public museum

8/6/2019 Public Museum

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The Grand Rapids Public Museum

Jamie Anderson

HTM 235- Site Observation



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Table of Contents

History…………………...3

The Business……………..5

People…………………….5

Site Plan………………….6

References………………11



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History

The origin of the Grand Rapids Public Museum dates back to 1855, when the

Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History was formed. The members—A. O. Currier,

John Ball, James McKee, Charles Shepard, Franklin Everett, Joel Parker, W. L.

Coffinberry, Wm. G. Henry, and Wm. H. DeCamp—intended to establish with this

society a museum and library (Baxter, 1891) . Franklin Everett was a professor who had a

cabinet containing “minerals, geological specimens, and fossils” which he had used for

teaching, and Currier and DeCamp had “fine collections” as well (Baxter, 1891) .

However, the society fell apart in the 1860s. Then, in 1865, a young man by the name of

George Wickwire Smith gathered youths from the Union School and created a club called

the Kent Institute (Fisher, 1918). He asked the former members of the Grand Rapids

Lyceum of Natural History to combine the two societies, and in 1868 the name was

changed to the “Kent Scientific Institute” (Fisher, 1918). The exhibits from the old

society were presented to the new one, and along with new purchases—including Indian

relics from the area, minerals from around the world, mollusks and shells, specimens of

birds, reptiles, mammals, and fish—became the basis of the present museum (Fisher,

1918).

After the Central High School building opened, the exhibits were housed in

various rooms in the schools to aid with the teaching of natural history. The Board of

Education had “complete control” of the property in 1901 and the museum was put



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together in the auditorium of the high school (Fisher, 1918). In 1904, the formal museum

building opened at 54 Jefferson Ave SE, where it would operate until 1994 when it

moved to the Van Andel Museum Center located next to the Grand River at 272 Pearl St.

NW. (Hanks, 2011) .

The new museum was built on the site of the old Voigt Crescent Flour Mill and its

“façade of burnt orange and red brick was a style commonly used in 19 th century Grand

Rapids, and replicates the architectural heritage of Dutch Immigrants” (“Grand rapids

public,” ). The building was designed as a reminder of the mills and furniture factories

that once dominated Grand Rapids, which were located about one mile upstream. Current

exhibits at the museum include: The 1928 Spillman Carousel, Anishinabek: The People

of this Place, Collecting A-Z, Habitats, Newcomers: The People of this Place, Streets of

Old Grand Rapids, and The Furniture City (“Grand rapids public,” ).

Also located inside the museum is the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium. The

planetarium, which opened in 1961, was named after Roger Chaffee, an astronaut from

Grand Rapids who was aboard the Apollo I space capsule when it caught on fire, leading

to his death (“Grand rapids public,” ). The planetarium helps educate people about the

stars and planets, and wows them with classic rock laser light shows (“Grand rapids

public,” ). When the new Van Andel Museum Center opened in 1994, the planetarium

moved as well, and its fifty foot dome is located on the second floor just above the main

entrance.



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The Business

The Grand Rapids Public Museum is a public, nonprofit organization. While it

was owned and operated by the city of Grand Rapids for 92 years, it became its own

“independent 501 c 3” organization in 2006 (“Grand rapids public,” ). Even though the

museum no longer needed to pay income tax, its budget was cut in half and now runs

purely admission fees and donations.

The museum can be easily viewed as one attraction in a cluster of attractions in

downtown Grand Rapids. It is located across the street from the Gerald R. Ford

Presidential Museum, and is a minute’s drive or walk across the pedestrian bridge over

the river to the Van Andel Arena, DeVos Place Convention Center, the JW Marriott, and

numerous restaurants, bars, and nightclubs.

People

Patrons to the museum seemed to be evenly divided between being tourists and

local visitors. Some people could be seen studying the map layout of the museum and

taking pictures, posing outside of the museum and near the river with the Grand Rapids

cityscape in the background. Others paid for their tickets, and without looking at a

museum map, headed straight up the main staircase to the traveling exhibit “Bodies:

Revealed”. It was as if they had been to the museum before, as they knew their way

around quite well. Some families were making a day of the museum, and had lunch with

their children in the museum’s cafe while taking a break from the exhibits. One would



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assume that these were out-of-town tourists, compared to the families and couples who

only looked at the major exhibits before leaving the museum.

On the particular day of this field observation, about 50% of the visitors were

families with children, 40% were couples without children, and 10% were single visitors.

About 30% were of age infant to 20, 20% 20-35 years old, 40% were middle-aged, and

about 10% were elderly. The vast majority of guests on this date and time were white,

with only about 10-15% being non-white. Also, everyone seemed to be middle-class or

upper middle-class, because the cars in the parking garage did not seem very old and

everyone seemed to be dressed well. However, that observation is purely speculation.

Site Plan

Upon arrival to the museum, guests could park in the museum parking garage

located on the South end of the museum property, or they could park elsewhere in the

city or on side streets and walk. The area around the museum is very well landscaped and

is very handicap accessible. Even though the parking garage is separate from the



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museum, it is very close and the walk is short. The main entrance was on the North end

of the building; right inside the front doors is the ticket box.

There were restrooms on each of the three floors of the museum, and the café was

located on the second floor. On the first floor leading to the carousel and main staircase is

a large Galleria that also serves as a large hallway to the “Streets of Old Grand Rapids”

exhibit.

The Galleria was large enough to allow guests to congregate around various

exhibits while leaving room for other guests to pass through to the second and third

floors. The second floor housed the café where it seemed families were meeting up after

looking at different exhibits, and there seemed to be no “dead space” as each corner and

wall were adorned with collections and other museum paraphernalia. However, on both

the second and third floors, there were major bottleneck areas where men and women



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were leaving the restroom. The restrooms exited out to a narrow hallway where there

were parts of exhibits lining the walls, and thus there were people trying to travel to a

different part of the museum, people exiting the restrooms, and people standing in the

hallway looking at the exhibits all at once. While the museum as a whole was relatively

un-crowded and bottleneck-free, these areas were quite congested and crowded. A site-

layout of the museum is included on the next page.

Overall, the Grand Rapids Public Museum is a great place for visiting tourists and

local residents alike to visit and learn about history. The location on the river and the

clean and welcoming ambience of the building are very aesthetically pleasing, and one

feels relaxed being there. The public museum is but one of many great attractions for

tourism in the Grand Rapids Area, which is ever evolving and growing.



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References

B a x t e r , A . ( 1 8 9 1 ) . H i s t o ry o f t he c i t y o f g rand rap i ds , m i ch i gan [ p p . 2 4 9 -

2 5 0 ] . ( G o o g l e B o o k s ) , R e t r i e v e d f r o m h t t p : / / b o o k s . g o o g l e . c o m

F i s h e r , E . ( 1 9 1 8 ) . G r a n d r a p i d s a n d k e n t c o u n t y , m i c h i g a n : h i s t o r i c a l

a c c o u n t o f t h e i r p r o g r e s s f r o m f i r s t s e t t l e m e n t t o t h e p r e s e n t t i m e

[ p p . 4 1 4 - 4 1 5 ] . ( G o o g l e B o o k s ) , R e t r i e v e d f r o m

h t t p : / / w w w . b o o k s . g o o g l e . c o m

H a n k s , S . ( 2 0 1 1 , F e b r u a r y 7 ) . P l ans unve i l ed t hur sday even i ng t o

t r a n s f o r m f o r m e r g r a n d r a p i d s p u b l i c m u s e u m s i t e i n t o a

" l e a r n i n g l a b o r a t o r y " . R e t r i e v e d f r o m

h t t p : / / t h e r a p i d ia n . o r g / p l a n s - u n v e i l e d - t h ur s d a y - e v e n i n g - t r a n s f o r m -

f o r m e r - g r a n d - r a p i d s - p u b l i c - m u s e u m - s i t e - l e a r n i n g - l a b o r a t o r y

G r a n d r a p i d s p u b l i c m u s e u m . ( n . d . ) . R e t r i e v e d f r o m

h t t p : / / w w w . g r m u s e u m . o r g /

public museum

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