28

Jun

Cranbrook, a Home Away from Home: My Senior May Experience

Each May, the Center is honored to host an outstanding senior from Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School for a three-week immersive internship.

The Center’s 2024 “Senior May” Sav Hayward writes about their time working with the Center team.

I hit the ground at my Senior May running. The very first day, I had to help prepare for the Center’s annual House Party gala. This year it was held at Thornlea House which needed a lot of TLC before the event on Saturday. During my first week, I worked all over the house to help prepare it. Things like vacuuming (Ed. note: No one, in the history of the universe, was as excited as Sav about vacuuming), wiping windows, sorting cupboards, cutting ribbons, crafting decorations, and going to Cranbrook Archives to help move items from the collection for displays. Once everything was completed the final product was extremely satisfying, and I heard many wonderful things about the night. I had to decline my invitation to the House Party in favor of my Senior Prom.

Cutting ribbon to create bunting for the House Party. Photograph by Leslie Mio, May 2024.

The following two weeks, I never had the same task twice in a row. Some of my favorite days consisted of working in the Archives with Deborah Rice and Laura MacNewman, helping around in the Annex offices with the Center’s Registrar, Leslie Mio, and going on random little trips.

In the Archives, I helped organize and re-box some items we got out for the House Party. There was a very relaxed environment there, and it was cool seeing all the documentation Cranbrook has about our history.

The following day I helped Kevin and Leslie take the painting A Hunter of Taos by Oscar Edmund Berninghaus from the Cranbrook Kingswood Middle School for Boys and drive it to a conservation studio in Detroit. When we were finishing our visit, the conservator, Ken Katz, told us to go upstairs and check out the exhibit being set up at the Metropolitan Museum of Design Detroit (MM-O-DD). There we met some cool people, including the Founder/Executive BOD President Leslie Ann Pilling and Chuck Duquet of Collected Detroit, who took us downstairs and showed us artwork stored there.

Standing around looking at the framing studio. Photograph by Kevin Adkisson, May 2024.

While looking around I saw pieces by many Cranbrook Artists, including some that had been loaned to Cranbrook Art Museum’s recent exhibition LeRoy Foster: Solo Show. I also saw an amazing painting of Eero Saarinen as a boy, painted in Finland by his father (and architect of Cranbrook) Eliel Saarinen.

Kevin admires Eliel Saarinen’s painting of his son Eero at Collected Detroit. Photograph by Leslie Mio, May 2024.

Ever since I started going to Cranbrook, I have dreamed of going up into the old astronomy tower at Hoey Hall. I was able to achieve this dream thanks to Kevin. He was working with photographer James Haefner to document the tower after some recent cleaning. Luckily, I was invited to join Kevin and see how the entire photshoot process worked. I helped do some tasks, like dusting, carrying equipment cases, and bringing water up to the ridiculously hot rooms.

Standing next to the upper door in the Cranbrook Campus tower. Photograph by Kevin Adkisson, May 2024.

On the last day of Senior May, I joined Leslie and Kevin on a trip to Hagopian World of Rugs in Birmingham. We met with architect Erinn Rooks of Cranbrook Capital Projects to pick out colors for a reproduction rug. Suzanne Hagopian, Executive Vice President, brought out a test sample made a while back to see if the colors matched the original and if it was what we were looking for.

When we looked at the sample, we realized that the colors were lacking, so we all sat around and debated over small tufts of colorful yarn samples. What was nice was that these color samples were neatly lined up in multiple boxes. After a while, we finally decided on more vibrant colors compared to the sample, but this was to help make the carpet pop. Ed. note: Sav’s knowledge of color theory and use of technology to compare color tones greatly assisted in this project.

Erinn, Leslie, and I examine carpet and color samples. Photograph by Kevin Adkisson, May 2024.
Kevin and I take a “magic carpet ride” while looking at yarn samples. Photograph by Leslie Mio, May 2024.

I will always remember this Senior May and how fun it was. The people I met during this time are amazing and I will miss seeing them every day. While some of my classmates went off campus for their Senior May, doing mine on Cranbrook’s entire campus felt like I was a part of one large family. I have never felt more connected to Cranbrook, its history, and its legacy.

– Sav Hayward, Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School Class of 2024 and Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research 2024 Senior May

Editor’s Note: Sav Hayward is a member of the CKU Class of 2024 and a proud resident of Lansing, Michigan. In Fall 2024, Sav will continue their education at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, where they will study Interior Design. CCS is the modern iteration of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, co-founded by George G. Booth in 1906. Sav is hoping to land a paper route for the Detroit News to complete the Booth trifecta.

Another day, another lunch break. The Center feeds its Senior Mays well – Sav was treated to lunches at some of the staff’s favorite local eats, including Panera, 29º 41º Mediterranean Street Food, Green Dot Stables, and Paris Baguette Café (pictured here on their last day with us). Photograph by Kevin Adkisson, May 2024.

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14

Jun

Muster the Peacocks!

While researching the step-backed Peacock Andirons at Saarinen House last spring, I enthusiastically mustered a muster of peacocks from across Cranbrook’s campus with the generous help of my colleagues.

“Muster” is the official label for a group of peacocks.

Unlike a gaggle of geese, a muster of peacocks lacks both onomatopoeia and alliteration and implies a level of formality and regimental order in direct conflict with the species’ behavior! That is…judging by the peacocks I’ve witnessed at historic homes and castles throughout Europe, including a visit to Scone Castle in Scotland where an earlier visitor captured these free-spirited troops. Whether iridescent blue or albino, their graceful necks and distinctive crests rise to magnificence when tail feathers are splayed to attract a peahen mate or intimidate predators.

Throughout the ages, blue aka Indian peafowl have symbolized beauty and prosperity and served as sources of artistic inspiration. A favored theme at Cranbrook, the peacock’s dramatic curvilinear lines are represented at each institution across the campus.

One can discover…

WORKS IN METAL:

• The famed Peacock Gates designed by Finnish-American architect Eliel Saarinen and fabricated in wrought and cast iron by Oscar Bruno Bach, 1927, marking the former Lone Pine Road entrance to Cranbrook School for Boys:

Peacock Gates at Cranbrook School circa 1980. Jeffrey Welch, photographer. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

Details of the peacocks in cast iron:

Detail of Cranbrook School Peacock Gate, circa 1935. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.
Detail of Cranbrook School Peacock Gate, circa 1935. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.
Detail of Cranbrook School Peacock Gate, 2001. Balthazar Korab, photographer. Copyright Balthazar Korab | Cranbrook Archives.

• Eliel Saarinen’s cast bronze Peacock Andirons, 1928-29, on view at Saarinen House. Collection of Cranbrook Art Museum. Produced by Sterling Bronze Company, New York, between 1928 and 1929, these cast bronze andirons were paid for by the Cranbrook Foundation and entered in the 1928-1930 Arts & Crafts Building ledger on pages 40-41—Date: 1-7-30; No.: 515; Name: Sterling Bronze Co; Remarks: 1 pair/ Andirons for Saarinen Res[idence]; Amount: $152.50 (the equivalent of $2,704 in 2024):

Robert Hensleigh, photographer. Courtesy Cranbrook Art Museum.
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03

May

Night of Delight

Classical music, wandering musicians, ballet, cabaret, white paper lanterns, illuminated boats on the lake, Hawaiian torches, Italian tree lights, champagne, dinner, and dancing on a night with a fair-sized moon—these were some of the possibilities that Henry Scripps Booth recorded in December 1964 notes for a music gala called Night of Delight, a fundraiser for the Cranbrook Music Guild of which he was a founding member.

Patrons in line to attend Cranbrook Music Guild concert and ballet performance, July 10, 1960. Harvey Croze, photographer. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

The Guild is one of the most eminent accomplishments in Cranbrook’s legacy of music and it endures to this day (the Archives holds records for the organization through 2007). Born of the inspiration of Christ Church Cranbrook Music Director, Maurice Garabrandt, and Betty (Mrs. Benjamin) Brewster, the Guild was established in 1951 to utilize Cranbrook’s setting as a wonderful place to appreciate music.

During the first decade alone, the Guild sponsored performances by distinguished artists, including violinists Zino Francescatti and Mischa Mischakoff, pianists such as Mischa Kottler, Phillipe Entremont, Jean Casadesus, and Leon Fleischer, cellist George Miquelle, the Severo ballet, jazz musicians such as Dave Brubeck and Don Shirley, classical guitarist Richard Dyer-Bennet, and soprano Eileen Farrell.

Program for Jean Casadesus performance, November 16, 1960. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

The objectives of the Guild were not only to provide high quality programming, support the creation of new music, and the development of high caliber performers, but also to share knowledge about the appreciation of music through lectures, demonstrations, recitals, and exhibitions. The programs for the concerts thus shared brief contextual comments on the history of the piece and the composer.

In the program for the Second Cranbrook Arts Festival Concert, which was performed at the Greek Theatre on June 1, 1952, I noticed a comment that is playfully instructive but also particularly salient to later developments in the Guild programming. The second concert program included Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata 104, “Thou Bountiful Shepherd, Hear Us,” and it was noted that it had inspired Albert Schweitzer to comment:

“The ravishing euphony and the perfect grace of this work ensure its effect upon any audience; it is one of the most suitable for overcoming the common fear of Bach.”

Program for Second Cranbrook Arts Festival Concert, June 1, 1952. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

The Cantata must have worked its magic, because in 1966, the idea of a Bach at Cranbrook festival was introduced. It would be a satellite festival chaired by James L. Schneider and hosted by Christ Church Cranbrook with the aim to perform Bach’s music as he intended—with a small chorus and orchestra in a church setting. At a special meeting on February 23, 1966, the Cranbrook Music Guild agreed to sponsor the Bach at Cranbrook festival.

At a regular meeting a few days later, Henry expressed concern regarding the conflict of dates. The Bach festival was set for May 14 and his Night of Delight was being planned for the 21st. The Board responded that it was impossible to sponsor two big events that would appeal to same group of people, and that there was no choice but to sponsor the Bach festival, to which they had already committed, and postpone the gala to another year.

Program cover from the first Bach at Cranbrook festival, May 14, 1966. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

Thus, the first Bach at Cranbrook festival took place on May 14, 1966 at Christ Church with 25 members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the 40-voice Kenneth Jewell Chorale. It was a stellar success with an audience of over 1,200 people. The following year, the festival grew into a two-day, three-day concert event. After being renamed the Cranbrook Festival with a broader scope of classical and baroque composers, the festival was dissolved in 1979.

A scene from the Bach at Cranbrook festival, May 14, 1966. Harvey Croze, photographer. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

The gala, Night of Delight, would never take place beyond Henry’s musings. For those with a romantic imagination, his words invite one to feel the warm summer evening, the fragrance of fresh flowers, strains of music across the courtyard filled with joyful chatter, elegance, and conviviality beneath the light of the moon. If your senses require something more tangible, fear not, for the Center for Collections and Research is celebrating the legacy of music at Cranbrook at our House Party on May 18th. Join us for live music, dinner, dancing, paper lanterns, and even a fair-sized moon! It will truly be a Night of Delight!

Visit our website to learn more about A House Party at Cranbrook: Celebrating the legacy of music at Cranbrook! Last Call–Ticket sales end on Monday!

–Laura MacNewman, Associate Archivist, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

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26

Apr

“Grace, Elegance, and Pizazz” – Fifties Fashion in a Nutshell

For this May’s upcoming A House Party at Cranbrook: Celebrating the Legacy of Music, we are celebrating the music and spirit of the 1950s. Naturally, that means digging into our closets for our best mid-century modern outfits, and more importantly, our dancing shoes. Seventy-five years ago, guests invited to a Cranbrook party could head down to Hudson’s department store on Woodward Avenue for a full evening’s attire. That is, unless they, like Loja Saarinen, preferred to design and sew their own clothes! This year, we may be deprived of Hudson’s and its record-breaking 705 changing rooms, but we do not lack sources of inspiration for a fifties night at Cranbrook.

Cranbrook Academy of Art: Packard Motor Competition, 1950. Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.
Eliel and Loja Saarinen at the front entrance of Saarinen House, Cranbrook Academy of Art, circa 1950. Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

The 1950s was an exciting time for snappy dressers, even those not as artistically gifted as Loja Saarinen. While Cranbrook-trained designers like Ruth Adler Schnee and Florence Knoll were transforming the look of the modern American interior, American clothing was undergoing a revolution of its own. The 1950s can be seen as the dawn of the modern fashion era, defined by an extraordinarily diverse range of stylish modes of dress, and a new emphasis on comfort and adaptability. The introduction of novel synthetic fabrics like orlon and spandex, and a new prominence for sports and lounge wear anticipated the rise of current athleisure apparel. The cocktail dress reached its zenith in this decade, as did the requisite accessories: shoes, handbag, and a trunkful of costume jewelry.

Handbag, used by Elizabeth Parke Firestone. From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Elizabeth Willis Leatherman.
Christian Dior Dress, Worn by Elizabeth Parke Firestone, circa 1956. From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Elizabeth Willis Leatherman.

Many designers, including Christian Dior himself, continued to embrace the sloping shoulders and hourglass shapes of the “New Look,” inaugurated in the late forties. However, no single silhouette dominated the womenswear scene. Waistlines and hemlines rose and fell according to the whims of individual designers, dresses and coats billowed outward or narrowed to follow the line of the body, and the range of possibilities for fashionable dressers expanded rapidly in all directions.

Claire McCardell, “Popover” Dress, circa 1956. RISD Museum.
Cristóbal Balenciaga, Chemise dress, circa 1957. RISD Museum.

The one common and consistent demand for women’s clothing then was elegance; truly casual clothing was not yet a part of the upper or middle-class woman’s wardrobe. Whether in a cocktail dress, playsuit, full-skirted evening gown, or daring slacks, women were still expected to present a polished exterior. Menswear, on the other hand, trended towards greater informality and comfort across the decade.

Attendees at a Cranbrook Academy of Art weavers’ party, 1959. Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

The structure of the modern suit gradually loosened, while ties, worn short and wide at the start of the decade, narrowed and lengthened, and soft knit ties became an accepted part of a business wardrobe. Boxy, straight cut and swing jackets, for men and women alike, allowed for complete freedom of movement, and leant a jaunty sway to an outfit’s profile. A new pop of color enlivened men’s suits, in the form of a bright shirt, tie, belt, or a contrasting waistcoat. For the more daring, a colorful velvet smoking jacket might be just the thing for an evening party.

Youth culture drove much of the sartorial transformation, particularly in casual dress; Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, and James Dean modelled the classic white t-shirt and jeans for the first time on the big screen in this decade, and James Dean’s short career in Hollywood left a lasting fashion legacy in the form of his distinctive red nylon golf jacket, in Rebel Without a Cause.

Theatrical poster for Rebel Without a Cause, 1955. Warner Brothers Pictures Distributing Corporation. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

In fact, it would be hard to find better – or more entertaining – fashion inspiration than in the films of the 1950s. Throughout the decade, star actresses like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Dorothy Dandridge modelled iconic looks, both onscreen and off.

Dorothy Dandridge photographed for LIFE Magazine in 1955. Image via Harper’s Bazaar.

Eight-time Oscar-winning costume designer Edith Head (the inspiration for superhero costumier Edna “E” Mode in The Incredibles (2004)), created some of the 1950’s most iconic looks, for men and women alike. Her designs reflect the breadth of possibilities for glamorous women’s dress in the period, from Grace Kelly’s full tulle skirts, inspired by ballet tutus, to Kim Novak’s sleekly severe suits in Vertigo (1958). True couture also made appearances on screen, as Hepburn was dressed by M. Hubert de Givenchy himself for Sabrina (1954) and Funny Face (1957), the latter a cinematic send-up of the fashion industry itself.

Audrey Hepburn alights from a TWA plane in Los Angeles on September 5, 1953. Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.
Publicity photo of Audrey Hepburn and William Holden in the motion picture Sabrina, 1954. Paramount Pictures, Inc. Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

Menswear in these classic films receives less attention on Pinterest boards today, but it too evinced a witty, modern spirit and a widening range of options. There’s a new, comfort driven sensibility behind Gregory Peck’s lightweight, loosely-cut suits in Roman Holiday, joy and humor in Fred Astaire’s dance number in Funny Face, in which his white duster coat’s scarlet lining transforms it into a matador’s cape, and there is nothing uptight or understated about Cary Grant’s polka-dotted scarf and striped sweater in To Catch a Thief.

The glamorous costumes of the big screen set a high bar for fifties fashion, but even Audrey Hepburn had a more ordinary go-to look: the capris, sweater, and ballet flats ensemble that she was photographed in time and time again.  The ease with which the stars of the fifties wore their exquisite clothes reminds us, in our own era, not to take our own wardrobe too seriously. Not even for A House Party at Cranbrook!

Join the Center in your 1950s-inspired finery on May 18 to help us celebrate the legacy of music at Cranbrook with a garden gala at Thornlea House and enjoy musical stylings from the era. Head to our website to learn more and purchase your tickets to A House Party at Cranbrook: Celebrating the Legacy of Music!

– Mariam Hale, 2023-2025 Collections Fellow, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

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16

Feb

Revealing Horizons-Upward Bound History

Cranbrook Archives is excited to announce the launch of a historical digitization project, made possible by a generous two-year grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commissions (NHPRC). The Archival Projects grant “supports projects that promote access to America’s historical records to encourage understanding of our democracy, history, and culture.” One of 21 awardees in 2023, alongside the Amistad Research Center, NYU, and others, we have begun full digitization of Cranbrook Schools’ Horizons-Upward Bound Program (HUB) records in an effort to facilitate discovery and use of material that documents one of the nation’s oldest and largest college access programs. The new online collection promises to elevate the visibility of HUB’s important story, and by extension, experiences of under-represented youth, primarily African American, in the U.S. educational system.

Cover of Horizons-Upward Bound’s first annual report, 1965. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

HUB historical materials include approximately 18 boxes (20.4 linear feet) of material relaying HUB’s history from its founding in 1965 through the year 2000. Material includes paper, news, photo, and film media primarily generated by HUB administration and HUB students. During the first year of the grant we are focused on digitizing all paper material. The second year will be devoted to digitizing photography and film, including images taken by local photographer Jack Kausch.

Photo of Archives workspace inside Thornlea Studio. Desks covered with archival boxes and material.
Digitization workstation where paper records are currently being scanned.

What we’ve done so far…

Digitization began in-house at the Archives in Summer 2023, with two HUB student volunteers who scanned a selection of newsletters and annual reports and drafted initial keyword/descriptions of the material. Later that Fall, I was hired to dedicate full-time attention to the project for the duration of the grant period. I continued the students’ work by first conducting quality control of the scanned material and digitizing the remaining publications in the collection. So far, I have digitized and quality checked over 7,500 pages of paper material. Currently, I am writing descriptions and creating keywords for these items and transferring the digital files to our online collections website, where they will be made public at the end of the project.

Collage of HUB paper publication covers. Primarily green, black, yellow, and red.
Selection of Horizons-Upward Bound publications spanning from the 1960s to 1990s, including annual reports, literary magazines, brochures, and newsletters. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

More to come!

In honor of HUB’s founder and first director, Ben Snyder (1965-1989), we hope for this digitization project to help realize the desire he expressed for HUB’s records in his 1977-1978 Annual Report:

Annual Report cover, featuring HUB’s first cohort to include young women, 1977-1978. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

“One hopes that these annual entries will, at some point in the future, be useful to the educational historian or, in a narrower sense, to someone reviewing the Cranbrook scene as it relates to community involvement. Should that time come in say the next century, the task would be far happier if the nation had in the meantime eliminated the need for compensatory education.”

–Ben Snyder (pg. 34)

Initially self-described as “An Experimental Enrichment Program,” in conjunction with representatives from Detroit Public Schools and Oakland County Schools, HUB was the only program of its kind at its inception. The artifacts and stories found within its historical collection have great potential to inform and inspire continued community-building and educational programming that span across metro Detroit and the nation. We hope you will share in our excitement about this project and we look forward to sharing more updates about the Horizons-Upward Bound collection!

– Courtney Richardson, Project Archivist, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

Editor’s Note: The NHPRC was established by Congress in 1934 as a statutory body affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration. Chaired by the Archivist of the United States, it is composed of representatives of the three branches of the Federal Government and professional associations of archivists, historians, documentary editors, and records administrators.

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05

Feb

Collaging the Architecture of Detroit

Each year before my History of American Architecture lecture series, I like to commission Cranbrook Academy of Art student or recent alumni to design a poster to promote the event. This year, I asked second-year 2D Design student Luis Quintanilla to create a poster for this year’s series, Detroit and the World. I am thrilled with how the poster turned out—you can pick one up at the first lecture February 6, 2024—and thought I would share with you some of how it came about.

When I visited Luis’ studio in the Arts and Crafts Court, I was struck by their graphic sensibility combining imagery and text in sticker-like collages. I was also very impressed by a series of stipple drawings in ink on tracing paper, which Luis kept in a shoebox. As we talked about the themes of my upcoming lectures, and what we both admire about Detroit and its architecture, the idea of the poster came about. With Luis’ sketches strewn across the table in their studio, I was reminded of the great tradition of architectural capricci.

Architectural capprici are fantasies, where artists or architects combine buildings from across time in a single image. Traditionally, 18th century capprici could be oil paintings, pencil or ink sketches, or engravings. Joseph Michael Gandy is the most famous painter of architectural fantasies. Here, he is combining the London works of Sir John Soane into a single fantasy, set within the studio of Soane’s own house.

Joseph Michael Gandy, Public and Private Buildings Executed by Sir John Soane between 1780 and 1815, first exhibited 1818. Courtesy of Sir John Soane Museum, London.

If you’ve come to many of my previous architecture lectures, you might recognize my favorite painting: Thomas Cole’s The Architect’s Dream of 1840, a capprici which embodies the mid-19th century debate between gothic and classical styles. Contemporary British painter Carl Laubin creates stunning work inspired by Gandy, using contemporary architects for elaborate capprici.

What might an architectural capprici of Detroit include?

Marshall M. Fredericks’ The Spirit of Detroit, 1958, photographed by Helmut Ziewers for Historic Detroit Area Architecture.

I created a list of forty buildings I thought embodied the best of Detroit architecture. I narrowed it down to twenty buildings for Luis’ consideration, and shared images of each. My only real request: include at least one building from each of the five lectures, and center the poster on John Portman and Associates’ 1977 Renaissance Center.

I don’t think Detroit has a more iconic building than the RenCen, with its piston-like glass towers rising up from the Detroit River. There are better works of architecture, sure, but as far as an associated image of Detroit? Nothing tops the RenCen.

I suggested, too, that Luis include the 1901 St. Josaphat’s church by architects Joseph G. Kastler and William E. N. Hunter in front of the RenCen, to recall the almost too-good-to-be-true alignment of these two structures when driving into the city from the northern suburbs on I-75. After all, by the nature of delivering lectures about Detroit from the distance of Cranbrook, this is the view (from the suburbs, from the car) many of us hold toward the city.

We went back and forth about including the Spirit of Detroit, former Cranbrook Schools faculty member Marshall M. Fredericks’ monumental bronze at the Detroit City-County Building. What attracts me to the Spirit is its iconic status and its graphic replicability: whether on the redesigned city buses or the new city holiday lights, all you really need is an orb and some rays of light to know: that’s the Spirit of Detroit.

What would be the mood of our Detroit capprici?

Inextricably linked to the history of Detroit since 1980 is Detroit Techno, a form of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) that combines synth-pop with African American styles such as house, electro, and funk. For me, Detroit is most exciting, and its dynamism most electrifying, at night. In riding through the city after dark, buildings become speeding landmarks, and its possible to disappear for a time into a former factory or repurposed commercial building for a party or a rave. In these moments, buildings become less defined by their former glory or current decay than by their inhabitation as a dancefloor pulsating with music and lights. It’s a new way of occupying the city’s architecture to unique advantage.

Luis went to work. They began by printing out and arranging the buildings I’d shared. Then, they began overdrawing some of the images—distorting or highlighting certain features.

Layering on tracing paper, Luis dutifully stippled certain prominent architectural elements. I was especially impressed at the beautifully rendered hand, orb, and rays of Spirit of Detroit.

Luis then cut out stars on blue and yellow paper, adding in light sources to the night scene. The Ambassador Bridge, Dodge Memorial Fountain, Penobscot and Fisher Buildings are all recognized for their dramatic nighttime illumination, and Luis captured this with hand-drawn and cut stars.

Fisher Building with Full Moon Eclipse in Nov. 2022

Finally, Luis scanned in the physical elements of the poster and reassembled them in Illustrator, where text was added. Luis took inspiration from Detroit Techno posters for the colors and fonts. I could not be more thrilled with our poster, and the capprici of Detroit at night (with techno).

Luis Quintanilla, CAA ’24, working on the poster. Luis is from Austin, Texas, and earned their BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Can you identify all the buildings shown? Can you speculate why I chose them?

If you can, you’ll love this year’s History of American Architecture: Detroit and the World lecture series! If you can’t, you’ll also love this year’s History of American Architecture: Detroit and the World lecture series! The first lecture is February 6, 2024, at 12:00pm ET online and at 6:30pm ET online and in de Salle Auditorium at Cranbrook Art Museum. Purchase your tickets and learn more on our website. All lectures will be available for viewing after the lecture to ticket holders. See you there!

—Kevin Adkisson, Curator, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

Special thanks to Artist-in-Residence Elliot Earls, Head of 2D Design, for suggesting Luis for this project. A perfect fit!

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05

Jan

Did Leonard Bernstein Write “West Side Story” at Cranbrook?

With Maestro now streaming on Netflix—and nominated for four Golden Globe Awards—it’s high time I set the record straight about the Cranbrook House Steinway Grand and its most famous pianist, Leonard Bernstein. It is a legendary story, told and retold for decades, that places Bernstein composing none other than his most famous work, West Side Story, here, at Cranbrook.

It is a story, however, that is hard to unravel fact from fiction. So, like all Center historians and archivists, I started by doing some digging in Cranbrook Archives. This is the story I uncovered.

Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein, and Brian Klugman as Aaron Copland in Maestro. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023.

First, the Piano

Cranbrook has several Steinway grand pianos, including two of the grandest: a Model D concert grand in Page Hall on the original School for Boys campus, and a second Model D in the Cranbrook House Library. The Cranbrook House concert grand piano was manufactured by Steinway & Sons of New York City and completed a little more than eighty-five years ago on December 18, 1929. It was purchased by Grinnell Brothers of Detroit in January 1930 and, later that year, sold to the Colony Town Club, a women’s club located on East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit.

Cranbrook House library facing south. Steinway & Sons Model D Concert Grand piano sits below the “Story of Ceres” tapestry, March 1957. Photographer Harvey Croze. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

Enter, George Booth

The black concert grand piano was to have a short life at the Colony Town Club. Within a few years, its members sold it back to Grinnell Brothers where, in February 1935, it was purchased by George Booth. I remain intrigued by the fact that Booth purchased a “pre-owned” piano. While America was in the throes of the Great Depression, I think it was more than a simple cost-saving measure; it was a decision warranted by the piano’s intended use.

The piano did not begin its life at Cranbrook in the Booths’ Library, the center of their social life after it was completed in 1919. Rather, Booth first placed the piano in the main hall of the Cranbrook Pavilion on Lone Pine Road. Known today as St. Dunstan’s Playhouse, in 1935 the recently renovated pavilion was being used as an exhibition gallery and event space for the Academy of Art and its nascent Art Museum. The piano was played at exhibition openings and for preludes before lectures, including at least one by Frank Lloyd Wright. Although St. Dunstan’s Guild began using the pavilion in 1937 for rehearsals and storage, Cranbrook Academy of Art continued to hold exhibitions there until 1942, when the new Eliel Saarinen-designed museum opened.

Cranbrook Pavilion staged for an Academy of Art formal party, January 16, 1936. In the center is what would become known as the Cranbrook House Steinway concert grand piano; in the background is the Cranbrook Map Tapestry, designed by Eliel Saarinen and woven by Studio Loja Saarinen in 1935. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives.

Sometime between 1942 and the summer of 1946, when the pavilion was cleared out and rented by the Cranbrook Foundation to St. Dunstan’s Guild, George Booth moved the Steinway down the road to Christ Church Cranbrook “to protect the instrument from damage by dampness or other causes and to give it the benefit of expert use.” It was also during this period, in March 1944, that George and Ellen Booth formally deeded to the Cranbrook Foundation the Homestead Property, which encompassed not only Cranbrook House but also the forty acres adjacent to the house, including the Cranbrook Pavilion and its Steinway.

Enter, Leonard Bernstein

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Archives/Cranbrook Academy of Art/Cranbrook Art Museum/Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research/Cranbrook House/Cranbrook House and Gardens/Cultural Properties/Thornlea House

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08

Dec

Time to Study! (History, that is)

As college students across the country buckle down to study for final exams and finish writing end-of-semester papers, there will be one school where that’s not happening: Cranbrook Academy of Art. Instead, our Academy students are busy making in their studios, and frantically producing work for their semi-regular critiques with Artists-in-Residence. This follows the model set up here by founding president Eliel Saarinen, who famously rejected what he called the “non-creative-school-book-learned-art-teacher” in favor of a method he called “self-education under good leadership.”

While the Academy’s extremely self-directed, studio-based education is proudly traced back to our founding, Cranbrook did, in fact, once offer formal courses in the history of art. These quarterly courses—taught by museum curators, visiting professors, and artists—utilized both slide shows and actual paintings.

Museum Director Albert Christ-Janer teaching his “Survey of the Arts” history class for Cranbrook Academy of Art students, 1945. Christ-Janer arrived at Cranbrook in June of 1945 and left for the University of Chicago in September 1947. Harvey Croze, photographer. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

Here, we see Museum Director Albert Christ-Janer lecturing in the then-new Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum and Library. The classroom is simple, just folding chairs and an illuminated blackboard set up in the lower-level galleries. In front of the students hangs Doris Lee’s Fisherman’s Wife. I admire Christ-Janers books, and imagine it would’ve been very exciting to attend one of his lectures.

Christ-Janer discussing Fisherman’s Wife by Doris Lee (CAM 1945.27). Lee painted the scene of Key West, Florida while she was a visiting artist at Michigan State in 1945. It was purchased by the Cranbrook Foundation that same year. Harvey Croze, photographer. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

In the Academy’s 1945 Course Catalog, Christ-Janer is listed as “Instructor in the Survey of the Arts.” By the 1970s, then President Wallace Mitchell stopped offering anything like a history of art course at the Academy in favor of a history/theory seminar called the Humanities Forum. This evolved into the Critical Studies program today—the only required lecture/seminar for Academy students, but which is, as always, ungraded.

I’d note that Christ-Janer is teaching in a full suit and tie—a sight rarer at the Academy today than a history of art course!

Even though the Academy no longer offers a History of Art course in its curriculum, I like to think that the Center’s History of American Architecture lecture series continues the tradition of art history at Cranbrook. For the past six years, I’ve taught architecture history to interested Academy and Cranbrook Schools students, and open to members of the public.

Kevin Adkisson teaching History of American Architecture: Cranbrook in Context, March 3, 2020. Photography by Daniel Smith, CAA 2021, Courtesy Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

Starting on February 6, 2024, the History of American Architecture lecture series returns. This year’s subject is “Detroit and the World,” and we are offering two ways to attend the lecture: virtually, at noon or 6:30pm EST, or in person at Cranbrook Art Museum’s de Salle Auditorium at 6:30pm. We launched the website and ticket sales on Wednesday, and I encourage you to read more about each week’s topic and consider signing up over on our website. There’s so much great Detroit architecture, and I am excited to share it with you in lectures this winter!

In his unpublished 1950 manuscript, The Story of Cranbrook, Eliel Saarinen wrote of Cranbrook students as “the pupil is like an empty sack to be filled during the school year.” I hope you’ll join me in February as we fill ourselves up with knowledge!

—Kevin Adkisson, Curator, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

Image: The Greater Penobscot Building by Wirt Rowland of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, Detroit, Michigan, 1928;  Photography by James Haefner, Courtesy James Haefner.    

HISTORY OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE

DETROIT AND THE WORLD

This installment will focus on the architecture of Detroit, studying the buildings, designers, and policymakers that shaped the city’s dramatic transformations from the late nineteenth century to today, and how Detroiters have influenced the course of architecture around the globe. 

Learn more

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Cranbrook Academy of Art/Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

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01

Dec

A Donkey for Christmas: Brighty Comes to Cranbrook

George G. Booth’s “Old Country Office” at Cranbrook House. Photograph by Kevin Adkisson.

Every year at Christmas, the Center for Collections and Research decorates George Booth’s office in Cranbrook House with a special display. This year, our Christmas display is all about Brighty of the Grand Canyon, a movie produced by Stephen Booth, a grandson of Cranbrook’s cofounders. Brighty was a real donkey who inspired first a children’s novel, then a feature film.

In the late 1800s, there were hundreds of half-wild donkeys in the Grand Canyon, brought there by prospectors and then lost or abandoned. Brighty was one of them. 

Photograph by Kevin Adkisson.

Brighty lived in the Grand Canyon from 1892 to 1922. In the winter, he roamed the warm depths of the canyon. A sociable animal, he liked the company of prospectors, hunters, and hikers, but if anyone loaded a heavy pack on his back he would soon make his escape. Every summer, he returned to the North Rim to stay with the McKee family who rented cabins to tourists. He would carry water, give children rides, and visit each cabin in turn for attention and treats—his favorite food was flapjacks and honey.

In 1953, the author Marguerite Henry learned about Brighty, and immediately decided to base her next novel on him. In search of more stories about the adventurous donkey, she travelled to the Grand Canyon herself, where she interviewed locals who had known him, hiked in the canyon, and even sampled the creek water and tasted the plants that Brighty would have eaten! She adopted her own donkey, Jiggs, to learn from him how the real Brighty might have behaved. In Brighty of the Grand Canyon, a free-spirited donkey helps solve a murder mystery and protects his human friends from a dangerous bandit.

This is the 1963 edition of the novel, the same year that the Booths bought a copy to read on their family road trip. Photograph by Kevin Adkisson.

Stephen Booth and his wife Betty bought a copy of the book to read to their children, Douglas, Charles, and George. They all loved the story, especially Stephen, who had his own film production company, and decided to make a movie about Brighty. 

Filming began in 1965, with Marguerite Henry’s own pet donkey, Jiggs, starring as Brighty. Filmed on location at the Grand Canyon and in the Dixie National Forest in Utah, the actors and crew spent weeks living in the canyon. A tiny helicopter and an airplane with a camera mounted on the front were used for aerial shots, and for flying special visitors, like Stephen’s parents, Henry and Carolyn Booth, down into the canyon. 

Norman Foster, the film’s director, reviews the script with Jiggs the Donkey. Stephen Farr Booth Papers, Cranbrook Archives

The movie premiered on November 22, 1966, just down the road in Birmingham, doubling as a fundraiser for Kingswood School for Girls. As the star of the movie, Jiggs himself came along to the premiere. Afterward, he participated in the Festival of Gifts at Christ Church Cranbrook, an annual Christmas tradition that began in 1928 and continues today. 

From left to right: Betty Booth, Stephen Booth, Marguerite Henry, and Jiggs greet children at the film’s premiere. Stephen Farr Booth Papers, Cranbrook Archives.

While Brighty was visiting Bloomfield Hills, he also posed for a series of sculptures by Peter Jepsen. They were modelled here at Cranbrook, on the second floor of Thornlea Studio. We still have one of the sixty Brighty figurines that Stephen Booth had made to give as presents to people who had helped in the making of the movie. Our Brighty was given to Stephen’s parents, Henry and Carolyn, to thank them for their support.

Photograph by Kevin Adkisson.
Peter Jepsen at work on Brighty in Thornlea Studio. Stephen Farr Booth Papers, Cranbrook Archives.

Stephen also commissioned Jepsen to make a life-size sculpture of Brighty. In 1968, Stephen gave that version to the Park Rangers at the Grand Canyon as a Christmas present. You can still see Jepsen’s Brighty at the visitor’s lodge on the North Rim of the Canyon, close to where the real Brighty spent his summers, more than a hundred years ago.

Peter Jepsen poses with his sculpture at the lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Stephen Farr Booth Papers, Cranbrook Archives.

— Mariam Hale, Collections Fellow, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

Ed. Note (July 17, 2025): It appears the Dragon Bravo wildfire has severly damaged the original Brighty statue at the the lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CDkSfoutX/

Please know that the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research will do everything it can to support efforts to restore or replace Brighty,

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Archives/collections/Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research/Cranbrook House/Cranbrook House and Gardens/Cultural Properties/George G. Booth/Objects/Thornlea House

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03

Nov

A Long-distance Dedication

People of a certain age will remember listening to American Top 40 on the radio. Detroiter Casey Kasem offered an opportunity for listeners to give “long-distance dedications,” requesting a song for a loved one, a friend, or if they themselves needed cheering up.

Loja Saarinen’s letter to WJR on October 26, 1961. Saarinen Family Papers, Cranbrook Archives.

Loja Saarinen wrote this note to the programers at WJR in Detroit, asking them to play two songs. Though she did not send this note to Casey Kasem, I imagine what Loja Saarinen’s words may have been if she had in October of 1961. On September 1, 1961, Eero Saarinen had died during surgery for a brain tumor:

Dear Casey,

I recently lost my son at far too young an age (51). He was overseeing the completion of a new music building for the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance and our family so loved music. Casey, could you kindly play Concerto in D Minor by my good friend and fellow Finn Jean Sibelius?

Yours, Loja

Well, Loja, here is your long-distance dedication, Sibelius’ Concerto in D Minor played by Jascha Heifetz and conducted by Thomas Beecham.

London Philharmonic Orchestra London, 1935

If you’d like to make your own dedication, no need to be long-distance. Chamber Music in the Age of Resistance: Finland, Korea, Haiti and America, and France is being presented by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, in Collaboration with the University of Michigan “Art & Resistance” Fall 2023 Theme Semester, on Sunday, November 12th, 2023 at Cranbrook House.

Please join us for the concert and remember, as Casey Kasem said, “keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”

– Leslie S. Mio, Associate Registrar, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

2 years ago Short URL 1 Comment

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