Hero D. Bratt Grand Rapids images
Scope and Contents
There are over 1500 color slides in this collection of urban renewal activity in downtown Grand Rapids, taken by Hero Bratt and some by his son, Don. The slides date from 1961 to 1973 with many slides undated and possibly from slightly earlier or later years. The slides show downtown streets such as Monroe, Michigan, Crescent, Lyon, Ionia and Ottawa. They show churches, schools, government buildings like City Hall and commercial buildings such as banks and breweries. There are also views of highways, parks and Calder Plaza.
The vast scale of demolition and rebuilding unique to the urban renewal period allowed views of the city impossible at any time before or after. Relationships between buildings, streets and other landmarks (and notably relationships between old and new) are made clear through Bratt's images in a manner that is often unprecedented. Bratt shot buildings up close, capturing detail, but also shot broader scenes from multiple angles and from the same angle at multiple points in time so that we can essentially watch buildings come down and the newer structures go up in their place.
Patrons with specific interests would do well to search broadly in this collection because often the view in the background (or a minor detail captured in just the right way) of these images is as important as that in the foreground.
Because of its comprehensiveness and quality, this is an invaluable record of modern change in downtown Grand Rapids and would be very useful to those seeking documentation of everything in the range from details to broad developments within this subject.
Dates
- 1961-1973, no date
Creator
- Bratt, Hero D (Photographer, Person)
Biographical / Historical
Hero D. Bratt was born December 29, 1900 in Crisp, Michigan, the oldest of thirteen children. His parents, Dirk and Hattie (nee Boeve), were farmers and Hero's childhood was characterized by manual labor and farm life. At the age of 22, however, he chose to move to Grand Rapids and attend high school shortly after Grand Rapids Christian High opened in 1921. In the city he took jobs to support himself during and after high school, and eventually became a heating salesman/engineer. He attended Sherman Street Christian Reformed Church where he met Clara Koppers, whom he married in 1927. The couple adopted a son, Don, in 1932. They also had a daughter Francis (Anne).
Soon after moving to Grand Rapids, Hero became interested in photography and purchased a camera. He was known for the volume of photos he took and the notes he kept on them. During Grand Rapids' urban renewal era, Hero launched a project to record images of literally every downtown structure affected by the trend. His office, a former residence at 331 Ottawa NW, was in the heart of the area that experienced the most drastic changes. Motivated, meticulous, and with unique access to a broad range of vantage points, Hero photographed buildings before, during and after demolition as well as the buildings that replaced them before, during and after construction. From the slides, he developed a program called “Glimpses of Old Grand Rapids” that became very popular and that he gave frequently to community groups for over twelve years.
Hero shared his love of photography with his son and Don worked with his father on the urban renewal project. Don is responsible for some of the images, especially the interior shots where a flash was necessary. Hero died May 25, 1977, after which time Don continued his father's quest of presenting “Glimpses of Old Grand Rapids” to local audiences and ensuring that Hero's faithful record of the changes in downtown were preserved and made known to subsequent generations.
Extent
6 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Hero D. Bratt (1900-1977) worked in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan during the urban renewal period in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As an amateur photographer, Bratt documented the buildings and streetscapes before the changes, as well as the demolition and new construction processes. The collection includes over 1,500 color slides, each converted into a print. Because of the comprehensiveness and quality of the images, they are an invaluable record of modern change in downtown Grand Rapids.
Arrangement note: Slides
The slides have been organized using the order and designations they were found in. This order probably was based on either how the slides were used in Bratt's presentations or how they were originally shot. The weakness of this organization is that not all views of a subject are found together.
The slides in this collection were given to us in four containers; three Bell & Howell Company Tandem-matic Slide File boxes each the size of a large shoe box and holding six trays of slides, plus one additional box that instead of trays held smaller boxes and one plastic bag filled with slides. The boxes have been designated one through four in this finding aid, with the more complicated box first, but did not originally have any order.
The slides in container one were found rubber banded and wrapped in paper in groups of one to fifty. On the paper was identification for that one to fifty slide(s) hand written in pencil. These banded groups were separated into small boxes (one was a check book box) and one tray (like from the other containers) and one plastic bag, and each of these containers had some group identification. So, according to Bratt's arrangement and description, container one held the following: “Box A-1 Churches and Spires”, “Box A-2 Views from Butterworth, Various Street Scenes”, “Box B Monroe Avenue Views”, “Box C Sequence #7” (it is unclear what “Sequence #7” meant), “Box D Unassigned” (it is unclear what “Unassigned” meant), Tray No. 13, a box marked only “Hero Bratt Slides Urban Renewal G.R.” with no letter or number and a plastic bag.
Containers two, three and four held six trays each. Some of these trays were labeled with a letter and some with a number though neither were sequential. For example, trays A, B and F were in container two, but tray D was in container three and there was no Tray C. The contents section of Series II shows the details of the breakdown
Each of the slides in the collection was found labeled with a unique code number in black marker. The code consists of a two or three digit number, followed by the letter “R”, followed by a one or two digit number (ex: 117R27 and 86R6). There is no key for this code but it is useful as a means of identifying an individual slide.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Don Bratt, accession number 2009.016.
Processing Information
Prints were made of the slides by GRPL and the prints are organized differently from the slides for the ease of use by the typical patron. The prints are arranged by subject as delineated in the Contents section of this finding aid. Except when special permission is granted, patrons will be given access to the prints only.
The physical and intellectual arrangement of the slides preserves the arrangement in which they were donated and gives insight into Bratt's priorities but does not impose (or provide) a subject or chronological order.
- Title
- Finding aid for the Hero D. Bratt Grand Rapids images
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Jennifer Morrison
- Date
- June 2010
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Sponsor
- Processing funding provided by the Grand Rapids Public Library Foundation
Repository Details
Part of the Grand Rapids History Center Repository
Grand Rapids Public Library
111 Library Street NE
Grand Rapids Michigan 49503 USA
616-988-5497
localhis@grpl.org