Edgar Rinaldo Somes

1856 - 1940

Edgar Somes was born in Meredith Bridge, NH in 1856 where his father, Rinaldo R. Somes, engaged in making and distributing furniture. He moved with his parents to Boston in 1876, and began the study of music and art in 1877 at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He also designed furniture for vaious Boston firms. He came to Grand Rapids in 1900 to design for Michigan Chair Co., Kent Furniture Co., and Stow and Davis Furniture Co. From 1901-1905 he designed exlusively for Michigan Chair Co. In 1905 he was one of the reorganizers of Century Furniture Co., serving as vice-president and art director.

He resigned in 1917, and in 1919 formed Edgar R. Somes Furniture Co., which he gave up in 1921 to become a free-lance designer. In 1922 he was president of the Grand Rapids Furniture Designers Association. In 1930 he became president of David Walcott Kendall School of Art as its first edcational director. He died on December 15, 1940 at the age of 78.