A must stop in the Detroit area is the Detroit Historical Museum, “where the past is present”. The Challenge Detroit Fellows made an all important and necessary stop to the great museum on Friday. After a six month renovation, the Detroit Historical Museum is making a comeback right along with the rest of the city. The museum added more exhibits and revamped some of their old ones, which are all more interactive and tech friendly. Here is a list of a few things to see and do at this museum:
- Seeing how your hand size stakes up to some of Detroit’s cultural icons in the new Legends Plaza. Located right outside of the museum, this exhibit includes names such as Barry Sanders, Elmore Leonard, Eddie Fowlkes, and Martha Reeves.
- In the Frontiers to Factories: Detroiters at Work 1701-1901 exhibit, you can see a model of Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit, which was the first establishment in what we now call Detroit. Learn of its history with the surrounding Native American tribes, where woman held the power, and of the settlers who could not understand this even as they needed the Native Americans to trap for fur.
- Make your way around the museum to discover the flag of Detroit, which is rich with history in its design, from having been controlled by three countries and devastated by a fire that nearly destroyed the entire city.
- Head over to America’s Motor City exhibit and have a look into how cars shaped Detroit’s landscape. Imagine working at one of the automobile factories with a body drop for a Cadillac model from 1987.
- Become a conductor as you learn about trains in The Glancy Trains exhibit. This interactive exhibit shares the history of Detroit’s rail travel, as well as incorporating rare artifacts.
- Test your skills in The Gallery of Innovation exhibit as you learn about innovations and innovators of the Detroit area. Make your own pop drink flavor and test it out to see how you fared.
- Take the same pathway to freedom as runaway slaves took to escape to Canada from the United States. Learn of the struggles and hardships faced by so many slaves.
- Go back in time when Detroit’s factories switched from making cars to military materials, accounting for 30 percent of the supplies created in the United States for WWII in Detroit: The “Arsenal of Democracy” exhibit.
- Walk on over to the Kid Rock Music Lab to enjoy a concert-like atmosphere or test your knowledge of Detroit’s rich music history.
- Take a walk down 19th century Detroit in the Streets of Old Detroit exhibit. Go window shopping and stop in at Sanders Confectionery replica store.
- If you are lucky, maybe you will be there on the day to meet a beautiful Raven (ambassador for the Ojibwa tribe) or Tuskegee Airmen (members of the United States Army Air Forces with the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group during WWII and the first African-American military airmen).
I can safely say that my favorite part, as well as the other fellows, was our tour guide Ted Van Buren. I swear the man knew everything you wanted to know about Detroit’s history. Ted brought history to life with his engagement, knowledge, enthusiasm, and not to mention humor. As a volunteer, you could clearly tell he enjoyed working with the museum.
Admission is currently free, so there is no reason not to stop by and visit the Detroit Historical Museum. Do not forget to check out their user friendly website – http://detroithistorical.org/. Support this city’s rich history!
Contributed by Fellow James Serbinski