"I came to live with my grandparents in the city so I could get work and send money home to my mother and father on the farm. I'm working at the Park-American Hotel as a bell boy. The hotel pays me 50 cents a day but I make most of my money in tips, carrying people's bags to their rooms. I get an extra nice tip if someone has me carry their bags down to the train station."
-Clifford Grainger, white male, age 15
Captions: Postcards of the exterior and interior of the Park-American Hotel in Kalamazoo, circa 1920s (KVM collection); teen dressed as bell boy for a vaudeville act in Detroit in 1915 learn more about depictions of bell boys in entertainment here.
To find more historic photographs and artifacts related to hotels in Kalamazoo, visit KVM's searchable collections database.