GR Public Museum launches online catalog of 160,000 items in its collections

By Sharon Hanks

After collecting objects of local and "inter-galactic" significance for 155 years, the Grand Rapids Public Museum has arranged for 160,000 of them to be released to the public in one visit: an online collections catalog here.

This catalog allows the public to review the complete scope of the depth and variety of the collections, including those items not on display. The dynamic collection spans dozens of categories from automobiles to dolls to furniture to hats.

Only 10 percent of the museum's vast collection of 245,000 artifacts and specimens are exhibited in the museum at one time, according to Jen Huizinga, the museum's public relations and marketing coordinator. This is due to space demands, the desire to keep exhibits fresh for the public with new materials, and to protect the fragile items from exposure to light and other environmental threats.

"This (project) has been going on for over a year," says Huizinga. "A lot of larger museums have their collections on line so we're finally joining the ranks." Officials hope to have the majority of the remaining items online soon.

To access the collections catalog, visit here and click on the "collections catalog" icon. Once there you can search for artifacts by a category, such as keyword or artisan.

In addition to this new database, site visitors can also find information on featured objects, photo galleries, archival collections, stories, and more.

Because these collections can each contain thousands of documents, there is no way to list everything online. However, if viewers would like to conduct their own research, contact Alex Forist, the Collections Curator at [email protected] to set up an appointment.

The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Sources: Grand Rapids Public Museum's website; Jen Huizinga, Grand Rapids Public Museum's public relations and marketing coordinator.


Sharon Hanks is innovations and jobs news editor at Rapid Growth Media. Please send story ideas and comments for the column to Sharon at [email protected]. She also is owner of The Write Words in Grand Rapids.