Events & Programs

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="052085a3.jpg"> <div> <B>Grand Rapids Historical Society</B><B> </B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Papyrus" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Papyrus" ><B>|     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Grand Rapids Historical Society"><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Events & Programs</B>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Historical Info."><U>Historical Info.</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Features"><U>Features</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Related Links"><U>Related Links</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Items for Purchase"><U>Items for Purchase</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact or Join Us"><U>Contact or Join Us</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="053d2e83.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Grand Rapids Historical Society"><U><IMG SRC="05eb5b40.png" border=0 width="181" height="180" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> Collecting and preserving an accurate record of our past, and teaching our diverse local history to future generations.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Papyrus" >  </FONT></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="05507073.jpg"> <div> <B>Events & Programs</B></div> <bR> <div> Grand Rapids Historical Society</div> <div>  2007 Season</div> <bR> <div> <B>Grand Rapids Historical Society lectures/programs are held the second Thursday of the month.   All programs are co-sponsored by the </B><A HREF="http://www.geraldrfordmuseum.org/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.geraldrfordmuseum.org/"><U><B>Gerald R. Ford Museum</B></U></A><B> and are held at the museum, 303 Pearl St NW, at 7:00 p.m.     Each program is followed by a reception with light refreshments.  Historical Society programs are free and open to the public, with the exception of the May Meeting/Banquet which is open to members and their guest.  Free parking at the museum.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>September 13, 2007</B></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="624" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 332 WIDTH="393"><bR> <div> <B>Promoting the `West Coast':</B></div> <div> <B>The Early History of the </B></div> <div> <B>West Michigan Tourist Association</B></div> <div> Author <B>Christine Byron</B> will present the early years of the <A HREF="http://www.wmta.org/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.wmta.org/"><U>West Michigan Tourist Association</U></A>, celebrating its 90<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Tahoma" >th</FONT> anniversary this year.  Beginning in 1917, under the direction of promotion genius Hugh Gray, tourism soon became the state's second largest industry.   Collecting Michigan travel brochures, advertisements, and other ephemera for 15 years, she will use these to illustrate the association's history.  <B>Byron</B>,  along with her husband, <B>Tom Wilson</B>, is author of <B> </B><B>Vintage Views of Leelanau County (2002)</B>, <B>Vintage Views of the Charlevoix-Petoskey Region (2005)</B>, <B>Vintage Views of the Mackinac Straits Region</B>, released in August, 2007.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="1d1d8460.gif" border=0 width="216" height="326" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>October 11, 2007</B></div> <div> <B>On the Golden Years of the Grand Rapids Times</B></div> <div> <B>Patricia Pulliam, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief</B></div> <div> <B>The Grand Rapids Times</B> presents "the other side" of the news.  For 50 years the Grand Rapids Times has targeted the African American community, read by "everyone"  reaching people from a variety of racial, ethnic, cultural and economic backgrounds, both locally and across the state.  Started by <B>John Bankston</B> in 1957, he showcased achievers, sportsmen (especially golfers) and fun lovers.  He chastised adults and youth when they chose not to do the "right" thing, all the while, carrying the voices that spoke against poverty, crime, injustice and racism. <B>Yergan</B> and <B>Patricia Pulliam</B> bought the paper in 1986 and continue the tradition<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#444444" FACE="Tahoma" >.</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>November 8, 2007</B></div> <div> <B>The Best Photos of the Civil War in 3-D: A Stereoscopic Slide Presentation</B></div> <div> <B>Bob Zeller, Center for Civil War Photography & author of </B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Gray-Black-White-Photography/dp/0275982432" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Gray-Black-Wh"><U><B>The Blue and Gray in Black and White</B></U></A><B>.</B></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="719" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 229 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="1d3c6da0.gif" border=0 width="198" height="218" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="356"><div> Stereo views were the videos of Civil War era.  Wearing 3-D glasses, you'll feel as if you are stepping into the tableaus of many of the most famous photographs of the Civil War as the images are projected on a large screen.   Many images are projected in sepia tones of original albumen stereograph prints that are more than 140 years old. . Many of the 79 images in the show are well-recognized photos from the war, but some are rare and recent discoveries that were published for the first time in Zeller's books.</div> <div> Co-sponsored with the <B>Civil War Round Table</B>.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><bR> <div> <IMG SRC="1d49ebe0.gif" border=0 width="158" height="190" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>February </B><B>1</B><B>4, 2008</B></div> <div> <B>Preying on Polluters: `Smoke Hawk' Towner Swoops In</B><B> -  </B><B>1907-1915</B></div> <div> <B>Diana E. Barrett</B><B>, Grand Rapids Historical Commission</B></div> <div> In the early 1900s the nation's cities suffered from severe air pollution generated by coal-burning industries and railroads. Citizens protested, councils passed smoke abatement ordinances and employed smoke inspectors, but powerful opponents fought improvements with propaganda and economic arguments while some even advocated the benefits of smoke. Due to the influence of Louis C. Towner, Grand Rapids smoke inspector, the International Association for the Prevention of Smoke met here in 1914, and Towner was elected national president. How successful was he as the local smoke inspector, and could he achieve results acceptable to both citizens and business?</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>March 13, 2008</B></div> <div> <B>Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History: The Case of Elizabeth Eaglesfield</B></div> <div> <B>Jo Ellyn Clarey</B><B>, Greater Grand Rapids Women</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>'</B></FONT><B>s History Council & </B></div> <div> <B>Grand Rapids Historical Society</B></div> <div> Elizabeth Eaglesfield, practicing attorney from 1878 and Great Lakes fruit boat captain, was born </div> <div> in the era of Manifest Destiny and came of age during the socially reckless Gilded Age. Most women law graduates of her period did not actually practice and few women were on the lakes, but Elizabeth Eaglesfield engaged her tainted world for decades, a rousing model of determination, </div> <div> persistence, and daring.   </div> <div> <B>Co-sponsored with the </B><A HREF="http://www.ggrwhc.org/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.ggrwhc.org/"><U><B>Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council</B></U></A><B>.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>April 10, 2008</B></div> <div> <B>Rails Across the Water: The Rise and Fall of Railroad Car Ferries in Michigan</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Tahoma" ><B>Bob VandeVusse</B></FONT>, marine columnist for Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping and the Holland Sentinel, will discuss the history of ferrying railroad cars across Lake Michigan, from the tale of its beginnings in the nineteenth century, through its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, to its demise in the 1980s and the remnants remaining today.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>May 8, 2008</B></div> <div> <B>Annual Meeting and Banquet</B></div> <div> <B>Going to the Blazes: One-Hundred-Sixty Years of the Grand Rapids Fire Department</B></div> <div> <B>Dennis W. Morrow, </B>Pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Church and Chaplain for the </div> <div> Grand Rapids Fire and Police Departments.</div> <div> No dramatic disaster underwrote the organization of fire-fighting in Grand Rapids, but by 1848 citizens began institutionalizing practices, buying equipment, and building the housing for that equipment.  Morrow will trace the development of the department over 160 years as it grew into the professional GRFD we know today.</div> <div> <I>Time and location to be announced</I></div> <div> <I><IMG SRC="1c023770.gif" border=0 width="547" height="375" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>-----------------------------------------------------------</B></div> <bR> <div> ADDITIONAL COMMUNITY EVENTS</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>October 5, 2007 through January 6, 2008 </B></div> <div> <B>Eyewitness: American Originals from the National Archives</B> </div> <div> The exhibition features gripping eyewitness accounts-from handwritten reports by </div> <div> George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to the Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast from lunar </div> <div> orbit-chronicling dramatic moments in U.S. history.  </div> <div> This exhibition was created by the <A HREF="http://www.archives.gov/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.archives.gov/"><U>National Archives and Records Administration</U></A>, Washington, DC, </div> <div> and the <A HREF="http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/support/foundation.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.archives.gov/national-archive"><U>Foundation for the National Archives</U></A>. </div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum/mus-dir.asp" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum/"><U><B>Gerald R. Ford Museum</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>November 15, 2007</B></div> <div> <B>My Brave Mechanics:</B></div> <div> <B>The First Michigan Engineers and Their Civil War</B></div> <div> Contemporary accounts make it clear that the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Tahoma" ><B>Michigan Engineers</B></FONT> regiment was one of the most important and respected units that our state provided to the Union cause. Trained and equipped for special service along the army's advance routes and supply railroads, the regiment also proved it could fight as infantry when needed. Though drawn from throughout the state, there were strong </div> <div> ties between the regiment and the Grand River Valley.  </div> <div> <B>This event is cosponsored by the </B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.hawksinteractive.com/roundtable/index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.hawksinteractive.com/roundtab"><U><B>Grand Rapids Civil War Roundtable</B></U></A><B> and the </B><A HREF="http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl"><U><B>Grand Rapids Public Library</B></U></A>.  </div> <div> Free and open to the public.</div> <div> <B>For more information, call 616-988-5400 or visit </B><A HREF="http://www.grpl.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.grpl.org"><U><B>www.grpl.org</B></U></A><B>.</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl"><U><B>Grand Rapids Public Library</B></U></A><B>, Main</B></div> <div> <B>7:00pm</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>November 18, 2007</B></div> <div> <B>Alpine Historical Society</B></div> <div> <B>Honoring Alpine Veterans</B></div> <div> <B>Alpine Museum</B></div> <div> <B>2408   7 Mile NW</B></div> <div> <B>2:00pm - 4:00 pm</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>December 1, 2007</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.wmgs.org/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.wmgs.org/"><U><B>Western Michigan Genealogical Society</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>EXTRA, EXTRA - Read All About It!</B></div> <div> <B>Lori Fox </B>discusses the wealth of information found in newspapers that can give you a fuller picture of your ancestors lives. You can find the vital statistics to complete that pedigree chart but you can also find articles and news which tell you about their social history.</div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl"><U><B>Grand Rapids Public Library</B></U></A><B> </B></div> <div> <B>Main Building</B></div> <div> <B>R</B><B>yerson Auditorium</B></div> <div> <B>1:30 pm</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>December 4, 2007</B></div> <div> <B>Cause of Death: Forensic Files of a Medical Examiner</B></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="391" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 274 WIDTH="201"><bR> <div> Join <B>Dr. Stephen Cohle</B>, Kent County Chief Medical Examiner and author Tobin Buhk, authors of <I>Cause of Death: Forensic Files of a Medical Examiner</I>, for their discussion of  life and death inside the county morgue, the forensic science behind some of the area's most significant cases, and the serpentine road to publication.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="1d6b70c0.gif" border=0 width="183" height="268" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <B>For more information, call 616-988-5400 or visit </B><A HREF="http://www.grpl.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.grpl.org"><U><B>www.grpl.org</B></U></A><B>.</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl"><U><B>Grand Rapids Public Library</B></U></A><B>, Main</B></div> <div> <B>7:00pm</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Through December 31, 2007</B></div> <div> <B>Main Street Grand Rapids: The Changing Face of Monroe Avenue</B></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="412" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 188 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="1d79bb60.gif" border=0 width="155" height="182" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="239"><div> Drawn from the Library's collections, the exhibit examines the changing face of Monroe Avenue and how it mirrors the growth and vitality of our city.  This exhibit explores the evolution of Monroe from its rustic beginnings at Grab Corner to the glamour of DeVos Place.  </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div>   <B>Grand Rapids Public Library, 4th floor</B></div> <div> <B>Free</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>All Grand Rapids Public Library programs are </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Tahoma" ><B>free  </B></FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>