Michigan Small Town Museum to Get on Your Radar
Museums add a lot of culture and education to an area, including throughout Michigan. While some of the biggest and most high-profile museums are found in major cities throughout the world, there’s something to be said for a great museum in a small town. These small town museums bring a unique attraction to their communities and often serve as a spot where locals can meet, socialize and learn. Small town museums are often much less crowded than their big city counterparts, too.
Best Small Town Museums in America, Including Michigan
The experts at USA Today have released their roster of the best small town museums in America, as part of their 10 Best series. This series has experts picking spots for which to vote, and then readers vote for their favorites. “Museums that focus on a small town or region can offer a unique perspective on the history, culture, and identity of a place, and they’re often some of the most interesting spots to check out when you’re traveling,” USA Today notes.
The Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts, got the No. 1 spot on this tally. USA Today points out that Concord “played a significant role in the American Revolutionary War, and in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau” and that this museum “presents the cultural, political, environmental, and literary history of this town through artifacts from Concord and the surrounding land. It’s located at 53 Cambridge Tpke in Concord.
Sadly, no Michigan museums made the cut. But, I’d like to highlight one of the Detroit area’s gems, which is the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation at 20900 Oakwood Boulevard in Dearborn. Sure, this isn’t really a “small town museum” in the purest sense, but it’s not in downtown Detroit and offers a more intimate feel than the big city museums. “A vibrant exploration of genius in all its forms, Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation allows you to experience the strides of America’s greatest minds while fully immersing yourself in their stories,” their website states. Contact me with your favorite small town museums.
So, what was the first museum ever created? As it turns out, museums date back many centuries. The oldest spot that was believed to be a museum was Ennigaldi-Nanna’s museum, dating from c. 530 BC. This museum showcased Mesopotamian antiquities. Ennigaldi-Nanna was “the priestess of the moon deity Sin,” according to The Conversation, “and the daughter of the Neo-Babylonian king, Nabonidus.”
“In 1925, archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered a curious collection of artefacts while excavating a Babylonian palace,” Museums of the World explains. “They were from many different times and places, and yet they were neatly organized and even labelled. Woolley had discovered the world’s first museum.”
The Conversation adds that the items found by Woolley ranged in dates from roughly 2100 BCE to 600 BCE. “They included part of a statue of the famous early king, Shulgi of Ur, who ruled around 2058 BCE, a ceremonial mace-head made of stone, and some texts,” The Conversation adds.
