GRPM to showcase medical collections

The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) will host its annual fundraising event in May.

The Collections & Cocktails fundraiser will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 11, at the museum at 272 Pearl St. NW in Grand Rapids.

The event will focus on stories, preservation and education of medical artifacts within the GRPM collections.

“Collections & Cocktails provides the museum an annual opportunity to showcase a specific category of its collections while raising funds to support education and preservation efforts,” said Amy Van Andel, chair of GRPM’s Collections & Cocktails committee. “This year, the museum is excited to offer immersive displays highlighting the accomplishments of local health care organizations and their contributions to the advancement of our city.”

The medical collections will include health care stories and thousands of artifacts from West Michigan and around the world of health care equipment used over the years, such as iron lungs and artificial joints.

The collections will highlight the role Grand Rapids played to eradicate diseases, including the development of a whooping cough vaccine by Drs. Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering in the 1930s and the creation of new types of artificial joint implants by Dr. Alfred Swanson in the 1960s.

Collections & Cocktails also will feature a dinner and cocktails with stories from Healthcare Partner Displays, a program that includes curated displays from local organizations.

The funds raised at the event will support the preservation of the museum’s collections of over 250,000 artifacts and specimens.

“We look forward to sharing artifacts from the GRPM’s collections and curated displays from local health care display partners for the community to enjoy,” said Cory Redman, GRPM’s science curator. “The museum’s medical collection showcases the evolution of medicine and its various fields through a variety of unique artifacts ranging from 1915 to today’s modern technology.”

Tickets are available here.