Volume 43, number 2
October 2021
Grand River Times The Newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society
Inside this issue: Cover Story: The Works of Corrado Parducci Letter from our President page 2 Available Newspaper Databases page 4
Photo Sleuth Update page 6 Photo Sleuth page 7
Search: Grand Rapids Historical Society
Grand River Times
The Works of Corrado Parducci, Sculptor, In and Around Grand Rapids https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqc-trjMoH9MEuIXbKSepD7kb8S2rGBkD? fbclid=IwAR19SCfqqZSe0yG8_nofSBYJ1xUSuvW7vXJUTERBbaK6xMW994NUBy4BYM
Via Zoom
Thursday, October 14 , 2021, 7:00 p.m. By: Dale Carlson Dale Carlson recently authored a book about the life and work of Detroit based Italian-American architectural sculptor, Corrado Parducci (1900-1981), who comes from an important lineage of American architectural and monumental sculptors who trace their roots to the very important New York City scene centered around MacDougal Alley at the turn of the 19th to 20th Century. Grand Rapids is a significant community for Parducci works, most notably for the carved stone reliefs on the facades of the Grand Rapids Civic Auditorium (1932) at 255 Lyon St NW and the Grand Rapids Trust Company Building (1926) at 61-77 Monroe Center SW. Also, my research suggests very strongly the possibility of Parducci modeling during his apprenticeship years the sculpture found upon the facade of the Michigan Bell Building at 114 Division Ave N. While difficult to prove, the dearth of known apprenticeship era Parducci works makes these examples especially interesting to consider. All three of these important constructions were Grand Rapids Trust Company Building designed or co-designed by the (1926), 61-77 Monroe Center St SW Detroit based architectural firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, for whom Parducci executed numerous commissions over the course of his 50+ year career. Continued on page 3 1
GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Dear GRHS Members,
The Grand River Times is the newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society, published six times annually. Established in 1894, the Grand Rapids Historical Society is dedicated to exploring the history of West Michigan; to discover its romance and tragedy, its heroes and scoundrels, its leaders and its ordinary citizens. The Society collects and preserves our heritage, passing it on to new generations through books, lectures, and education projects. Executive Committee: Gina Bivins, president Matthew Daley, vice-president John Gelderloos, treasurer Nan Schichtel, secretary Board members: Charles Bocskey Angela Cluley Thomas Dilley Matthew Ellis Chris Kaupa Gordon Olson, emeritus Ed Paciencia Wilhelm Seeger, emeritus Jeff Sytsma Julie Tabberer Jim Winslow Jessica Riley, editor Grand Rapids Historical Society c/o Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library St. NE Grand Rapids, MI 49503 Website: www.grhistory.org Grand River Times
I hope you were able to virtually join us for the September presentation with Mary Dersch who gave us more insight into homes, families and amusements of early East Grand Rapids. I personally was excited to learn the name of a man in a photograph that we, at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, have shown to school children while on tours of the Research Center on Washington Street. It is of a man on a beach in a bathing suit. We started showing it to counter the snickers from students when we showed a woman’s bathing suit from the early 1900s. Now I can tell the students that the man in the photograph is Maurice Bellclaire, that a street in East Grand Rapids is named for him and that he co-owned a resort on Reed’s Lake. How cool is that! For those who still want to see the September program it is available on the Grand Rapids Historical Society YouTube channel, along with Part One. Thank you to Mary for allowing us to keep those two programs up and available to members and non-members alike. Your membership helps us keep these programs going. I am looking forward to the October 14 program featuring Dale Carlson who will speak about stone sculptor Corrado Parducci. The work of this artist is found in a number of cities throughout Michigan including Grand Rapids. There are two local buildings that I am sure are part of his portfolio, but there is a third one that I suspect might have been done by him. I look forward to finding out. Parducci’s work was always a must see when I gave architecture and art tours downtown. Keep a paper and pencil handy while watching this presentation so that you can write down where you can see his work in person.
About the Grand Rapids Historical Society. The Grand Rapids Historical Society sponsors eight programs each year, beginning in September and running through May, including lectures, audio/video presentations, demonstrations, collections, or special tours. Membership. Membership is open to all interested persons with annual dues of $30 per family, $20 for seniors and students, or $400 for a lifetime membership. The membership year runs from May to the following May. Members of the Grand Rapids Historical Society receive eight newsletters each year. Members also receive a 20% discount on books published by the society as well as books published by the Grand Rapids Historical Commission. Change of Address. If you will be permanently or temporarily moving to a new address, please notify GRHS before your change occurs. Let us know your new address and the date you plan to leave and plan to return. Email to grhs.local@gmail.com, or mail to Grand Rapids Historical Society, c/o Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library Street NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 2
GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Continued from front page Another interesting angle worthy of closer examination is the well documented involvement of Parducci's brother, Rudolph, in the execution of the Welsh Auditorium sculpture. Rudolph is known to have worked with his brother for the limited duration of 1929 to 1936 and proven cases of the two working in tandem are few. Rudolph's involvement in this particular project is George W. Welsh Civic proven beyond any doubt by the surprisingly thorough account of the Parducci Auditorium aka Grand Rapids brother's local work found in the June 21, 1932 edition of the Grand Rapids. In Civic Auditorium (1932), addition to all of the aforementioned works within Grand Rapids' city limits, 255 Lyon St NW Parducci also created sculpture for significant structures in the satellite communities of Muskegon, Greenville, Westphalia and Kalamazoo, so there is no shortage of pertinent material with which to fill a presentation focusing on his area work. For more information please see the following websites: https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-corradoparducci-12608#transcript https://www.amazon.com/Corrado-Parducci-Detroits-Architectural-Sculptor/ dp/1735793507/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1604807164&refinements=p_27% 3ADale+A.+Carlson+with+Einar+E.+Kvaran&s=books&sr=11&text=Dale+A.+Carlson+with+Einar+E.+Kvaran https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/2020/12/04/dale-carlson-on-corradoparducci/ https://sites.google.com/emich.edu/gerganoffparducciemutour/home About the Presenter: Author, photographer and architectural historian Dale A. Carlson was born and raised along the northeastern shores of Lake Michigan where, as an adolescent, he developed a fascination with the city of Detroit. Throughout the 1990s Mr. Carlson studied art, journalism and graphic design at four Michigan colleges including Michigan State University, while simultaneously migrating closer and closer to the Detroit Metro Area. In 2004 he made southeast Oakland County his permanent home, and in 2019 he earned an associate degree in photographic technology from Oakland Community College. He serves on the City of Berkley’s Historical Committee and is the author of Corrado Parducci: A Field Guide to Detroit’s Architectural Sculptor. His latest project, Kahn’s Detroit: A Field Guide to Albert Kahn Designs of the Metro Area, will showcase 300 extant Kahn designs in southeast Michigan and be published in the coming months. Mr. Carlson will also publish a field guide to stained glass of the New Orleans metropolis in late 2021 and he calls the city his second home. He credits his late wife, Carolin Venegas Jones, whom he married in 2014, for Details of Grand Rapids Michigan Bell inspiring his ventures into Building (1924), 144 Division Ave N publishing and photography. Grand River Times
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Big News for Researchers By: Christine Byron No matter if you’re a serious researcher, amateur historian, genealogist, student, or a history buff, you’ll find several recently available newspaper databases a fountain of information. The Library of Michigan offers the Grand Rapids Press from 1893-current online with a Library of Michigan card, available to residents of Michigan. Just fill out the simple form on the Library’s home page and you’ll receive an email in a day or two with your library card number. https://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan Then go to the Library of Michigan and in the upper right-hand search box type: Newsbank - Library of Michigan online resources for library cardholders -Family History Resources -Grand Rapids Press Historical & Current You can search the full text. And look at the other online resources that are available, including the Detroit Free Press (1831-1999). Alex Forist from the Grand Rapids Public Museum has recently used the Grand Rapids Press database to find articles on school desegregation and busing ("We will get together when we realize" GRP 11/14/1971, page C1). He was also able to find articles on the museum’s own history, including one that the had not seen before (Museum Asks City Aid WPA Project GRP 8-7-1935, page 15). While the museum’s files only had 2 or 3 articles on the recently deceased Hispanic community leader, Francisco Vega, a Newsbank search returned 174 references. Tim Gloege from the local history department of the Grand Rapids Public Library has regularly use the Grand Rapids Press to provide histories of buildings and businesses. He’s used it to track down alleged crimes of ancestors (or crimes committed against them), histories of social clubs, dates for when a specific film started showing in Grand Rapids, UFO sightings...all sorts of things. The new database makes these searches easier. The Grand Rapids Public Library also has recently offered the database: Proquest Black Historical Newspapers, including (including Michigan Chronicle, Chicago Defender, Pittsburg Courier and more). On the GRPL homepage, go to: -Research -Databases and articles -Alphabetical by subject to Newspapers -ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Black Newspaper Collection You need a current GRPL library card to access remotely, but you can come into any of the GRPL branches in person and use it.
Continued on page 5 Grand River Times
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Continued from page 4 Kim Rush, who has done extensive research on the local African American community, points out that both the African American-owned Chicago Defender and the Pittsburg Courier had carried designated Grand Rapids social columns from the 1910s through the 1940s. Kim found information in the 1930s Chicago Defender on the African American nightclub, Club Indigo, which far surpassed that from the GR Press. Between the 1930s and the 1950s, the Chicago Defender announced Grand Rapids appearances in local venues of both local and national musicians, including Nat “King” Cole, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. While national acts generally did not perform at Club Indigo, Kim found that Nat “King” Cole attended Club Indigo while he was performing at the Keith Theater in 1937 for a stage production of “Shuffle Along.” The Chicago Defender, Feb. 3, 1937, page 8, reports: “Bronze Western Michigan turned out en masse and were highly entertained with a ‘Show of Shows’ featuring the entire Shuffle Along Company and Nat Cole’s band.” And for my own research on Michigan places in the Negro Motorist Green Book, I used the ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers to find articles, social columns, advertisements, and occasional photos of hotels, resorts, etc. that welcomed African Americans. I knew I would find references to places in Idlewild and Detroit, but also found information on places such as Covert, South Haven, Woodland Park and Brighton. Lastly, another source of newspaper databases is from the Clarke Historical Library’s Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal. (Just search Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal.) The Portal now provides a list of 1,054 digitally accessible newspaper collections from across the state, including all 83 counties. There are 39 publications from Kent County available, some for free, others for pay. Some of these newspaper databases are also available from the Grand Rapids Public Library or the Library of Michigan. So, happy hunting! -Christine Byron
Our next presentation is planned for Thursday, November 11, at 7:00 p.m. This presentation will be held through Zoom. Details to follow. Check our Facebook page and/or website for more information
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Photo Sleuth Update One of our members, Kim Rush, contacted us after he saw our September Photo Sleuth selection. He wrote to us the following with what he could find out about this picture: “I failed to locate anything which was conclusive concerning who is in the photo. It is quite telling, however, that the photo was shot as Hillary Bissell's home, and that it was dated. Hillary Bissell probably dedicated more of her life time to Grand Rapids African American civil rights battles than any other white person in our town. She served as VP of the NAACP, and worked on numerous committees
Hillary Bissell fought for the civil rights of Grand Rapids African Americans for many years. In 1953, Hillary Bissell acted as State Treasurer for Michigan NAACP. She also worked for the Urban League in Grand Rapids, and served on the Human Relations Committee in Grand Rapids. In October of 1953 she served on a Grand Rapids school committee for the local NAACP with Mrs. F.A. Williams and Mrs. Herman Coburn Most likely this picture reflects one of many meetings at the Bissell home, 234 College Ave. N.E., Grand Rapids Michigan, although I was not able to pinpoint which one.” Grand Rapids Press, October 21, 1953, page 28
Thank you, Kim Rush, for sharing this great information about Hillary Bissell. We are still looking for names for these four individuals from our September Photo Sleuth selection. If anyone recognizes them please contact the Grand Rapids Historical Society.
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOIN THE GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY OR GIVE A MEMBERSHIP AS A GIFT The Grand Rapids Historical Society sponsors eight lectures each year. Members of the society enjoy these benefits:
The Grand River Times is the newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society. Published and mailed to members eight times a year, it includes current items of historical interest, details of upcoming lectures, historically relevant activities, and short articles.
20% Discount on all books and other items published by the society.
Please enroll me as a member of the Grand Rapids Historical Society: ____ New ___Renewal ____Gift
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$400.00 one-time fee
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$20.00 per year
Name: Address: City/State/Zip: Email: Please make check payable to the Grand Rapids Historical Society and mail it with this form to: Grand Rapids Historical Society, c/o Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library Street NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTO SLEUTH Our October Photo Sleuth selection comes from the Robinson Photo Studio Collection from the Grand Rapids Public Library and is dated January 31, 1953. A group photo of the Grand Rapids Rockets hockey team poses on the ice. If anyone in this picture looks familiar or if anyone knows about this team please email the Grand Rapids Historical Society at grhs.local@gmail.com
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Grand Rapids Historical Society, Inc. c/o Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library St. NE Grand Rapids, MI 49503
GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Works of Corrado Parducci, Sculptor, In and Around Grand Rapids https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqc --trjMoH9MEuIXbKSepD7kb8S2rGBkD? fbclid=IwAR19SCfqqZSe0yG8_nofSBYJ1xUSuvW7vXJUTERBbaK6xMW994NUBy4BYM Via Zoom Thursday, October 14 , 2021, 7:00 p.m. By: Dale Carlson
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Cover Story: The Works of Corrado Parducci Letter from our President page 2 Available Newspaper Databases page 4 Photo Sleuth Update page 6 Photo Sleuth page 7
For more information on Historical Society programs, please visit www.grhistory.org Grand River Times
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