The Henry Ford

A Ford Model T, used for giving tourist rides, is shown above at Greenfield Village.

The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village), in the Metro Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, USA, is the nation's "largest indoor-outdoor history museum" complex. More than a museum, it is a museum-entertainment complex where patrons can take a ride in a Model T, ride the train, visit an IMAX Theater, or see a live show. Named for its founder, the noted automobile industrialist Henry Ford and based on his desire to preserve items of historical significance and portray the Industrial Revolution, the property houses a vast array of famous homes, machinery, exhibits, and Americana. The collection contains many rare exhibits including John F. Kennedy's limousine, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theater, Thomas Edison's laboratory, and the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop.

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..."

History

The official name for the complex is "The Edison Institute"(though now that name only appears on paper work), which was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover to Ford's longtime friend Thomas Edison on October 21, 1929 – the 50th anniversary of the invention of the incandescent light bulb. Of the 260 people in attendance, some of the more famous were Jay Wyma, Marie Curie, George Eastman, John D. Rockefeller, Will Rogers, and Orville Wright. The dedication was carried on radio with listeners encouraged to turn off their electric lights until the switch was flipped at the Museum.

The Edison Institute 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 used as a laboratory for the school which included practical work in the machine shops. Admission to the Village was free to the public for the first few years. By 1937, the school had 300 students ranging from kindergarten to college age. The last original school on the grounds closed in 1969 although informal community education classes and school field trips continued. The Henry Ford Academy opened in 1997 and is now a 400-student secondary level charter school with admission open to all county residents by lottery. Students have classes in a glass-walled section of the Museum, a converted carousel building and in Pullman cars on a rail siding, feet away from the active Village railway.

Lovett Hall in the complex is a formal dance hall named for Henry Ford's dance master Benjamin Lovett. Ford was interested in saving the dances of his youth in the age of jazz and made contra dancing required for his executives and for the Village school students. Local public school students were also taught with 22,000 participating at the program's peak. Contra dances occurred monthly at the hall until early 2005.

The Henry Ford is still closely tied to the Ford family which still provides museum board members and the Ford Motor Company which cooperates with the Henry Ford to provide the River Rouge Plant factory tour and is a sponsor of the school. The Henry Ford is sited between the Ford test track and several Ford engineering buildings with which it shares the same style gates and brick fences.

Museum

Buckminster Fuller's prototype Dymaxion house, in the Henry Ford Museum

File:Lincoln sm2.jpg

The rocking chair that President Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot.

Henry Ford Museum 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:

• a nuclear-powered Ford Nucleon automobile.
• an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
• President Kennedy's Death Car, a 1961 Lincoln Continental.
• the rocking chair from Ford's Theater in which President Abraham Lincoln was shot.
• George Washington's camp bed.
• Thomas Edison's alleged last breath in a sealed tube.
• Buckminster Fuller's prototype Dymaxion house.
• The bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. While there is no absolutely incontestable evidence that it is the actual bus, the Ford museum explains it at length on their website at Rosa Parks Bus FAQ.
• Igor Sikorsky's prototype helicopter.
• Fokker Trimotor airplane that flew the first flight over the North Pole.
• Bill Elliott's record-breaking race car clocking in at over 212 MPH at Talledega in 1987.

Greenfield Village

The Wright Cycle Company is now housed at Greenfield Village.

Greenfield Village is considered the first and largest outdoor museum in America. Nearly one hundred historical buildings were moved to the property from their original locations and arranged in a "village" setting. The museum's intent is to show how Americans lived and worked since the founding of the country. The Village includes buildings from the 17th century to the present, many of which are staffed by costumed interpreters who conduct period tasks like farming, sewing and cooking. A collection of craft buildings such as a pottery, glass-blowing shop, tin shop provide demonstrations while producing materials used in the Village and for sale. Greenfield Village has 240 acres (970,000 m²) of land of which only 90 acres (360,000 m²) are used for the attraction, the rest being forest, river and extra pasture for the sheep and horses.

The transportation system provides rides by steamboat (out of operation for 2006), horse-drawn omnibus, steam locomotive, a 1931 Model AA bus (one of about 15 left known to exist), and authentic Ford Model Ts. Steam locomotives in operation include the Torch Lake, an 1873 0-6-4 Mason Bogie which is one of the oldest operating steam locomotives in the U.S., and the Edison, a Baldwin 4-4-0.

Some of the most notable homes and buildings include:

• Noah Webster's Connecticut home.
• the Wright brothers' bicycle shop and home from Dayton, Ohio.
• Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory from New Jersey.
• Henry Ford's birthplace
• Henry Ford's prototype garage where he built the quadricycle
• Harvey Firestone family farm
• William Holmes McGuffey's birthplace
• Luther Burbank's office

Rouge Tour

The Ford Rouge Factory Tour is a first-hand journey behind the scenes of a modern, working automobile factory. Boarding buses at the Henry Ford Museum, visitors are taken to the River Rouge Plant and Dearborn Truck Plant – an industrial complex where Ford has built cars since the Model A and which once employed 100,000 people.

It should be noted that visitors only witness the 'final assembly' of vehicles. While this is interesting in and of itself to some visitors, there have been many complaints registered by disappointed guests.

Other

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 museum also features an IMAX Theater, which shows scientific, natural, or historical documentaries; as well as major feature films.

From November 4, 2006 through January 1, 2007, the exhibition Tasha Tudor's Spirit of the Holidays is on display at the Henry Ford Museum.

See also

• Architecture of metropolitan Detroit
• Tourism in metropolitan Detroit

External links

• The Henry Ford