Apr

Photo Friday: Archival Preservation

Since it is Preservation Week, today’s Photo Friday features an image from one of the collections we have been working to stabilize. For the past few weeks my colleague, Belinda Krencicki, and I have photographed and captured metadata for the watercolor paintings, pen and pencil drawings, and pastels in the James Scripps Booth and John McLaughlin Booth Papers. This information will be used to catalog the items in our Collections Management system. In addition to documenting the works, we re-housed all of the items–placing them in archival folders and interleaving each work to protect it.

Pencil and pastel sketch of the exterior of the Detroit News building, James Scripps Booth, 1917.

The artwork ranges from pastel landscapes, to portrait studies, to automobile racing. The image above is one of my favorites – a sketch of the Detroit News building. I hope you enjoy it too!

– Gina Tecos, Archivist

7 years ago Short URL 6 Comments

Archives/collections/Objects/preservation

Author: Gina Tecos/Detroit News/James Scripps Booth

Apr

New Center Logo & A Fond Farewell

The Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research has officially launched our new logo! What follows is a description of where each of the letters comes from in the history of Cranbrook or the location on the campus!

The (first) C in Cranbrook is from the logo George Gough Booth created for the Cranbrook Press in 1901, three years before he and his wife Ellen established their estate in Bloomfield Hills.

The Cranbrook Press (1900-1902) was founded by George Booth in the attic of the Detroit Evening News Building. Booth emulated the work of William Morris and his Kelmscott Press, not just in design but also in the level of hand-craftsmanship.

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Apr

Tapestries – The Fabric of Society

As part of a module assignment for my MA in Archives Administration with Aberystwyth University (Wales), I have been researching a selection of tapestries that George Gough Booth purchased and commissioned from Morris & Co., Herter Looms, and Edgewater Tapestry Looms. I chose the theme of tapestry and time, inspired by Francis Thomson’s idea of tapestry as “mirror of history”. I was particularly interested in the Morris & Co. case study because I much admire William Morris as an artist and social reformer. Although the Morris & Co. tapestries that George Booth purchased were made after Morris’ death in 1896, they were made under the supervision of his former student, J.H. Dearle, who became Art Director in 1905.

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7 years ago Short URL 3 Comments

Archives/Christ Church Cranbrook/collections/weaving

Author: Laura MacNewman/George Gough Booth/Gothic Flemish/Morris and Co./William Morris

Apr

Photo Friday: Diogenes’ Search for an Honest Man

A view of Diogenes. Photographer, Harvey Croze, 1961.

You might not immediately notice the small bronze statue that sits at the top of Hoey Tower’s stairwell at Cranbrook School. The statue is Diogenes – a Greek philosopher best known for holding a lantern and claiming to be on a quest for an honest man. Diogenes is considered to be one of the founders of Cynicism – a doctrine that supports a life in accordance with nature and rejects convention.

George Booth originally purchased Diogenes for Cranbrook House from the Gorham Silver Company in May 1914. One of the many statues he purchased during his lifetime, he bequeathed it to Cranbrook School upon his death.

Diogenes has been depicted throughout the centuries in paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Our sculpture was created by George Edwin Bissell (1839-1920) in 1906. Bissell, who was born in Connecticut, studied in Paris at the Academie Julian, the Academie Colarossi, the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1876, he studied at the American Academy in Rome. He also served in the Civil War as a private in the 23rd Connecticut (1862-1863) and as assistant Postmaster for the U.S. Navy (1863, 1865).

– Gina Tecos, Archivist

Apr

Photo Friday: “Things Architectural”

In November 1932, Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Executive Secretary, Richard Raseman, invited architects from the Detroit area to come to Cranbrook for “dinner and discussion of things Architectural.” The following Cranbrook School news article describes the evening.