Tuskegee Institute Magic Lantern Slides.

Tuskeegee Magic Lantern Slide

A Rare Discovery within the Collections.

A rare discovery was recently uncovered in the GRPM’s Collections 69 black and white, photographic magic lantern slides depicting the Tuskegee Institute at the turn of the 20th century. The Tuskegee Institute, now referred to as Tuskegee University, is a private, historically black university, located in Tuskegee, Alabama. It is well known for its first president, Booker T. Washington, as the home of scientist George Washington Carver and of the World War II era Tuskegee Airmen.

The GRPM made this discovery as staff were digitizing the magic lantern slide collection, a process made possible through a Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Magic lantern slides are images printed on transparent glass plates that were used extensively in education and entertainment throughout the early 20th century. With the help of Dr. Randal Maurice Jelks, a local historian who has written about Booker T. Washington’s visits to Grand Rapids, the GRPM staff was able to confirm that the slides were indeed early images of Tuskegee.

Booker T. Washinton, Tuskegee Institute's first president

“Booker T. Washington in his efforts to build Tuskegee Institute under the harshest conditions of southern Jim Crow politics. Washington traveled throughout Michigan seeking support from industrialists, as well as wealthy Protestant churches. He came to Grand Rapids at least four times and made significant inroads into the city's businesses and religious communities. He was such an important figure in the city that there was a city-wide memorial for him when he died in 1915. Not everyone agreed with Washington’s political approach or methods in the city, but all respected that he was born under the lash of slavery and overcame barriers to build Tuskegee. Washington rose to international stature and offered hope to people on the African continent, in the English speaking Caribbean, and among Black Americans in the United State, of what was possible entrepreneurially and in the trades to overcome racial colonialism and racism. These slides represent that at one time, Grand Rapids was once seen on the national level, viewed by people outside the city, as semi-progressive abolitionist post civil war city.”

“We always get excited when we discover something like the Tuskegee slides in the Collection. But it is important to remember that we only have these objects today because our predecessors had the foresight to save them. This is what museums are all about, preserving the physical pieces of the past so that we can learn from and be inspired by them in new contexts today, and into the future. Magic Lantern Slides were a state of the art teaching tool one hundred years ago, but now they have another purpose of showing us what educators here in Grand Rapids were teaching their students over 100 years ago.”

Tuskegee Institute Magic Lantern Slide, Faculty Council
Faculty council in front of the Carnegie Hall, which housed the school's first library from 1901-1932.

The GRPM’s magic lantern slides were widely circulated in the Grand Rapids Public Schools district for decades as an engaging teaching tool that could transport students around the world. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the slides by researchers because of their role in the history of technology and as a visual resource for local historians. With support from IMLS, the GRPM will digitize, catalog and rehouse roughly 5,000 magic lantern slides over the next year. The slides can be viewed online at (https://www.grpmcollections.org/Detail/collections/335) and in addition to the Tuskegee slides, include images on national, state, and local topics such as “World War I”, “Lumbering in Michigan,” and “General Motors Grand Rapids Stamping Division. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [MA-245291-OMS-20].

The Tuskegee Institute magic lantern slides, as well as over 190,000 artifacts and specimens, can be explored from anywhere, at any time on the GRPM’s digital Collections website, available at grpmcollections.org.

Documenting U.S. President History.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Visiting Grand Rapids

Explore the GRPM's Presidential Memorabilia.

The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States of America and Kamala Harris, as the nation’s first female, woman of color vice president, is taking place today, January 20, 2021. To commemorate this important event, the GRPM is actively collecting artifacts that capture this historic transition of power and the uniqueness of an election that took place during a global pandemic. These artifacts will become a part of GRPM’s permanent Collections and will be preserved, so future generations can learn about this significant time period in U.S. history.

Did you know? The GRPM’s Collections contain artifacts related to every U.S. President! Some of these objects demonstrate the significant role of Michigan voters in U.S. elections, including campaign photos of visits to Grand Rapids by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Harry Truman. Explore the GRPM’s Collections to find a custom top hat that was designed by L.W. Heath, a Grand Rapids hatmaker, for President James A. Garfield in 1881.

Of course, President Gerald R. Ford, who was raised in Grand Rapids, is well represented with special artifacts like a 1976 campaign cane gifted to Henry J. Danielski by Ford himself. Danielski, a World War II veteran, experienced a leg injury during the war and when Ford noticed his limp, he generously gave him (Danielski) the cane to help him walk. In more recent years, items from presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will include physical objects, digital images, emails and social media clippings representing the new methods presidents use to communicate and connect with the American people.

The GRPM’s Presidential Memorabilia Collection also contains many items dating back to the country’s first president, George Washington, as well as the founding fathers. This rare souvenir ring contains a lock of George Washington’s hair, symbolizing the great sense of loss and mourning following the death of a beloved president.

Other objects range from mass-produced campaign items like buttons, lawn signs and souvenir postcards to more unique pieces such as the Columbian Peace Plow. The Peace Plow is a treasured artifact and was created for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, by John Deere & Company, at the request of the Daughters of the American Revolution. It contains a nail taken from the room Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president, drafted the Declaration of Independence in along with other relics from Thomas Edison, William Penn and others.

Have a unique piece of political memorabilia you would like to donate to GRPM? Share your item by visiting grpm.org/contactcollections. Explore GRPM’s Presidential Memorabilia Collection for inspiration!

The GRPM has an artifact associated with each president of the United States. Click any president’s name below to learn more!

Year President
1789-1797
1797-1801
1801-1809
1809-1817
1817-1825
1825-1829
1829-1837
1837-1841
1841
1841-1845
1845-1849
1849-1850
1850-1853
1853 -1857
1857-1861
1861-1865
1865-1869
1869-1877
1877-1881
1881
1881-1885
1885 – 1889
1889-1893
1893-1897
1897-1901
1901-1909
1909-1913
1913-1921
1921-1923
1923-1929
1929-1933
1933-1945
1945-1953
1953-1961
1961-1963
1963-1969
1969-1974
1974-1977
1977-1981
1981-1989
1989-1993
1993-2001
2001-2009
2009-2017
2017-2021
2021-

By: Andrea Melvin, GRPM’s Collections Curator

Collecting Marine Fossils in Michigan.

Rockport Quarry

Expanding the Museum’s Devonian Fossil Collection.

In August, the GRPM’s Science Curator, Dr. Cory Redman spent a weekend in the Alpena and Rogers City area collecting fossil invertebrates to expand the Museum’s science Collection. The marine fossils found in this area of Michigan are roughly 385 million years old and come from a period of time referred to as the middle Devonian. During this time, Michigan was located south of the equator at ~30°S latitude, opposed to 44°N latitude where it currently resides. The climate was subtropical and the state was covered by a shallow sea. 

Devonian Map
World map showing the position of the continents 400 million years ago (Devonian). The black star denotes the position of Michigan. Image Credit: Modified from Deep Time Maps™ 2020

A diversity of animals lived within this shallow sea and the conditions allowed for many of the animals to become fossilized including: corals, sponges, snails, nautiloids, echinoderms, trilobites, brachiopods, bryozoans, sharks and fish. 

Diorama scene of marine life in the Devonian

1. Cladoselache – shark
2. Goldringia – nautiloid
3. Viaphacops – trilobite,
4. Hexagonaria – coral,
5. Siphonophrentis – coral,
6. Dolatocrinus – crinoid
7. Kentuckia – fish,
8. Paraspirifer – brachiopod
9. Trachypora – coral
10. Eridophyllum – coral 

The Alpena and Rogers City area is well-known for fossil collecting and outcrops of fossiliferous limestone and shale that are exposed along roadcuts, rivers and in stone quarries. During the three days that Dr. Redman was in the Alpena and Rogers City area, he focused on collecting fossils from five rock units: Ferron Point Formation, Rockport Quarry Limestone, Bell Shale, Rogers City Limestone, and the Dundee Limestone – found in two quarries, Calcite and Rockport.

The Calcite Quarry is an active quarry and is considered to be the world’s largest open pit quarry (~8024 acres or 12.5 mi2). It first opened in 1912 and is currently operated by Carmeuse Lime and Stone. Carmeuse’s quarrying efforts focus on the Dundee Limestone, which is composed of ~97% calcium carbonate, making it one of the purest limestones.

The Calcite quarry is also unique because Carmeuse can grant quarry access to nonemployees for geological study and fossil collecting. The quarry’s lead lab technician, Kimberly Montague, was Dr. Redman’s escort. The generosity of the Carmeuse team allowed the Museum team to collect fossils from the Bell Shale and the Rogers City and Dundee limestones.

Aerial view of the Calcite Quarry
Aerial view of the Calcite Quarry. Image Credit: Modified from NASA

Rockport State Park is an inactive limestone and gravel quarry that operated from 1914 to 1948 by the Kelley’s Island Lime and Transport Company. The abandoned quarry consists of 300 acres in a 4,000 acre state park. Despite being a state park, up to 25 pounds of fossils can be collected per person, per year. Dr. Redman collected fossils from the Bell Shale, Rockport Quarry Limestone, and the Ferron Point Formation.

Rockport Quarry
Rockport abandoned quarry looking southwest. The Rockport Quarry Limestone makes up the quarry floor.

The fossils from this year’s field work have not been curated yet, but here are some of the fossils collected last year: 

Hexagonaria coral - Rockport Quarry Limestone

Hexagonaria Coral.

From the Rockport Quarry Limestone.

Sponge Rockport Quarry Limestone

Fossil Sponge.

From the Rockport Quarry Limestone.

Fossil Brachiopods.

(Emannella sp., Atrypa elegans, & Schizophora striatula) from the Bell Shale in the Calcite Quarry.

Corals, Bell Shale

Corals.

(Lystiphylloide americanum & Favosites norwoodensis) from the Bell Shale in the Calcite Quarry.

By: Dr. Cory Redman, the GRPM’s Science Curator

Unboxing Rocks and Minerals.

Unboxing Rocks and Minerals

Unboxing with the GRPM's Science Curator.

Find out more about this specimen that was discovered during a day of unboxing to digitally document some of the GRPM’s natural history Collections at the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s Community Archives and Research Center (CARC). 

The Return of a Japanese “Good Luck Flag”

Japanese Good Luck Flag

A Heartfelt World War II Story.

In the fall of 2019, the Grand Rapids Public Museum worked with OBON Society to return a Yosegaki Hinomaru (Japanese “Good Luck Flag”) to its rightful family in Japan. OBON Society, a non-profit in Oregon, seeks to provide reconciliation between American and Japanese families through the return of personal items acquired during World War II.

The flag came to the Museum in 2015 along with a WWII newsreel and a map of Iwo Jima, which were donated by a Grand Rapids resident.

The Museum eventually connected with OBON Society which had access to volunteer Japanese scholars who translated the messages on the flag, revealing the soldier’s origins, name and location of death. This “Good Luck” flag was also decorated with messages of safety, good luck, and well wishes from friends and family members of the Japanese soldier before he went to battle during WWII.

These flags were a common gift to soldiers; they would fold the flag up and carry it with them during the war. When a soldier was killed, these flags were often taken as battlefield souvenirs by American soldiers.

The flag was officially deaccessioned from the GRPM Collections in October 2019. Immediately after, the GRPM staff shipped the flag to OBON Society so it could be reunited with the soldier’s sister, who is still living in Japan. These flags often serve as reconcilement and healing for the families of the soldiers.

GRPM's Collections Registrar
Associate Registrar Sarah Humes (L) and Cataloger Kelsey Laymon (R) preparing the flag for shipment to the OBON Society.

The GRPM currently has four additional “Good Luck Flags” which are logged in the Museum’s digital Collections. The GRPM has provided details about the flags to OBON Society, who will continue to search for family members.

By: Sarah Humes, the GRPM’s Associate Registrar