Journey In God's Amazing Grace: The Henry Ford Museum

On Thursday, we drove from Ludington State Park to a suburb of Detroit. We had planned to stay at a Thousand Trails campground in St Clair, Michigan, but we knew we wanted to visit the Henry Ford Museum and could see that it would be a pretty long drive from St Clair, so we looked for a closer campground option. We found a full hookup site at the Wayne County Fairgrounds for a reasonable price per night, and decided to stay there instead.

As we were preparing to leave Ludington State Park, we noticed that one of our rear jacks had sunk quite a bit into the sandy ground -- it didn't do it when we first leveled, and none of the other jacks had sunk in. Thankfully, it was on one of older jack pads, though it did get torn a little with the abuse.

Friday, outside the Henry Ford Museum. We had bought tickets online before coming (which saved us from standing in line) -- we got a "twofer" offer allowing us to visit both the museum and Greenfield Village on two different days, knowing that we would want more than a day to visit both.

I was thinking that the museum would be all about vehicles, and particularly about Ford vehicles, but... the full name of the museum is "Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation" - so there were all sorts of things exhibited!

The first exhibit area that we came to was the Modern Glass Gallery... and we learned about paperweights (as well as other things)!

We thought these were beautiful! How did the artist get the flowers and bees in there? (Note: the bubble-looking things at the top of the one on the left are reflections of the overhead lights.)

There was a video that was playing next to items -- take the time to watch it to learn how he gets the flowers and bees into the paperweights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdtwaZxW8wo&t=53s

There were all kinds of glass art...

This was a young girl seeing a frog on a lily pad.

The chess set features Roman Catholic Franciscans and Jewish Hassidim figures.

I found this writeup about the chess set on the web:

This chess set by the master glassblower and flameworker Gianni Toso is one of the most popular objects in the Museum. Toso, an Italian Jew, comes from a historic Venetian glassmaking family. The chess pieces are made in the form of Jewish (Hassidim) and Roman Catholic (Franciscan) figures. Their positioning on the chessboard was determined by the artist, and it is meant to reflect the opening up of dialogue between the two religions. Gianni Toso writes: "Reactions to the chess set depend on what people already have in their brains or hearts, so everyone has individual reactions when seeing this work, which can be provocative. On the Jewish side, the king is the written Law, the queen is the calendar that represents the Holy Shabbat. The two Hassidim holding the cedar and the palm represent the feast of Sukkot, which celebrates the first Holy Temple after the Jews escaped from Egypt. The two Hassidim with shofar (ram's horn) represent the natural strength that was used, instead of horses, to destroy the impenetrable walls of Jericho. The two Hassidim who carry Torah scrolls, given to Moshe (Moses) by the commandment of God, represent the people of Israel. As for the pawns, every Hassid represents the execution of a precept of Judaism. On the Roman Catholic side, the king, as the pope, is head of the church. The queen, or Sister, represents love for the church. The towers of two Franciscan friars, with large candles and candle holders, represent the rich. The two brothers, with a pot containing coals and incense, represent the faith of the common people in the search for a miracle. The two friars who carry the cross are symbolic of the Catholic faith. The pawns have candles, each of them a little deformed, because candles soften when you keep them in your hands for a long time." (from: https://www.cmog.org/artwork/chess-set)

The next section had mass-produced objects that mimicked other items we had seen...

Including the rabbi figures from the chess set!

Next a section seemingly designed just for me -- Mathematica!

The item on the right was a revolving object with a straight stick on an angle, and as it revolved, it went through the curved slots -- even though it was a straight line.