Gerald R. Ford Museum Environs
Grand Rapids, Michigan
The Gerald R. Ford Museum is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan -- childhood home of the 38th president. Set beside the Grand River and the Ah-Nab-Awen park, the museum and its environs are striking scenes on a winter day. The only presidential museum geographically separated from its library and archives -- which are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan -- the Gerald R. Ford Museum features historically-rich, hands-on, interactive galleries. With permanent exhibits on President Ford's youth, his leadership and diplomacy, the Constitutional crisis between Nixon's resignation and pardon, the 1970s, and replicas of President Ford's Oval Office and Cabinet Room on the one hand, and a great schedule of temporary exhibits and upcoming events on the other, the museum is a perfect place to escape the cold.
Photos and text © Gleaves Whitney 2004-05
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Astronaut sculpture -- a tribute to President Gerald R. Ford -- stands in front of the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was made by New York City sculptor Judson Nelson. This presidential library-museum complex is one of just eleven that are under the administration of the National Archives and Records administration.
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Ah-Nab-Awen Park and the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford Museum, near downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the fore- and middle-ground is the 2005 ice jam on the Grand River that meanders through the middle of the city. "Ah-Nab-Awen" is a Native American word for "resting place." The six-acre park commemorates not only the nearby future resting place of President and Mrs. Ford, but also the site of a Native American village. The name for the park was proposed by the Elders of the Three Fires Council.
