Thanks to your support the Historical Society of Greater Lansing has had an exciting and award-winning year. With your help we were able to launch By the Yard: Michigan in Panoramic Photographs exhibit at the Library of Michigan, which won the Historical Society of Michigan 2023 State History Award for the best statewide special program/exhibit. In addition, the Pave the Way project continued to receive accolades, named a finalist for the Award of Excellence from the 2023 Motor Cities National Heritage Area: going up against some storied organizations like The Henry Ford and the Automotive Hall of Fame. “They Even Took the Dirt,” the documentary on the dislocation caused by the expressway, premiered to more than a thousand viewers and it is now available for streaming on YouTube and lansinghistory.org.

We are also on schedule to move into the Rogers-Carrier Home, the historic Darius Moon-designed house, on the campus of Lansing Community College. In the meantime, this Spring we will launch a new exhibit “Origin Stories” about how 50 Lansing residents, past and present, made their way to Lansing.

This past Spring and Summer HSGL hosted several walking tours that attracted record attendance, including two tours in REO Town and two phenomenal tours on the campus of Michigan State University.

In 2024, we will host a series of intriguing walking tours, including two in Old Town, on the MSU Campus, and a tour of downtown Lansing to help recreate what it looked like in the 1960s. Our monthly programming will once again be stimulating, educational, and just plain fun and include looks at Free Spirit, the band Ded Engine, and a look back at Fires, Floods and Snowstorms in Lansing, just to name a few.

We also will sponsor several programs relating to the “Origin Stories” project on researching family history, archiving family photography, and stories about who we are and how we got here.

As most of you know we are an all-volunteer group and all of our programs are free, so we rely on memberships (individual $25) and through generous donations from individuals. These donations help us pay for storage space, web hosting, sound equipment, printing and exhibits. Of course, starting next year there will be ongoing costs associated with occupying the Rogers-Carrier House.

The good news is that as we have grown we have been able to secure grants and most recently received one from the Michigan Humanities to partially fund the Origin Stories Exhibit. Our Historical Society was one of five that received funding for the special grant recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Michigan Humanities Council, which is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Of course, we have to provide a match for the $25,000 grant.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: when we occupy our new location in partnership with LCC, Lansing will no longer be the only Capital City in America without a local museum. It will become a centerpiece for telling forgotten and overlooked Lansing stories.

Please visit www.lansinghistory.org and click on the Donation button to make a contribution. You can also send a check made out to the HSGL at P.O. Box 12095, Lansing MI 48901. HSGL is non-profit 501 C-3 organization and your donations are tax deductible to the extent allowable by the IRS.

A special thanks this year goes to Phil Siebert, a longtime Lansing historian who last year left a small portion of his estate to HSGL, including a terrific artifact from the bygone B.F. Davis mansion. Phil’s long-standing relationship with the Historical Society will be missed. He was always there with advice, donations, and support.

Thank you for your support.

Bill Castanier
President HSGL