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Michigan Thumb Area Traditions Project Collection

Between 1995-1997, Michigan State University Museum staff, with support from Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA), conducted a series of field surveys of the traditional culture of Michigan's Thumb area, an area that had been designated by the MCACA as an underserved region. In early 1995, the 4-H FOLKPATTERNS State Programming Committee began planning a maritime workshop for 4-H leaders and educators that would take place in the Thumb, to focus specifically on maritime folklife. Fieldwork by LuAnne Kozma, Asst. Curator of Folk Arts, Michigan State University Museum, led to identification of tradition-bearers for the fall 1995 workshop. In 1997, a team of MSU Museum staff and contracted researchers continued to survey maritime traditions as well as other traditions of the area. This follow-up survey led to the presentation of traditions from Michigan's Thumb as a theme area of the 1998 Festival of Michigan Folklife.

The collection includes photos, audio taped oral histories, field notes, photographs, and a variety of artifacts pertaining to foodways (including the Bay Port Fish sandwich), boat building and repair, commercial fishing, net making and repair, knot tying, Coast Guard traditions, charter boat captain lore, fishing lure making, bait shops, polka, farming, model boat building, quilting, storytelling, waterfowling traditions such as duck decoy carving and duck blind making, religious folk art, religious custom, rural mail boxes, and barns.

Donors and Fieldworkers

Dorris Akers, Michael Chiarrappa, Shari Dann, C. Kurt Dewhurst, LuAnne Kozma, Yvonne Lockwood, William Lockwood, Marsha MacDowell, Nancy Nusz, Hawk Tolson, 4-H youth

Publications

Yvonne R. Lockwood and Marsha MacDowell, eds. 1998 Michigan Folklife Annual. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum, 1998.

Included were the following articles: