The Henry Ford
United States historic place / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States.[3][4] The museum collection contains the presidential limousine of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theatre, Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop, the Rosa Parks bus, and many other historical exhibits. It is the largest indoor–outdoor museum complex in the United States[5] and is visited by over 1.7 million people each year.[6] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum[1] and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1981 as "Edison Institute".[2]
Edison Institute Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum | |
Location | The Henry Ford 20900 Oakwood Boulevard at Village Road Dearborn, Michigan United States |
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Coordinates | 42°18′13″N 83°14′03″W |
Built | 1929; 95 years ago (1929) |
Architect | Robert O. Derrick |
Visitation | 1.7 million |
NRHP reference No. | 69000071 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 20, 1969[1] |
Designated NHLD | December 21, 1981[2] |
Named for its founder, the automobile industrialist Henry Ford, and based on his efforts to preserve items of historical interest and portray the Industrial Revolution, the property houses homes, machinery, exhibits, and Americana of historically significant items as well as common memorabilia, both of which help to capture the history of life in early America. It is one of the largest such collections in the nation.[7]
Henry Ford said of his museum:
I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used .... When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition ...[8]
Architect Robert O. Derrick designed the museum with a 523,000 square feet (48,600 m2) exhibit hall that extends 400 feet (120 m) behind the main façade. The façade spans 800 feet (240 m) and incorporates facsimiles of three structures from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia – Old City Hall, Independence Hall and Congress Hall.[9][10]
The Edison Institute was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover to Ford's longtime friend Thomas Edison on October 21, 1929 – the 50th anniversary of the first successful incandescent light bulb. The attendees included Marie Curie, George Eastman, John D. Rockefeller, Will Rogers, Orville Wright, and about 250 others.[11] The dedication was broadcast on radio with listeners encouraged to turn off their electric lights until the switch was flipped at the Museum.[12]
The Edison Institute was, at first, a private site for educational purposes only, but after numerous inquiries about the complex, it was opened as a museum to the general public on June 22, 1933.[13] It was originally composed of the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, and the Greenfield Village Schools (an experimental learning facility). Initially, Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum were owned by the Ford Motor Company, which is currently a sponsor of the school and cooperates with the Henry Ford to provide the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. The Henry Ford is sited between the Ford Dearborn Development Center and several Ford engineering buildings with which it shares the same style gates and brick fences.
In 1970, the museum purchased what it believed to be a 17th-century Brewster Chair, created for one of the Pilgrim settlers in the Plymouth Colony, for $9,000. In September 1977, the chair was determined to be a modern forgery created in 1969 by Rhode Island sculptor Armand LaMontagne.[14] The museum retains the piece as an educational tool on forgeries.[15]
In the early 2000s, the museum added an auditorium to the building's south corner. This housed an IMAX theater until January 2016 when museum management decided to change formats for the facility to better fit with its mission. The renovated theater reopened in April of that year.[16]
The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation began as Henry Ford's personal collection of historic objects, which he began collecting as far back as 1906. Today, the 12 acre (49,000 m2) site is primarily a collection of antique machinery, pop culture items, automobiles, locomotives, aircraft, and other items:
- The museum features a 4K digital projection theater,[16] which shows scientific, natural, or historical documentaries, as well as major feature films.
- An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile[17]
- The 1961 Lincoln Continental, SS-100-X in which President John F. Kennedy was riding when he was assassinated.[18]
- The rocking chair from Ford's Theatre in which President Abraham Lincoln was sitting when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth.[17]
- George Washington's camp bed.[17]
- A collection of several fine 17th- and 18th-century violins including a Stradivarius.[19]
- Thomas Edison's alleged last breath in a sealed tube.
- Buckminster Fuller's prototype Dymaxion house.[20]
- The bus on which Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott.[21][22]
- Igor Sikorsky's prototype helicopter.
- Fokker Trimotor airplane that flew the first flight over the North Pole.[23]
- Bill Elliott's record-breaking race car clocking in at over 212 MPH at Talladega in 1987[24]
- Fairbottom Bobs, the Newcomen engine
- A steam engine from Cobb's Engine House in England.[25]
- A working fragment of the original Holiday Inn "Great Sign"
- Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 2-6-6-6 "Allegheny"-class steam locomotive #1601, built by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio. The Allegheny was the third most-powerful steam locomotive ever built, after the Union Pacific Railroad "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4 locomotive and the Pennsylvania Railroad Q2-class 4-4-6-4 locomotive.[26]
- Toyota Prius sedan, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.[27]
Behind the scenes, the Benson Ford Research Center uses the resources of The Henry Ford, especially the photographic, manuscript and archival material which is rarely displayed, to allow visitors to gain a deeper understanding of American people, places, events, and things. The Research Center also contains the Ford Motor Archives.[28]
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Henry Ford Museum exhibited a vast array of artifacts and media documenting the Titanic's voyage and demise. The exhibit was hosted from 31 March to 30 September 2012.
Selected exhibits
- Airplanes
- 1903 Wright Flyer replica
- Byrd Arctic Expedition exhibit
- A 1939 Northwest Airlines Douglas DC-3
- Agriculture
- Steam Tractor Engine
- Automobiles
- The 1896 Ford Quadricycle
- An 1899 Duryea
- 1908 Stevens-Duryea Model U limo (brown) and 1915 Chevrolet Royal Mail Roadster (green)
- A 1916 Apperson Touring Car
- 1928 Model A Ford
- 1950s era Oscar Mayer Wienermobile
- The first production built Ford Mustang
- The bus on which Rosa Parks was arrested, an event which started the Montgomery bus boycott
- Interior of the "Rosa Parks" bus
- 1927 Blue Bird school bus
- Presidential limousines
External videos | |
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Tour of presidential vehicles on display, July 24, 2017, C-SPAN |
- The Sunshine Special, the official state car used by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- The SS-100-X used by John F. Kennedy
- Made In America
External videos | |
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Tour of the railroads exhibit, July 24, 2017, C-SPAN |
- Watt Canal Pumping Engine (1796)
- Watt Rotative Engine
- Thomas Horn Engine (1850)
- Stationary Steam Engine (1850)
- Water Engine and Electric Generator, Spokane, Washington (1903)
- 1831 DeWitt Clinton train replica
- Chesapeake and Ohio Railway locomotive C&O 1601