We took our son to Dearborn, MI, to the Henry Ford Museum. Even though we live less than 5 hours away, I had never heard of this place until reading the Henry Ford book in Rev2Rev this year. At the end of the book, it mentions the museum and we just knew that's where we had to take him for his birthday trip!
It was so incredible! Almost every single thing we've learned about in the Inventor Study and many things we learned in the History study were there. The original McCormick reapers, the original steam engines, Henry Ford's original quadricycle, the actual chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot, an exhibit on the 56 signers of the Constitution, an exhibit on the World's Fairs, a life-size replica of the Wright Bros. flyer with Wilbur Wright on it and on the sand dune, the actual bus that Rosa Parks rode on, and SO much more!
And to top it off, the second day, we went to Henry Ford's outdoor living museum, Greenfield Village. Mr. Ford took the actual buildings of famous people and took them apart brick by brick, transported them to the village and rebuilt them there! It's truly amazing! We actually walked through the original Menlo Park, which was probably our favorite part of the whole visit, after reading so much about Edison over the years in HOD. Henry Ford's home, the shed where he built the quadricycle, the schoolhouse he attended, the Wright Bros. home and bicycle shop, George Washington Carver's home, and on and on and on.
My son knew so much about everything we saw because he had learned so much about it already in HOD, and especially with this year of study in Rev2Rev. It was so cool to see the things we have only read about and to gain an even deeper understanding of these people and places. I was so encouraged to see how much of what he had learned in HOD stayed with him and all that he remembered from his readings and narrations.
If you are ever within driving distance of this place, I very highly recommend it - especially after studying the Rev2Rev year!
That museum sounds like it was incredible! I'm so glad you shared this idea here!