History revs to life — and glides along the water, roars as it ignites a rocket and much more — during this year's Gilmore Car Museum’s Speaker Series.
The series began last week and continues at 3 p.m. each Sunday through April 28 at Gilmore Car Museum, 6865 Hickory Road, Hickory Corners, MI 49060.
"It’s not just topics that might interest an automotive enthusiast. There’s so much more at the museum, so we wanted to focus on more than cars or car history. There’s a lot of that, but there’s so much more," said Jay A. Follis, director of marketing at Gilmore Car Museum. "You come and you learn so much you don’t expect to learn, and it’s fun and engaging the whole time you’re doing it."
The speakers range from a former Ford executive to an authors to a geologist, to a NASA historian to a senator and more.
Don LaCombe, who worked at Ford Product Development for 36 years, then volunteered at The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village for many years, will speak on the famous entrepreneur's auspicious beginnings.
"He’s a historian that knows so much about Ford simply for working there so long, that his talk is going to be the stories of the men that made Henry Ford famous," Follis said. "Henry Ford is this great industrialist. But it was all the workers, people behind the scenes, that had the stories. So that’s what he’s going to come and share about."
Follis himself will speak on the historic Titanic sinking and its Michigan ties in March.
"We have a lot of interesting connections just in Michigan," Follis said. "A lot of stories you just think, 'Wait a minute, I didn’t know that.'"
But all of the topics and lectures will be worth a listen, he said.
"Every one that I’ve ever been to has been far more than I ever expected it to be," Follis said. "… They’re fun, just a neat way to get with a bunch of people and learn about a topic, almost like you were watching Discovery Channel or History Channel."
While the word "lecture" makes it sound like a long and boring speech, Folis said it's far from that.
"I look at this and I’m like, oh my word, each one of these I find interesting," Follis said. "... There’s enough here that it doesn’t matter what you’re interested in, you’re going to find something."
And after — or before — the lecture, visitors are encouraged to enjoy the rest of the museum, which is one of the largest in the U.S.
"Don’t think you’re going to spend an hour here," Follis said. "You’ll get tot the museum and realize, 'Oh my word, we’re going to be here for a good part of of the day."
With 194 thousand square feet of space, Gilmore Car Museum is North America's largest car museum. The exhibits are always changing, creating a place where there's always something new to see.
The museum's exhibit on the Green Book — made famous in the recent movie — has been on display for several years, while the display of Duesenberg cars is "the largest and longest exhibit of Duesenbergs anywhere in the country," Follis said.
Admission to a single lecture is $5 by itself, or free with admission to the Gilmore Car Museum — which is $14 during winter months.
"I think the biggest takeaway is that if they want to find a hidden treasure ... they’re going to have a blast," Follis said, "and they’re going to walk away going 'Wow, what a neat treasure.'"