“The cool thing about this new archive space that we’re standing in is it let’s us do these things quick, on short notice, because the collection storage is right there.”
Grand Rapids Public Museum’s Chief Curator Alex Forist hosted history students from the museum’s high school. On display were voting machines, ballots, campaign flyers, and other objects from nearly 200 years of Kent County elections.
“A Union ticket asking someone to vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 is a really cool object, but it really hits home when it says Kent County on the top of it because you know that was a real person who lived here who cast their vote for Abraham Lincoln.”
Freshman Evan Volk appreciates seeing actual pieces of history rather than reading about it from a book.
“Especially as someone who’s neurodivergent, it’s really helpful for me to see this all laid out rather than having to take school courses on it.”
Senior Ellery Dahl says the artifacts remind her of the importance of elections as she approaches voting age.
“Especially seeing a poster about women’s right to vote and seeing all the different ballots and straight ticket versus being able to choose across parties.”
One of the most popular artifacts was a pouch of hanging chads from 2000’s infamous presidential election.
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