One of the great pleasures of being archivist at The Henry Ford is the continuing ability to receive interesting collections and to meet the donors. One such person was Edward Gies, who called to ask if we would be interested in some photographs of presidential vehicles. Since we have a number of presidential vehicles in our collection, but not a large amount of support material, I said I certainly was. He said he and his wife were planning a trip to the museum and he would bring the material along. When Mr. Gies arrived, he brought a small but very rich collection not only of photographs but also of ceremonial flags that had flown on a number of our vehicles.
What made the experience even more exciting was to discover that the collection had been gathered by Mr. Gies’ father, Morgan Gies. Morgan Gies was a member of the United States Secret Service and the man in charge of the White House vehicles. He held that position for 27 years, serving five presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson. In addition to overseeing the White House fleet, he was often the driver of the presidential vehicle or the backup car.
railroads, airplanes, #Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, archives, presidents, by Terry Hoover, cars, presidential vehicles, limousines
If you’ve visited Firestone Farm in Greenfield Village, have you ever seen our presenters canning jams, jellies, and other delicious pantry staples? If not, you’re in for a treat.
This fall we got a firsthand look at what goes into canning. While canning is a food preservation technique first experimented with more than 200 years ago, it’s gaining a resurgence among foodies and families looking to eat local as much as they can each year and enjoy favorite flavors all year long.
When we visited Firestone Farm in September, our team was working with some fresh products from our farms almost every day. Our presenters make everything from bottle pickles to cucumber catsup. If a recipe doesn’t set quite right, it doesn’t go to waste - when peaches don’t seal, they become a tasty pie filling.
As you’ll see in the video, presenters Becky Goodenow and Larissa Fleishman start out by sterilizing the jars they’ll use for canning that day. You can’t touch the inside of the jar, as you might contaminate it, so a clean cloth is used to wipe it down. A metal spoon is most important because it helps disperse the heat from the hot liquid. This helps to prevent the cooler glass jar from cracking as you pour in the boiling liquid.
Today there are a variety of products to choose from when it comes to canning. You can even purchase your very own jam and jelly maker to take a lot of work out of the equation. Ball Canning brand offers a community and resources website to enthusiasts, too. Or look for the Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving Recipes the next time you’re at the book store.
Watch this video to see Becky and Larissa in action making a batch of chili sauce from Buckeye Cookery. You can make it at home, too. You can also visit The Henry Ford’s library of historic cookbooks for inspiration.
Chili Sauce, Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, 1880, p. 132.
Peel tomatoes and onions, chop (separately) very fine, add the peppers (chopped) with the other ingredients, and boil one-and-a-half hours. Bottle it and it will keep a long time.
Lish Dorset is Social Media Manager at The Henry Ford.
farms and farming, recipes, making, home life, Greenfield Village buildings, Greenfield Village, food, by Lish Dorset
It seems like LEGO has been a part of my life since as far back as I can remember. What started as a few simple sets, like this basic building set from the collections of The Henry Ford, from friends and family has turned into hundreds of boxes sprawled over a customized workshop in my own house.
I was always good at entertaining myself as a child and took to LEGO early. The collection was initially stored in a small tub, but eventually graduated to a chest of drawers. I removed my clothes and found a less suitable storage solution for them. LEGO was far more important and this allowed me to hover over the drawers and build my creations on top of my dresser.
My parents somehow put up with this and continued to feed the obsession. Before I out grew my bunk beds, they were an ideal surface to create towns, space campus or medieval battlefields. I have a pretty strong imagination and LEGO helped grow and develop it.
To this day, when asked what I would like for Christmas, I always respond, "LEGO."
LEGO bricks are such a fascinating medium because you can visualize 3-D objects simply and effectively. It works best for creations that are angular with straight edges. It's also a great medium for prototyping simple machines and casting moulds.
So just how important are my LEGO sets? I designed and built a LEGO workshop in the basement of my house. Having a space like this has helped me tackle new projects, like picture mosaics and 3-D logos.
Were you at Maker Faire Detroit? If you were, than you might have seen me as Nick Brickly, host of my Brick Challenge game show. It's a LEGO-based game show similar to Double Dare. We ask questions and challenge contestants to mini-games. Join the fun on stage Saturdays in January 2013 at Henry Ford Museum.
I can't wait to see LEGO Architecture: Towering Ambition when it opens its doors tomorrow. Just like Brick Challenge, the LEGO Architecture series and the work of Adam Reed Tucker are great examples of how LEGO is more than a toy - it's a medium for creation and communication.
Nick Britsky is Royal Oak-based LEGO lover and maker. A participant of Maker Faire Detroit since 2010, you can catch him on stage at Anderson Theater this winter as part of LEGO Architecture: Towering Ambition's Saturday programming.
Michigan, Dearborn, 2010s, 21st century, 20th century, toys and games, making, LEGO, events, childhood, by Nick Britsky
This past weekend marked the 75th anniversary of Lovett Hall. Tucked in between Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village sits the stately hall, a well-known icon on The Henry Ford campus.
Lovett Hall is named after Benjamin Lovett, an accomplished dance instructor and friend of Henry Ford. Benjamin grew up loving music and dance, and after teaching himself how to dance began giving lessons with his wife, Charlotte. The Lovetts eventually made their way to Dearborn in 1924 at the urging of Henry.
Henry loved the community dances of his youth. Henry believed everyone should love dancing as much as he did, so he hired Benjamin to call the dances and teach others. If you wanted to associate with both Henry and his wife Clara, you needed to be ready to dance.
When Greenfield Village Schools opened in the late 1920s, dancing was part of the curriculum. It would be a few years before the students had a formal location to dance. As Henry’s educational campus began to expand, plans for a larger education building were made. Lovett Hall, known as the “recreation building” opened its doors in 1937 after a year of construction and featured a lavish ballroom. Monthly dances were a common occurrence at Lovett Hall, with Henry and Clara on the dance floor and Benjamin calling the dance steps.
Lovett Hall wasn’t just for dancing, though. Upon its opening in 1937 it quickly became a home to Greenfield Village high school and Institute of Technology students. The hall’s pool and gym were marveled at by many. The building also provided laboratories, drafting rooms, and even a library to the students. Benjamin eventually became the head of the Department of Social Training and the Art of Dance. The institute closed in 1943 and the high school closed in 1952. Lovett Hall continued to act as an educational building, offering dormitory programs and adult education classes. Often referred to as the education building in years past, Lovett Hall remains the formal name for the structure.
After Edsel Ford died in 1943, Henry lost most of his passion for dancing. Henry’s health began to fail and the importance he had once placed on dancing began to wane. Benjamin died in 1952 at the age of 76.
Today, Lovett Hall serves a variety of purposes at The Henry Ford, with one of them being a venue for private events. The spirit of Benjamin is alive and well during the countless wedding receptions held in the hall as happy guests take to the much rumored “spring-loaded” dance floor and dance the night away.
If you have any memories of Lovett Hall you’d like to share, we’d love to hear them!
Lish Dorset is Social Media Manager at The Henry Ford.
teachers and teaching, childhood, Henry Ford, events, education, #Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, by Lish Dorset
Conservators at the Henry Ford Museum are collaborating with violin experts to prepare Henry Ford’s personal violin collection for an upcoming permanent display in Henry Ford Museum. The violins, which have been in storage for a number of years, are being examined, analyzed and in some instances conserved for long-term display and potential use in concerts.
As a violin enthusiast, Henry Ford purchased some of the finest instruments including violins made by Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), Bartolomeo Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri (1698-1744) and Carlo Bergonzi (1683-1747).
In 2010 master violin restorer Ashot Vartanian of Shar Music in Ann Arbor, Mich., repaired the Bergonzi to prepare it for exhibition and a concert in Cremona, Italy.
Later this year Henry Ford’s 1703 Stradivarius violin will travel to Cremona to replace the Bergonzi, which will return to The Henry Ford for examination and analysis. Sharon Que of Sharon Que Violin Restoration and Repair is currently working with Chief Conservator Mary Fahey to evaluate the condition of the violin and to make necessary repairs. The retention of original varnish and wood as well as the preservation of the extraordinary sound of the violin is paramount.
Radiologist Dr. John Bonnett of Henry Ford Hospital and luthier Ray Schryer (Schryer Violin) partnered with Henry Ford Museum staff in 2010 to create CT scan (computed tomography) images of the violins in a quest for information concerning their condition and past repairs. Among other findings the scans revealed areas of old insect damage, previously unseen by the naked eye, in addition to delicate repairs on the interior of the museum’s Guarneri Del Gesu violin.
21st century, 2010s, Michigan, Dearborn, Europe, 18th century, 17th century, violins, musical instruments, music, Henry Ford Museum, conservation, collections care, #Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford
Curators greet auction house catalogs with anticipation when they arrive in our museum mailboxes. Within the sumptuous pages of exquisite photography we might discover a significant treasure to add to our collections. When a Sotheby’s catalog arrived offering a substantial collection of Mark Twain letters, it piqued our interest. You see, we have the last portrait of Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens, in our collections and a family drop leaf writing table. Could something being offered at this auction further our knowledge of these pieces?
The story of how The Henry Ford came to own these pieces documents the rich legacy our collections hold. Clemens’ daughter Clara was married to Ossip Gabrilowitsch, conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. A Russian emigre, he was stricken with stomach cancer and treated at Henry Ford Hospital. Gabrilowitsch’s stay was long and difficult; his care was costly. Henry Ford forgave the bill and in gratitude, Clara gave Ford these family pieces in 1936, and they came into the museum. The portrait is oil on canvas by Edoardo Gelli and was painted in Florence, Italy in 1904. The table was used by Clemens in his later years.
The auction collection was divided into hundreds of lots, and we carefully reviewed what was being offered. Contained in Lot 551 was a fascinating letter dated May 26, 1904, from Clemens to Governor David Francis of Missouri. Interestingly, the auction house had only published information from the first page of the two-page letter. They would not release the second page until we pressed them. And, it was the second page that revealed the “smoking gun.” The gist of the letter was to ask the Missouri-native if he would participate in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, organized to commemorate the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Regretfully Clemens, who was living in Florence, declined the invitation because of his wife’s poor health. The friendly letter bears some of Mark Twain’s trademark humor. And, more significantly had a direct reference to the portrait in our collection. “Although I can not be at the fair, I am going to be there anyway, by a portrait of professor Gelli. You will find it excellent. Good judges say it is better than the original. They say it has all the merits of the original and keeps still besides.”
All additions to the collections are stringently reviewed by the Collections Committee. We reviewed the materials and debated the value of this letter to the story of the portrait. And, what we could pay for it. As with any museum, dollars for acquisitions are limited. A “not to exceed” amount was designated. Now, the tense moments of the auction itself. We decided to bid by phone. Marc Greuther, chief curator, Terry Hoover, chief archivist, and I huddled by the phone and waited for Sotheby’s to call to begin the bidding. We really wanted this piece, but saw that other things were going for higher prices than estimated. When the lot we wanted came up for bid, we plunged in. And, WE GOT IT! With great anticipation, we waited for the precious document to arrive. There is something magical about seeing an original - the paper, ink, handwriting of a famous person that gives a “feel” for the past. The letter was added to the collection.
When we united these pieces of the past - the portrait and the letter - we could see the curators in heaven applaud. And, we think Samuel and Clara Clemens were pleased too.
Marilyn Zoidis, former Director, Historical Resources, at The Henry Ford recognized this as one of those “museum moments” that makes her love this work.
archives, paintings, #Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, correspondence, by Marilyn Zoidis
I have a long-standing fascination with large advertising posters. The collections of The Henry Ford include hundreds of these colorful graphics. As I study them I always wonder about their original purpose.
It starts in the nineteenth century when printers developed a lithograph method that produced brightly colored posters. Lithography, invented around 1798, is a process of printing from a flat surface with a greasy image holding the ink and a wet blank area resisting the ink. It originally produced a monochrome print of a dark image on light paper. In the 1840s printers experimented with using different ink colors and multiple printing surfaces to make chromatic images on one sheet of paper.
Manufacturers and companies quickly adopted the colorful new poster style to promote their goods and services. The posters were glued to building walls and fences, and hung in store displays where they readily attracted the attention of passersby. Companies hired printers who worked with artists to create designs to advertise the products.
This early poster's design, above, is in the style of American romantic landscape paintings of the time. Advertising the Buckeye brand of agricultural equipment manufactured by Aultman, Miller & Company of Akron, Ohio, it exemplifies an American ideal of the machine in the garden. The artist, F. Crow, made this image for the printer, White & Brayley of Buffalo, New York, about 1875. It probably hung in the office of a local equipment distributor where it offered visitors the pleasure of an appealing rural scene.
This next poster promotes sewing machines made by the Dauntless Manufacturing Company of Norwalk, Ohio, about 1885. The figure is Columbia, a feminine personification of the United States. A complex and detailed image, it surely captured observers' attention and deserved a pause for a long look.
This delightful image of four boys eating watermelon epitomizes a summer’s harvest. The attention-grabbing subject matter likely helped to sell the seeds grown by D.M. Ferry & Company of Detroit, Mich. Distributed nationally, the J. Ottmann Lithographing Company of New York, NY, printed the poster in 1898.
A complex scene including a seemingly ordinary dining table includes symbolic personalities to gain attention for this unusual food combination of wheat and celery. Columbia, appearing again, serves Uncle Sam and a robust young woman in this poster for Dr. Price’s healthy food products. The U.S. Lithograph Company of Cincinnati, Ohio and New York, NY, made this “Russell-Morgan Print” about 1900-1905.
Over a century ago, changes were taking place in America that made national selling of products advantageous, and manufacturers sought to capture attention with catchy brands and appealing images. Changes in milling of grain lengthened the shelf life so storekeepers far from the original mill were sure to have a good product to sell, and the extensive railroad system allowed rapid and consistent delivery.
The team of racing horses coming toward the viewer in the Ben-Hur poster certainly gives a sense of drama. It may be hard to connect the image to the wheat flour product, but the arresting image was meant to attract the attention of potential buyers walking along a town’s street. The Royal Milling Company of Minneapolis, Minn., and Great Falls, Mont., had this colorful poster printed in the early 1900s. At this time, Ben-Hur was a popular motif because the theatrical producers Klaw & Erlanger had made a play in 1899 based on the best-selling American novel written by Lew Wallace in 1880.
Like the Ben-Hur poster of the same era, this view of a Scotsman in his Highland kilt gives a sense of adventure and surely attracted the attention of potential buyers on foot. This colorful poster was printed in 1899 with the catchy slogan "Scotch Oats for Brain and Brawn." At this time, stories about the medieval Scottish fight for independence, like Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter, were popular in the United States.
This poster of the Wright brothers' Model B biplane has instant appeal. It happens to advertise the aerial entertainment services of the Patterson Aviators of Detroit in the 1910s. I am particularly struck by the fact that in less than ten years, entrepreneurs were using the fruit of Wilbur and Orville Wright's invention begun with their first successful flight in 1903. It grew from an impossible dream to a part of our everyday life. Daredevil fliers in the 1910s and 1920s, also called barnstormers, showed people the possibility of flight by creating high-risk, exciting spectacles soaring through the sky. Crowds flocked to numerous public events like circuses, county fairs, and air shows, eagerly shelling out their hard-earned money simply for the privilege of watching these high-flying acrobatics.
During the First World War, artists widely used an innovative advertising technique for posters that moved away from a factual depiction of a product’s material or event’s subject to an emphasis on appealing to the viewer’s emotions. On the surface, this poster promotes American citizens growing food in their home garden so the farmers’ produce could feed U.S. soldiers training and fighting the war in Europe. The emotional appeal is connecting the effort of home food gardening to patriotic sacrifices akin to those of the American Revolutionary War soldiers. The artist, William McKee, used the familiar motif from the painting The Spirit of ’76, made in 1876 by Archibald M. Willard for the Centennial of the American Revolution. The poster’s title, The Spirit of ’18, reinforced this popular patriotic theme. This poster was made for the U.S. Food Administration in 1918.
This poster advertises the R& L Time Payment Plan to buy a Ford Model T Tudor Coupe. The National Bond & Investment Company probably offered this payment plan, still a novel concept, through independent Ford dealerships. This double-sided poster was designed to hang in a window and be seen from indoors and outside. Although we do not know the printer for this poster created about 1925, the artist's signature prominently appears in the lower right corner: J.W. Pondelicek.
The artist of this poster, Bob Smith, combined modern and patriotic themes of this world’s fair held near the end of the Great Depression and at the beginning of the Second World War. Promoting the New York World’s Fair theme, "The World of Tomorrow," the Grand Opening on April 30, 1939, harkened back to the country’s beginnings by celebrating the 150th anniversary of George Washington's first presidential inauguration held in New York City in 1789. The beautiful young woman portrayed in front of the world fair’s modern Trylon and Perisphere buildings wears fashionable clothes in the American patriotic colors of red, white and blue.
These posters and many more are part of our museum's online collections. We also offer quality reproductions for a selection of posters on The Henry Ford ArteHouse and The Henry Ford SM/ART Editions. These posters, eye-catching time capsules of popular design, delight and instruct us today. What are your favorites?
Cynthia Read Miller, Curator of Photographs and Prints, is continually fascinated with the museum’s more than 1 million historical graphics.
We get questions from young and old alike regarding our national treasures. Everything from such topics as historic figures: Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers, to our historic objects: the Rosa Parks Bus, George Washington’s camping equipment, or the John F. Kennedy Limo, just to name a few. As Research Specialist in the Benson Ford Research Center, it's my job to respond to these requests.
Some of my favorite requests come from elementary students, kindergarten to sixth grade. I personally love working on these inquiries and absolutely love seeing how the information we have is used for so many different projects.
Typically museums can display only a small portion of their collections at a given time, so I am grateful for these amazing questions that lead me to explore objects I have never seen, such as the "Monkey Bar" Diorama (Object ID 15.1.1/THF49084) or Circus Poster, Barnum and Bailey Present "Marvelous Performances of the Troupe of Trained Cats and Pigs," (Object ID 35.784.119/THF81700).
One of our library books is actually among these gems. It’s called Talleyrand Meets the Car Makers. In this circa-1960s book by Ford of Britain, Talleyrand (a very cute toy dog similar to today’s Flat Stanley) goes on tour of a Ford plant to entertain and educate.
#Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, educational resources, education, childhood, research, by Stephanie Lucas
I spent this summer interning at the Benson Ford Research Center helping the effort to digitize the museum’s enormous collection. When I started working here, I told a friend our collection has more 20 million 2-D objects. They replied, “Wow, that’s a lot of stuff about cars.” Well, we do have a lot of stuff about cars—everything from old concept car drawings to bumper stickers through the ages. But The Henry Ford collection also includes many other objects.The Henry Ford Museum was established in order to collect and preserve pieces of everyday life that would tell the story of America to later generations. In my time as a scanner, I helped to digitize many objects that we are not exhibiting — I helped to prepare these objects for digital exhibition on our website so we could continue to tell stories about the history of America, and not only that, but reach an even wider audience for those stories.
The Henry Ford online collection is a 24/7 digital exhibition of various artifacts from American history that the museum has collected over the years, an exhibit that keeps growing, an exhibit that you can visit any time, anywhere, for free — if you have Wi-Fi. Before working here, I knew the museum’s collection was impressive, but I never understood how big the collection really was. If I were to keep scanning images, adding about 60 new artifacts to the website every day, it would take me over 50 years to finish updating the website — and I’d be old enough to retire.
The collection is not only enormous, it is also incredibly diverse. I have scanned old trade cards, original baseball handbooks, and pictures from events at the Chicago and New York World’s Fairs. This was an awesome opportunity because many of these objects have never been on exhibit in either Greenfield Village or the museum. Working here, I learned more about the museum’s impressive collection, and in the process, more about American history, facts that we often ignore in history courses, the experience of everyday life.
For example, I spent some time scanning albums of the Unser family. I did know about Bobby Unser’s career in NASCAR, but I learned more about his day-to-day life and his relationship with his family — I saw him as a person I could relate to instead of a distant historical figure. I learned about his love of travel, his fondness for deer, and his passion for cooking chili.
Perusing the archives changed the way I think about history — I understand how events and people from the past are similar to my own life. Drawing these parallels makes the past more familiar and helps to explain how and why things have changed. I enjoyed my time working at the museum very much, and I encourage readers to spend some time looking at the online collection, a fun and enriching historical resource.
Keshav Prasad is a sophomore at University of Michigan, and spent the summer interning for The Henry Ford Digitization Project.
#Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, archives, digital collections, digitization, by Keshav Prasad
Some followers of The Henry Ford’s blog may remember that back in January we told you about our 2012 project to digitize the most “significant” artifacts in our collections. We have been working furiously on getting these artifacts identified and digitized, and while we’re not finished yet, we’ve gotten a lot done, and wanted to share some interesting tidbits about our work thus far.
The basic assignment we set ourselves was to divide the collection into categories, and ask our curators to select the 25 most significant items at The Henry Ford in each of the categories. Though there are many ways one can group items in our collections, for the purposes of this exercise, we chose these groupings:
The curators established lists for each grouping, which was no easy task. Criteria of national significance, uniqueness to our institution, and resonance to museum visitors helped guide selections, but there was still a laborious and sometimes painful process of culling to get down to 25 (or 26 or 27 — a few extras snuck through!) objects in each category.
We also considered the issue of overlap. In the end, less than 10 objects ended up on lists in multiple categories, and where they did, the rationale was very clear. These include the limousine in which John F. Kennedy was shot (which relates to both Transportation and American Democracy and Civil Rights), the Fordson tractor Henry Ford gave to Luther Burbank (which relates to both Henry Ford and Agriculture and the Environment), and a Westinghouse steam engine, pictured below (which relates to both Henry Ford and America’s Industrial Revolution). Most of the overlaps involve Henry Ford, which is not surprising when you consider the origins of this institution.
Another really interesting thing about the lists is that though these are some of our most significant artifacts, not all of the items are currently on public display. The majority of the objects the curators selected are indeed located in the Henry Ford Museum: from George Washington Carver’s microscope, located in our Agriculture exhibit; to the Noyes piano box buggy located in Driving America; to the Jazz Bowl, located in Your Place in Time. A few objects are located in Greenfield Village, including the Edison electric pen, which you can view in Menlo Park Laboratory; and Firestone Barn, which is a building, a working barn, and a significant artifact, all rolled into one!
A number of objects selected live in our archival collections, which may be viewed via a visit to the Benson Ford Research Center. These include two-dimensional objects such as a photograph of the first Highland Park Ford assembly line and Ford Motor Company’s first checkbook.
Other objects are just too fragile to be on permanent display or don’t have a spot in our current exhibits, so The Henry Ford’s collections site is the only place you’ll be able to view them. These include an embroidery sampler from 1799, a gold bugle, and a Moog synthesizer.
One object that made the list, the kinetoscope that Thomas Edison invented to play moving images, is not even in Dearborn at the moment—it is on display at the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World in Florida. If you have upcoming travel plans that include Epcot, stop by the American Heritage Gallery and say hi to one of our most significant objects!
So what’s next for this project? Well, we still have about 20 percent of these significant objects left to digitize and make available online, and there are a number for which curators are still writing brief descriptions. Once all the objects are online and well-described, we’ll create sets for each category, so you can browse these gems from our collection by the topic they relate to. Watch for a future blog post when this is complete!
Ellice Engdahl, Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford, would definitely include on her personal list of significant collections objects everything from the Rosa Parks bus to the Monkey Bar.
#Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, by Ellice Engdahl, digitization, digital collections
