A VIRTUAL TOUR OF CRANKBROOK, KENT

Take a virtual tour of Cranbrook, Kent, England and learn more about the ancestral home of the Booth family with Center Curator Kevin Adkisson.

A Virtural Tour of Cranbrook in Kent, England

Special thanks to Bobbi and Stephen Polk and Ryan Polk for sponsoring the trip.

A TALE OF TWO CRANBROOKS

A Tale of Two Cranbrooks shares the stories of the Cranbrook our founding family the Booths created in Bloomfield Hills, and the Booth ancestral home in Kent, England.

A Tale of Two Cranbrooks

The story begins almost 200 years ago in Cranbrook, a small market town in Kent England, where generations of Booths had worked as coppersmiths; it gathers momentum as the family immigrates to North America in 1844, eventually landing in Toronto, the birthplace of Cranbrook co-founder George Gough Booth; and the story flowers in Detroit, where George Gough Booth arrives as an ironworker, marries Ellen Scripps, and eventually secures the families’ fortunes as a newspaper publisher. 

George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth were inspired by their English roots and passion for handicrafts in the early 1900s, but you may be surprised what object in our collections represents this best.

Want more? Check out Seasons 1-3 of our popular online series Live at Five!

Season One

Image: Cranbrook Kingswood Lower School Brookside's Lone Pine Road Elevation. Daniel Smith, CAA '21, photographer

Season Two

Image: A 1936 Cranbrook loom frames Cranbrook Rug No. 1, Studio Loja Saarinen's first creation. P.D. Rearick, CAA '10, photographer.

Season Three

Image: Christ Church Cranbrook, Baptistry Ceiling. P.D. Rearick, CAA '10, photographer.

 

Banner Image: House Party 2023 Logo Border, Designed by Ed Ryan, CAA '22.