates from around 1957 to 1965.
On Your Mark… Get Set… Style! Get Set Hair Setting Lotion
And get ready for this week’s artifact: Get Set Hair Setting Lotion! This hair styling product was sold by Alberto-Culver, which is famous today for brands such as TRESemé and St. Ives Swiss Formula. The company name actually originates from its first owner, Blaine Culver, and the house chemist, Alberto, back when the company was based out of Los Angeles, CA. However, the company didn’t begin to produce the products we are more familiar with until after 1955, when the company was bought by Leonard H. Lavin and moved to Chicago, IL where over 100 products were suspended to focus in on one: Alberto VO5.
In the first year after the move, the company only made $100,000, despite Lavin having bought the company for $400,000. To make ends meet, the company turned to marketing and put everything they could towards television advertisements. And it worked! By 1958, Alberto VO5 was the number one brand in its category.
As for our artifact, “Get Set” was first used in 1961 and was officially trademarked in 1962. This product, sold as both a gel and lotion, was advertised to “give your hair body, bounce, control” with only once-a-week use (image 3). While it is hard to say when the product was officially taken off the marked, its trademark was cancelled in 2003.
Luckily, we can look at advertisements from that time to date our artifact! Image 3 shows an ad from 1971 which features our product, but with a slightly different label design – one that actually matches a commercial released in 1968 (link). So we know that our product was not sold between 1968-1971. But, a look at an older ad from 1964 (link) shows a product with a label just like ours! Therefore, we can date our artifact to approximately 1964-1968.