Henry Ford Museum

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village

The Henry Ford, a National Historic Landmark, (also known as the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, and more formally as the Edison Institute), in the Metro Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, USA, is the nation’s “largest indoor-outdoor history museum” complex.

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 presidential limousine, Abraham Lincoln’s chair from Ford’s Theatre, Thomas Edison’s laboratory, the Wright Brothers’ bicycle shop, and the Rosa Parks bus.

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…”

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:

  • The museum features an IMAX Theater, which shows scientific, natural, or historical documentaries; as well as major feature films.
  • A model of the nuclear-powered Ford Nucleon automobile.
  • An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
  • The 1961 Lincoln Continental, SS-100-X, that President John F. Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated.
  • The rocking chair from Ford’s Theatre in which President Abraham Lincoln was sitting when he was shot.
  • George Washington’s camp bed.
  • A ten-person safety bicycle made in 1896
  • A collection of several fine 17th and 18th century violins including a Stradivarius.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The Newcomen type engine from Cobb’s Engine House in England.
  • The Automotive Hall of Fame is next to the Henry Ford Museum.
  • 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.

Ford Museum 2 Ford Museum 1

9:30am-5:00pm
(Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Days)
http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/map.aspx

Courtsey of Wikepedia