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A. O. Currier is Alfred Osgood Currier who arrived in Grand Rapids 1850 to work with his brother-in-law, William Thompson Powers ... Frank M. Ball the "M" should be a "W" as in Frand Webster Ball, the son of John and Mary Thonpson (Webster) Ball. Both of these individuals are relatives of mine I will send information on.Jim Winslow, 6/21/2015
Articles Of Association, Kent Scientific Institute
Identifier:
2004.1.49Description:
In 1868 the Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History and the Grand Rapids Scientific Club merged to form the Kent Scientific Institute. The new organization successfully combined the youthful enthusiasm of local high school students with the experience of prominent civic leaders to create a successful museum for their community. These Articles of Association lay out guidelines for its structure and functions.Date:
January 2 1868Materials:
Handwritten, PaperDimensions:
12.5" h 7.75" wCurrent Location Status:
In Storage;On ExhibitSource:
Museum CollectionExhibit/Program:
Newcomers: The People of this Place (after 2008)Related Entities:
Grand Rapids Public Museum (creator)Alternate names: Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History, Grand Rapids Scientific Club, GRPM, Kent Scientific Institute, Kent Scientific Museum, Public Museum of Grand Rapids, Public Museum of West Michigan
The Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History was established in 1854 by a group of civic leaders, inspired by a movement sweeping the country. Followers of the Lyceum Movement believed that education, in the form of libraries, museums, lectures and discussions, and public schools, could help right the illnesses of society and preserve democracy.
In the early 1860s the Civil War had put a halt to the activities of the Lyceum. But in the summer of 1865, the war was over, and the enthusiasm of a group of teenage boys for new ideas about science and nature would bring the fledgling Museum back to life.
In 1868 the Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History and the Grand Rapids Scientific Club merged to form the Kent Scientific Institute. The new organization successfully combined the youthful enthusiasm of local high school students with the experience of prominent civic leaders to create a successful museum for their community.
In 1881, the Kent Scientific Institute reached an agreement with the Board of Education which allowed them to store their collections at Central High School.
In February of 1903, the Board of Education agreed to purchase the Howlett House, at the corner of Jefferson and Washington, to be the permanent home of the Kent Scientific Institute.
The "new" Grand Rapids Public Museum was built during the Great Depression with WPA funds from the Federal Government. The building itself was a radical departure from most contemporary museums, and was described by Museum Director Frank DuMond as "accessible as a dime store and friendly as your next door neighbor."
The Grand Rapids Public Museum began experimenting with planetarium equipment in the early 1960s, and hired its first curator for the new technology in 1964. The planetarium was eventually named after Grand Rapids astronaut Roger B. Chaffee, who was killed in the Apollo I disaster on January 27, 1967.
In 1989, the Grand Rapids Public Museum took over the management of the Voigt House in the Heritage Hill Neighborhood. The opulent home was built in 1895 and includes more than 100 years of the Voigt family's possessions.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum's current facility opened in 1994 on the west bank of the Grand River in the heart of downtown. It contains three floors of exhibits, the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium, the Cook Carousel Pavilion, Meijer Theater, cafe, and gift shop.
John Ball (creator)
John Ball (November 12, 1794-February 5, 1884) was born in New Hampshire to Nathaniel Ball and Sarah Nevins Ball. He grew up in the agricultural community of Tenny Hill, Hebron, in Grafton County.
After receiving a common school education from a local clergyman, he attended and graduated from Darmouth College in 1820 and studied law for two years in New York. He was admitted to the New York Bar Association in 1824. In 1832, he traveled to Oregon under Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth and was employed as the first white teacher of Oregon, teaching the children at Fort Vancouver for a year.
In the spring of 1833, John McLoughlin, Ball’s former employer, gave him the supplies needed to settle in Salem, Oregon and start a farm. He was one of the first Americans to farm on the French Prairie, among French-Canadians who had been settling in the area for several years. However, by autumn he was tired of the “primitive life” of farming and sold his wheat crop for a year-long sea voyage back to the United States, via the Hawaiian Islands and Cape Horn. He returned to Lansingburgh in New York but shortly thereafter settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1837.
In Grand Rapids, Ball opened a law office, partnering with former Chief Justice of Michigan George Martin and United States District Judge Solomon Lewis Withey. In 1842, Governor John Barry appointed Ball to select 3/5 of the land granted to the state by Congress for internal improvements. Ball selected mostly lands around Grand Rapids and contributed to a significant rise in the settlement of the Grand River Valley.
As a prominent figure in Grand Rapids, Ball invested in community schools and lyceums. During his service as Michigan State Representative in the 1830s, he was a key figure in the establishment of a public school system in Michigan. In 1854, he helped found the Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History, the predecessor to the Grand Rapids Public Museum, and donated to its first collections, the “Cabinets of Curiosities.” At his death in 1884, he willed the land that is now John Ball Park and John Ball Zoo to the city of Grand Rapids.
John Ball died on February 5, 1884 in Grand Rapids. He is buried in Fulton Street Cemetery. Currier, Alfred Osgood (creator)
Alfred Osgood Currier (April 9, 1817-May 24, 1881), renowned conchologist and a mechanical engineer for Butterworth & Lowe. Brother-in-law of William T. Powers, architect of the West Side Water Power Canal system. Mr. Currier has patents for wind and water power turbines, as well as, furniture castors. Chubb, Archibald Lamont (creator)
Archibald L. Chubb (April 3, 1830-July 3, 1887) was a manufacturer of agricultural implements at 37 Canal established by his father Jonathan Frisbie Chubb in 1850, later moved to the west side Water St (Front Ave NW). James H. McKee (creator) George Wickwire Smith (creator)
There are many names, faces and personal tales that combine to tell the collective story of our 155 year old Public Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The story began in 1854 when a group of distinguished local gentlemen, led by prominent land agent John Ball, first came together to form the Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History. They used their personal "cabinets" or collections of natural history specimens to help late 19th century Grand Rapidians understand the world around them. But it wasn't long before the Civil War put an end to the steady growth of this fledgling organization. When the War came to an end in 1865, resuming the Lyceum's natural science programs and activities got a boost. Interestingly, it wasn't the town elders who had formed the pre-war Lyceum at the helm this time.
Instead, it's the story of a young boy, George Wickwire Smith. I'll let the words of local historian, Albert Baxter. excerpted from his definitive 1890 History of Grand Rapids explain:
..."In 1865, George Wickwire Smith, a lad whose genius outran his years, gathered about him a number of youths in the Union School, and organized a club which he named the Kent Institute [formerly, the Grand Rapids Scientific Club]. He was a young man of rare promise; though modest and diffident, he had the irresistible ardor of enthusiasm as a student of Nature which kindled a like spirit in his associates.
Simple, child-like and loving, he won the confidence and warm affection of all who came in contact with him. But consumption had laid its wasting touch upon him and he sank under it dying March 31, 1869 when but 21 years of age in Florida, saying to his weeping father: ..."Bury me where there are the most butterflies".
In 1867 young Smith, desiring to put his Kent Institute upon a permanent footing, proposed to those who had been members of the Lyceum of Natural History, that the two societies be combined. This he accomplished, the articles of association bearing the date January 2, 1868, under the name suggested by him, of Kent Scientific Institute..."
The rest is history - our history. Today when we contemplate the Museum and its place in our 21st century community, it seems appropriate that we think about the 19th century life and accomplishments of young Mr. Smith. Next time you visit the Grand Rapids Public Museum's Van Andel Museum Center, be sure to stop by and say "hi" to George. You'll find him on the third floor inside the Museum's permanent Habitats exhibition - right where he belongs, on the wall in the recreated "Kent Scientific Museum " period room display! Lorenzo G. Winchester (creator) Theodore B. Wilson (creator) Frank W. Ball (creator) John Mathison (creator)
