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Advertising ➔ Pocket Mirror, 'Klingman Building'

Identifier:

197263

Date:

circa 1905

Materials:

Glass

Dimensions:

2"" h 2 1/2"" w

Current Location Status:

On Exhibit

Collection Tier:

Tier 2

Source:

Gift Of Herrick, Ruth

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Exhibit/Program:

Furniture City (1994 – 2013)
Furniture City was one of the signature core exhibits installed at the Grand Rapids Public Museum's new Van Andel Museum Center when it opened in 1994. At approximately 10,000 square feet, the exhibit occupied a significant portion of the museum's second floor and contained hundreds of pieces of Grand Rapids Furniture. The exhibition was accompanied by the authoritative book on the subject, "Grand Rapids Furniture", by GRPM curator Christian Carron. The Furniture City exhibit told a comprehensive story of the Furniture Industry in Grand Rapids, from its origins in the years after the Civil War, up to the present day with office and fixed seating manufacturers like Steelcase and American Seating. The exhibition was significantly reduced in size in 2013 to make room for a new gallery and was closed in 2019.

Related Entity:

Estate of Dr. Ruth Herrick (donor)
Born on July 6, 1895 in Ohio, Ruth Herrick became known as one of the first women physicians in Michigan. She studied at the University of Chicago Medical College and at Blodgett Memorial Hospital. Afterwards she began her practice in 1931 in Grand Rapids. She was an avid collector and took a strong interest in archaeology, having lectured at the Greenfield Village Museum and wrote and published a book entitled "Greentown glass: the Indiana Tumbler and Goblet Company and allied manufacturers (1959)". In 1961 she cooperated with the Kent County Medical Society in compiling a historic medical collection. She retired in 1973 and later passed away after an automobile accident on June 7, 1974, with many of her assets bequeathed to the Public Museum.