With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Ford Library Expects More Visitors

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- President Gerald Ford's death is expected to spark renewed interest in his life and draw more visitors to his presidential library and museum in Michigan.

Unlike other presidential centers, Ford's library and museum are divided between sites in Grand Rapids, where he grew up, and Ann Arbor, where he attended the University of Michigan in the 1930s.

A museum holding artifacts from his life sits on a scenic, 20-acre patch of downtown Grand Rapids along the Grand River. Ford will be buried there Wednesday on a hillside near the sleek, triangular building. The university 130 miles away houses an archive of his papers.

Both locations opened in 1981. In fiscal 2006, they had about 60,000 visitors combined. That number may climb after Ford's death, as did attendance at other presidential libraries following the deaths of their namesakes.
Read entire article at AP