Thank you to all the groups and organizations that participated in the DTE Ethnic Heritage Festival this past Saturday! Check out a photo recap or share your photos and leave comments on our facebook page!

Photo courtesy of Grand Rapids History & Special Collections Archives, Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, MI.

If you’re like me-a Baby Boomer who grew up in Grand Rapids-I suspect you’ll be as excited as I am to once again see the Herp’s Train!

The Museum was entrusted with this local history icon by City Centre owner Peter Secchia in 2000 when the old Herpolsheimer’s Department Store building was renovated to become the new Grand Rapids Police Department. As part of the salvage operation team, I was on site at the start of demolition. You can imagine how tickled I was when asked if I wanted to “take one last spin” around the monorail loop before the train was dismantled for the move to the Museum. What can I say-it was a blast!

When I boarded the train that day I instantly recalled how it felt to be inside it as a kid in the late 1950’s when my sister and I would take a spin around the Toy Department before stopping to see Santa. I remembered lacing my much smaller fingers through the window wires and straining to catch a glimpse of my mom below. I know others share similar memories.

The train made its inaugural run in 1949 as the Santa Express. It was approximately 33′ long and each of its three cars held 8 smiling riders. In the 1960’s during the space race the train got a new identity as the Rocket Express. In 1976-with a coat of yellow paint and the addition of a face and glasses-it was dubbed the Caterpillar Express. It changed one last time in the 1980’s as part of Mackie’s World Children’s Mall and wore a new jungle motif and moniker, the Dino Express.

Museum visitors will be able to see this special community treasure on display in the lobby from November 22 to January 4. You can climb aboard to relive your own childhood memories and make new ones with your families!

P.S. If you’re a former rider, please contact us. We’d love to collect your old train photos or home movies and keep them preserved at the Public Museum right along with the train itself! We invite you to share your story by commenting right here on our blog!

-Marilyn Merdzinski, Curator of Collections & Preservation

From its platform position above the Public Museum’s Galleria, the old Grand Rapids City Hall Tower Clock enjoys iconic status. Visitors can see the clock’s impressive inner works as well as three of its 8-foot diameter faces. They hear its hourly chime and marvel at its classic design. But perhaps what’s more impressive than the clock’s present is its past.

The clock represents both the failure and success of historic preservation within the city. In the late 1960’s federal money became readily available to municipalities wishing to rebuild decaying urban centers, and preservation philosophies were largely abandoned in the wake of urban renewal fever. Grand Rapids leveled six square blocks of its central city including City Hall, which came down in November of 1969.

When the tower was felled, the clock was dismantled, salvaged by the local wrecking company and put into storage. Corroded and rusting with some working parts irretrievably damaged or lost, the clock was later sold to Dr. Peter Northouse, a Grand Rapids physician, clock lover and collector. He presented it to the Museum with the stipulation that it be made to strike again. Public Museum Director Weldon D. Frankforter accepted the gift knowing that there was no display space for it until a new facility was built. The clock quickly became the chosen image and inspiration for the capital fund campaign, “It’s About Time,” designed to raise money to build the new Van Andel Museum Center.  As planning progressed so did restoration with sponsorship by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hooker. While fundraising continued, the Balzer family of Freeport, Maine was entrusted with the refurbishment of the clock and the six foot long, six foot tall, 1,300 pound clock works. They lovingly restored the piece – each wheel, pinion and lever – and declared that with proper maintenance, it could run for 400 years. As stewards of history, Museum staff continues on-going maintenance of the treasure – cleaning, oiling and recalibrating it once a month and bringing in a clock specialist to completely dismantle it and perform more intensive maintenance once a year – so that generations can continue to enjoy this beautiful timepiece.

Controversial from the start, phrenology was the 19th century pseudo-science of determining a person’s behavior and personality by studying the bumps on the head. The practice was developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall, who believed the brain was made up of 27 individual “organs” that created an individual’s personality. Specific brain regions were thought to correspond to certain character traits, and the size of each was believed to determine the strength of that trait.

Phrenologists would run their fingertips and palms over the skulls of patients to feel for enlargements or indentations. They would take head measurements and compare the findings to three-dimensional heads or charts to determine which of the organs were responsible for an individual’s aptitudes and characteristics. Hundreds of books, texts, charts and symbolic ceramic heads were created and distributed during the practice’s heyday. Those who embraced phrenology believed that the results would help them more carefully choose a mate or vocation. Phrenological charts and models were also used by penal institutions seeking the nature of inmates’ deviances.

The popularity of phrenology wavered at the end of the century with some researchers comparing it to astrology or other fairground attractions. Many advances were made in psychology and psychiatry during the first decades of the 20th century and by the 1930s phrenology no longer held scientific credibility.

In our society, new magical cures and self-help systems appear everyday. Often only time can tell us which are real advances and which will disappear from our collective memory. In saving and displaying these items the Public Museum helps us to understand where we’ve been, if for no other reason than to prevent us from going there again. You can see a Phrenology skull on display in the Museum’s O is for Oddities exhibit.

- Veronica L. Kandl, Curator of History

Check This Out

After months of careful planning and testing we are thrilled to announce the release of our new website! When we started planning for the new design there were a few goals we kept in mind:

Redesigned Homepage at GRMuseum.org

1. Easy navigation for all visitors-whether they are researchers, teachers, families or individuals.
2. A welcoming online presence that encourages visitors to step beyond our online presence and into our Museum sites.
3. Developing a new calendar so that planning a visit would always be simple, whether it is for tomorrow or next year.

So, let us know what you think! Did we succeed in meeting our goals for the new site? Where can we still improve?