Midwest Guest

Grand Rapids, Michigan: The Furniture City

Many people know Grand Rapids best as home to the innovative ArtPrize competition, but the city became renowned worldwide for another type of artistry during its heyday as The Furniture City during last half of the 1800s.

Tim's father grew up in Grand Rapids and was friends with one of the Forslunds, a family that had a furniture company there from 1933 until 1989. We have a dining room set and a few other pieces of Forslund furniture. This is how I first learned of Grand Rapids' furniture.

I learned more about The Furniture City when writing entries for The Michigan Companion, a reference book about all things Michigan published earlier this year.

The Furniture City story has its roots in Michigan's nineteenth-century logging industry. Grand Rapids became a logging center because of its location near Lake Michigan and a ready lumber supply that included oak, maple, basswood, walnut, ash, beech and pine.

The historical marker in front of the Grand Rapids Public Museum outlines a brief history of the city's nineteenth-century furniture industry. The museum's Furniture City exhibit more completely explores the history of furniture manufacturing in western Michigan and includes more than 120 pieces of Grand Rapids-made furniture, plus re-creations of an early furniture factory and a 1920s-era showroom at the city's Furniture Market.

William Haldane became Grand Rapids' first cabinet maker in 1837. Haldane's shop and other early businesses creating handmade wooden furniture were the start of an industry that would draw customers to western Michigan from all over the world and see Grand Rapids lead the United States in furniture production from 1870 until the mid-1930s.

The craftsmanship evident in a display of Grand Rapids furniture at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 attracted the attention of many high-profile fans and furniture buyers.

The success in Philadelphia led Grand Rapids furniture makers to stage their own furniture mart in 1878. By 1881, the popular furniture marts drew buyers from around the world and the twice-yearly furniture marts continued until the 1960s.

Grand Rapids furniture manufacturers gained fame for innovative manufacturing processes and equipment, as well as inventive marketing. They were among the first to issue furniture catalogs featuring photographs and colorful drawings.

Plentiful jobs and decent wages attracted skilled European craftsmen, carvers and furniture designers to Grand Rapids. By 1890, a large number of Dutch, German, Polish, Lithuanian and other northern European immigrants worked and lived in the city.

The logging industry faltered during the early 1900s, and a diminishing supply of local wood required furniture makers to rely on imported wood.

An economic slump meant increasingly poor wages for furniture workers, coupled with extremely long hours and deteriorating working conditions.

A marker erected by the Labor Heritage Society of West Michigan and sculpture near the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum tells the story of a strike in April 1911, when more than 6,000 workers walked out of the furniture factories.

Workers demanded shorter (nine-hour) work days, wage increases and an end to piecework pay.

The four-month strike ended as funds ran out for union-provided strike pay and influential Christian Reformed Church leaders forbid their members from joining unions.

The strike experience and weakening of the industry in Grand Rapids led the manufacturers to grant many of the demands within a fairly short time, while some companies never recovered from losses during the strike and closed or moved.

Grand Rapids' prominence in the fine wood furniture industry faded, but the market for commercial and institutional furniture expanded. Metal office furniture increasingly replaced wood pieces by the mid-1930s.

In 1886, the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company formed, evolving into the American Seating Company and the world's largest producer of public and institutional seating.

In 1912, Steelcase had 34 employees. By the end of the twentieth century, Steelcase became the world's largest office furniture company with more than 19,000 employees.

World War II stunted the metal furniture industry's growth, but a post-war construction boom, aggressive marketing and cheaper prices for metal furniture versus wood furniture prices spurred the industry's growth.

The city's large number of office furniture companies led to Grand Rapids' new identity as the nation's office furniture capital.

Want to learn more? Check out Grand Rapids: Furniture City by Norma Lewis, Grand Rapids Furniture: The Story of America's Furniture City by Christian G. Carron, or It Happened in Michigan: Remarkable Events That Shaped History by Colleen Burcar (which includes a short chapter on the 1911 furniture strike).

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Quirky architecture in Cleveland

The strangest things will sometimes catch my eye when we're traveling, like this quirky little mid-twentieth-century modern building in Cleveland, Ohio.

I don't suppose it's everyone who has a photo of a payday advance business in their travel archives, but it was just too cute to pass by without taking the photo.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Rosa Parks stands tall in Grand Rapids, Michigan

I noticed what looked like a new a statue of Rosa Parks standing on a corner in downtown Grand Rapids when we visited ArtPrize this past year.

Sure enough, the city erected and dedicated the statue near the end of the 2010 ArtPrize competition.

Meanwhile, Tim noticed that the sculptor of the Rosa Parks tribute was Ed Dwight, the same sculptor who did the International Underground Railroad Memorial sculpture in Detroit's Hart Plaza.

Intrigued, I discovered that Dwight had quite the history himself. He was the first African American astronaut trainee in the United States during the 1960s, although he never got the opportunity to go up into space, before becoming the renowned creator of more than 100 public art pieces celebrating the history of African Americans across the country.

Dwight himself traveled to Grand Rapids to speak at the statue's September 30, 2010, dedication attended by hundreds of people and capping a week-long celebration of Rosa Parks' life.

The bronze statue atop a black marble base sits at the corner of Pearl and Monroe Center NW near the edge of a triangular plot of land just west of the city's striking art museum.

The 3.5-acre plot of land, known as Rosa Parks Circle, is a park designed in 2001 by artist Maya Lin, who also designed the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Lin envisioned the park as a reminder of the region's abundant water resources, centering the design with a public ice rink.

The city considered several names for the park harkening back to the location's early history, but some on the naming committee wanted to dedicate the park to someone known for their courage and dedication to the rights of all.

Rosa Parks had no connection to the city and hadn't ever visited Grand Rapids, but in the end, the committee voted 4-3 to name the park for Parks.

This particular plot of land was also notable for being the site of a rally for Robert Kennedy during his abbreviated presidential run in 1968, which ended with his assassination.

In 2008, Grand Rapids formed a Rosa Parks Sculpture Committee charged with commissioning a tribute to Mrs. Parks and raising $350,000 to pay for the project.

The committee picked Ed Dwight to create the memorial, raised $370,000 for the sculpture and secured artist Maya Lin's approval for placing it at the park.

Dwight decided to depict Mrs. Parks standing in front of a bus seat, rather than showing her sitting on the seat that she refused to yield to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Dwight told critics of that choice that he felt a standing statue depicted the heroine in a more powerful posture, citing a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King that said a man couldn't ride on your back unless it was bent.

Be sure to check out my stories Ed Dwight and the International Underground Railroad Memorial in Detroit and See the bus Rosa Parks rode into history at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan.

Want to learn more? Check out Rosa Parks: A Life by Douglas Brinkley, Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins and Soaring on the Wings of a Dream: The Untold Story of America's First Black Astronaut Candidate by Ed Dwight.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Ed Dwight and the International Underground Railroad Memorial in Detroit

The Underground Railroad statue along the river in Detroit depicts an important part of the city's history, but the story behind the man who created the 11-foot- tall, multi-figure statue also offers an interesting glimpse into African American history and achievement.

Sculptor Ed Dwight is the son Ed Dwight Sr., once a second baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs of the segregated Negro League before another Monarch, Jackie Robinson, broke the color barrier in major league baseball.

The younger Dwight, born in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1933, had a talent in art, but his father discouraged him from attending art school because he felt the racism of the day would make it especially difficult the younger man to make a living as an artist.

Young Ed Dwight joined the Air Force in 1953 and earned a degree in aeronautical engineering while working as a test pilot.

Dwight became the first African American accepted into the United States' astronaut training program in 1962 after a recommendation to President John F. Kennedy. He passed the first phase of his training as a test pilot in 1963.

Kennedy's death in late 1963 seemed to stall Dwight's career as an astronaut and he resigned from the program in 1966. (It wasn't until 1983 that Guion Bluford became the first African American astronaut to travel into space).

Dwight began to reconsider a career as an artist and received a commission that would change his life in 1974.

George Brown, the first African American lieutenant governor of Colorado, asked Dwight to create a sculpture of him for Colorado's state capitol building. This was Dwight's first professional job as a sculptor. Brown felt Dwight could help document the often unknown contributions of African Americans to our country's history through sculpture and challenged Dwight to quit an IBM sales job to sculpt full time.

In 1975, Dwight earned a master of fine arts degree from the University of Denver.

By 1987, some of his commissions for a single piece began to top $250,000.

In 2001, Dwight won a competition to design the International Memorial to the Underground Railroad. Detroit 300, a non-profit group organizing events to celebrate Detroit's tricentennial, commissioned him to create two pieces of public art, with one in Detroit's Hart Plaza and a companion piece on the other side of the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario.

Dwight's "Gateway to Freedom" bronze-and-granite sculpture in Detroit was dedicated on October 20, 2001 and includes a group of slaves preparing to cross the river to freedom in Canada with one of the railroad's "conductors" pointing out the route.

The conductor is George DeBaptiste, born in 1815 into a wealthy family of free blacks in Virginia. DeBaptiste had a barber shop in Indiana and served as President William Henry Harrison's personal valet during his 1840 presidential campaign. DeBaptiste moved to Detroit after mid-1840s riots targeting free black leaders left him with a bounty on his head in Indiana. An estimated 45,000 escaped slaves used the Underground Railroad through Michigan, and DeBaptiste helped many of them gain freedom by crossing the river to Canada via the railroad's "Midnight" (Detroit) station.

Dwight is now in his late 70s and still maintains a 25,000-square-foot studio, foundry and gallery space in Denver. His lifetime output includes at least 120 memorials, monuments and public art installations as well as more than 18,000 gallery level sculptures.

Dwight's pubic pieces in the Midwest include: Bronze Blues sculptures in Chicago Blues district, the Soldiers Memorial at Lincoln University in Jefferson (Missouri), Jack Trice Memorial at Iowa State University in Hiram, a statue of Mayor Harold Washington in Chicago, a statue of Captain Walter Dyett in Chicago, Concerto at the Follies Theater in Kansas City (Missouri), an Underground Railroad memorial at the Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek (Michigan), and a memorial to George Washington Williams (Ohio's first African American legislator) at the State Capitol in Columbus.

Want to learn more about the history of the Underground Railroad in the Midwest? Check out my stories Visit the Hubbard House, an Underground Railroad station in Ashtabula, Ohio and Are you waiting?, the story of our visit to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Also be sure to check out Soaring on the Wings of a Dream: The Untold Story of America's First Black Astronaut Candidate by Ed Dwight.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Wine and chocolate pair for romance at Discovering Ohio

Wine and chocolate are the perfect pairing when it comes to romance, and I revisit one of the country's premiere wine producing regions this month for a sweet story at Discovering Ohio.

Midwest Guest readers may remember my previous visits to this region to stay at the lodge, check out the wineries and to visit many of the region's romantic covered bridges.

This time, check in at the Ohio State Park Lodge in Geneva-on-the-Lake, just 50 miles east of Cleveland, and explore several wineries in the Ohio's Grand River Valley wine country just in time for Valentine's Day in my most recent story at the Ohio Tourism Division's Discovering Ohio blog.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Midwest travel links for January 2012

Check out some of these great Midwest-related stories I read online during this past month:

• And That Has Made All the Difference-I remember when Linda first wrote about driving along North Dakota's Old Red Ten Scenic Byway and taking a photo of a beautiful old grain elevator. This story tells the sad fate of the grain elevator, but also is a meditation on how blogging about it struck a chord and created connections among Travels with Children's readers.
  
• Five Favorite Places for Kids on the Sunset Coast, Michigan-Jessie shares her nominations for the top kid-friendly beaches on the western Michigan shoreline. I must just be a big kid at heart as a couple of Jessie's picks (like Manistee, Grand Haven and the Sleeping Bear Dunes) are also my favorite beaches as well.
  
  
  Manistee
  
• Living in a lighthouse-I'm a big fan of Great Lakes lighthouses. Volunteer light keeper programs are popular around the Great Lakes as more and more lighthouses establish such programs. This is a nice round up at Midwest Weekends blog about opportunities to spend a few nights in various lighthouses around the lakes.
  
• Nature's Trading Post-Katie writes about visiting Nature's Trading Post at the Cincinnati Museum Center in the Family Friendly Cincinnati blog. This place looks especially fun for kids who can take some of their own natural treasures in to trade for other cool items like rocks, minerals, magnifying glasses and fossils.
  
• History and Art-Amy visits the Carver County Historical Museum in Waconia, Minnesota, and her story at A Closer Look at Flyover Land takes a close look at this wonderful small-town museum.
  
• Harding Memorial-Ohio is the place to go if you're really into presidential history. Eight U.S. presidents lived in Ohio at the time of their election, and a few of them are buried in the state as well. I've visited the monument and grave site of President James A. Garfield in Cleveland, but I've yet to make it to the Harding Memorial in Marion, Ohio. Fortunately, Mike did make the trip to Marion and shares this report at OHventures just in time for Presidents Day.
  
• Building Language: Art Deco-I love art Deco architecture and have written about Midwest Deco gems like Detroit's Fisher Building and the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana. So I really enjoyed Raina's tour of Art Deco gems in Indianapolis at the Historic Indianapolis blog.
  
  
  Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum's Art Deco building
  
• Carew Tower in Downtown Cincinnati-The Carew Tower is yet another Art Deco gem in the Midwest, and I loved this photo essay at Visualingual about this great 1929 building. The writer compares the Carew to Detroit's Guardian Building, although photos of the Carew reminded me more of Detroit's Fisher Building.
  
• Frank Lloyd Wright Turns Down Offer of a Life Time, Alters Course of Chicago Architecture-What would have happened had Frank Lloyd Wright accepted an offer from famed Chicago architect Daniel Burnham (master planner of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and its legendary White City) to study in Paris and Rome before returning to Chicago to become a partner at Burnham's architecture firm? This is the intriguing question explored in George's story at The Chicago Architecture Blog.
  
• Foodie Finds: Cleveland's West Side Market-Kristin visits one of my favorite farmers markets, the great West Side Market in Cleveland, Ohio. Check out the favorite foodie finds of Kristin and her family at her Wandering Educators post, plus check out 6 Favorite Spots at Cleveland's West Side Market at Kristin's own My Kids Eat Squid blog.
  
  
  

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Winter at Michigan's Little Sable Point Lighthouse

I like visiting lighthouses during the summer, but I really love visiting lighthouses during the winter. The cold weather keeps many visitors away, so venturing out to a light tower in the winter gives you a real sense of the isolation experienced by light keepers 100 or more years ago.

That sense of isolation was certainly present when we last visited the lighthouse at Little Sable Point late one winter afternoon as daylight faded and snow started to fall.

The lighthouse at Little Sable Point is one of a trio of lighthouses near Pentwater and Ludington on Lake Michigan that includes the Big Sable Point Lighthouse and Ludington's North Breakwater Lighthouse. You can easily visit all three lighthouses in a single day, although the Little Sable's proximity to roads and a long stretch of beach makes it the busiest of the three on sunny summer days.

Few people were out on the beach during our wintertime visit, and bitter winds made lingering outside for very long pretty much impossible.

Lumbering in during the mid- to late- nineteenth century brought a lot of lake traffic to the area, increasing demand for a lighthouse there by the late 1860s. The grounding of a schooner on Little Sable Point finally gave the U.S. Congress the impetus to allocate $35,000 for the lighthouse in 1871.

Col. Orlando M. Poe, a U.S. Army officer and engineer during the Civil War, designed and oversaw construction of many Great Lakes lighthouses during his post-war work with the U.S. Lighthouse Board. He designed the 107-foot-tall light tower at Little Sable Point as a near twin to the nearby tower at Big Sable Point.

Lack of roads in the remote location delayed completion of the project until 1874, although it came in under budget, costing just $28,886.

Many light towers received frequent coats of white paint, usually the responsibility of the light keepers, but the red brick used at Little Sable Point was unusually hard and impervious to deterioration, so the decision early on was to leave the red bricks unpainted as a cost- and labor-saving measure.

The red-brick lighthouse at Little Sable Point looks quite different from its near twin tower at Big Sable Point because the latter tower, made of the cream brick so popular for use on many Great Lakes lights, has a steel casing to protect the eroding bricks.

Many early mariners complained that Little Sable's natural red color made the light tower more difficult to spot during the day, so keepers began painting the tower white in 1900.

The remote location of the tower at Little Sable Point delayed its electrification and automation until 1954. The last light keeper left at that time.

The Coast Guard demolished everything but the tower at the now unmanned light station the next year, including the original one-and-one-half story light keepers residence formerly attached to the tower by an enclosed walkway.

In 1977, the tower lost its white paint when as workers sandblasted it to expose the original red brick and save on painting maintenance costs.

In 1986, the Sable Points Lightkeepers Association (SPLKA) formed. The group signed a 25-year least to manage and maintain the lighthouse in 2005.

Recent projects at the lighthouse include application for a historical marker and completion of a paved walkway through the dunes to make it more accessible to visitors.

Although visitors can climb the 139 cast iron steps to visit the top of the tower from late May through late September, you can still get a pretty clear view of the Little Sable Point tower's original Fresnel lens during the colder seasons. It's one of only of a few still in operation at a handful of Great Lakes lighthouses.

Want to learn more about the Little Sable Point Light and the nearby Big Sable Point and Ludington Breakwater lights? Check out Lighthouses of Northwest Michigan by Susan Roark Hoyt.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: A Michigan celebration

Michigan became a state on January 26, 1837, or 175 years ago yesterday.

I'm not nearly that old, but I'm celebrating my birthday today.

What better way to celebrate our (mine and Michigan's) birthdays than to share a few favorite shots of my travels around the state?

Detroit's Eastern Market

Old Mission Lighthouse

Thumb Octagon Barn and Agricultural Museum in Gagetown

Detroit's Eastern Market

Isle Royale

Lake Manganese, near Copper Harbor

Motown Museum

Royal Oak

Point Betsie

Ludington State Park

Grand Haven

North American International Auto Show in Detroit

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

An Unforgettable Minnesota RV Excursion

I love a good road trip, although I've yet to have the opportunity to enjoy traveling via an RV. So when the folks at El Monte RV offered me this post about RV road tripping in the Midwest, I thought it was a topic that might interest my readers.

The land of 10,000 lakes offers plenty of adventure, sightseeing and relaxation for a vacation road trip. Minnesota is best known for its stunning scenery and outdoor fun. There's fishing, of course, golf, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling. There are canoe and kayak excursions. There are tours of mines and caves and wineries. There are wilderness areas, scenic boat trips, museums, theater, water parks, zoos and amusement parks. I narrowed down a few of my favorite things to do in Minnesota for an unforgettable RV excursion.

• Lake Superior National Forest. Located in the northeast corner, the "arrowhead" of Minnesota, Lake Superior National Forest lives up to the lake's superlative name. For one thing, it has 3 million acres.

  On one side is Lake Superior, the "big lake." On another is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Glacial ice carved Lake Superior and the hundreds of lakes in the wilderness area about 10,000 years ago.

  The boreal (sub-Arctic, evergreen and coniferous) forest that grew after the glaciers melted and filled the lakes is magnificent and home to grouse, deer, moose, timber wolf and black bear.

  Although there are plenty of campgrounds in Lake Superior National Forest, Cadoette Lake and Two Island Lake are both RV friendly and beautiful. Cadoette Lake is a bit of a haul away from the lakeshore, but the nature trail hiking around it wonderful. Two Island Lake is near Grand Marais.

• Grand Marais. Lake Superior's waves break on the rocky shores of tiny Grand Marais like ocean waves. The little town on the lake is full of history.

  
  
  

• North Shore Scenic Drive. The road that continues down the edge of Lake Superior is one of northern Minnesota's scenic byways. Take it to...

• Duluth. Although Duluth offers theater, ballet, art and museums (Lake Superior Maritime Museum showcases the history of the port), my favorite things in this port city are the Lake Superior Zoo and the Great Lakes Aquarium, the only all-freshwater aquarium in North America. Kids will love both of these attractions.

• Brainerd and other roadside attractions. Brainerd is one of my Minnesota favorites because of the statue of Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox (think Fargo, the movie) and Paul Bunyan Land where children can ride the rides and visit the pioneer village. If your tastes run to roadside attractions, though, let me say that Minnesota has some of the oddest, from the World's Largest Booming Prairie Chicken to the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Find more on Roadside America's Road Cheese Hypertour of four midwestern states.
• Moose Lake. Stop for more camping and hiking at Moose Lake State Park.
  

Now on to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul... St. Paul is the state's capital city. It started with a military presence, Fort Snelling in 1819, before Minnesota was a state. Located on the upper Mississippi river and the northernmost natural navigable port, Fort Snelling was a fur and whiskey trading center and an important stop for settlers heading west. The Minnesota Territory was formalized in 1849 and Minnesota became the 32nd state in 1858. St. Paul was a frontier town and railroad town for more than 100 years. Throughout its history, it has been home to first-generation immigrants -- French, French Canadian, German, Swedish, Irish, Czech, Austrian, Hungarian, Polish, Mexican and Hmong. Tour the capitol building and the monuments and remembrances on its mall.

What trip to Minnesota would be complete without at least a quick stop at the Mall of America? The Mall of America is in Bloomington, about 15 minutes from downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, is one of the most visited destinations in the world. It has more than 500 stores; 50 restaurants; the Nickelodeon Universe, the nation's largest indoor theme park, with roller coasters; and a new American Girl store. It has 14 movie theaters and the SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium. Anchor stores are Bloomingdale's, Sears, Nordstrom and Macy's. There are 400 free events there annually and 20,000 free parking spaces. The Mall of America is almost 100 acres. Although the entrances are heated, most heating comes from skylights, electric fixtures and the people there! There's no tax on clothing or shoes. Birthday parties held at Mall of America are really fun. Check out the visitor's guide before you go to narrow down the fun. It's not a nature hike, but the shopping's great and watching people in their natural shopping habitat is amazing!

Joe Laing is the Marketing Director for El Monte RV Rentals. You can see more great RV vacation ideas in their Monty's Musings RV Travel Blog and be sure to check out their RV Camping Pictures.

Disclosure: This is not a paid or sponsored post. Thanks to El Monte RV Rentals for providing the royalty-free images from iStockphoto that accompany this article.

Where I live: Driving America opens at The Henry Ford

Workers put the finishing touches on "Driving America" at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, last week as a reimagining of the museum's premiere auto exhibit for the 21st century approached its public debut, set for Sunday, January 29.

Museum visitors familiar with the exhibit's former incarnation as "The Automobile in American Life" should be pleased to see some familiar and favorite artifacts like the 1960s-vintage Golden Arches sign, a 1930s-vintage tourist cabin and a diner car from 1946, interspersed among a vehicle collection spanning automotive history beginning in 1865 with a Roper steam carriage (thought to be the oldest surviving American car) and continuing into the present day to include innovative and alternative vehicles like hybrids and Segways.

I wrote about the upgrade early last year as workers began dismantling the old exhibit, making repairs and preparing to close the exhibit during the a year-long renovation, so I was especially thrilled when the folks at The Henry Ford invited me for a preview of the redesigned exhibit.

While "The Automobile in American Life" represented a real step forward from traditional, static collections of artifacts in terms of interpretive exhibits and using a variety of media to engage viewers at its 1987 opening, "Driving America" represents another leap forward in visitor engagement with sophisticated interactive elements and a new emphasis on the automobile's impact on our culture and everyday life.

Last year, I wrote that some historians questioned the old exhibit's emphasis on automotive history from the manufacturers' point of view to the near exclusion of that history from the consumers' point of view and slight attention to the idea that the automobile led to a fundamental change in our entire culture over time. I'd like to think that they would appreciate the new exhibit's emphasis on that cultural change and enhanced interactive elements that give visitors more personal ways to relate to museum artifacts.

I enjoyed exploring the exhibit with the museum's 18 touchscreen kiosks. The 42-inch touchscreen stations are a first for The Henry Ford and offer some really cool ways to access museum artifacts on, and off, of the museum floor.

Word searches give visitors access to artifacts and related items, while an app-like interface with app-directed interactive features gives visitors some really fun ways to access information.

Want a closer look at something? You can pull up a photo and enlarge it with a flick of your fingertips, much as you can enlarge a section of the screen on your smart phone or tablet.

I heard several people say they had a lot of fun playing the "Talk like a Trucker" game on one kiosk where viewers tried to guess the correct meaning of phrases commonly used by truckers who used Citizen Band (CB) radios during their 1970s heyday. I hate to admit it, but I did pretty well at this game because I actually had a CB radio during my days cruising Woodward Avenue as "Highway Star" (my CB name or "handle").

I also loved the Car Tunes kiosk, where I listened to audio clips of car-related songs dating from 1900 to the present day.

The My Collections feature sounds especially cool, as visitors will use Radio Frequency Identification Cards issued at the exhibit to bookmark favorite items, photos or videos to create a custom collection accessible on their home computer, smartphone or tablet via a special link sent to their email address. That feature wasn't available during the press preview, but I look forward to trying it out next time I visit the exhibit.

I'm glad to see many of my old favorite pieces in the exhibit, and I'm especially excited to learn that visitors will now be able to order food at the Lamy Diner. I remember how much fun we had stopping for an ice cream cone at the Blue Moon Diner car in Kalamazoo's Gilmore Car Museum, and I'm thrilled to see we'll be able to enjoy a similar experience much closer to home!

"Driving America" covers 80,000 square feet with 130 vehicles and more than 60 cases of automotive-related artifacts. The new 15-minute film playing at the exhibit's 100-seat theater explores automotive innovation and, in the words of The Henry Ford's senior curator of transportation Bob Casey, the car as our "chariot to the unknown" and agent for expanding our personal freedom.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved