University of Michigan SATC - telephone/telegraph workers

Here we have the University of Michigan Students' Army Training Corps vocational telephone men exhibiting their abilities to climb telephone/telegraph poles -  and have a good time about it.

Michigan's training camp does not seem to have been lacking in funding or leadership, with projects ranging from mechanical training and truck repair to the installation of telephone lines and the digging of a series of full-scale trenches.

I'm not sure if my favorite in this photo is the guy tipping his hat, or the one hanging backwards off the pole. 

New Semester!

I'm back at college for my last undergraduate semester!  I'll be working on my thesis on the Student's Army Training Corps, Vocational Division, taking a Progressive Era history class, and taking a museum studies course on Material Cultures. I can't believe I'm almost done with my BA degree... on to bigger and better things, I guess!

In the spirit of back-to-school, with all of the necessary complaining about all the other students who always seem to get in your way while walking around campus, I will leave you with this little tidbit from the New Hampshire College Newspaper:

I don't remember exactly which issue I got this from, but it is from 1918.  I like how in this case, the German language is equated with ridiculous accents and overblown arrogance and buffoonery - making both underclassmen and the wartime enemy seem like harmless fools.  It reminds me of this WWI sheet music cover, which shows Germans as almost equally harmless:

Anyway, I think it is a very clever use of wartime mockery, strengthening the belief in the power structure of two communities: American civilization would triumph over an inept Germany, and well-educated upperclassmen would keep their authority over the unjustifiably arrogant younger students.  

WWI advice for avoiding flu

Given the recent media focus on flu, I thought I would share this 96-year-old advice for avoiding the virus.

This comes from the October 26, 1918 issue of The New Hampshire newspaper, under control of the US government and the Students Army Training Corps.  By this point in October, the Spanish Flu epidemic was mostly passed, but it had already killed ten student soldiers in the New Hampshire College SATC camp. The college had to delay its opening to the Officers Division of the SATC and non-soldier students until October 7, and women were not allowed on campus until October 15.  All students had to be inspected for signs of "grippe" before they could register.

I got an email from UNH the other day warning me to take precautionary measures against the flu, telling me to stay home and not go to classes if I felt sick.  I immediately thought of this advice to "avoid work." 

As an archaeology side note - during my summer excavation of the SATC barracks site with the anthropology department, I found this medicine bottle dating to 1918, which I can only assume was associated with some soldier recovering from the flu.