By Christie Bender
Grand Rapids Public Museum
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is preparing once again for Collections & Cocktails, an annual fundraiser focusing on the Museum’s Collections, their stories, and the preservation and education with these artifacts. This year’s event will be on Wednesday, May 8.
This year, Collections & Cocktails will focus on the Museum’s Magnificent Machines & Amusements Collection featuring artifacts such as the 1928 Spillman Carousel, an iron lung, steam engine, dog powered butter churn, and more artifacts that are not typically on display.
Collections & Cocktails also features a dinner and signature cocktails to go along with the exciting stories of these artifacts. Tickets are available to the public and can be found at grpm.org/2019Collections-Cocktails.
“The Magnificent Machines and Amusements Collection represents the ingenuity of people who have invented new ways to make our lives easier,” said Alex Forist, the Museum’s Chief Curator. “Collections & Cocktails will showcase some of these unique artifacts, and will highlight the importance of the care and maintenance of our Collections and give the community the opportunity to support these efforts.”
Anyone interested in supporting the care of these artifacts along with the thousands of others pieces in the GRPM Collections can do so through a sponsorship of Collections & Cocktails, purchasing a table at the event or individual tickets. More information on the event and funding opportunities can be found at grpm.org/2019Collections-Cocktails or by contacting Gina Schulz at gschulz@grpm.org or 616-929-1705.
One of the Museum’s most iconic pieces to be featured at the event is the 1928 Spillman Carousel. Manufactured by the Spillman Engineering Company of North Tonawanda, New York in 1928, the Carousel is one of only three of its style known to have been produced by the company. The Carousel has brought joy to thousands of community members over the years, and is currently undergoing restoration to keep it running for years to come.
Another featured piece from the GRPM Collections that hasn’t been on display since 2016 is an Iron Lung. The iron lung is a negative pressure cylinder in which patients would lie down in with their head sticking out through an opening at the top. Rows of iron lungs filled hospital wards at the height of the polio outbreaks of the 1940s and 1950s, assisting the breathing of mostly children but also adults.
With West Michigan roots, also featured from the Collections is a Toepler-Holtz machine. A Toepler-Holtz machine consists of a static generator in a glass and wooden cabinet with attachments to direct electrical currents for a variety of uses. Believed to have been manufactured in about 1900, it was first used in a doctor’s office in the Holland, MI area to treat various ailments.
Other rarely seen artifacts being featured at the event include the GRPM’s Weidenaar press, a steam engine, a dog-powered butter churn, BISSELL carpet sweepers, 1900s-era washing machines and additional pieces that have never been on display from the Museum’s Collections.
To see more of the Museum’s Collections visit the GRPM online database GRPMcollections.org.
