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Artifact type: Historical

Bone Button Blank

This piece of bone is scrap from the making of bone button backs. A circular drill was used to cut bone discs from flat pieces of animal bone. These bone

Hand-Painted Pearlware Pitcher

Pearlware was a common type of ceramic in the early nineteenth century. Even after transfer printing was developed, hand-painted designs continued, and were somewhat cheaper. This reassembled pitcher is one

Microscope Lens

Part of the provision storehouse was used as the post hospital from about 1815 until it was razed and rebuilt in 1827. This objective lens from a microscope was used

Bone Knife

This little knife is carved entirely from bone, including the blades. Someone must have spent many hours crafting this as a showpiece or gift. It has no practical function.

Ink Bottle

Ink bottles are common in trash pits outside Fort Mackinac. Cone shaped bottles like this are the most common and usually date to the nineteenth century. The bottom of this

Coffee Mill Plate

“J. & E. PARKER’S UNION MILL Pat. Nov. 20, 1855 & Feb. 7, 1860” The Parker family, Charles, John and Edmund were prolific makers of coffee mills and other domestic

Champagne Bottle

A stone-lined well in excess of eighty feet deep was one of the original features of Fort Mackinac. It failed prior to 1812 and was filled in over the next

General Service Button

In 1854 the American army finally settled on a standard button design for all enlisted men. This design, an eagle with a lined shield, was used with minor variations until

Brass Helmet Spike and Base

The United State Army ordered a major re-design of its uniforms in 1872. Because the Prussian and British armies were the most successful in the world at that time, the