Frauds in the Field (Bentley Historical Library)

Frauds in the Field, published by the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library in 2019, summarizes the Soper-Scotford manufacture of thousands of fabricated ancient artifacts across Michigan between 1890 and 1920 and Richard Stamps's 2001 forensic analysis concluding the objects were modern forgeries. Its strength is that the Bentley Historical Library holds the actual archival papers documenting the hoax's operation and Stamps's own forensic findings, making this an institutional account grounded in primary custody of the relevant record rather than secondhand retelling. Its limit is that it is a magazine style institutional summary rather than a full scholarly monograph on the Michigan relics hoax, so a claim needing the complete detail of Stamps's forensic methodology or the fullest account of how thousands of objects were fabricated and planted benefits from his original analysis and other dedicated studies of the hoax alongside this summary.