The Cranbrook Archives is the primary repository for the Cranbrook Edcuational Community. The department is responsible for collecting, preserving, and making available community and divisional records of permanent value, the papers of members of the Booth, Scripps and Saarinen families, the records of Christ Church Cranbrook and other ancillary organizations, and the personal papers of faculty, staff, alumni and other individuals who have been associated with Cranbrook since 1904. We also work collaboratively with departments across our 319-acre campus to continue to document our heritage, and to develop programs that will foster awareness of the rich history of the built environment and the people who have helped to make it a National Historic Landmark.
Archives Historic Timeline
• The Archives was unofficially created in 1942 at the suggestion of George Booth's personal secretary,
Helen McIlroy, as a matter of housekeeping.
• In 1966, McIlroy continued to organize the records of the community as secretary for
Henry Scripps Booth, who was chairman of the Cranbrook Foundation. The Archives was located in the basement of Cranbrook House.
• In 1970, primary documents from the six institutions across campus were transferred to the archives, as well as all of the materials from the Cranbrook Photograph Department (1931-1970) transferred later that year.
• In Nov 1982, Cranbrook hired a part-time archivist. In 1984, the Archives was moved from the basement of Cranbrook House to the second-floor storage area where there was space for a small reading room.
• In 1988, upon the death of Henry Booth, his former
architectural studio was retrofitted as the Archives building.
• In 2012, the Archives will move its primary location to a new space in the lower level of teh Cranbrook Art Museum.
Hours
The Archives is open for research Monday-Friday 9am-4pm. Please call or email ahead to schedule an appointment with the appropriate staff member.
DirectionsYou can download directions to the Archives
hereDigital Image Database
For access to our digital images, please click
here. Please keep in mind that this is a very small representation of the images in our collection.
