Sept. 24, 2026
A Grand Rapids Community College professor’s research has helped inspire an exhibition that is drawing record crowds to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.
“Waltzing with the Queen: President Ford and the Anglo-American Special Relationship,” helped draw more than 9,000 visitors to the museum in July — the highest July attendance in the museum’s recorded history. June attendance was also 1,400 visitors higher than the same month in 2025.
Historical Research Becomes an Immersive Experience
The strong public response is also a milestone for a collaboration that began with years of academic research.
GRCC History Professor Dr. Robert M. Hendershot co-authored the forthcoming book, The Ford Administration and Anglo-American Relations: Re-Valuing an Interim Presidency with the University of Bristol’s Dr. Tia Culley and Cardiff University’s Dr. Steve Marsh. Their research provided the scholarly foundation for the exhibition, which museum staff developed in close collaboration with the three historians. When the exhibit opened in May, Hendershot, Marsh and Culley also participated in programs at the Ford Presidential Library and Museum exploring how their academic work was transformed into a public museum experience.
“Working with the historians who literally wrote the book on President Ford and Anglo-American relations was a pleasure. That partnership enabled us to combine deep historical research with an immersive gallery experience, creating a thoughtful and engaging exhibit. The public response has been incredibly positive,” said Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum Supervisory Curator Dr. Mirelle Luecke.
Research Reaches a Broader Audience
The immersive exhibition explores the relationship between the United States and Great Britain through five pivotal moments in history, from World War II to the Cold War, and culminates in Queen Elizabeth II’s historic 1976 Bicentennial visit to the United States during the Ford administration. Among the items on display are gifts exchanged between British and American leaders and the gown the Queen wore to the 1976 White House state dinner where she danced with President Ford, the moment that inspired the exhibition’s title.
For Hendershot, the book project and GRCC’s co-sponsorship of the exhibit created opportunities to bring academic research to a much broader audience.
“As a historian, you hope your research will contribute to scholarly conversations, but it is especially gratifying to see that work reach thousands of people through a museum exhibition,” stated Hendershot. “What makes this project even more meaningful to me is that students from GRCC and the University of Bristol were part of the process.”
It has also extended into the classroom. As we shared in this February 2026 article when the exhibition was announced, students in Hendershot’s History of U.S. Foreign Relations course read an advance copy of the book and developed their own concepts for a museum exhibition based on its themes. Some of those ideas ultimately informed the authors’ work with museum staff.
The collaboration demonstrates how faculty scholarship can move beyond publication and the classroom, connecting research and student learning with a broader community audience.
“Waltzing with the Queen” remains on display through Oct. 25, 2026, at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in downtown Grand Rapids.