Featured Furniture Design Collection

Many of the furniture aficionados know that there was a big furniture production industry in Grand Rapids, Michigan at one time. I just learned that the Grand Rapids Public Library has a Furniture Design Collection. Sounds like a lot of it is in printed form and you have to go there to really consult it in depth.

They do have this nice website about it, though. It's in wiki format.

http://grplpedia.grpl.org/wiki/index.php/Furniture_Design

 

Would love to. Have been interested in this ever since I read Freckles and The Girl of the Limberlost.

 

Thanks for the info, Fig!

How times have changed! Back in the 50s and 60s furniture known to have been made in Grand Rapids was considered hmmmmmm... for the lack of a better word cheap, bordering on tacky. If furniture was considered, say, non-style for that day and time it was called "Grand Rapids." Think of the **style** of furniture that ruled quite a bit of North America at that time, Early American. Today, the 1950s Early American **style** furniture is at best considered ho-hum, boring, while today that mid-century Grand Rapid's furniture is desired! An example of how "the worm has turned."

BTW, I never knew why Shakespeare used worm in that phrase. Just looked it up - interesting:
http://www.salmonriver.com/words/nancy/wormturns.html

--- Susan

 

I LOVE that phrase "the worm has turned".......my FiL always used it when we played Pinochle....he counted cards and ALWAYS beat me......but I still loved playing with him.........fond memories.......

 

Interesting about the Grand Rapids furniture, and changes in opinion through time. Thanks! I belong to the Western Michigan Genealogical Society, which is based on Grand Rapids. They ran an article in the latest issue of their quarterly magazine Michigana related to that furniture design collection. It was very interesting. Unfortunately, the magazine is not available online.

I belong to the society mostly because a lot of my ancestors lived in western Michigan in the 19th century... some near Grands Rapids and some a little farther away.