This pocket-knife, featuring bone inlays and a shield motif, was recovered during excavations performed by CAP in the area of Beaumont Tower, and is likely associated with College Hall, the campus’s first academic structure, which served a variety of functions for the young college beginning in 1856.
Like several other early campus buildings, the building’s structural integrity was compromised by short-sighted construction techniques, and after a brief malfated effort to perserve the building and transform it into a student union in 1914, the structure was left to deteriorate until several walls collapsed in 1918.
Alternatively, the artifact could have been mixed into debris from College Hall during the construction or demolition of the Artillery Garage, which was built along the foundations of College Hall and stood between 1918 and 1928, when it was removed to make way for the construction of Beaumont Tower.
Background image courtesy of the Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections.
CC AttributionCreative Commons Attribution
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