Touch to Learn at Tri-Cities Museum

Maritime Exploration Space opens May 7

The Tri-Cities Historical Museum in Grand Haven is not just celebrating history. It’s making history.
Right now, noisy history that’s giving extra fun to downtown strolling. Big changes are obvious through the huge front window of the building at Washington Avenue and Second Street. The stop sign at the corner invites a quick peek.

The Maritime Exploration Space is the physical manifestation of plans that had been in the works for months. Grand Haven’s signature logo, the lighthouse at Grand Haven State Park, is on its way to the museum. A pint-sized version, for pint-sized visitors.

Amid sounds of the shoreline, little ones will be climbing the stairs in the lighthouse, turning a crank to light the beacon, fishing from the catwalk. It’s all for little museum explorers to, well, explore. Far more than touch-me hands-on with toddlers becoming part of the exhibit.

This very local museum with free admission will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the maritime space at 10 a.m. May 7. Call Museum Guest Services at (616) 842-0700
to register.

Toddlers are invited to be part of the exhibit even then in free 20-minute play appointments beginning at 10:20 a.m. Numbers are limited by safety and capacity requirements. Again, registration is required; (616) 842-0700.

Development director Elisa Hopper said the museum has had a lot of learning for children, but it’s been at the 3rd grade level and up. So the staff asked themselves: How can we connect the littlest learners to local history? How can we make history accessible to them, through play?

“Our Maritime Exploration Space is the solution,” Hopper said. “A play-ready space that invites younger ones in.”

The exhibit, visible from the street through the huge corner windows, will lure visitors in. “Come into the free museum and learn about local history,” Hopper said.

The new play area will accommodate children in the 0-5 age range. The wigwam will remain, accessible but protected by a reader wall.

But play will still be encouraged. At the lower level, children will find objects meant for them to touch. To answer questions – for example, What is in my pocket? – children can reach in to find what a Potawatomi or Odawa child would have been carrying.

Hopper continued: “Touch. That’s how we learn, especially the younger ages.”
She said education curator Ellen Paulin is really pushing the staff to make the museum more play-based. So now, “most of our exhibits do have things that can be touched.”

The barn, also on the first floor, will become part of the maritime space. “We envision this as the inside of a ship,” Hopper said. The maritime thread will connect affiliated aspects throughout the building – transportation, fishing, shipping, shipwrecks, etc.

Remaining popular are tried-and-true exhibits, some of which have been spiffed up. Case in point: The Victorian House that was the Loutit family home has been refreshed (a la spring cleaning?) And its reader rails have been updated.

And in the kitchen, “a little bit of fun,” Hopper said. “Look on the floor, by the refrigerator. As part of our scavenger hunt – a cracked egg on the floor.” Ask about the scavenger hunt at the front desk.
The Victorian era will be included in summer’s blockbuster, “Old, New, Borrowed, Blue: Weddings of the Tri-Cities.” It opens May 23.

“We’re covering the topic of weddings from so many different angles,” said museum executive director Erica Layton. “Not just pretty dresses but also how weddings have changed, cakes, invitations, …”
The star of the exhibit? A wedding cake from 1891. “It is the whole cake from the Robbins-Savitch wedding,” Layton said. “We believe we have the world record for the oldest entire cake. The wedding was the social event of the year.”

Other exhibits, covering more recent history, prompt remember-whens from visitors. S&H Green Stamps, general store items, household furnishings, …Visitors say it’s like walking back through their childhood.
So stop in. Look around. Touch.