Walking through Michigan's Historical Center in Lansing is one of the best way to experience the state's history from its earliest prehistoric days, through the days of majestic forests and First Nation people, through its European settlement and move to statehood in 1837, and through to the present day.
Visitors start on the museum's first floor, moving through 26 permanent galleries on four levels that tell a roughly chronological story of the state through artifacts and walk-through exhibits that put visitors in places like a forest with a rustic cabin, an early courthouse with Michigan's first governor, an underground copper mine, a one-room school, a late nineteenth-century lumber baron's home, a 1920s street scene, the 1957 Auto Show in Detroit, and an Upper Peninsula picnic in the mid-twentieth century.
The museum originally moved into a space on the fourth floor of the then-new State Capitol in 1879 as the Pioneer Museum under the auspices of the Pioneer Society.
By 1913, the museum desperately needed more space for artifacts and visitors.
That year, the state established the Michigan Historical Commission and the Michigan Historical Museum became an official state museum
In 1922, the museum moved to a larger space in the nearby State Office Building (now the Lewis Cass building) in downtown Lansing.
In 1939, the museum had 7,000 artifacts when cleaning and inventorying the artifacts became a Works Progress Administration project.
The museum outgrew its space in the office building and relocated to the historic Turner House, the home modeled after President Washington's Mount Vernon home and former home of a local business man and his family.
The museum moved to the lower level of the Michigan Millers Mutual Building in 1980 as the expansion of Lansing Community College surrounded the home and resulted in the state selling the home to the college.
The State Library enjoyed a similarly long and peripatetic history, starting in temporary quarters in 1828 as a repository for territorial legal and historical documents. The library, like the museum, moved to the State Capitol building in 1879 and followed it to the State Office Building where a fire destroyed 20,000 books and damaged 30,000 more in 1951.
In 1989, the Michigan Library and Historical Center building opened as the first building specifically designed to house the library and historical collections for public use.
The building, literally built around a Michigan white pine tree, features a copper-clad outdoor courtyard and glass atriums that create a spacious atmosphere with plenty of room to house the multi-floor museum in the east wing and the State Library, with over 3.2 items, in the west wing.
The State Historical Museum and the State Library also offer a range of services well beyond the walls of their Lansing home.
The library consults with libraries throughout the state and offered one of the first online libraries with the launch of Michigan eLibrary (MeL) in 1998.
The State Historical Museum assists in interpretation and exhibiting artifacts at a dozen museums and historical sites operated jointly with the Department of Natural Resources across the state that include the Copper Harbor Lighthouse, the Sanilac Petroglyphs, and the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum.
My favorite exhibits at the museum in Lansing include the displays in the Growing up in Michigan section that has the Auto Show display and 1950s and 1960s era homes, a section of the first mile of concrete in the nation (built in Detroit along Woodward Avenue) and the three-story topographical map of Michigan.
Michigan State Library is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or 24/7 on the Web.
The Michigan State Historical Museum is open 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Museum admission is $6 for adults, $4 for senior, $2 for children ages 6 to 17 and free for children younger than 5. There is a $2 discount available for those registered for a Michigan Recreation Passport (added to your Michigan license plate registration), and admission is free to everyone on Sundays.
Want a little advance planning help with your visit? Check out the museum map and a number of games, activities and stories about museum artifacts specifically geared to kids.
Want to learn more about Michigan's history? Check out Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State by Willis Dunbar and Michigan: A History by Bruce Catton.
Thanks to the Greater Lansing Michigan Convention and Visitors Bureau for sponsoring my visit to Lansing, providing lodging, meals and a tour of Lansing area attractions for my review during my recent visit there, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.
© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved
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