Feb

Collections Highlight: Jayne Van Alstyne

A few months back, the Center staff was treated to a tour of the General Motors Design Archive in Warren, Michigan. It was a rare opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues and peek at an amazing collection. Since that time, we have received several queries about collections here at Cranbrook with GM connections.

One of my favorite collections is the Jayne Van Alstyne Papers. Born in Delaware, Ohio in 1923, Martha Jayne Van Alstyne was an industrial designer, teacher, and ceramicist. The Van Alstyne family moved to East Lansing when Jayne was in high school and her father, Benjamin, accepted a coaching position at Michigan State University. Benjamin Van Alstyne coached basketball and golf at MSU, and her mother, Madeline Bliss Van Alstyne was an interior designer.

Jayne Van Alstyne at work at GM, Oct 1956. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives, Jayne Van Alstyne Papers.

Jayne attended Cranbrook Academy of Art (1941-1942) and the Pratt Institute (1942-1945), where she received an Industrial Design Certificate. She completed her bachelor’s and Master of Fine Arts at the Alfred University in New York (1948-1950). Jayne’s ambition and passion for work and life are abundantly evident in the slides, photographs, correspondence, and portfolios we have here in the Archives.

While still a student at Alfred, Jayne developed an Industrial Design program and a Landscape Design course for Michigan State University. In 1949, she was recruited by Montana State University to develop an Interior and Industrial Design program. She loved Bozeman and stayed in this position until 1955 when she joined the design staff at General Motors Frigidaire.

Kitchen designs, ca 1955-1958. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

Jayne worked at General Motors in the Appliance division and later in the Automotive division as one of Harley Earl’s famed “Damsels of Design” until 1969. She holds the patent for the first stackable washer/dryer, as well as 8 additional patents for GM. As the Studio Head for GM Frigidaire, she was responsible for research and development, including the “Ideas for Living” and the “Kitchen of Tomorrow” presented at the General Motors Motorama.

An image from “Ideas for Living,” 1960. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

In 1969, Jayne took her experience to the classroom, teaching industrial design at Cornell University. In 1972, she moved back to Bozeman to head the Department of Professional Design at Montana State University, where she remained until her retirement in 1985. During her tenure at Montana State, she designed the Danforth Chapel, including the stained-glass window and furnishings.

Jayne Van Alstyne, 1961.

Jayne Van Alstyne, 1965.

Jayne Van Alstyne, 1966.

In addition to industrial design and teaching, Jayne loved skiing and fly-fishing. She was also an accomplished ceramicist and won numerous ceramic awards. Her work is in the permanent collections of Alfred University, Detroit Institute of Arts, Everson Museum of Art, and Michigan State University. Jayne passed away in 2015 at the age of 92.

– Gina Tecos, Archivist

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Ceramics/Cranbrook Academy of Art

appliances/Author: Gina Tecos/automotive design/fly fishing/frigidaire/general motors/harley earl/industrial design/Jayne Van Alstyne/montana state university

Feb

The Pine of Lone Pine Road

When approaching Cranbrook along Lone Pine Road, you’d be forgiven if you thought the street’s name was meant to be ironic. The verdant drive is bound by trees–including many varieties of evergreens. In fact, the name of our southern border road comes from a very specific, lonely tree.

The original lone pine tree, standing in front of the Lone Pine Treasure Shop. Photograph before 1924, from The Afterglow magazine, June 1925. Courtesy of John Marshall/Bloomfield Township Public Library.

Felled in 1924, there was once a great pine tree standing at the corner of Lone Pine Road and North Woodward Avenue. The trunk was nearly two and a half feet in diameter, and it had stood on a small rise in the land along Woodward Avenue for over a century. According to The Birmingham Eccentric reporter Helen Walker:

“Standing alone, the only tree of its kind for acres around, it has long been called the Lone Pine. When it became desirable to name the road that ran so close by the base of the tree, it became Lone Pine Road. When the little house that had been protected by the giant tree from wind and weather for more than a century became a tea house, it took the name of Lone Pine Tea House.”

When Woodward Avenue was widened in the early 1920s many landmarks were moved, including the Lone Pine Tea House. After studies were made to see if moving the pine tree was possible, it was deemed impossible and the tree was chopped down. According to the Eccentric, few removals “roused more genuine sentimental resentment than the removal of the old pine.”

After the tree was removed, one neighbor suggested the namesake road be changed to “Gone Pine Road.”

The Lone Pine Inn and Lone Pine Treasure Shop (far left) after being moved for the widening of Woodward Avenue (foreground). The pine tree seen here is not the original Lone Pine, but perhaps a replacement? Photograph by Arnold Studios, c. 1927. Copyright Cranbrook Archives.

In the same article, plans are presented to plant a new pine on the same corner. I wonder if one of the pines standing there now, in front of the old Lone Pine Tea House isn’t the replacement Lone Pine? (The Tea House building became the Lone Pine Inn after George Booth purchased the building in 1910, and has been a private residence, the offices of Swanson Associates, and is now O’Keefe consultants). With a little bit of whacking to clear the area around the tree, it could be possible to again have a lone pine along the road.

– Kevin Adkisson, 2016-2019 Collections Fellow, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

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Archives/Historic Properties/preservation

Author: Kevin Adkisson/Lone Pine/Lone Pine Inn/Lone Pine Road/The Birmingham Eccentric/Woodward Avenue

Feb

Katharine Rogers Adams, Kingswood School Headmistress 1931-1934

Katharine Rogers Adams was the Headmistress of Kingswood School from March 1931 through June 1934. The Announcement of Kingswood School brochure of 1931 tells us that she was born and educated in Philadelphia and later graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She taught in the high schools of New York and Connecticut for seven years and was awarded Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy at Cornell University. From 1926 until 1931, she was a professor of history and dean of the faculties of Mills College, California. In March 1931, she was selected as Headmistress of Kingswood School, following the resignation of Miss Gladys Adams Turnbach in December 1930.

Katharine Rogers Adams Kingswood School Annual, 1932 1980-01 31:15 Copyright Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

Despite the financial crisis of the Depression during Adams’ Principalship, she was successful in leading the school through the financial challenges of those early years, as well as championing its extensive library and establishing traditions such as the Christmas play, Honors’ Day, and yearbooks (see Clark, 2006, pp.57-58). From delving into the records to find out more about Adams, the story that engaged me was her involvement in the development of fine arts education. Faculty of the Cranbrook Academy of Art were employed to provide art education, with Maja Andersson-Wirde teaching Arts and Crafts in 1932-1933, and during the 1933-1934 academic year, students began to be taught painting by Zoltan Sepeshy, sculpture and drawing by Marshall M. Fredericks, and weaving by Lilian Holm.

Letter from Katharine Rogers Adams to Eliel Saarinen, May 24, 1934
Kingswood School Records (1980-01, 13:3)
Copyright Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

The discussion of art and science in education flourishes during Adams’ three years as Kingswood Headmistress and continues thereafter, with many drafts of statements to articulate the Cranbrook approach—the image below shows one version as edited by Eliel Saarinen in 1934. If the art of language is to clearly achieve understanding or to generate inspiration for thought, through words, I found this much accomplished in the following statement within a letter from Saarinen to the Cranbrook Foundation:

“To begin with this must be stated: the problem of “art” is to create new values, contrary to the problem of “science” which is the discovery of existing values” (Eliel Saarinen, Letter to the Cranbrook Foundation, Sept. 25, 1935).

Precepts Governing the Cranbrook Educational Development, Eliel Saarinen, 1934
George Gough Booth Papers, (1981-01, 19:33)
Copyright Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

The founders’ wish for students to develop an appreciation of art, and a knowledge of its history, toward the betterment of human life, is embraced by Adams, who was also well-accomplished in the art of language. In her address, ‘Many Mansions,’ at the first graduation ceremony for Kingswood School held on June 13, 1932, she speaks of another form of architecture—a mansion of character that houses an independent mind and an active soul inspired by learning and beauty and courage:

“Do we ever stop to think, to realize that we are builders, whether of this or of that? That every mental and physical action of ours is building? We would build well, you say, but to build we must have power, and to have power we must have knowledge, and in the words of Dante—‘knowledge comes of learning, well retained.’”

Adams’ address is scattered with poetry and literature, including that of Alan Seeger, Robert Browning, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., as well as recollections of others from Lord Balfour to Leonardo da Vinci. But Adams is in harmony with the thoughts of George Gough Booth, that the words or stories of others are helpful insofar as they stimulate you to be “your own very best self” (see ‘Notes for an address not used’, late 1930s. George Gough Booth Papers, 1981-01, 1:20). Thus, she advises her graduands:

“Seek the one truth to your problem; there can be but one truth as there is but one sun. But build your mansion with many windows, the sun will shine through all.”

Diploma Day Address, ‘Many Mansions,’ by KRA, Ph. D., Principal, on the occasion of the first graduation exercises Kingswood School Cranbrook, June 13, 1932, Kingswood School Records (1980-01 22:9) Copyright Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

1981-01 22-9 (2)

Although in February of 1934, Adams initially sought and gained an extended summer leave for rest and repose, she resigned on May 23, 1934, at her physician’s recommendation.

– Laura MacNewman, Associate Archivist

Sources:

Elizabeth C. Clark. (2006). Beside a Lake—A History of Kingswood School Cranbrook. Cranbrook Press. pp.57-58

George Gough Booth Papers, (1981-01, 19:33)

Kingswood School Records (1980-01, 1:2-3, 6; 12:4; 13:3; 15:2; 22:9; 24:8; 31:15)

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Archives/Cranbrook Academy of Art/Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research/Cranbrook Educational Community/Cranbrook Kingswood Middle School for Girls/Kingswood School/Schools

Author: Laura MacNewman

Feb

Cranbrook Fire Department

Recently, the Center for Collections and Research received a Cranbrook Fire Department Firefighter’s Helmet. It had been given to Charles Zimmerman while he was a Police Officer at Cranbrook by one of the Vettraino brothers. Because of the new acquisition, I decided to read up on the Cranbrook Fire Department.

Cranbrook Fire Department Firefighter’s Helmet. Gift of Frank M. Edwards.

In 1934, George G. Booth asked the Cranbrook Foundation to purchase a fire truck and equipment, essentially beginning the Cranbrook Fire Department. A fire hall was built in early 1935 to house the new truck – a 1934 Ford Truck V8 Chassis with a Proctor-Keefe Company body and fire equipment, including a 500-gallon Barton-American Pump mounted on the front of the truck.

In the existing Tower Cottage fire hall (built in 1921) was a 1934 Ford Pick-up with fire equipment and a Barton-American U-355 pump mounted on the front of the car; booster tank and fittings, 2 lengths suction hose, and a hydrant adapter. It had been purchased by George and Ellen Booth for use at the homestead property.

In 1935, after studying at the University of Michigan’s Fire School, Dominick Vettraino was named the Fire Chief. The Assistant Chief was his brother John Vettraino. All other firefighters were volunteers from the maintenance staffs of all the Cranbrook institutions. Because they were paid, the Chief or Assistant Chief was always on call, including Sundays and holidays, and lived on campus, but it was not until 1938, that the Cranbrook Foundation decided a residence for the Chief should be built next to the fire hall.

Cranbrook Fire Department Chief Dominick Vettraino. Dominick Vettraino Papers. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

To cover the cost of the department, and to pay the Chief and Assistant Chief, proportional interdepartmental support was required. The insurance savings to Cranbrook for having its own fire department ended up offsetting the cost of having the department and gave Cranbrook a better insurance rating than even the City of Bloomfield Hills.

Left to right: Louis Larson, Ed Morrow, Homer Murphy, Walter Powell, Donald Tompkins, Pete Peterson, Chief Dominick Vettraino, and Floyd Pickering, members of the Cranbrook Fire Department in 1944. Not pictured, George Leslie, John Winfield, O.D. Hillman, and John Vettraino. Dominick Vettraino Papers. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

The Cranbrook Fire Department protected all the Cranbrook institutions and residences as well as the nearby homes of the Booth’s children: the Beresfords, the Henry S. Booths, the Warren S. Booths, and Harry L. & Grace B. Wallace. Though strictly a Cranbrook institution, the department was always willing to assist neighbors in the community when possible.

For more great images related to the Cranbrook Fire Department, click here.

– Leslie S. Mio, Associate Registrar