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The Michigan Historical Museum
A Brief History
The Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan
We rely wholly upon voluntary contributions to the society’s
collections, and invite every one to donate any books, pamphlets, or
papers pertaining to the history of Michigan; also, biographies and
incidents of pioneers, and any Indian relics, and curiosities of any
kind.
Executive Committee
Michigan State Pioneer Society, 1874
Well over a century ago people in Michigan began
collecting to preserve the state’s history. The Pioneer Society of the
State of Michigan was organized on April 22, 1874.
A private organization, the Pioneer Society received both
annual dues from its members and funds from the state.
Beginning in 1879, its collection was housed on the fourth floor of the new
State
Capitol. It was known as the Pioneer Museum. (The Capitol also held the
collection of the Military Museum.)
The Pioneer Society later renamed itself the Michigan Pioneer and
Historical Society. In 1897, Governor Hazen Pingree briefly eliminated its state
funding, but the society continued to operate in the Capitol.
Every year, it asked the State Board of Auditors for more
room and increased staff. By 1913, the society’s quarters were over
flowing with collections and the growing number of visitors who came to
see them.
A New Commission
After years of debate about state support for the Michigan Pioneer and
Historical Society, the society’s trustees sought creation of a new
state agency to ensure that the society’s collections would be cared for
and preserved. Public Act No. 271 of 1913 transferred the collections to
state ownership and established the Michigan Historical
Commission. The Michigan Historical Museum became the official state
museum. (The Pioneer and Historical Society continued as an
independent, privately funded organization.)
The new commission named George N. Fuller its first secretary and
Marie B. Ferrey curator. Dr. Fuller focused on building the state’s
archival collections and writing about Michigan history. Mrs. Ferrey oversaw the museum’s collections, exhibits and programs.
The Tireless Curator
Mrs. Ferrey, as clerk, has been indefatigable in her efforts to
secure additions to the collections and interest visitors in the
Society.
Henry R. Pattengill, Secretary
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
June 1903
This closed two weeks work visiting seven schools, two mission,
three clubs, 3 library talks, one church society--in all twenty-three
addresses.
Marie B. Ferrey, Detroit
February 11, 1915
Born near Cooperstown, New York, Marie Ferrey moved to Michigan in the
1880s with her husband and daughter. Widowed in 1892, she found a job at
the State Capitol, where she became interested in the Michigan Pioneer and
Historical Society.
After the society hired her in 1901, Mrs. Ferrey quickly realized that
the artifact collections would be particularly useful in teaching
schoolchildren about Michigan history. In addition to soliciting donations
and reorganizing the displays in the Capitol, she began speaking to
schools, women’s clubs and historical societies, urging them to,
"Talk Michigan, sing Michigan, work for Michigan and live
Michigan."
At its first meeting in 1913, the Michigan Historical Commission
unanimously appointed the 69-year-old Marie Ferrey curator of the recently
established Michigan Historical Museum. She continued traveling and
collecting artifacts for the museum, not slowing her pace until she was in
her eighties.
Mrs. Ferrey never officially retired, but she moved to Detroit in 1929
to live with her daughter. She died in 1932 at the age of 87.
The State Office Building
 It
was through Mrs. Ferrey's efforts that the museum was able to move from
its cramped space in the Capitol to larger quarters in the new State
Office Building (now named the Lewis Cass Building) in 1922. In 1939, the
museum briefly closed to the public so that WPA (Works Progress
Administration) workers could clean and inventory its 7,000 artifacts.
 The
museum was only one of many state agencies housed in the State Office
Building. It rapidly filled up with artifacts, as seen in the photograph. The pressing need for
space in the State Office Building during World War II forced the
relocation of the museum in 1944.
Our Home at the Turner House
 The
Historical Commission selected the Turner House at 505 N. Washington
Avenue as its new home. Modeled on George Washington’s Mount Vernon home, the house was
built by Lansing businessman James M. Turner and his wife Sophie in 1927.
The Turner House was dedicated as the Michigan Historical Museum on
February 8, 1944.
During its residence at the Turner House, the Michigan Historical
Museum received the collection of the Military Museum. The next major change for the museum was not a move but a change in
governance. The government reorganization bill, passed after Michigan
adopted its 1963 Constitution (Executive Reorganization Act, 1965), gave the Secretary
of State responsibility for Michigan’s history programs.
While at the Turner House, the museum celebrated its 100th anniversary
by presenting a special exhibit, 100 Candles—The Museum Celebrates, in
April 1979.
Moving Again
 During
the 1960s and 1970s, Lansing Community College expanded its campus,
eventually surrounding the Turner House.
The state sold the house to Lansing Community College and,
in 1980, the museum moved to a new location in the lower level of the
Michigan Millers Mutual Building at 208 North Capitol Avenue. The museum
there was dedicated on May 22, 1980.
A Growing System
In the mid-1970s, the museum expanded its services to
provide historical interpretation at several state historic sites operated
jointly with the Department of Natural Resources. Today, the museum’s
collections are exhibited at museums and historic sites in the Michigan
Historical Museum System. In the Lower
Peninsula are Walker Tavern,
the Mann House, the Hartwick
Pines Logging Museum, the Sanilac
Petroglyphs, the Civilian
Conservation Corps Museum and the Tawas Point Lighthouse. Upper Peninsula sites
are Fayette
Historic Townsite, Fort
Wilkins and the Copper Harbor Lighthouse, the Father
Marquette National Memorial and the Michigan
Iron Industry Museum.
A New Home
Until 1989, the Michigan Historical Museum had been housed in a variety of
temporary locations. None was specifically designed to be a museum. In
the 1980s, the Secretary of State (which, at the time, oversaw the history agencies)
and the Legislative Council (Library of Michigan) joined forces
to build
a new cultural facility. The Michigan
Library and Historical Center, created specifically for public use,
was dedicated on March 7, 1989. The building houses the Library of
Michigan in the west wing and the Michigan Historical Museum in the east
wing.
The museum opened with permanent exhibits on the second floor that told
Michigan's story from the first
people to 1900 and with Michigan Dresses Up: Costumes of
Celebration a temporary exhibit in the first-floor Special Exhibits
Gallery. In March 1993, it added the permanent exhibit Growing Up in
Michigan, 1880-1895 on the second-floor mezzanine. The third floor and
third-floor mezzanine, housing the Michigan
in the Twentieth Century exhibits, opened in January 1995. In 2001,
the Museum and all the agencies of the Michigan Historical Center became
part of the new Department of History, Arts and Libraries.
How the museum keeps Michigan's Memories . . .
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